Doner, or how I learned to love the Halal truck

I always love reading about new types of fast food experiences. I don't personally like much fast food. The idea of prepackaged burgers never fails to make me feel ill, but I do find the ideas behind new types interesting. It is amazing how much you can pack into a small time frame of cooking. For example, I recently found out that the Scottish enjoy deep-fried and battered pizza. They just take a cheap pizza, dip it in batter and fry it into a delicious mix of grease, cheese, tomatoes, and wheat. Because of this, I was excited to read about the Doner.

I was somewhat surprised to see a familiar sight. In New York, on almost every other block, we have things called Halal Trucks. In these trucks, Doner is the regular order. However, it is never called that, we just call it lamb over rice or a lamb wrap. But it is still the same layers of lamb, shaved off by a large knife, fried on a huge skillet and thrown into a pita with an assortment of veggies, lettuce, and tomatoes.

It's a mixed experience. On one hand, I find it very amusing that something so similar can be found in similar popularity on different continents. On the other hand I'm sad that I didn't find a new "crazy" fast food item.

Kultur 3

First I chose to read "An Obsession Explained: Beer, Brewskies, and Liquid Bread. Naturally, I find it interesting that Beer is such a common drink in Germany, served at McDonald's and movie theaters, when in the United States that would be completely inappropriate and would most likely raise a large controversy. However, I think that if beer was as large of a part of our culture as it is in Germany, beer being served in fast food restaurants and other such places here would be no problem either. I really liked the Hangover information that the article provided. It was funny but is probably also informational to those who drink beer and plan on exploring all the beer choices in Germany someday. Second, I read "Capping the Bottle" which by only reading the title, seemed to almost contradict the first article I read that talked about the popularity of beer all over Germany. One would think that since drinking is allowed in public and Germany is used to these laws, that the number of drunks and problems caused by drinking would be diminished. It is sort of interesting to learn that there are still problems. I would get tired of seeing drunk people in many public areas and empty cans and bottles all over also though and can understand why Germans may want to make stricter drinking laws. It is proactive to see that rather than only complaining about the problem though, people are thinking of things to do to fix the problem. Ideas such as drinking rooms may actually be a win-win for Germany, if more cities and states start doing the same. Third, I read "German Fast Food" and almost immediately got hungry. Although in America we have bratwurst, roast chicken, fries, etc, I almost feel like the German versions of these foods, especially the meats, may taste so much better than the American versions. Kind of similar to how the beer in Germany supposedly tastes so much better than American beer. My mom used to make us some German recipes and I think after reading the article I would really like to try to open myself up to more German food, I think all of it sounds delicious really and although what I make won't be nearly as good as the original food, it would still prepare me for when I go to Germany and actually have the chance to indulge.

After reading the remaining articles I decided to write about the one that appealed to me the most, "The Dark Side: Optimists are Idiots." Again, I am struck by how much I love the blunt, truthfulness of the Germans. I do not think there is anything wrong with the German's lack of optimism. I would not consider them so much as pessimists, either, (though I'm sure many are), but I would see them as realists. People who do not get their hopes up, but rather wait to see how things work out. Maybe the Germans purposely try to kill others' optimism just to make those people work hard to prove them wrong, too. Even if they aren't doing that on purpose it may motivate people to work harder to make things work rather than fail miserably. In the end, fail or succeed, I still love the real, bluntness of the Germans. There is no need to sugar coat anything, and although it may seem rude, again it is just part of the culture of Germany, and so happens to be a part that I enjoy and find very interesting.

Willkommen!!

Welcome to our class blog!

We will be using this blog throughout the semester for two kinds of assignments:

1. Once per chapter, the homework plan will direct you to post a response to the culture readings for the chapter on the blog.

2. Roughly every other week, the homework plan will direct you to post here for your Abenteuer mit Deutsch (AMD) assignment. First you do a fun activity that involves German, then you post about it. You should spend an hour total on this (maybe 45-55 minutes doing something, 5-15 minutes posting about it). See Was ist ein AMD, AMD Ideen and Beispiele for ideas. This should get you excited about the kinds of things you can do!

Whenever you post something, please include your name and the name of the assignment (e.g. AMD2, Kultur5) as labels. See "Blog: How To" for more details!