Another fresh start (and baking)
Dear LJ,
It's been exactly one month since I've started living in Germany. Life has become a lot slower paced and plain.
What really inspired me to write at this very moment was an apple crumble. I haven't mentioned it in my previous entries on her but this was something her and I often spent our evenings making. Today it took me all of an hour and 45 minutes to send the dish into the oven. As I'm peeling and cutting the apples, I could feel her agonizing over my working pace and grabbing the peeler out of my hand to finish the rest at her usual lightning speed. And she would always boil the apples a bit before baking to cut down the baking time.
My mind started wandering over the scent of freshly cut apples. I don't think we were polar opposites. More like the two areas that don't overlap in a Venn diagram. I wonder if she would be proud of me if she sees me making this gigantic apple crumble and cutting 12 apples all by myself. She would probably shake her head. I've always thought I would tear up from an overflow of memories, but I guess I've really recovered. The experiences with her have just become another part of me that I've finally been able to digest and absorb.
Ah sorry, I started rambling about the past again. Ok, the present. Right. Well, it didn't take more than a week for me to start missing Belgium insanely. I know, I always fall victim to the mind's tricks of turning everything in the past into positive memories. But I do remember how much I complained when I first arrived there too, but it was mostly due to financial despair. Well, here in the tiny town within a town at the Swiss border, I'm living a life of financial haven. But I've also lost the busy streets, loud hallways where I can always meet someone new, my Spanish mob and the sweetest man on earth of a teacher. Aaand hello to loneliness.
Ok well, let's not be as bleak as the weather, shall we? I live on the second floor of a house with 3 roommates, neither of whom I could communicate with much, but are generally nice people. I technically have two rooms as my room was split into two even though my rent is unimaginably cheap for a city girl like me. Behind our house is a really big garden that is home to a well matured apple tree where even in November, we can pick many apples to make desserts like the crumble right now. Everybody I've met here have been very helpful and kind. I'm also lucky to have mutual friends here from my general social circles. I just need to form closer companionships. And keep working towards the same goals.
Wow, random fireworks behind my street as I write. I guess this town can be spontaneous when it wants.
Back to the baking though, I can pin a recipe to every close friendship I've had. Banana bread and carrot cake with my closest friend during university, veggie wellington with my then TA, veggie lasagna with my childhood friend, cheesy broccoli/cauliflower with my then quintet colleague, macarons(!) with another quintet colleague and the many times I've made cheese cake with my family before becoming lactose intolerant. I remember a time when mom was so inspired she made a carrot cake and coconut cake and brought them all the way from Toronto to Montreal. I was too self-centred to appreciate it at the time but I had made her promise that we'd do some baking together when I returned. Lo and behold, the two of us set on a mission one day and made carrot cake, coconut cake, cheese cake and granola bar all at once. Wait...maybe she was there too... (I just checked my facebook history and couldn't find anything since I've blocked her. Well, guess we'll never know.)
I guess to find a little bit of happiness again I have to bake on.
It's been exactly one month since I've started living in Germany. Life has become a lot slower paced and plain.
What really inspired me to write at this very moment was an apple crumble. I haven't mentioned it in my previous entries on her but this was something her and I often spent our evenings making. Today it took me all of an hour and 45 minutes to send the dish into the oven. As I'm peeling and cutting the apples, I could feel her agonizing over my working pace and grabbing the peeler out of my hand to finish the rest at her usual lightning speed. And she would always boil the apples a bit before baking to cut down the baking time.
My mind started wandering over the scent of freshly cut apples. I don't think we were polar opposites. More like the two areas that don't overlap in a Venn diagram. I wonder if she would be proud of me if she sees me making this gigantic apple crumble and cutting 12 apples all by myself. She would probably shake her head. I've always thought I would tear up from an overflow of memories, but I guess I've really recovered. The experiences with her have just become another part of me that I've finally been able to digest and absorb.
Ah sorry, I started rambling about the past again. Ok, the present. Right. Well, it didn't take more than a week for me to start missing Belgium insanely. I know, I always fall victim to the mind's tricks of turning everything in the past into positive memories. But I do remember how much I complained when I first arrived there too, but it was mostly due to financial despair. Well, here in the tiny town within a town at the Swiss border, I'm living a life of financial haven. But I've also lost the busy streets, loud hallways where I can always meet someone new, my Spanish mob and the sweetest man on earth of a teacher. Aaand hello to loneliness.
Ok well, let's not be as bleak as the weather, shall we? I live on the second floor of a house with 3 roommates, neither of whom I could communicate with much, but are generally nice people. I technically have two rooms as my room was split into two even though my rent is unimaginably cheap for a city girl like me. Behind our house is a really big garden that is home to a well matured apple tree where even in November, we can pick many apples to make desserts like the crumble right now. Everybody I've met here have been very helpful and kind. I'm also lucky to have mutual friends here from my general social circles. I just need to form closer companionships. And keep working towards the same goals.
Wow, random fireworks behind my street as I write. I guess this town can be spontaneous when it wants.
Back to the baking though, I can pin a recipe to every close friendship I've had. Banana bread and carrot cake with my closest friend during university, veggie wellington with my then TA, veggie lasagna with my childhood friend, cheesy broccoli/cauliflower with my then quintet colleague, macarons(!) with another quintet colleague and the many times I've made cheese cake with my family before becoming lactose intolerant. I remember a time when mom was so inspired she made a carrot cake and coconut cake and brought them all the way from Toronto to Montreal. I was too self-centred to appreciate it at the time but I had made her promise that we'd do some baking together when I returned. Lo and behold, the two of us set on a mission one day and made carrot cake, coconut cake, cheese cake and granola bar all at once. Wait...maybe she was there too... (I just checked my facebook history and couldn't find anything since I've blocked her. Well, guess we'll never know.)
I guess to find a little bit of happiness again I have to bake on.