As American as Apple Pie

We had a Christmas office party on Wednesday to which everyone brought something they either bought or made. I figured I'd make something that was typically american. And apple pie was the frist thing I could think of. Although apple pies came from the English (and the Dutch had a version as well) it's as close as I could get without just bringing in corn. But the beautiful thing about America is that everything is easy. If you wish to make a pie you can simply go to your grocers (that is typically opened later than 8pm) freezer and get the frozen crust that come in a handy aluminum pie pan. (I originally wrote 'tin', but an aluminum pie tin doesn't make sense.) Thanks to Toytown the English speakers in Germany forum, I was aware of the difficulties I was about to face. There were a few forum discussions about pie crusts and other differences between baking ingredients here and the states. It's hard to ask Germans about these differences because at work yesterday we were talking about cooking and I said "There's no brown sugar in Germany" and I got the 'sure there is' response. I suppose they're right too, it may be brown sugar, but it's certainly not the same as the american stuff. But that's beside the point; there's no brown sugar in apple pie (however, there is in apple crisp). From Toytown I knew I would not find frozen pie crusts anywhere. I also knew that it would very difficult to find (or expensive to buy at KaDeWe) both a pie pan and crisco. I had found an recipie online that looked doable enough. I'd link it for you, but I don't remember which website I got it from. I needed one that didn't take ice water because we have no freezer so I had no way of getting ice. The one I found called for cool but not cold water, so I was good to go. I also needed Crisco, but I knew what to look for as a German equivalent (Biskin) and all-purpose flour (which I read is Mehl 405 in Germany).

I had stayed at work a little late and had to go pick up my bike from the shop. (My tire is fixed!) I stopped by Kaisers at first because it's pretty big and should have had Biskin according to Toytown. They didn't, of course but I still needed a pie pan, so I thought I was inevitably going to have to stop at KaDeWe, which according to the website closed at 8. It was 7. I didn't want to have to buy everything there because things would be cheaper elsewhere and I thought there was a possibilty that Woolworths would have pie pans. They have all sorts of different bunt cake and tart pans, but no pie pans. So I was hurrying to Gesundbrunnen because I was trying to get on the S-bahn before my two hours expired from coming home from work and the KaDeWe was closing soon, when I saw a sign from Kaufland. I had read about this place too. This is basically like a Giant or a Wegmanns or any other super food store. I knew I would be pushing it time-wise, and if I were smart I would have gone to KaDeWe and came back to this place since I think it was open later, but I didn't care, and I went investigating. After a long period of stupidly staring and wandering through the butter/margarine aisle, I finally found a small block of Biskin, and they also had pans that were generally pie shaped, so I figured they would do since I knew via Toytown that American pie pans were €22 at KaDeWe and that just wasn't worth it.

Victoriously, I returned home to make my pie. The directions in making a pie crust that I found had two places where they said something along the lines of 'DO NOT touch touch the shortening with your hands, make sure you touch it only with the flour because otherwise the heat from your hands will melt the shortening' and 'DO NOT exsessively knead the dough like you would bread'. I'm pretty sure I did both of these things. Not intentionally, I just wasn't sure how not to. I say this because it was supposed to 'look like peas' at one point and it never really did and it was supposed to actually hold together in a nice ball and it never really did that either. But, gosh darn it, it somehow worked. In the end, it rolled out rather successfully and turned into a delicious pie. I only wish I had a slice of American cheese to put ontop of it.

Blasorchester

I made the greatest discovery thus far today. This is another thing I found via the internet; through various links stemming from a question on the Toytown forum about Choirs to join in Berlin. I found my way to this website. It's the Young Ensemble of Berlin. It's an organization for people ages 18-35 that like music as a hobby. They have a chamber orchestra, a choir, and a wind ensemble. If you look at the information about the Blasorchester (brass orchestra), you'll find this:
ACHTUNG !!!! Wir suchen momentan insbesondere Percussionisten, Waldhörner und Tenorhornisten.
Translation: Attention !!!! We are momentarily especially looking for Percusionists, Horn, and baritone players.
Followed by a link to further information about when they meet and how to join. So, I clicked on that link to find out that they meet on Wednesdays from 7-9, and you don't need to audition. It said if you're interested to just come to a practice, or email this guy for further questions. So I emailed the address given and told them who I was, what I play and asked if they knew where I could rent a horn, preferably for cheap. I got a response that they're happy to have me and they have a horn for me! So next Wednesday I'm going to go check it out. They play show tunes and pop songs and classic rock song as well as some classical. The best part is, they're all (well, mostly) German. Meaning I'll actually be socializing with Germans instead of all of the English speakers I've been hanging out with.

Toytown Germany

So my second week of work is shaping up to be much more interesting than the first. Right now I'm working with a lady named Lydia. I basically just watch/help her since I don't know where anything is and I've never operated any of the machines before. It's all pretty straight forward thus far. I'm understanding everything too. I'm even moving passed the just getting instructions into the making actual conversation zone. Lydia plays the bass guitar in a rock band. She said they're looking for a singer if I'm interested. However, I'll have you know she's probably in the age range of 40. But she's very nice.

Paul was really busy this past week and I didn't see him at all Tuesday through Saturday. So since at this point he was really my only social outlet, I decided to find another source. And of course, in this day and age, that source is at my fingertips: the internet. Many of you probably thing meeting people on the internet is dangerous and slightly lame. While I agree, it might be slightly lame, I went about it safely. The first thing I found was a site called toytowngermany.com. It's a forum for english speakers in Germany. I found it by googling english speakers and Berlin. There's a section specific to every area of Germany and it's the largest forum of this sort. People post questions they have about living in Germany as well events in which people are welcome to participate.

The first event I attended was Thursday night drinks. The advice for newcomers was to go to the bar at which they were meeting that week and look for the group of people speaking English. It worked nicely; they were very easy to find. It was nice, a lot of small talk, but still it's something to do on a Thursday.

The second event I attended was playing American football in Treptow park. Unfortunately, only 4 people showed up so it was more like playing catch and occasionally keepaway in the park. But those people were the easiest to get along with. And then we watched american football streamed on the internet at one of their apartments. Two of the guys are cousins from Detroit and the other is from Philly. It's going to be heated next week when the Packers play the Lions.