I love Edward Norton...
I drink milk that has been sitting around at room temperature for a few days. It’s completely normal. At first, I avoided it. But, it got the best of me, and I now drink it without thinking twice.

So, I tried to bake some chocolate chip cookies. It didn’t quite work out. It didn’t crash and there was no burning, so I can’t complain too much. But, I am quite content that I decided to try it out early. On Tuesday, we’ve got this international student potluck dinner at school and everyone is bringing food from their home country. So, I figured chocolate chip cookies were pretty standard in the US, because they certainly don’t have them here. But, things don’t quite work out when you don’t have brown sugar, baking soda or vanilla extract. I ended up using regular sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar. That’s all they’ve got here. I know better next time, that’s for sure. Perhaps a standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich will suffice.

Last night I watched American History X because I had never seen it before. I thought it was a pretty good movie. I am typically a fan of Edward Norton anyway; I just wish he’d be more like Hugh Grant sometimes and take on sappier girl movie roles. See the movie if you haven’t. I saw it with a couple of friends, a German girl and guy my age, and I think we were all kind of uneasy around each other while we were watching it because of the contents of the movie and the history involved in it. I mean, I have a general understanding of the complexities of race issues in the US and they have an understanding of the history of Germany’s past. And, they’re two issues that are very difficult to explain. In the past three months, I’ve certainly learned a lot about the Nazis in Germany as well as the aftermath of WWII here. And, I don’t even know where to begin or how I could explain what I’ve learned. After the movie finished, we were all back to normal and talked pretty openly about it as we do about everything else.

I had a new food today. Well, I can’t even say it’s new per se. I guess it’s a food I am already familiar with; I’ve just eaten it in a different manner previously. The simplest way to explain what I ate was pie filling in a bowl with cream. That’s it. In a bowl. With a little cream. Pie filling. Alone. No ice cream. No pie. Just filling. It’s a specialty of northern Germany, which is nice to learn and try. But, it’s not something I’m going to order in a restaurant.