Robin Williams and Meat Jam

Germany may be 5000 miles away from Oregon, but some things aren't all that different. For example, akin to the media cycle back in the US, there is unending coverage of Robin Williams' death here, especially in certain newspapers. While I was waiting for the bus this afternoon I even heard a little girl singing Willst Du Einen Schneeman Bauen? (Do You Want to Build A Snowman?). Some things are the same even on the other side of the pond. One thing that is a bit different, though, is food. 

Mr. Williams was on the front page of all the newspapers in the bakery.

Within two hours of stepping of the plane in Frankfurt, almost all of the students had bought some sort of baked good. The bread here is so freaking good. It's too good. The bakeries on every corner just smell like happiness, so they're kind of hard to avoid.

Exhibit A of Germany's high quality bread: There's a CBYX student who was totally gluten-free (by choice) before coming to Germany. She hadn't eaten bread or other gluten products for a year or so... until she came here.  Usually your body would protest if you suddenly started eating a ton of gluten when you're not used to it. This girl, however, only got a little headache. She's been eating bread two, maybe three, meals a day. A little headache. That's it. One reason she might not have been so effected by the gluten rush was because Europe uses fewer pesticides and GMOs than the US does.

Check out this vending machine for freshly baked bread!

And then there's all the bubbly water. I've gotten more into mineral water, which is pretty ubiquitous here. You can totally drink water from the tap, but it's not as common. I was chatting with a German girl the same age as me who plays soccer and she said they even drink carbonated water during practices and games. 

Not all of the CBYXers are so psyched about mineral water.

One of the neatest things I've discovered in the food world here is what I call Fleisch Marmalade, or "meat jam," but is called Mett in German. It sounds and looks a bit icky, but is actually quite tasty. My host brother fixed me an open-faced Mett sandwich with some pepper on top and it was ten out of ten.

The raw meat part was a little unappealing, but when in Rome!

 Of course there are hundreds of other German foods and beverages, but these are just the ones that stood out to me the first week I was in Aachen. Also Prost!