I'm in a new home! And I'm loving it. Not only do they have an indoor swimming pool, but they have a dog. Named Bingo. Life is so much more normal with a dog in the picture.
The new family has three children ages 15, 13, and 7, meaning that I am having a drastically different experience from the one that started in November. It's been wonderful for all 36 hours that I've been here! The kids and I are already getting along super well, they speak English and they speak Sarcasm-- and I am proudly fluent in both.
On my first full day here (er.. yesterday), somehow the topic of pancakes came up, as it usually does in any typical conversation. A question was then excitedly directed to me, the new girl, the one trying to figure out how to win them over, "So Sarah, do you know how to make pancakes??"
If you'll recall the post long ago when I hadn't yet discovered which foods are uniquely tied to American culture, I've since added pancakes to the list. Germans know what pancakes are, but on the rare occasion that they eat them, it is not syrup you will find so beautifully slathered on top. Instead you will find cheese, jelly, and sometimes even meat. The point is that pancakes as they are intended to be enjoyed are inherently from the good ol' US of A.
"So Sarah, do you know how to make pancakes??" What happened next was out of my control. Verbal vomit, if you will. All my childhood lessons of humility and down-to-earth-ness went out the window, when out of my mouth came the words, "Well of course I do, I'm from America aren't I?" ....Forgive me, Lord.
The children were so excited that they didn't seem to take notice of my arrogance, and instead began celebrating that I would be making them pancakes first thing after school today. During their celebration I thought about the many times I've made pancakes.. and how it has almost always involved an "instant" mix such as Bisquick or my personal favorite, the 10 pound Krusteaz bag from Costco. The irony of course could be drawn from my "I'm from America aren't I?" You use an instant mix to make pancakes because you're too lazy to throw together the 5 ingredients it takes to make them from scratch? Yes. Yes, you are from America.
Today the weight of the world was on my shoulders. I had to make amazing pancakes without my pancake crutch.. and my relationship with these kids depended on it. After a long search on the internet for the perfect recipe, and several conversions of cups and tablespoons to grams and liters, I shamed myself for not having made homemade pancakes more often. Turns out it is not difficult to please hungry teenagers, who don't know what a really amazing pancake tastes like in comparison to mine, so I breathed a sigh of relief when they finished the whole batch in 48 seconds. But I still learned my lesson. Confucius say, "It is not good for woman to be pompous when claiming to know how to make pancakes." Thanks, Confucius.
Wow, so I'll stop talking about pancakes now. I was first going to write about how last weekend I was detained in the airport's police station and was almost sent back to the UK, but from a few emails I've received, it seems my dad is taking care of spreading that story. So, maybe when you're older.
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