Floating in the “Eisbach,” or “Ice Brook,” made me very excited for the summer.
It was all hands on deck to prepare for the “Neueinzügleressen,” or “New move-in dinner.” André, our newest floormate who is featured in the center of the title image, is passionate about cooking and really blew our floor’s expectations out of the water!
In addition to the meal, we were expected to create a cocktail. We made a Basil-Gin drink.
The “Vorspeise,” or “first course,” was tagliatelle with smoked salmon or halloumi cheese for the vegetarians, a poached egg, and asparagus.
The “Hauptspeise,” or “second/main course,” was a pork roast or cauliflower steak for the vegetarians, with German potato salad, roasted carrots, and Yorkshire pudding.
The “Nachtisch,” or “dessert,” was a chocolate lava cake with raspberry creme. 
Der Botanische Garten had large and varied grounds which naturally lend themselves to numerous pictures. I decided to make a separate slideshow dedicated to the garden pictures here.
Sunday evening concluded with watching a documentary outside.

The week started with a high. The weather was sunny and extremely hot. After eating lunch in the Innenhof, Marlene and I decided to take a work break and bike to the Englischen Garten and hopped in the aptly named “Eisbach,” or “Ice Brook” and floated with the current before hopping out, drying off, and watching the surfers. Upon my return, I had a dynamic exchange with another architecture student in Roncalli where we compared and contrasted our experiences both studying and working. Our floor grilled for dinner and I made a tuna, tomato, and chickpea salad to share. Afterward the jovial spirit continued and we played a game of Flunkyball (refer to previous post for description). 

Tuesday was equally exciting because we had our “Neueinzügleressen,” or “New move-in dinner,” an event where all of the new students who have moved-in since last semester cook an elaborate dinner for the whole floor. I am lucky in that six other students also moved-in since last semester which made the task of cooking for 17 people less daunting. Even better, our newest floormate is passionate about cooking and became head chef. He planned and orchestrated the evening while the rest of us assisted him in whatever way we could. 

The remaining weekdays were much calmer and more studious with only the standard reprieves like Schafkopf, yoga, and kitchen hangouts. 

Saturday morning a small group of us went to the Botansichen Garten and strolled through the beautiful plants, flowers, and trees. When we got back another floormate, who is Iranian, invited us to join him for a traditional Iranian lunch that he cooked. The dish consisted of rice, chicken, and berries and was seasoned with saffron. After the meal he shared Iranian tea and nougat-like treat with pistachios. The meal was delicious and the stories he shared were also interesting. 

Sunday was another routine day. I went to church in the morning, worked, ate lunch with some floormates, and in the evening we watched a documentary in the Innenhof.

This site is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author, Stephanie Kubus, and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.