Category Archives: Personal

A cold

After bragging that this was the first Christmas break in history in which neither André nor I caught a cold, apparently the germs have caught up with me. It started over the weekend, and I had to stay home from work today. Of course the timing is perfect – today and tomorrow are the days in which the grades for the midterm reports have to be entered into the computer at school, which means lots of last-minute grading. It’s not much fun if you’re not feeling well, but lots of tea with milk and honey and hot lemon juice (with water and honey, a good old home remedy) will hopefully get me through. Ugh, back to work.

Weihnachtszeit, Plätzchenzeit

I didn’t have much time for Christmas decoration, present shopping or things like that this year, but last weekend I mananged to bake some Christmas cookies. They’re called Heidesand and are, as far as I know, a Northern German speciality.

Heidesand-Kekse

Heidesand, lecker.

Für die Deutsch sprechenden Leser: Mit einigen Kollegen aus dem Hunsrück und dem Westerwald hatte ich Diskussionen darüber, ob es nun Plätzchen oder Kekse heißt. Man wollte mir weismachen, es gäbe zwischen den beiden einen gravierenden Unterschied – nur konnte mir keiner genau erklären, was genau der Unterschied sein sollte. Zu Weihnachten backen sie jedenfalls alle Plätzchen, keine Kekse. Die Norddeutschen waren sich alle einig: Die Begriffe sind synonym, und man kann sehr wohl Weihnachtskekse backen. Hauptsache, die Plätzchen schmecken.