But after class, people still feel lonely, especially when they have to cook three meals a day, which makes them feel very troublesome. There are no student canteens or fast food restaurants here, and money can't buy food.
among overseas students, there is a very classic saying that "one person is called survival, and two people are called life". This is not unreasonable. In our line, we are all unmarried men and women, all single, and all in the primary state of survival.
The packets of instant noodles that I brought with me became treasures, so I saved it and ate it quickly. I never thought instant noodles were delicious before. After eating bread for a few days, I thought instant noodles were much more delicious than bread. At least it was salty, unlike bread, which had a faint sour taste in my mouth. After a long time, my whole stomach was sour.
if this continues, it will definitely not work. How to solve this serious problem has become our top priority.
Partnering with Sasha
A group of China students who came early adopted the way of cooking and eating together, which solved the trouble of eating three meals a day. This practice was soon imitated among us.
I met Sasha on campus that day after school, and she told me that she wanted to cook with me. There are only four girls among 17 of us, so they are all popular with boys, because girls are definitely much better than boys in life. I live off campus, and I don't even think about partnering. Who will come off campus to cook with me?
Sasha is serious, which surprises me. Sasha is a very clever girl. Although we studied together in the language class in Beijing for six months, we were all under great pressure to learn German, and we hardly spoke to each other. On the day when there was no class, she went home early. Sasha is from Beijing. She is a very pure girl, and her father is a professor at Peking University. Thanks to the influence of the intellectual family, she is not vain and has her own pursuit. Before coming to Germany, she had been hired by a foreign-funded enterprise in Beijing, but she wanted to go abroad for further study and devoted herself to learning German, and finally came to Germany to study as she wished.
I think, among so many classmates, especially those from Beijing, she chose me for only one reason: security. I am the little brother she can rely on and trust, and I won't have wild desires for her. In a foreign country, girls need a sense of security most.
the next day, we started cooking together. Because my kitchen here is the kitchen used by the landlord himself, all kinds of facilities are complete. Before we cooked, we asked the landlord for advice, but she didn't object.
in this way, the two of us started cooking together. When I come home from class, I will go to the shop opened by Turks and buy some fresh vegetables and food. My division of labor is chores such as purchasing materials and cleaning the kitchen. After arriving home, Sasha cooks mainly, and she can make all kinds of delicious China meals with limited food raw materials. We soon experienced the benefits of this kind of companionship, which not only enhanced our friendship, but also made us full of food. At the same time, it also reduces a lot of loneliness in spare time and homesickness for missing relatives.
Friendship with foreign students
Sasha is very mature, just like my sister sent by God, so that I can eat hot dishes and meals every day, which really makes me feel so happy. Our generation is the product of family planning, and a family can only have one child. We have felt lonely since childhood, and the friendship between brothers and sisters is an emotion that can't be compensated in other ways.
Sasha is especially good at making pasta, which often attracts the landlord to stop by her to see her craftsmanship.
German flour is very cheap. The flour without baking powder costs only .29 Euro per bag and weighs 1 kg. Cheaper than domestic flour. Rice is more expensive. Generally, if it is not sold in supermarkets, you should go to China store to buy it. So we often buy flour as the staple food.
Her best skill is to make several packets of jiaozi. She can mix the noodles in a few minutes, and then mix the dumpling stuffing, most often carrot stuffing. Many carrots in Germany are also very cheap. Germans also like carrots very much because they are extremely nutritious and contain vitamins. Carrots in supermarkets are sold by the package. A pack is about five kilograms, which is very cheap. You can buy a pack for only 1.5 euros. A pack of carrots is enough for us to eat for half a month.
the meat stuffing is ready-made. There is a kind of meat stuffing with chicken and pork in the supermarket, which is cheaper than the simple pork stuffing. Each box is one kilogram, and the price is 1.9 euros.
Add carrots to the meat stuffing, and then add some spices and sesame oil. In a short time, the dumpling stuffing overflows with attractive fragrance, which makes people want to eat it. After the dumpling stuffing is mixed, put it in a plastic box with a lid, which can be used for 2 times.
The landlord likes jiaozi wrapped in salsa very much, so we always wrap a little more and invite the landlord to have dinner with us.
Of course, Sasha has other skills, and she can make pies that are common on the streets of Beijing. But the pie should be fried, and the landlord didn't like the smell of oil smoke in the kitchen, so we did it once.
Sasha said that the most convenient thing is to eat noodles. I really haven't eaten that kind of hand-cooked noodles before. I have been growing up in the south, and I usually live on rice. I don't like noodles very much, but when I first ate noodles, I changed my prejudice against noodles. Hand-kneaded noodles are smooth to the mouth, not as hard as spaghetti. After the noodles are cooked, put a little mustard tuber and minced meat on them, and it will become Zhajiang Noodles. It is delicious and I like it very much.
after dinner, it's my job to clean up the dishes and chopsticks and the kitchen. This division of labor is reasonable, who let her have the technology. However, as soon as I entered this role, I found that cleaning the kitchen was very knowledgeable.
The landlady is very tidy. She asks us to clean up the kitchen after dinner every day.
See the neatness and earnestness of Germans
The German kitchen is like our laboratory, which is not only clean and tidy, but also orderly: pots, bowls, scoops and pots of various specifications are packed in dozens and sets, and neatly put into the cupboard; Dishes, large and small, should be wiped clean with dry cloth after washing, and then put in the drawer; On the seasoning rack, more than a dozen bottles with the same specifications are neatly arranged and spotless; Even the bottom of the stainless steel pan is polished.
What's more exquisite is the trash cans in the kitchen.
The landlady didn't say it was a trash can. I really can't believe those colorful buckets near the corner are used to hold garbage. The appearance colors of those buckets are different, including blue, yellow, black and a red one. One by one, clean, neat and beautiful.
For these trash cans, the landlady gave me a special lesson.
The landlady said, "Different garbage should be put in different barrels, so don't put it wrong.".
She pointed to the blue bucket and said it was used to hold recyclable paper, such as newspapers, magazines, cardboard, egg boxes (paper) and toilet paper. But coated paper, or used paper, such as colored paper for decoration, or used paper towels, toilet paper and sanitary napkins for women, can't be put into this bucket.
She pointed to the yellow bucket and said it was used to collect non-recyclable items, such as plastic, tin, packaging foam, beverage boxes, yogurt cups, butter and cream boxes.
The black trash can is non-reusable garbage, such as leftovers, expired bread, meat, fish, orange peel and so on. The red trash can is used to hold recycled items that can be used as fertilizers, such as vegetable waste, lettuce leaves, potato skins, fruit cores, peanut shells, egg shells, banana skins (without trademarks), coffee, tea residue and so on.
The landlady went on to say that batteries should not be thrown about, because it pollutes the environment greatly, so there is a special place to collect batteries.
The landlady said too much at once, how can I remember! I didn't expect a garbage to be classified so much and so complicated, which really taught me the rigor of Germans on garbage.
so after dinner every day, my task is very heavy. First of all, we must sort the garbage, which is a very detailed job. I often classify it incorrectly and put it wrong. The landlady doesn't trust me. I have to check it myself after I finish my work. However, I was really checked out several times. Once, I threw the carton of milk into the bucket of waste paper. The landlady pointed it out to me rudely and said to me, "There is a plastic film on the surface of the milk carton, which should be thrown into the plastic trash can." Another time, I threw a cigarette box into a waste paper bucket. At night, the landlord specifically asked me to "talk" about it. It turned out that my mistake was not to take out the tin foil in the cigarette box. The landlady has replayed the garbage and came to tell me that I won't make similar mistakes next time. After the second yellow card warning, I became cautious.
cleaning up the kitchen is no less than cooking. It's too much trouble, too complicated. But it is precisely because the Germans attach great importance to the hygiene of the kitchen that there are absolutely no annoying cockroaches in their kitchens. This extremely fertile animal has been extinct in Germany for decades. This is enough to make people admire their hygiene habits.
After cleaning up the kitchen, I will send Sasha to the station. She will go back to school, and we will each review our lessons during the day in the evening.
This season is the coldest day in Germany. The whole town is covered with snow, and it is crystal clear.
We walked along the old streets of the town and walked slowly to the station. We are often silent on the road, except for the crisp creaking sound of stepping on the snow, and there is silence around us. We enjoy the silence in the town, and we like the quiet atmosphere.
On the day of partnership and mutual care
The bus will always appear at this station at the same time every day, and Jiang Shasha will be sent to the school gate at the same time. I won't leave until the car she got on has left. When I return to the landlord's home, my mobile phone will ring on time, which is the signal that Sasha sent me to arrive safely when she arrived at school. In overseas days, I will feel very happy away from the care of my parents and the mutual concern between my peers.
in those days, life was regular, the problem of eating was solved, and there was no worries.
On the way home from school every day, I start thinking about a rich dinner in my mind, and this state will continue until I get home. However, on the way, I was sometimes harassed by the smell of barbecue in a Turkish restaurant. When I was greedy, I occasionally spent 2 euros to buy a snack. It's a delicious fast food, a bit like Chinese hamburger in Xi 'an. Turks have designed a long barbecue grill with mutton strung on it, which is oily and delicious. Turks will use a chainsaw to cut the mutton piece by piece and put it in the steamed bun. Then, they will choose a few samples from various vegetables and fruits and put them in the steamed bun and put them in the meat. The taste will be different, and they will not feel the unique smell of mutton when eating.
I still remember the feeling of having hot meals for dinner (we only have one hot meal in a day, so we take something to take with us at noon), China jiaozi, who loves to eat, and noodles with his hands. This is not entirely due to friendship, but really because there are too many things that need mutual help, mutual dependence and mutual care.
In the past few months in the language school, I have not only made great progress in my language, but also fully exercised my self-reliance ability. Without dependence, everything can only be faced and solved by ourselves. That's when my cooking started, and then I got advice and improved.
"It is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish". Eating ready-made food can only be a temporary thing; But if you learn the cooking skills, you can make yourself no longer troubled by cooking for life.
I learned to cook, and I also learned to cook. Jiaozi, noodles are a piece of cake. Facing the life of studying abroad in the next few years, I have confidence in having enough food and clothing to solve the problem of eating, and I won't worry about eating again in the future.