Only child = lonly child?

A few weeks ago I read an article in the “check-it-magazine" about only children. Teenagers without any siblings listed the advantages and the disadvantages of growing up as an only child. The opinions on being an only child were quite mixed – some saw it as a great opportunity to have the parents for him/her alone, but quite a few thought it would be sometimes boring to have no one to talk to. I also have no siblings, but I have actually never really thought about that – I have always accepted the fact that I’m the only child in my family. Many people, who don’t know how it is to grow up as the only child of a family, think that we are egocentric as we’ve never learned how to compromise and share things with other children. In addition to that, only children are often prejudiced to be solitary persons and prefer to be on their own. BUT: to all of you who really believe that, here’s the “truth” about being an only child!

When I was younger, I often played with my neighbours in the afternoons, but in the evenings I was used to play on my own in my room. Sure, I sometimes missed playing and talking with children in my age, especially when I went with my parents on holidays. But due to this, I often started to play with other children in the hotel and thus I was able to make a lot of friends.  Since I was alone with my parents, I was somehow forced to approach others. This is why I think that only children are often even more outgoing than others. 

When it comes to sharing, I was brought up in a way that wouldn’t even let me hesitate a second to share my things. I even think that growing up in a big house with many siblings makes you a bit more possessive as you always have to “fight” for your toys and sweets (well, this is my opinion.. maybe I exaggerate too much ^^). I know quite a few people who have at least one sibling but who are not willing to share like some others without siblings. Also the fact that I had my parents on my own didn’t make me seeking for attention. For me, it always seemed as we three would be equal, not like a hierarchy of superiors and inferiors.  

But: I also have to admit that I prefer working on my own. For example, when we had to do group or team work at school, I always prefered to work on my own and try to find the right solutions without the help of others. I can't say whether this is because I'm an only child or just because I don't want to be dependend on others. 

Well, this is my sight of growing up without siblings.. If you disagree with my statements or want to add something, just leave a comment! I’m curious what you think about only children or if you are an only child as well, how it was like for you to grow up without siblings!

Viva España!!

Valencía

 Last week I totally felt over the moon, when I got an email from the “Büro für internationale Beziehungen” and they told me that I’m nominated to study at the Universidad de Valencía for the summer semester of 2014! Having the chance to study in Spain means a lot to me as I’m totally into this country and I have always liked to live there for some time.

But why Spain? Why have I chosen Spanish as my second foreign language? Here’s the story behind my “Spanish madness”:

When I was 12, I attended a so-called “language elementary school”. This meant that some subjects like Geography and History were held in English by our teachers. We also had many exchange teachers from abroad and sometimes we even had exchange students from abroad, who stayed with us and went with us to school. Thanks to this exchange programme, I also had the chance to go abroad with my school class and stay at a host family in Italy, Spain and England. I enjoyed all this trips very much, but the best one was definitely to Barcelona. When I was 12, I went there with two teachers and some other pupils from my class and I still remember how excited we were when our plane landed at the airport in Spain. We didn’t know what lay ahead of us as none of us neither knew the host family nor a word Spanish (or Catalan, which would have also been a great help). 

The bustling Ramblas in Barcelona

After the transport to our partner school, which was just 5 minutes of the famous “Ramblas”, we met our host familes brothers and sisters. I can still recall the excitement when my name was read out and suddenly a girl in my age with dark-brown girls walked up to me and introduced her as my host sister. I think this was the moment my life changed – well, I can’t say it was love at the first sight, but it was definitely friendship at the first sight! Anna was so open and warm-hearted and we immediately hit it off. Also her little sister and her parents were so nice and friendly to me and after one week with this family, it felt like we have known each other forever. I enjoyed the time with them so much, that I had to struggle with not starting to cry when I had to go back home to Austria. 

Me and Anna, hitting the town ;)

But my sadness was definitely in vain: Since that certain week in April 2007, we have visited each other every summer. I think I’ve already been to Barcelona 7 or 8 times so far – it already feels like a second home to me. And just imagine, even our parents became friends! Last year we all went together on holidays to Salzburg and Munich and I later travelled with Anna to Venice. I always love it when I visit “my” Spanish family as it’s always great fun to be with them. I started to enjoy it even more when I started to study Spanish and was able to understand and talk to them as Anna’s younger sister and also her mother don’t speak English very much. 

I hope you can now understand why I love Spain and its language so much… And I’m sure after my time in Valencía I will love it even more!

My first encounter with: FOOD BLOGS!

 

As I’m more of a book-type and prefer to work with something old-fashioned called “cookbooks”, I’ve never read any food blogs at all. Whenever I cook (which is not something unusual for me – I love cooking and especially baking cakes) I use one of my Mom’s grand collection of cookbooks, cook magazines or hand-written recipe collection (yes, also my Mom is fanatic about cooking..). I love browsing through the books and magazines and looking at the pictures and admiring all those mouth-watering photos of the perfectly prepared meals. When I come across something that looks extraordinarily yummy I either try to cook it myself, or if it’s something more advanced, I ask my Mom if she could try to cook it for me on one of her free days. 

Well, back to food blogs! Once I started to search the Internet for food blogs, I couldn’t stop! I think that food blogs offer a lot more advantages than ordinary cookbooks. First, food blogs are a lot more personal (or “friendlier”, as someone had already mentioned in class). You can always add your own story behind the recipe, how you created it, for whom you cook it, why you like it so much and so on. In a cookbook, this wouldn’t be possible, as it’s mostly about the recipe – not about the writer! The food blogger can also mention suggestions how you can vary the ingredients in order to improve the dish. Also the fact that you can exchange your own experiences with others is a great benefit. Especially when you’re vegetarian, vegan or have any kind of intolerance it might be helpful to talk to others who go without the same aliments as you do. 

Another big advantage of food blogs is that they are for free. Sure, you might think now, of course they are free, that’s nothing new. But think of it, for example you want to cook a special Asian dish you ate last time at a Chinese restaurant. You either buy a whole book with Asian recipes just for that one recipe– or you look for it on the Internet where you can find at least 9305 variations of that certain dish you liked so much. Isn’t that convenient? ;)

This is one of the blogs that fascinated me most: http://eatlikeagirl.com/

The author is an Irishwoman, currently living in London, who travels a lot and reports about her food experiences in the world. She also writes about her own recipes and she even offers cooking lessons.

While reading this blog, I started to think of which “typical” dishes from other countries I’ve already tried and I came up with this list: 

• Berlin: German Currywurst with "Pommes rot-weiß" ... quite heavy, but definitely worth a try!

• Munich: Bavarian veal sausage ... horrible! I only ate the bretzel, I wasn't able to swallow tha sausage.. 

• London: Fish and Chips ... wouldn't like to eat it every day, but every now and then it's fine

• London: Marmite ... Marmite is a vegetarian, spicy spread made of yeast extract. I tried Marmite while staying at a host family near London. My host sister was crazy about Marmite and ate it like 3 times a day. The slogan of Marmite is "Love it or hate it" - and I can cleary say that I don't love it!

• Paris: crisp baguette with brie cheese ... so simple, but still a delicacy unfortunately I was too young to trink a glass of wine ;)

•  Barcelona: I dare to say that I've tried almost everything that the Spanish cousine offers as I go there every year to visit a friend, whose father is a cook/waiter in a really posh restaurant. My favourites are definitely flan (caramel pudding) and empanadas, filled with red pepper and tuna.

• New York: Cheese Burger ... The first thing I ate in the USA was a really biiig cheese burger in a diner near 5th avenue... I guess I was the only one of my family who really liked the food there... ;)

• Rome: Pizza, Pasta, Gelato! ... I guess, everyone knows what I'm talking about..

• Taichung (Taiwan): Sun cakes and pineapple cakes ... I wasn't in Taiwan myself, but I know a Taiwanese girl who gave me original Taiwanese cakes as a present.. quite different to our cakes, a bit drier I would say.. but still yummy!

•  Quebec: maple sirup ... During my holidays in Canada, I also visited a maple plantation where we had a very delicious dinner. I don't remember exactely the dishes, but everything contained maple sirup, even the gravy! After the last course, the waiter poured maple sirup on ice. It thickened and we rolled it up with little sticks and ate it that way.. Definitely one of the best things I've ever tried!

  And now to the "most exotic" thing I've ever tried:

• Somewhere in the middle of Scotland: Haggis. Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's heart, liver and lungs, which are usually simmered in the animal's stomach.
  I actually thought it would be a lot worse, but due to the onions and different herbs, I didn't taste any meat at all. I only tried a spoon-full of it as it was offered for free in our hotel at the breakfast buffett. But speaking honestly, I wouldn't order it in a restaurant or even cook it myself!