Vegan Pancakes!

Sunday, 13 November 2005
I finally located all the ingredients necessary for making pancakes and, this morning, I gave it a shot. They actually turned out well, despite not having a pancake flipper, and were quite lecker :-) The only think that was kind of annoying was that the soymilk I bought was vanilla flavored and it had an extreme vanilla taste. This made my pancakes taste a little too much like vanilla. Oh well, next time I’ll use more water and less soymilk.

Yesterday I hung out with Christina (exchange student to Coe, Fall 2004). She picked me up and we went to Neustadt for a little shopping. We then went to the Hamback Castle that is situated up on a hill just outside the city. I was happy that she suggested this because I have been wanting to visit the castle for a while. It is visible from the train between Neustadt and Landau so I have seen it several times. I’ve been curious. It is actually pretty small and not a fancy castle at all. It was still interesting to visit non-the less because there is so much history surrounding it. The whole inside has been modernized and turned into a museum/wedding chapel. I found out that the castle was owned, at one point, by the royalty in Speyer in the 1100s. Around the 1830s there was a protest held at the castle because of political unrest. Not just in France but all over Europe there was political unrest because so many people were being repressed by their governments. This Palatinate region (I think that is what it is called) in the southwest was under the control of France. The people were unhappy with this. They wanted a united Germany with more freedoms. The region eventually came under the control of royalty in Bayern (Bavaria) but the people continued to be repressed. On the 27th of May, 1832 there was a demonstration held at the castle called the “Hambach Festival.” Influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution, about 30,000 people gathered around the castle to petition for freedoms such as free trade and freedom of the press. They also desired a united Germany. Today the demands of this protest have been implemented as far as possible. Today Hamback Castle is remembered as a symbol of the development of democracy in Germany.

I also discovered the reasons for the colors in the German flag. The black stands for the black cloud of repression held over the German people. The red stands for the bloodshed, and the gold stands for the promise of a bright future.

After the castle, Christina and I went to Christina’s house and made Kaiserschmann. Mmmm... so tasty! I also met her brother (who is quite cute, by the way) and then we watched a movie. The day was really nice and Christina was so patient with me as I tried to speak German. She didn’t seem to mind stopping every two sentences to explain words to me. I hope we can get together again soon.