By the way, seltzer is more popular here than it is in the U.S., so a lot of bottled water has bubbles in it.
The Christmas season just ended, so I’ve been finishing up my Christmas cookies! There are a lot of special cookies in Germany that you can only buy in grocery stores around December. My favorites are gingerbread and a special type of spice cookie called spekulatius. People also like to bake cookies at home and give them to friends and family. My neighbors gave me some delicious orange and coconut cookies this week.
I usually listen to the radio when I’m home. You’d be surprised by how many English and American songs are played on German radio stations. Right now the most popular song is called "Dance Monkey" by an Australian band called Tones and I. Have you heard it?
This week I went to Hellabrunn Zoo with a friend in Munich, which was really fun. Hellabrunn is small enough that you can see almost all the animals in one day. My favorite part was learning all of the German names for the animals. The names are usually pretty funny. For example, the word for sloth is Faultier, which literally means “lazy animal.”
I’ve been trying to read books in German, even though it’s really difficult. Right now I’m reading “Der Name der Rose,” or in English, The Name of the Rose. It was originally written in Italian and then translated into German. So far I’ve been reading it for over a month and I’m almost finished!
