Day 9: June 15

 Today, on June 15th, I spent the morning with Felix and his mother. We woke up early so that we could drive to Stuttgart and attend the Romanian acting class that Felix’s mom teaches. Felix’s mom, Dorina, is Romanian, so this activity gives her, Felix, and the other students an opportunity to speak their native language while engaging with a passion. They asked me to sit in and see what I could understand about the play and the characters without understanding the language, which was an exciting activity for me and the students!

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant that serves Mediterranean food. We ordered a Pide, a Mantı, and a Beyti. We talked about that standards of sharing food in Turkish culture as opposed to German and American culture, which is something Dorina and Felix knew about because Felix’s dad is Turkish. Dorina told me that, in Turkey, food is set in the middle, and it’s expected that everyone grab as much as they want regardless of who the food is in front of. It’s actually considered rude not to ask someone if they want some of what’s on your plate. There are even some meals that are made specifically to be eaten by big groups of people.

After we got home, we relaxed a bit, and when Dorina had to leave the house to run errands, Felix and I went for a walk along the hiking path behind his house. We stopped by the pond by his house, then walked along an area that had a few little statues referencing German fairy tales, such as the Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, and stories I’d never heard before, like “Der Wolf und die Sieben Jungen Geißlein,” “The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats.” It was interesting to learn some new stories and see how valuable fairy tales are to German culture. It was also a lot of fun to pose with the statues!