The next day, while Ania was already in the bus, we met at Anthis and Rocios Flat, I mean they have a living room, so its optimal to meet. We decided to try something like food evening again, because our newly established tradition became, due to the absence of several people and the lack of motivation, more a wish than something which actually happens. Anyway, on that day, Theo and I decided to cook something typical German, especially for the east.

If you like history here we got something for you. As everybody knows Germany is responsible for the world wars. After losing both of them, the allied forces parted the country in several zones, resulting later on in the Partition of Germany into the capitalistic west and the communistic east, separated by a wall ( though only Berlin had literally a real wall standing in the middle of the city, the rest of the border was more like a huge fence with heavy-armed guards and mines hidden in the ground). In those years East Germany was influenced by the east European culture, may it be the way of thinking or the food, leading to a mish mash of the Slavic and German cuisine. One of those dishes I’d say is eggs in mustard sauce. I know it might sound weird but done right this deliciousness can be a real pleasure for your tongue. Of course, we wanted to show the other ones what we eat and let them experience that.  Therefore that it has been our first time to cook that I have to say, that it did not taste that bad, though the consistency of the sauce was more like pudding, as we weren’t patient enough to wait until the sauce thickened thus we put in way to much flour. The result looked like a weird abomination and every grandma probably would’ve killed us for dishonoring the imagine of the dish BUT as we went on and tried it, even though the other ones were quite suspicious and hesitated, it tasted quite well. So, what do we learn? It is the inside which matters, not the surface.

Filled with eggs, potatoes and mustard sauce we decided to go out have a little party and two of us had to prepare for their On-Arrival Training. This time it was Pia and me. Before we started this adventure, we picked up Emelyn and Maria from the bus stop. The day before I bought a certain brand of yoghurt which gives you one of those cheap tattoos for free, which at least I always connect with chewing gum and a long session in the bathtub, trying to get rid of it, before Sunday morning, so that your grandma is not freaking out about the thing you have on your arm while being in church. But now that I’m older and not at home, I thought it would be the right moment to start a rebellion, putting on a cheap, angry birds themed tattoo, showing one of those green pigs, joyfully cheering. Directly onto my shoulder, so I can lift up my sleeves and present it to everybody. New country, new me, I guess.

As I showed it to Maria, confidently inventing a story of me being drunk and getting that tattoo because I randomly walked into a studio and decided to get that one, her eyes went big and her mouth opened wide, releasing a phrase we’ll hear a lot for the next 9 months: “SHOCK MAXIMO”. I couldn’t believe that she was actually taking everything I said for real, neither did Pia, passionately explaining to Maria that it is a freaking joke and that the green pig comes from a package of yoghurt.

It is one of the first things I learned here in Poland, when joking with the other volunteers, especially Spanish ones. The German humor seems to be way more sarcastic and ironic, thus every time I’m doing a joke, Theo is smiling and at least one of the Spanish people is like: “Really?!”. Though by the time the people got better, detecting if I’m being ironic or serious.

When the sun rose on the next morning, I grabbed my suitcase, said goodbye to Emelyn and left the flat. On-Arrival training was going to happen, and its dawn was breaking over me and Pia. Off to Warsaw.

Text by Sebastian, a volunteer from Germany, participant of the project “reACTogether” but also the support of the project “Mobility for Solidarity”.

The project “reACTogether” is organised within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps and financed by European Commission.