How do I make tea? Let me count the ways…

I am sooo not a morning person. I hate to wake up early, unless and until I have some personal motive or gain behind it. Like, wanting to go to the malls early so that I can lose the crowd and the waiting…or wanting to have a leisurely and hot breakfast in my PG. As you can see, even these personal gain options are limited!

Taking my 7 o clock shuttle to office daily while I was in Bangalore was a Herculean task to me. How did I survive then?

Sitting through meeting that go on for hours and your updates are needed just 10 minutes before it closes…how did I survive that?

TP* during the free hour that we get in a work-day…how do I survive that?

Well…the universal answer to all this is, for me, TEA!!!!

So when I came to Germany and was finding my way around here, the first thing that I did was get a cup of tea at breakfast. There are no words to express my disappointment at the light colored brew that was being passed off served as tea. Being so used to the typical Indian chai** I found it very difficult to make my peace with the herbaly, no-taste tea that most café’s served.

It was slightly better at office. There were at least options and I could try my best with it. On my first day, I had an English Earl Gray tea which was better albeit along the same league as my morning tea. The next day onwards, I started experimenting slowly with each of the flavors available. Just so you know, we don’t get hot milk here and the only milk available is a bottled one or the airplane-sachet-like variety. In the bottled milk, I again found two different types: one with 1.5% fett*** and the other with 4.0% fett***. For the first trial I took the former option and well it was ok I guess. In the next trial I tried the latter one which was pretty good. And the next trial I tried the sachet ones which were by far the worst ever!!!

So each day I tried out a new combination…playing around with the varying the amount of water and milk and also the time until which I removed the tea bag. It has been almost a month here and I can finally say that I have hit-on one correct method in which I do make my tea every day!

Yay! :)


P.S: So…any guesses which tea actually worked out for me in the end? ASSAM tea!!!! :P

*TP - Time Pass

**chai – tea
***fett – fat

iShare...

I have loads to share with you. It’s been quite sometime since I found the time to blog…the past 3 months have been a roller-coast ride with so many things changing in my life.

Firstly, I am in Germany on project work and would be here for the next 3 months at least. The experience has been nothing but awesome. And then I have now completed 2 years as an independent girl. 6 months ago I took up a new job that has shown me what the term “loving your job” truly means. The journey has been a revelation in itself. My flight was really cool with a stopover in Dubai. Being used to the sight of the Chennai or Old HAL Airport of Bangalore, the Dubai airport looked more like a shopping mall.

So I landed here last month and I love it so far. The place is awesome and so is my apt and the work too! Some pics below from my first impression of the beautiful neighborhood near my apt building.

Coming to a new place and seeing a new culture around you is something that you need to experience to know how it truly feels. The first sentence that i ask anyone
(from the supermarket cashier to my cab driver) is: "Hallo...do you speak english?" :)

Being a veggie, I was warned by everyone to carry some food with me. But experimenting with the various, albeit limited options available for veggies here is a task in itself. The brezels, Döner Kebab, Falafel, Pizza, Pasta etc...are mouth watering if we just learn to train our taste buds to give a chance to other cuisines.

Oh yeah! One more thing that i have got a hang of since the past month is the German twang while saying "SO" and "JA" :D

So...Tschüs !!!