We had our last meeting at the Christmas market held at Keskustori. Since Melina is leaving Finland soon, we thought the Christmas market would be the perfect place to experience the winter atmosphere of Tampere, Finland.
After strolling through the market, we decided to go inside a restaurant. The menu included dishes like rice porridge, sausage, meat pie, and pancakes. I chose a meat pie, Yang ordered pancakes and a sausage, and Melina went for two sausages.
The meat pie I selected had a spice on top that was unfamiliar to me. At first, I didn’t enjoy it much, but the flavor grew on me as I continued eating. The pancakes Yang ordered were different from what we expected. Since we had made crepes during our 9th meeting, we knew the difference between crepes and pancakes. These pancakes were so thin that they felt more like crepes than traditional pancakes.
While we ate, we taught each other how to say “enjoy your meal” in our native language. In french, it’s “Bon appétit”, and in Korean, it’s “잘 먹겠습니다”. Since we had learned these phrases before, they were easy to remember.
Afterward, we talked about more casual expressions for informal situations. My favorite French expressions are “Oh là là” and “Coucou” because they sound so adorable to me. “Oh là là” is an interjection used in surprising situations, and “Coucou” is an informal way to say hello to someone close.
When it was time to say goodbye, it was incredibly bittersweet because this meeting marked the end of our time together before we each returned to our home countries. Melina explained that in French, the word “adieu” is used for farewells when you’ll never meet again. None of us wanted to use that word, so instead, we said “Coucou”, promising to meet again someday.
Over the course of our 10 meetings, we learned a lot about each other’s cultures. This experience not only helped me gain a deeper understanding of German and French traditions but also sparked a greater interest in both countries. It was truly a meaningful and memorable experience.
Comments