***MY*** Breakfast Post !

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Everybody and their grandmother has written a breakfast post. Here is mine: 'Other countries, other customs' - as the Germans say. People who don't travel or don't know foreigners like to think that what they know is universal and normal. From this follows that what is different is not normal or abnormal. Learn tolerance already at the breakfast table! I'm German and I can tell you that many Germans like to eat quite a lot for breakfast. About 90% of the population drink coffee with milk and sugar. They cover slices of bread with butter and put slices of sausage or cheese on it. They may also eat a boiled egg. Cereals came to Germany relatively late but are now also widespread, especially with children. My breakfast looks different. I drink black tea and eat some slices of crisp bread covered with butter and quark - a kind of cottage cheese - and my self-made, delicious jam. If I'm invited and am offered other things, I decline. This doesn't look too good in some families especially if an egg is boiled for me. But it's not my problem if people don't ask. The whole world knows about the 'typical' English breakfast. It would be nice if everybody who wants to eat it, had enough time and money to do so. But that is surely not the case. If I remember correctly, it starts with orange or grapefruit juice. Then comes toast with marmalade and after this something fried like bacon, sausages, kidneys or fish. When I was in England for the first time at the age of 18 to take part in a language course, I stayed in a private house together with other students. The good woman who ran the house made such a breakfast for her guests. I'm sorry to say and I don't want to insult anybody but when the smell of fried kidneys rose up to my room when I was just waking up, I could have puked. The Italian student must have suffered even more. The reason is that Italians don't have breakfast or at least such a minimalist one that other nationalities wouldn't consider it a meal. Grown-ups have an espresso and live on this until lunch. Children get milk, milk with coffee, coffee with milk - according to their age - and a dry biscuit. The problems we have with exchange students from our twin town in Italy and vice versa! German students in Italy have growling stomachs until lunch because they aren't offered anything to eat in the morning. Italian students make a bad impression in their German host families because they eat none of the good things standing on the table for them and appear spoilt and arrogant. --- The photo doesn't show *my* breakfast but it gets quite near to it.