Today will be a very busy day. I have one additional training that was overlooked for my English teaching classes. I follow that with my German class. Then, school is out, and it’s time to meet my son who is in 4th grade and help him pack for his trip. His entire class is going on a retreat to Ottobeuren leaving Wednesday and returning on Friday. There, they will hike, look at the stars if they can see any, play games and generally have a good time – and no, parents do not go along for the entire three days they are gone! Can you imagine doing that as a 4th grader? He is very excited, though, to be going. Oh, and he also passed his bike test today and got an official bike license! But back to the busy day … then I need to go teach my Tuesday group, come back home, make supper, and finally help him finish up any packing that has not been completed. Oh, and did I mention laundry? It is going to be a whopper!
Yesterday, I asked in my question for the day “What is Spezi?” On days we get to eat out or if I make a special purchase at the grocery store, the boys and my husband really have come to enjoy a drink called Spezi. It is the shortened form of the word Speziell, which means special. It is actually a combination of cola and orange soda, or sometimes cola and lemonade. The original producer of Spezi is the Brauhaus Riegele in Augsburg, Germany. It makes a variety of products from flavored sodas, waters, teas, and the likes as well as other grown-up drinks. We will miss Spezi when we come back to the US! Because it is so popular, other companies have also made their own variety of Spezi. Pepsi has a version called Schwip Schwap (pronounced shvip shvahp). Coca-cola has one called Mezzo Mix that is Coke and Fanta Orange. Fanta was a favorite of mine in my youth but in grape flavor, and it also has its origins in Germany.
Although I wanted to confirm the information I got on Wikipedia, I was not able to find an official history from Coca-cola directly, so bear in mind that Wikipedia was my main source, since there are some seriously differing opinions about Fanta. Fanta was actually invented in Germany during World War II. At that time, the company couldn’t get the ingredients needed to make Coke since many materials were not allowed to be shipped to Germany during the war. The head of the Germany plant wanted to make sure the plant kept working even though they couldn’t make Coke, so he asked the chemists to come up with an alternative drink. A German chemist named Schetelig rose to the occasion. He used apple fibers left over from pressing apples for cider and whey. Other fruits were also used to make a variety of flavors. Which fruit depended on what was on hand at the time, so flavors often changed. After an employee contest to name the drink, Fanta was proposed. It is a part of the German word for imagination: Fantasie. After World War II, it was introduced in the US and history was made. The actual trademark for the soda was purchased by Coca-Cola in 1960. The original flavor of Fanta Klare Zitrone (clear lemonade) was renamed to Sprite. Can I just reiterate that I am so amazed at how many connections to our everyday life there are with Germany?
My question for the day today is “Where do Bionicles go to die?”
The word for today is drink (both as a verb and as a noun): to drink – trinken (no odd pronunciation); the drink - das Getränk (pronounced gay trehnk).
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
