我覺得三十幾歲一個人來外國（台灣）唸書，最大的收穫之一是「能夠／不得不放下身段」。我年紀大才來念博士班，修課時一定要跟二十幾歲的學弟妹一起修課、討論、共同完成作業，去參加文化活動、聽演講、參加抗議活動，在大部分場合遇到的朋友都是比我少很多歲的朋友。在那些場合中，我遇到了不少非常優秀、很有sense的年輕朋友，她／他們教我很多很多事情。如果我繼續留在日本唸書或工作，我沒有辦法像這樣向年輕朋友學習，總不能放下身段，還有可能對年輕朋友擺架子。

我不只對「放下身段」，對來自不同文化圈的朋友、還有不同性傾向的朋友，我在日本也不覺得自己對這些朋友採取不開放的態度，但也沒有特別積極地了解她／他們、努力與他們建立比較友善的關係。之前看紀錄片《Ｔ婆工廠》，在那部紀錄片中出現的一位菲律賓女工－記得她是婆－說一句：對生命開放、對未來開放（才能跟現任女友在一起），雖然我們的處境不同，但我很認同她的那一句，像我們隻身來外國的人，在某些方面必須要豁出去、必須要對很多事情採取開放的態度，它有不得不、被逼的層面，因為我們少數者這樣才能在異國生存下去，但這不得不採取的生活態度會讓我們開開眼界、讓我們認識不一樣的人、與他者做朋友。

去年認識的德國朋友也是我在台灣遇到的很優秀、很敏感的年輕朋友之一，我們語言幾乎不通，不過我感覺到她對我的善意，我也好喜歡她。今年二月初我們一起做披薩、瑪芬、萊姆派等，那一次經驗對我來說非常特別，大家一起做菜的整個過程讓我感到很幸福。這種幸福感，是連去五星級飯店高級餐廳用餐也不能替代的。

後來德國朋友把食譜寄給我，我很想再做做看，等我學好，我想邀請我朋友、家人一起嘗試，希望可以跟更多人分享那種很奢侈的時間。

Pizza - 2 Persons
 250g flour
 20g yeast
 1 tea spoon salt
 ½ tea spoon sugar
 160ml warm water
 1 ½ table spoons olive oil
Put flour in bowl, produce a cavity and add yeast, sugar and 4 table spoons of water. Put some flour on top of the mixture and wait 20 minutes.
Add rest of water, salt and 1 table spoon of olive oil, mix and knead the dough until it feels smooth and doesn’t stick to your hands. (If you sticks to your hands, add more flour)
Form a ball, coat it in remaining olive oil and leave for 2 hours.
Knead again, roll it out and put pizza stuff on top. Bake at 200 – 250°C for about 15 minutes until cheese is golden and dough seems crusty.




Cinnamon Buns
 500g flour
 75g soft butter (not salted!)
 75g sugar
 40g yeast
 250ml warm milk
Mix everything together until dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to your hands. (If you sticks to your hands, add more flour)
Leave for 1 – 2 hours.
Prepare filling: Add butter into a pan and melt it. Add sugar and cinnamon and let it mix.
Roll out the dough and spread filling on it. Unroll the dough with filling and cut into 4cm thick pieces.
Bake at 250°C for 8-10 minutes

Key Lime Pie
Dough:
 100g plain sweet cookies
 60g butter
 1 table spoon sugar
Filling:
 2 Limes (or Lemons if not available)
 2 eggs
 60g icing sugar
 150g crème fraiche
 1 table spoon starch
 50g sugar
Crush cookies, mix with butter and sugar and put into form as bottom of cake.
Grate the lime skin and squeeze out the juice.
Divide eggs into egg white and egg yolk. Put egg white into fridge and mix egg yolk with icing sugar, grated lime skin and 5 table spoons of lime juice. Add crème fraiche and starch. Mix well and put on top of cookies cake bottom.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes at 150°C.
Meanwhile, add sugar to egg white and beat until hard.
Put on top of cake after baking time and bake for additional 10-12 minutes until eggwhite gets a little brown.


Banana Chocolate Muffins
 250g flour
 130g sugar
 4 table spoons cacao
 1 table spoon baking powder
 100g chocolate cut into small pieces
 5 table spoons oil
 2 eggs
 2 bananas
Mix everything except bananas and chocolate. Add bananas and stir until the dough is more liquid. In the end ad chocolate. Put into muffin form and bake for 20 minutes at 200°C.