It was my last Tuesday in Germany, and the time for my going away party in school had finally come. I was so excited to finally bake some vegan cake/pie for my entire class, that my friend from Japan and I had gone as far as to make a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake) and an apple crumble pie. The morning of our party came, and as the two of us were leaving for school (a bit late) I realized that neither dessert would fit into the basket of my bicycle. I had imagined this idyllic situation with both goods perfectly situated in the basket, but instead, we had to place the apple pie on an angle, and I carried the Torte on my left hand.

For some reason, I thought it would be a great idea to listen to music and carry my friend's bicycle lock in addition to what I was already transporting. As you can imagine, this didn't end well for anyone. About half way to school, I tried to switch the song I was listening to and in doing so, I momentarily had no hands on the handle bars. In this moment, the cake threw off my balance a bit, and I swerved into a brick wall next to me. I flew over the handlebars along with the cake and pie with everything ending up smashed onto someone's lawn.

The pie was completely in pieces, and I will always remember how my friend futilely tried to pick up all of the crumbled pieces and reassemble it in the pan. Thankfully, the carrying case for the cake held it together, even though it got completely smashed to one side.

Not only was it smashed, but we realized that someone had somehow added 2 cups of vinegar instead of one tablespoon to the cake batter, so it didn't even taste as delicious as I had hoped.

Aside from being embarrassing, physically damaging, and teaching me to take the bus to school when transporting such precious cargo, I realized something even more important.

What makes an event such as a going away party so special, is not how tasty the food is, or the great location, or any other aspect we tend to worry about beforehand. Instead, what matters most is spending time with the people you care about, and having a good laugh with each other. One of the things I learned this year is the people you spend time with are far more important than how you spend the time itself.

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Photo is of me on my bike before things went wrong...and of the apple pie afterwards

Currently, I am on my way up to Toronto to meet with my Bavarian host family from a couple years ago. What are your plans for the weekend? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below! :)