Schnitzel

As usual, I’m meeting my son from school. The school is not far from the Brandenburg Gate, and only a few stops from our place but he doesn’t feel comfortable in the Berlin subway yet and needs company. And I have nothing against getting away from the computer in the middle of my workday and taking a ride on the yellow U-bahn… I pick up the heavy backpack, stuffed with glossy textbooks. I ask how things are at school. Not expecting much: things are normally fine, and as a rule, there’s nothing interesting going on at school. “We were shown a movie about pigs today,” the son says. “About how they are bred in Germany, on big farms and on eco farms…” And how was that, I ask. “Well, after the movie, half the girls refused to eat schnitzel in the canteen today.” And you, I ask, did you eat it? “I did,” the son replies with some degree of pride and even defiance. After thinking about it a bit, he adds: “I’ve got soccer practice later today after all.”