Hi everybody!

I'm on vacation so I finally have time to write a good blogpost... but I'm running out of ideas for what to talk about. Suggestions, anyone?

I'll go back through my journal and pick out the highlights:

-We're studying proteins and amino acids now in Chemie and the subject of vegetarianism came up... of course, being the token vegetarian, I was asked all sort of questions about my dietary habits and my parents' dietary habits and my reasons for not eating meat and so on. The teacher asked me if I ate eggs and dairy products and I explained that, at least in America, I try to only eat eggs from 'glückliche Hühner' (happy chickens). I think they thought I only said 'glückliche Hühner' because I didn't know how to say 'organic chickens that are treated fairly and get to see the sun and roam around on the grass as much as they please' in German, but the truth is that I say 'happy chickens' even when I'm talking in English. But the class thought it was cute and süß and I was happy to have contributed.

-I finally braved the German Friseur (hairdresser). I went with Linda and we got our hair cut together and it wasn't too scary... luckily I had taken photos from the last time I got my hair cut in the US so I could show the Friseur how it was supposed to be and alles war in Ordnung. Future exchange students who may have stumbled upon this blog: take photos of your hairstyle!

-My German tutor, Frau Zimmler, also teaches an English course at the local Volkshochschule (essentially Adult Education). Shortly before Christmas she invited me to come to her course and we ate Stolle and drank Glühwein and I talked about Christmas in the US (auf englisch). It was definitely the most English I've spoken in months and it was really, really strange. But it was cool to share my traditions with the class. I talked about How the Grinch Stole Christmas and how Santa Claus comes through the chimney and we leave him milk and cookies and all sorts of silly American things. And then the students told me about their Christmas traditions (auf englisch). The crazy part was that I found the students much easier to understand when they spoke German than when they spoke English with thick accents... losing your mother tongue is a scary process.

-Pati and I went to see Stitchtag (Due Date) in Cottbus. I think it came out a long time ago in the US, but often films take a while to get translated and make their way across the Atlantic, so it was new here. The movie was better than I expected it to be, and I realized afterwards that after the first 15 minutes or so I had completely stopped noticing that the movie was even in German... I was simply understanding the story and not spending time or effort translating. Pretty cool!

-I got a letter in the mail from the foreigners' office in Forst telling me that I had to get a residence permit since I've now been in Germany for longer than three months. So, I spent ten Euros and got biometric passport photos taken after school (no smile, completely stern and serious facial expression, looking in exactly the right direction... Germans love rules) and then brought them home... only to promptly forget where I had put them. We literally spent hours searching everywhere in the house only to find the photos the next day... in the toilet. I had put the photos in my back pants pocket and apparently they took a little plunge. But I still managed to get my residence permit... it's a cool sticker in my passport and now I'm officially a deutsche Staatsbürgerin (für ein Jahr).

-I'm not sure I've written yet about my host sister's cat. His name is Krüger and is completely black except for a small tuft of white on his breast. He's outdoors most of the time, but in winter he's inside a lot more. Now for those who may not know, I am a total animal person. I love dogs and cats and I have two cats at home. I have never been afraid of a cat before... and although Krüger is not exactly friendly, we had been enjoying a relatively peaceful coexistence up until last week. We had a mutual agreement: I let him sleep on my bed during the day occasionally, and in turn he generally leaves me alone. But the other day, I was laying on my bed with my feet at the head of the bed and he was near my pillows, taking a nap... but all of a sudden he randomly attacked and bit my foot. I still have no idea what happened but there was blood and I was not happy. Since then Krüger is no longer allowed in my room.

-The garden guesthouse ('die Laube') is officially finished. My host family has been building a guest house in the garden for the last six months or so... and now it is done, complete with a small kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom. It looks great and I took some photos for SmugMug. We had a housewarming grill party with Glühwein, Bratwurst, cheese, toast, and bananas.

-Although I managed to avoid getting sick for the last three months, I finally succumed to a bit of a cold and a sore throat, just in time for Christmas. Being sick without my mother is kind of terrifying but, after a lot of throat lozenges (that's definitely spelled wrong) and breathing in a hot salt water minty solution (no idea) and putting some cream on my throat, I feel better. The worst is definitely over and hopefully I'll be 100% for Silvester.

-On the last day before Christmas vacation, I gave a presentation to my English class about Christmas in the US, which involved talking about How the Grinch Stole Christmas again and the separation of church and state in the US (ie: how we're not allowed to have Christas parties in school) and showing pictures of my family's Christmas tree and it was generally nice. But again, weird to speak so much English... Afterwards we watched the Christmas Carol and even I had a hard time understanding it due to three months immersed in German, British accents, and bad audio quality. We also had a Christmas party in German class, which involved drinking tea, eating cookies, attempting and failing to sing Christmas songs, and reading funny Christmas stories. It was pleasing and a nice way to bond with my classmates. It was also cool to experience a real Christmas party in school for the first time since elementary school (if not ever, I can't remember).

-Later that night, Simon had a Christmas party at the Schokiburg (his house... the chocolate castle). There were a bunch of kids from school (including Daniela, Pati, Vanni, Ewa, Linda, Anna, and Jenny) along with his band members and some more people that I had met at his other parties. We were cooking once again, this time Indian/Middle Eastern - Falafel, rice, and curry sauce. And chocolate muffins. With Glühwein of course. Unfortunately this time the cooking was much less organized and Pati, Linda, and I ended up doing most of the work, with Simon supervising and everyone else hanging out... and the curry sauce was kind of a sour/spicy fail. But by the time we were done cooking everyone was so hungry that it didn't really matter. And after we ate we played Wichteln, which is kind of like a Chinese Auction at American Christmas parties. Everyone brought a gift with a value of less than 5 euros, and we put them all in the middle and through various roles of the dice traded and switched gifts until everyone had one that wasn't their own. I ended up with Pati's gift - Duschbad (bubble bath?) and a bar of fair trade organic chocolate and a Kinder Überaschung (also chocolate, with a small toy inside). The night was really fun and I found myself comparing it to the first party at Simon's back at the beginning of October... it was amazing how different it felt: how much more I understood, how aquaintances had turned into friends, how much I felt like I belonged.

-One of the differences between American and German Christmas is the Christmas tree and the various traditions associated with it. In my family in America, we always put up the tree at least a few weeks before Christmas, and it stays up until New Years. Almost all of the ornaments are unique and have been collected over the years and many are personal to our family. Here in Germany, we decorated our tree on the 23rd (I think the 23rd or even the 24th is normal here), and it will come down on New Years. The ornaments all go together and are all red or pearl white/silver. There aren't any personalized ornaments. Also, the trees here are more like normal trees from the forest and aren't especially groomed to be perfect Christmas trees. There are some photos on SmugMug. Maria, Thomas, and I decorated it together while listening to Christmas music. Ramona and Jörg supervised.

-The opening of Christmas gifts ('die Bescherung') occurs in Germany on Christmas Eve, along with a big meal. In the morning Pati came over and we exchanged gifts... I just have to brag here for a minute because he's seriously the sweetest. He gave me a Guy Fawkes mask (from the movie V for Vendetta, which we both love and had watched together on our second date), the German version of the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, burned copies of Harry Potter 1 and 2 Book-On-CD, and, best of all, tickets to see Philipp Poisel in Dresden in February!!!!!!! Philipp Poisel is a German acoustic indie singer-songwriter, and my favorite German musician. SO. EXCITED. You can listen to one of his songs here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPim7E63FQo Then we had lunch of wurst (I even had veggie wurst...) and sauerkraut and then later Aunt Beate and Uncle Heinrich and Oma Ruth came over for coffee and kuchen. We exchanged a few gifts and ate Stolle and Christmas cookies and drank tea and coffee. Later, Jezzy and Martin arrived from Berlin, and then Ramona dressed up in a red cloak as the Weihnachstmann (Santa Claus) and read us a Christmas poem to start the Bescherung. Then we all had to sing a Christmas song in order to recieve our gifts (I sang Jingle Bells). We each distributed our gifts until we each had our own pile, and then we opened our piles all at the same time. This was quite different for me, as my family always opens gifts one at a time so we can all watch while they're being opened... and as a result the gift giving process usually lasts several hours. But it was interesting to experience Christmas in a different way, and my host family got me really nice, thoughtful gifts, including an issue of Der Spiegel recapping the news of the last year (so I'll always remember what happened in Germany while I was here), warm socks, a German grammar card game, a Clueso CD, and lots of chocolate. My host family also seemed really happy with their gifts, which included a phramed collage of photos from my time here so far, an Energie Cottbus team calendar for Maria, Energie Cottbus Fan Wine and bier glas for Jörg, and a book with crafting ideas for Ramona. After opening gifts, we had a bigggg meal of rabbit (I had falafel as a meat substitute), dumplings, rotkohl, and brussel sprouts. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching Maria's new Alf DVD.

-Christmas Day is much more relaxed here and doesn't really involve any presents - instead more eating and more family. We had Oma Ruth over for lunch and then Aunt Barbara, Uncle Roger, Aunt Beate, Uncle Heinrich, Maria, Thomas, Cousin Sabina, Cousin Juliana, Cousin Steffan, and Steffan's girlfriend Juliana all came over for dinner and we grilled and hung out in the garden house. Maria, Thomas, Sabina and I went to the Klaki (a local bar) for some schnapps and cola bier to finish off the night. When I got home, I got to skype with almost my whole family back in the US, and even though it was 1 in the morning it was so so so wonderful to see all of them and I opened up my packages from Memére and Grandad and Aunt Niki and Uncle Ted and I went to bed very happy.

-The 26th is also a holiday here in Germany, the second Weihnachtsfeiertag (kind of like Boxing Day in Canada, maybe?). I spent it going to a Gaststätte, the Schweizer Garden, with Maria and Thomas and Thomas's family. I think Gaststättes are kind of like inns with a big restaurant... I haven't really seen anything similar to them in the US, but they're really popular here. We ate (food seems to be the main theme here...) and drank and I got to meet Thomas's nice family and then we went for a walk outside around the Swan Pond (the German love of fresh air hasn't changed despite the fact that the temperatures have been hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit these days). Later that night, I went with Maria and Thomas and Sabina to Hühnerstall (another bar), where we met Pati and some of Maria's friends and drank cocktails and more cola bier.

-On Monday Pati and I went sledding in Schwarze Pumpe. We were both poorly dressed (I don't exactly have a pair of snow pants with me...) and got cold and wet pretty quickly, but it was still really fun. We had a super oldschool wooden sled from when he was a kid, along with some trash bags. Everything was white and felt really old with no other people around us and this ancient sled... except for the huge smoke stacks from the power plant in Pumpe behind us, haha. Later that night we made vegetable pizza and I had too much glühwein. And when I got home, I was delighted to discover that my Christmas package from my parents had FINALLY arrived! I was so happy to discover the Reese's chocolates and M&Ms and Bicyling and AP Magazines and cycling books and scarfs and Christmas cards and Annie's Mac and Cheese and Burts Bees lip balm and Orbit Gum.... The littlest things from home are the best :) And my parents had even put in a present for my host family and one for Pati, too.



So... those are the major happenings that have occured over the last two weeks. I have four more days of vacation, which will involve meeting up with Daniela, Linda, Ewa, and Vanni today in der Stadt, spin class tomorrow, and a Silvester party at Max Göthel's on Friday. Should be fun. :)

Bis später!
Dani