Cycling

So, I bought an old Italian roadbike on Ebay. Needless to say I am now a very, very happy camper. It rides like a dream and I can't even explain how much I've missed road cycling.

So, I've added a page to my blog where I'm tracking my miles. You can check out my progress by clicking 'Cycling,' located at the very top right hand side of the page next to 'Home' and above 'Dani in Deutschland.'

Until next time!

German words in the English Language

One of the things that never ceases to amuse and fascinate Germans is the German words used in the English language.

German is FULL of English words, with many of them 'eingedeutscht' - that is, germanized... either spoken with German pronunciation or even spelled the German way. Some are English words used to mean something different in German. English words in the German language include:

• das Handy (cell phone)
• das Event
• der Manager
• der Sticker
• das Handout
• der Energydrink
• der Flyer
• das Toastbrot (toast)
• das CD Booklet
• der Computer
• easy
• Der Pullover (sweatshirt/hoodie)
• Das T-Shirt
• Die Boxer-Shorts
• cool
• Der Trainer (coach)
• Die Livemusik (live music)

This list goes on and on and on. English words are especially used in advertising, where companies often think it's cool to write (often incorrect) English. Many Germans, especially German teachers, bemoan the Anglicization and 'decline' of the German language. Sometimes I will search for the German word to describe something only to discover they don't even have a German word for it - the use the English (or, worse, the French) word instead.

But what a lot of Germans (and maybe Americans, too) don't know is how many German words we actually use in the English language... which is actually a considerable amount. I have had many conversations describing this phenomenon to Germans, and it never fails to delight them. The find 'Gesundheit' especially hilarious and astounding. Here's a list:

• Gesundheit - what we sometimes say when people sneeze. A lot of English speakers think it means the same thing as 'Bless you,' but it actually means 'health.'
• Rucksack - a word for 'backpack' that is mostly said by old people
• Über - a German prefix used to mean 'super'
• Schadenfreude - enjoyment in the someone else's pain
• Zeitgeist - spirit of the past
• Doppelganger - a lookalike of another person, spelled Doppelgänger in German
• Angst - fear
• Blitzkrieg - lightning war (Hitler's strategy for WWII)
• Deli/Delicatessen - spelled Delikatessen in German, a shop selling prepared meats and cheese
• Fest - festival
• Frankfurter - hot dog
• glitz/glitzy - sparkly, glamorous (glitzerig auf deutsch)
• Glockenspiel - "bell play" - an instrument played by striking tuned flat metal plates
• kaput - broken (spelled kaputt in German)
• kitsch/kitschy - something gaudy or pretentious, in poor taste (der Kitsch/kitschig)
• Kindergarten - preschool in Germany, first year of elementary school in the US
• poltergeist - a ghost that makes mysterious noises, from 'poltern' (to make noise)
• schnapps - any strong, distilled alcoholic drink (brandy, whiskey, vodka, etc.)
• Wunderkind - child prodigy

German has had quite an influence on American culture and language, and remains very important and relevant to learn :) Plus, it's fun!

In other news, I have three months left (as of yesterday) and I am constantly struggling between excitement to go home and the disbelief and incredible sadness at the realization that I will actually have to leave Germany. My feelings are all over the place and I'm kind of a blubbering mess sometimes. I can't even imagine how I'm going to feel in July...

Liebe Grüße

So, I've gotten into the habit of writing about once a month, which I'm not super happy about, but this time I have good reasons.

1 - it's hard to write in English

2 - I switched host families

I don't want to write about the host family change in detail on the internet, but I'll just say that I'm really sad that it didn't work out, but I think and hope that everyone will be happier now that I've switched. I've been lucky enough to stay in the same town through moving in with Pati's family, which, while unconventional, has been working out wonderfully so far.

Let me back up a little bit to February, where I last left off.

2/10 (10.2 for Germans): I took a test in politics about economic theory and Adam Smith and John Keynes. I wrote mostly in German but switched into English (my politics teacher is also an English teacher) when I started to run out of time. I ended up with an A- and Herr Hesse gushing about my English, which apparently was 'like a printed paper.' I don't believe him, because I can barely even speak English anymore let alone write well under pressure. But it was nice of him anyway.

2/12: I went to my first Faschings party. This was Jana's 19th birthday, but since it's Fasching season, we all had to dress up as characters from Märchen (fairy tales). I went as a fairy, complete with wings and a wand I made with the help of Ramona and Maria. The party was all kids from the 13th grade, so it was a good opportunity to meet new people.

2/19: I went bowling with a bunch of friends. It was exactly the same as in the US, and the balls even came from America. I still suck at bowling, but I did get one strike!

2/22: Pati's sister Cathleen and her husband Pedi and their baby son Lazar came to visit from Stuttgart. It was Lazar's first birthday party, and we ate cake and played with him. So cute!

2/23: Pati and I went to see Philipp Poisel, my favorite German musician, in concert in Dresden. Before the concert I met up with Nancy Dano, a friend of my mom's who was in Dresden for a few months. It was very strange to talk in English for so long, but she was really happy to talk to someone from back home and it was nice to see her. After chatting for a while Pati and I headed to the concert venue, where of course we stood outside for over an hour (I think it was somewhere in the 20s Fahrenheit? Maybe colder) in order to get a spot in the front row. The first act turned out to be an American acoustic singer/songwriter named Erik Penny who has been living in Berlin for a couple of years. He was quite good and I talked to him after the show and bought his CD, which he signed for me. The second act was a German female singer songwriter, who was also really impressive.

Then it was time for Philipp Poisel! He's also a singer/songwriter, but he had a full band behind him of drums, a standup bass, piano, and an additional guitar. He was really short and adorable and told rambley stories and was just generally sweet. I think he played almost every single song he has, because the show lasted a really long time and he only has two albums. I was very impressed with the whole show and I had a great time, even though it was very late on a school night. Although taking video was forbidden I managed to get a short clip of his performance. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biime9_X6Kg

3/1-3/6: On the first of March I headed to Bad Honnef for my AFS Midstay Camp. I traveled by train from Spremberg to Cottbus, and then from Cottbus to Berlin.... then it got tricky. My train to Köln was delayed and it got confusing and I ended up on a train to Düsseldorf instead of Köln. Which I realized of course after arriving in Düsseldorf... But luckily Düsselorf isn't that far from Köln, and I got a train to Köln easily and even managed to avoid the ticket collector (my ticket wasn't exactly valid for Düsseldorf to Köln...). From there I caught the regional express train to Bad Honnef... and finally, 11 hours later, I arrived at my destination.

As for the camp itself, it was really, really great. It was especially for the Congress-Bundestag kids, so I got to hang out with 24 other Americans and five young German AFS volunteers. We pretty much gave up on German amongst ourselves after the first couple of days... it was just too nice to have a break and to be funny and loud and sarcastic and just to speak English. A lot of us have a hard time expressing our true personalities in German, so as a result people were really loud and talkative and I think I laughed more in the week than I have in the last seven months. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the other exchangers.

We spent the days doing workshops about cultural differences and talking about our experiences at school and with our host families, and just in general how our years are going so far. We also took the opportunity to talk amongst ourselves and compare experiences and share stories, which I found to be incredibly helpful.

We also visited the cities of Bonn and Köln. Bonn was the capital of West Germany, so we checked out the (really ugly) old government buildings and we also went to the Haus der Geschichte, a really large history museum. We had free time in the city and I took the opportunity to hit up a Dönerladen with friends (the food at our youth hostel was Scheiße) and we just laughed and laughed and laughed. In Köln we visited a Mosque (one of the major themes of the camp was German/Turkish relations and Islam in general) and I climbed up to the top of the Kölner Dom, a hugeeeeeeee cathedral. 533 steps, thank you very much. I also took the opportunity to deface a public building and write my name on the wall along with the thousands of others (see SmugMug for photos). That night we went to a typisches deutsches Restaurant and then it was time to party. We had the good luck of being in Köln during the week of Karneval, which meant that the streets and bars were completely full of drunk people in costume. AKA, awesomeness. We had free time in the city and our AFS volunteers were pretty cool, so we got to take part in the celebrations. I'll leave it at that ;)

3/11: Pati and I went to see the German punk band Botox in concert with his friend Hans. It was generally loud and stinky. I don't have much more to say about this one, tut mir Leid.

3/13: I went to the movies with Olga and Yasmin. We saw the movie Kokowääh, which was directed by the famous German actor Till Schweiger. He also played the main character in the film. Americans may know him from Inglorious Bastards. The film was really sweet and we all enjoyed it. I would recommend it (with subtitles of course) to anyone back home.

3/17: I took part in the "Kängeru Mathe Wettbewerb" at my school, along with three other people from my grade and four from the tenth grade. It was pretty much like math team in the States, with a bunch of tough geometry/algebra/trigonometry word problems. I was bummed about the lack of calculus and I was never that great with geometry, and that combined with lengthy German word problems made it pretty difficult. But I was glad to have participated in a school event (which are rarities here...), and I think everyone else found it hard too. We'll see about the results in May.

3/19: Olga, Yasmin and I went to the 'Happy Station' disco in Cottbus in order to see the DJ Laserkraft 3D, who wrote the song 'Nein Mann' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBjDZMJUduo). They turned the train station into a disco for the night. Unfortunately the first two DJs weren't very good, and since it didn't start until 11pm, we were stuck waiting for ONE SONG until almost 4 am. At that point we just wanted to go home... but oh well.

3/20: Last weekend Pati and I drove to the Leipziger Buchmesse, which was a huge book fair in the city of Leipzig, about two hours from Spremberg. There were books from all over the world, and I hung out in the USA area for a little while making small talk with the random Americans working there. Other highlights included running away from the strange Anime/Comic convention people, eating Thai food, and getting accosted by a leftist freelance poet who smelled like weed and who wouldn't go away until we bought his self-printed poem book. We also checked out some reallllllly old books and I bought a picture dictionary for the 300 most important German words. Before headed back to Spremberg we attempted to eat at Leipzig's vegan restaurant, but it was all full... Schade.

3/25: So ever since the beginning of the second semester (read: two months ago, ungefähr), I've had history with a new teacher, Herr Berno. Since the teacher switch I've been enjoying the class a lot more, mostly because Herr Berno actually cares about history and teaches it in an interesting and engaging way. We've also finally gotten past the Roman Empire and we're studying absolutism.

Anyway, for the last month or so we've been dealing with original source documents from the Enlightenment (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, Machiavelli, etc). I've been keeping up pretty well and I was understanding mostly everything, so I was thinking that if I studied I would have a pretty good chance of not failing the test. Wrong. After I spent almost two hours with Pati studying the sources we had talked about in class, for the test we received a brand new source and two corresponding questions... and after five times reading it I still had no idea what was going on. Just when I think my German is getting good Louis XIV steps in to put me back in my place. Aber naja.

3/26: Yesterday I went to Cottbus with Olga and Yasmin to see Simon's band, Duck or Dove, formerly known as Light Forever, play at a Rockoff-type art/music contest. We met up with a bunch of other friends, including Daniela, Ewa, Linda, Max, Erik, and Vanni. I had seen the band before at parties in their practice room, and sometimes I even correct their English lyrics per Simon's request, but I was still so impressed by them. They're really great, and you can check them out on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Duck-or-Dove/163857426991977?ref=ts

After the show we hung out 'in der Stadt' and went shopping at New Yorker and H&M. I went in search of shorts but wasn't having much luck, and ended up with a short sleeved shirt and a light scarf. I really wish I didn't have to worry about space/weight in my suitcase...

General developments/comments:

As I said before, I've moved in with Pati's family and I've been there for a little over a week now. It is working out very well so far and I am happy. If anyone wants to send me mail (that would be awesome) you can ask my mom for my new address. I'm now living in Schwarze Pumpe, which is a district of the city Spremberg. It's notable for its power plant, which is, according to Wikipedia, 'the world's first CO2-free coal power plant... The plant is based on a concept called Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), which means that carbon emissions will be captured and compressed to 1⁄500th their original volume, liquefying the gas. It will then be forced 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) below the soil into porous rock where it is believed that it will remain for thousands of years without exacerbating global warming.' Pretty cool, eh? Pati's parents both work there. I can always find my way home by looking for the 'cloud makers' - the big white smoke stacks letting out hot steam. I am hoping that through this move my last three months in Germany will be the best they could possibly be.

I am happy and healthy socially and emotionally, although I am starting to look forward to going home. I miss the Merrymeeting Wheelers and my parents and my roadbike, and I miss downtown Brunswick and my friends. I miss being in shape. I miss English a little, although I've been reading a great book called Mountains Beyond Mountains and Pati figured out how to get the TV news in English. That helps a bit.

BUT, I may possibly be borrowing a road bike and riding with the old men in the bike club here in Spremberg. I've got a couple of people asking around about extra bikes... hopefully something will come of it. I would be sooooo happy.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be updating more consistently in the next few months.

Until next time & liebe Grüße,

Dani

Let me start off by saying that I am so so so excited today because I got my bicycle (partially) fixed - it will finally shift out of the most difficult gear! Luckily the problem was the handlebar shifter, and not the rear derailer... otherwise it would've cost a lot more. But it is as if I have a brand new bicycle, I am so happy. I can FINALLY go up hill! Of course the teeth on the cassette are all worn down and it needs a new chain and everything is rusted, but IT SHIFTS! And it is glorious and I am happy.


But, anyway. For the non-bike-nerds out there... It's been a month since I wrote and I'm really not sure where January went. I am suddently halfway through my exchange. It feels like spring here and I am loving it.

Since the last time I wrote, I drove with Pati to Berlin and met up with Lissa, Colin, Felix, and Katrina. Lissa and Colin are friends from my high school German class who are also exchange students this year. Katrina is another friend from German class and was visiting her aunt in Germany for a month, and Felix was a German exchange student in my American school last year. I hadn't seen anyone from home in over four months, and it was SO great to talk to all of them. It was also really nice for me to be able to introduce Pati to friends from home. We spoke a strange hybrid of German and English, since Katrina had only been in Germany for three weeks and was having a harder time keeping up. Together we explored Berlin, traveling via U-Bahn and S-Bahn. Highlights included Alexanderplatz, the DDR (East Germany) Museum, the German History Museum, vegan burgers from Vego, and an Irish Pub. It was kind of strange to be sitting with people from back home drinking beer openly at a bar, but fun. We tried to get into the Reichstag but it was closed due to terror alert... Too bad.

Last week I had Winter Ferien, and I traveled to Austria for a ski vacation with Simon and his family! We left reaaaaaaally early in the morning on the first Saturday of vacation, and drove at least ten hours, maybe more, to Katschberghohe, Austria. I should probably remind you that Simon's family is Belgian, and while they all speak German, they speak Flemish with each other at home. While Flemish is something like a blending of German and English, I still can't exactly speak it (although sometimes I could understand it, which was really cool). They were really nice about trying to speak German with each other so that I could understand, but at times it was like I was back to my first week in Germany with little understanding of the conversations around me. They also own a chocolate factory and I definitely ate way too much of the sweets they brought with them (did you know the Belgians invented the Praline? Do we say Praline in English? I can't remember... They're small chocolates with various fillings and shapes.).



But anyway, we met up with some friends of Simon's family and got our ski passes and rentals and were on the mountain the next day. I hadn't been skiing in a couple of years, so I was a little nervous to start but it came back quickly. For six days in a row we skied from 10 am until 4 pm, with a break for lunch. I had never been skiing for even two days in a row, since in Maine we always just drive up to the mountain for one day... so the muscle stress and endurance took a little getting used to. But by the end of the week I had conquered my first ever black diamond ski trail - and I skied it 5 times in total. I pretty much stuck with Simon, but I also got to know his parents and siblings (Marie, 13 and Johannis, 6). His family is wonderful and so nice and I had a great time with them for the week.


Other than that... I have some exciting news regarding school! We just started the second semester and I finally feel like I'm (almost) on an even playing field with everyone else. We've started new topics (color and light in chemistry are proving to be muchhhh better than sugars and proteins), I switched out of biology and into ART ART ART(!!!!!!!), I finally have my real history teacher and not a substitute, I can understand what's going on in politics and I even took the test today with everyone else... things are looking up!

Funny story from my first day in history class: I wanted to see how long I could go without my new history teacher finding out that I was an exchange student, so I didn't specially introduce myself or anything. But, as part of his lecture, he had us write down the five most important things to us in life on a piece of paper. I wasn't sure how I should write 'knowledge' (Kenntnis? Wissen? Bildung?), so I took out my dictionary and tried to figure it out. Herr Berno saw this and asked loudly and sarcastically 'You need to look this up in the dictionary?' I replied 'I'm the exchange student...' and he was really embarassed and everyone laughed. I'm not sure if that was one of those 'You had to be there' stories or not, I hope you guys find it as funny as I did.

Tonight I'm going to Jana's birthday party, and since it's Fasching season we all have to dress up as a character from a Märchen (fairy tale). I don't exactly have much for costume materials, but I have a blue dress and Ramona helped me to make wings and a wand... so I'm going as a fairy. Should be interesting. On March 1st I get to take a train for something like 10 hours from Spremberg to Bad Honnef, where I have my AFS Midstay Camp until the 6th. Unfortunately the timing means I have to miss my school's Fasching celebration, along with the local Fasching Disco... pretty bummed about that, but there's nothing I can do to change it. In other news, I'm getting very excited to see Philipp Poisel in Dresden with Pati in a week and a half!

I figure since I'm five months in I should do some sort of reflection...

Over the last five months I have:

• Moved across the Atlantic Ocean and joined a new family in a foreign land and culture
• Improved my German skills drastically (more on this point later)
• Visited Dresden and Berlin multiple times
• Participated in anti-Nazi demonstrations in Berlin and Spremberg
• Made great friends at school
• Taken math, music, and politics tests in a foreign language
• Fallen in love for the first time
• Skied in the Austrian Alps (and skied my first black diamond trail)
• Visited Königstein
• Gone to Poland
• Gotten drunk for the first time (sorry mom)
• Had a romantic candlelit dinner for two
• Biked along the Spree
• Attended the Rosa Luxemburg Conference
• Celebrated Silvester (although I wish I could remember more of it...)
• Cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my host family
• Had my first German Christmas, visited my first Weihnachtsmärkte, and drank Glühwein
• Learned how to make Kartoffeln mit Quark and German Christmas cookies
• Eaten my first Döner
• Sang in a chorus concert for the first time since the 5th grade

And definitely more stuff I can't think of. Also my grammar is really bad. Speaking of, here's a note on the current state of my English and German:

I've gotten to the point where I can speak German better than most of the kids in my English class can speak English (with the possible exception of Simon). Kids will ask me what English words mean and I can finally give exact translations without much effort and without a dictionary (most of the time). My English grammar and spelling have really deteriorated, and a lot of times I just can't think of English words. It's really strange when I hear English outside of English class and a lot of time I don't even realize that it's English. I write a lot of my journal in German or at least in English with German sentence structure. I don't have trouble understanding class or the news or conversations around me when I pay attention and have context. I dream regularly in German. I have two more weeks of German lessons and I feel like I'm ready to be done with them. I don't write perfectly or always say things the way a real German would, but I'm comfortable in my ability to communicate, even if I'm still afraid of using du/Sie incorrectly. I don't put (German) subtitles on TV movies anymore, because I can understand from the spoken word well enough that I don't need to read it too. I look up words in a dictionary (for everyday conversation) maybe once or twice a week. I don't even use it for school that much anymore, and my notebook of new vocabulary is contains less words than average for the last few weeks.

If anyone has any questions, I could really use some more blog ideas. I am looking forward to Philipp Poisel and spring and summer. I hope my AFS Midstay camp will be fun. I am mostly happy and not homesick (although sometimes I really crave certain things from home, especially roadbiking with my parents and downtown Brunswick in general). I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family from home in five months, but I'm also glad to be here.

Viele Grüße, Dani

As of today, I've been in Germany for four months. This may be a little touchy feely and introspective.

The time as flown by, but at the same time, I feel like I'm so different from who I was when I first came here. When I think about my first weeks here they seem like years ago, like I'm somehow older now. It's a strange feeling, but I barely feel connected to the nerdy, awkward American who stepped off the plane here four months ago. I think back on my first days here, on getting hot chocolate with Simon and Gustavo when English was canceled, on Frau Rennert firing biographical questions at me while cackling and attempting to reassure me with near-shouts of 'keine Angst! keine Angst!', on taking bike rides through the city back when I still needed my map, and it feels like it was all a dream.

The thing that makes packing your life into a 44 pound suitcase and flying across the Atlantic Ocean so amazing is that NO ONE knows you who you are. You start a new life. No one knows if you were in NHS or in band. No one knows if you were valedictorian, or who your prom date was. No one knows about the awkward emo phase you had when you were thirteen, or that you used to like Fall Out Boy more than you'd ever admit. No one remembers your bad haircuts, your past relationships, or your circles of friends. You're not held back by social cliques or past associations. No one knows what a Gay-Straight Alliance is, and no one has ever heard of Dartmouth College. You are no longer defined by everything you've done from Kindergarten until now. In fact, your past accomplishments are vague and generally unimportant. You have a completely fresh start - you ARE who you show to people, and only that.

I spent my last few months in America making speeches, giving newspaper interviews, and meeting the President. I graduated from high school at the top of my class and was accepted to an Ivy League university. I couldn't go anywhere without hearing 'Congratulations!' And while it was all really nice and I appreciate every good thing that happened to me, it's kind of nice to just be anonymous.

Being in Germany is finally giving me a chance to relax a little and be a normal teenager - to stay out late, not worry about grades, and just have fun with my friends. I am finally doing things because I want to do them, not because it will look good on a college application. And honestly, it is so, so refreshing.

At the same time, as much as I love Germany and everyone that I've met here (and really, my host family is great and I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends - Dani, Linda, Ewa, Vanni, Yasmin, Olga, Anna, Chrissy, Theresa, Jana... Pati, Simon, Hans, Göthel, Löning, Rick, Henning - you've all welcomed me from the start and I don't think I could ever truly express my appreciation for each of you. You make me feel like I belong here.), I am also looking forward to my future, and to this summer. I'm excited to show Pati my hometown as I rediscover it myself. I want Summer's End. I want to stuff myself on Chana Masala and Naan at Shere Punjab, and then go see a movie at the Evening Star. I want to hug my parents. I want to bike Ridge Road with my dad, and have dinner at Pedros with the Wheelers. I want to go kayaking in Harpswell with Cassie. I want to go to Gelato and play ultimate frisbee. I'm excited to start college with a new perspective, and I'm excited to be a nerd again and to understand everything that's going on in my classes. I'm excited to join clubs and sports teams and get active and involved, reinvigorated and ready to make a difference.

I also have no idea what I want to do with my life once I graduate. Although I guess I have a couple of more years to figure that out.

But for now, I have six more months left to enjoy my life in Germany... being with people I love, eating Döner, watching Wer Wird Millionär with my host mom, drinking tea, walking with Bruno, riding my bicycle along the Spree, swimming, going to concerts, partying, and having fun. Although I'm still afraid of my chemistry teacher and I don't think I'm ever going to understand biology, that's okay. I now know that don't have to be good at everything. And that's good enough for me.

Dani

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

Christmas in Germany

So it's been a while... but I've really just been so busy with the holiday season that the two weeks since my last blog have flown by. My three month mark was last Saturday and I still can't believe it's almost Christmas. Actually, life around here is actually starting to feel so normal that I haven't really had much to write about! Also, this blog entry is promising to be scatterbrained and unorganized. I apologize. And in case anyone is wondering, it's snowed almost every day for the last three weeks and doesn't show any sign of slowing down. We probably have around a foot to a foot and a half of snow, but since everything is in metric here I really have no idea. But anyway, onto my post:

Christmas in Germany is a BIG deal. In a lot of ways it's similar to the US, but there are also a lot of things that are unique to Germany.

Weihnachtsmarkts:
Weihnachtsmarkts are probably one of the most well known German Christmas traditions. A Weihnachtsmarkt is kind of a combination of an outdoor craft fair and a carneval, with lots and lots of Glühwein and delicious food like fried almonds rolled in sugar, chocolate covered fruit, candies, bread, and lots more. There's also of course lots of wurst and various other meats... but we won't talk about that. Crafters come and sell their goods from little stalls... mostly Christmas decorations, but also pottery and stonework and candles and knitted things. And there are sometimes ferris wheels and merry go rounds and carneval games. By now some of you have probably seen my photos from various Weihnachtsmarkts around Germany... if you haven't, head over to SmugMug and check them out! Over the last few weeks I've been to Weihnachtsmarkts in Dresden, Cottbus, and Spremberg, and I'm headed to some in Berlin this weekend. Weihnachstsmarkts are awesome, but unfortunately the weather has been awful every time I've gone to one... I'm pressing my thumbs for good weather this weekend.


die Schule/Hanukkah/Separation of Church and State:
This is one of the most striking differences between Christmas in America and Christmas in Germany... it's generally assumed here that EVERYONE celebrates Christmas, and we're allowed to have school Christmas parties and some teachers have Advent wreaths in their rooms and we sing Christmas songs in music class. I've asked about Hanukkah and a lot of people have never heard of it... and actually most people I've talked to don't even know any Jewish people (or at most they know one or two). And Kwanzaa definitely doesn't exist. Christmas is also not really associated with Christianity... of course there are Christian people who probably celebrate Christmas in a more religious way than others, but here in the former DDR a lot of families, including my host family, aren't religious at all but wouldn't dream of not celebrating Christmas. Of course there are a ton of nonreligious people who still celebrate Christmas in the US, but it seems that here Christmas is even less associated with religion than in America.

Räuchermännchen:
A cool Christmas decoration here in Germany that I've never seen in the US are Räuchermännchen. A Räuchermännchen is a handcrafted wooden figure, usually a man or woman or santa claus (the Weihnachtsmann) or a snowman. They come in all sorts of vareties, from traditional Christmas figurines to bakers or mechanics or German soccer fans at the world cup. They're hollow inside with holes in their mouths. You put a special candle inside and the incense smoke comes out through the mouth and fills the room with lovely Christmas smells. My host family has a bunch of them and you can always find them for sale at Weihnachtsmarkts... There are photos on SmugMug :)

Weihnachtslieder:
Germans sing a combination of German and American Christmas songs... thanks to Frau Heath I already know a bunch of the words to the German ones :) Check out Oh Du Fröhliche or Kling Glöckchen on youtube for examples.

St. Niklaus Tag:
In Germany and various other European countries the 6th of December is St. Niklaus Tag! It's a lovely holiday that we unfortunately don't have in the US, and it's kind of a precursor to Christmas. The night before the 6th, children clean their shoes and leave them by the door for the Niklausmann. Then, if they've been good, Niklaus brings them chocolate and sweets and leaves them in their shoes! Ramona and I cleaned our shoes together and I woke up to chocolate goodies the next morning :)

Plätzchen/Stollen
My host mom and I have been baking up a storm for the last few weeks... every day a new type of cookie. Cookies only really exist here during the Christmas season, and they're called Plätzchen. They're always some form of sugar cookie, sometimes with nuts or marzipan or ginger, and then we decorate them with sugar or chocolate on top. There's also photos on SmugMug :) And then Stolle is a special kind of Christmas baked good here in Germany. I want to say it's almost like fruitcake, because it's not very sweet and it has raisins and dried fruit in it and mostly only adults like it. A lot of people make it themselves but it takes FOREVER and is really complicated... and then it has to sit for at least a week before it's ready to eat! So we bought ours from the bakery :) There's also a photo on SmugMug.

Weihnachtskarten:
Christmas cards are a tradition here as well as in the US, but my host mom makes them all by hand and each is unique. There's a lot of time and care and craft involved and I really like the fact that they're not all store-bought and mass-manufactured like the ones most people buy in the US. Maria and I also made one each. Actually, in general Germans make a lot more things from scratch and by hand, especially when it comes to food and gifts. It's a lot more personal and I really like it :)

Advent:
In the US I experienced Advent only as a Christian, churchy thing... each of the four Sundays before Christmas they would light one more candle at church, and that was pretty much it. Sometimes we had an advent weath at home. But here Advent is totally not associated with church and people wish you a happy first or second or third or fourth Advent and everyone has Advent candles, even some teachers at school like I've already said. It's kind of cool and definitely a difference I wouldn't have expected.


So, that is my rambling on German Christmas... and there is certainly more information to come because it's only the 14th of December. But as for a general update on things... I've been in Germany for three months now and I honestly have started crying just thinking about the fact that I only have seven months left. I haven't felt homesick since early October. I'm really happy with my language skills. I'm still going to my German tutor and I think she's really helped me to make a lot of progress. I think I'm almost to the point where I can start functioning as a normal student at school. I got the equivalent of an A on my math Klausur (kind of like a Midterm exam) and the equivalent of a B on a test for music class, which included an essay analyzing how the musical composition of an opera related to its plot. I understand 80-90% of what's going on around me when I really focus. I very rarely use a dictionary in everyday conversations. Even when I don't know a word, most of the time I can understand the German explanation of what the word means enough to figure it out. I'm swimming and cycling and I may start yoga on Wednesdays (shout out to Mr. Milligan, I miss you and your awesome math class!). I have really great friends and a boyfriend, Patrick... aka Pati. And thanks to him I experienced my first ever romantic candlelit dinner last weekend. I'm planning to go to a few punk concerts in the coming months and I am excited. Biking to school in the snow is not fun at all, and they don't plow very well here. Luckily Pati drives me to school now a lot of the time. I was invited to a party for Silvester (New Years Eve).

Life is really, really good.