Weihnachtsmarkts, Meissen, Dresden, Gluhwein, and St. Nicolas

This past weekend was filled with so much beauty and fun. And I got to spend all of it with my host family. :) It was a weekend where I got to experience something I could never experience in the States. Old beautiful cities, Christmas traditions, and food.




Friday night I went to a Weihnachtsmarkt (which in English is a Christmas Market) with my host family. My host sister Julia, her boyfriend Ammar, and his brother Bilal, all came in for the weekend. I really enjoy hanging out with Julia, Ammar, and Bilal. It's like having the whole family there. All my brothers and sisters. And it's nice to have a sister there. We get along really well. We like the same music, fashion, and tend to think pretty alike. The guys are pretty funny.

There are so many Weihnachtsmarkts in Berlin that I can't even count, but on Friday we went to one of the nicest ones. It cost a Euro to get in (in order to keep all the drunks and bad kids out). It's located in one of the nicest areas in Berlin as well. In between the German and French Domes and in front of the State Opera House.

The Market was filled with lights, trees, and people. There were scarves, jewelry, and wood carved decorations. Everything unique and beautiful. The tents with food were selling everything from Gluhwein (a warm, sweet wine) to chocolates to cakes to bratwarts. We ate freshly made individual pizzas that were no bigger than a sandwich. You could see them making the dough and the bread was so fresh.




Later that night we went home and drank some Gluhwein and just sat in the living room and talked. The room is filled with so many candles, they are the only light we need. We didn't stay up too late though because the next morning we were waking early to make a day trip to Dresden.

The next morning we woke up early, ate another amazing german breakfast together (filled with bread, all different cheeses, jams, meats, eggs, coffee, tea, and milk), and left for Dresden. On the way we took a detour to a little town called Meissen (which is famous for porcelain). We looked at its tiny Christmas market, some shops, found a giant gingerbread house as well as a church that was built in 1215, and grabbed something to eat in one of the towns oldest restaurants. If the town has a church that was built in 1215, I can only imagine how old the restaurant was. The food was delicious though.







After we were done with our little detour we got back on the road to Dresden.

Dresden was, to say the least, absolutely beautiful. We saw the weihnachtsmarkt, the shops, a few palaces, an opera house, and churches. My family couldn't tell me what most of the names of things were but I'll be looking that up once I go through my pictures again. I loved it though. The only problem is it gets dark so quickly at this time of year, the sky is so cloudy, and you are just freezing in your boots that it's hard to really love the entire experience. I will definitely go back later in the year when it's a bit warmer.










To end our day in Dresden though, we went to a little cafe called Cafe Kunst (which means Cafe Art). Everything inside the cafe is for sale. The walls are covered with paintings, the ceiling has all different lights and chandeliers hanging, and there are even different chair and table sets. All for sale. However, we were more interested in some hot cappuccinos and some traditional Christmas cake called Stolle. Stolle is a little bit like fruit cake except it only has raisins in it and it's coated in powdered sugar. It's good but a little heavy. The coffee was very nice, especially since we just came out of the below freezing weather.




And as a final good bye to Dresden we stopped by the oldest Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden (or Germany?). It was beautiful and a little small. Lots of people were around through, buying all sorts of goodies and speaking all sorts of languages. This day in Dresden was very nice and I will for sure come back.




The next day we woke up a bit later. When I came downstairs I was pleasantly surprised to see a little stuffed bear sticking out of my boot. That Sunday was the second Advent and the tradition in Germany is that the night before the second advent St. Nicolas comes and fills the children's boots with toys and goodies as long as they have been good. Of course, I'm always a good girl so I had something wonderful in my boot. A little stuffed bear filled with chocolates. I named her Nicole.

Thanksgiving

If anyone remembers their history classes all throughout elementary school, then they will remember that only the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving.

What is Thanksgiving though? It's different for everyone. For me, its a week off of school, a whole day for me to cook with my mom in the kitchen, stuffing yourself with delicious foods, watching the Macy's day parade, and looking forward to all the leftovers.

But I didn't have that this year. On that Thursday, I knew it was Thanksgiving but it wasn't shown anywhere. It was like living in an alternate universe.

Everyone in the program is in a different city in Germany. There are three of us in Berlin. Hector, T-mac, and myself. Every city has an Area Representative. Mine is named Grit. Some get more involved with their exchange students than others. Grit is very good because she tends to stay pretty involved. We do something with her at least once or twice a month.

A while back she met a man and planned to make a big Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant and teach several people about Thanksgiving. The catch was Hector, T-mac and I had to be the one's to teach about Thanksgiving. We were to "entertain people" before the food came. So, we arranged to talk about a little history and then tell about the day itself now. Then we performed 3 songs. One song was one we wrote ourselves (I played the piano, Hector played the guitar, and T-mac sang). The second song was just a piece I played on the piano and the third was a piece Hector played on the guitar.


Everthing went well and after we performed we got to sit down, relax and have a German version of Thanksgiving. We ate pumpkin soup, turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. We even had pumpkin pie for dessert. But there was still something missing. The food just didn't taste as good as the food I make with my mom on Thanksgiving. The pie didn't really look like pumpkin pie (even though it was still tasty). Maybe is was the fact that I didn't get to cook with my mom, or the lack of leftovers that last for days, or no Macy's day parade or no black friday shopping. But hey, there's always next year!










These pictures are of T-mac with a breadstache, my plate with turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and some kind of potato thing, and pumpkin pie.

Shit Happens

I know it's been a while and I have a very good post coming after this on about my adventures at the beginning of November but first I must tell you what happened last friday.

I went out with most family on the 21st of November to go to a movie and shopping for groceries. There were no good movies out, so we decided to just go shopping. Believe it or not grocery shopping isn't much different here than in the states. The buggies are a bit smaller and the food looks better (there's a lot more fresh meat, fruit, and veggies). We left the house around 4:30, just as it was starting to get dark. It gets dark so early here. By 5pm it already feels like 7 or 8 pm just because it's so dark. It really messes with your head.

Anyhow, when we came home we took the groceries into the kitchen. We put away the food while making a simple dinner at the same time. Salad with bread and cheese and some fresh meat. We got home around 7:15. We ate our dinner and talked about what we were going to do the next day. We were going to go to a concert and go to their Cabin which is about an hour away in Brandenburg. After we ate my host mom (Andrea) and I started clearing the table, my host dad (Tommy) went somewhere and my host brother (Johannes) went to look something up on his computer.

A few minutes later my host mom and I were still cleaning in the kitchen when Johannes come down asking where his computer was. I made joke with him about it because he tends to lose things. But he said he left it on his bed and he said that I should remember because we were looking at something together on it when he last used it. My host mom went upstairs with him to help find it while I finished the kitchen.

A second later Andrea says that her computer (which was sitting on her desk in the office) was gone. That is when I felt the odd panic set in. "What is going on" I thought. It kind of reminded me of Christmas for a split second. When I was little my mom would take the gingerbread men and woman (and children and any other living gingerbread thing) and hide them in my doll house or somewhere similar. The reason was because on Christmas eve while we're sleeping and when Santa was coming they would come to live because of the magic of Christmas. I loved it.

I ran up to my room and opened the door and turned on the light. I had left my laptop on my bed, plugged in. It wasn't there. That is when my heart sank.

Someone had broken into our house while we were gone for 3 hours and took all of our laptops, half of my jewelry, all of Andrea's jewelry, and my host parents 50 kilo (140 pound) safe. The creepy thing is that besides the fact that all of our possessions were gone, there was no trace of anyone being in the house or how they got in. Later we discovered they broke the door handle of the back door and that's how they got in. The police came, dusted for prints and told us there was probably no likely hood of them finding our things. Which I expected.

Now we all have new laptops, new locks, and a little case of paranoia. We leave light on in the house when we leave and my Andrea almost always has here laptop with her. I hid the important jewelry I have left (I got lucky because some of my jewelry was already kind of hidden, not on purpose) and I kind of hide my computer when I leave. But I refuse to live in fear. That's no way to live.

Things will get better. They already are better. The insurance should cover most everything. Even my computer.

Apres Moi

I've been a busy little bumble bee. Managing my internship, learning German, and keeping a good relationship with my host family (as well as my real family) takes a lot of work. However, the first week of November I was taken on a very lovely trip to Paris, France.
i took an ICE to Nurnberg to meet up with Ryan Kelly (the sweet guy that took me to paris).We had to take two different flights to Paris because of the time we bought our tickets and because waiting just a week or so to buy your tickets can change the price by 100 dollars. So, he left first on his flight and I waited four hours in the airport, wandering around the duty free shop, waiting to take my one hour flight over to meet him.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Paris that was in a very good location (near the Eiffel Tower) with his grandmother who was doing a tour with a group of people over 70.
We got to see everything in Paris even though we were only there for 3 whole days (four if you count the day we came in but it was late at night). We took a free city tour with a wonderful tour guide. She was so sweet and filled with information and history about the city. It was a walking tour that lasted four hours but when you live in Europe, you get used to walking and Ryan and I were hardly tired afterwards.

So, we went on another tour with the same woman later that night in Montmartre. That's were Moulin Rouge is. It was cool, hip and the tour was filled with loads of interesting facts about artists that used to live there like Van Gogh. The tour also took us to the Basilica which is an beautiful church at the highest point in Paris. So, once you get there you can see the entire city, including the Eiffel Tower. Since our tour was at night we were able to see all the lights of Paris and the Eiffel Tower all lit up. The city honestly sparkles. At the end of the tour we got a free glass of wine. How could it get any better?



The next day we took a tour at the Palace of Versailles. We saw 16 rooms of the 700 hundred rooms in the Palace. All of which were beautiful for the most part with incredible ceilings. Some rooms were a little tacky and overdone but I guess that's just how they did it back then. The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful and the name says it all. It's filled with windows on one side that show the amazing courtyard.



Later that day we took a trip to Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, and Le Louvre.



In d'Orsay I saw the original Van Gogh self portrait and some original Monet. Notre Dame was absolutely gorgeous inside and out. Part of my kept expecting to see the Hunchback (okay just kidding). And the Louvre was huge, to say the least. In my opinion the Mona Lisa is definitely worth going to see. The colors of the painting have an effect and are beautiful. Its small but not as small as everyone says. That night at the Louvre there was a full moon and the best part of that trip was going up to where the invisible triangles lie and admiring the view. It was a very romantic night.



The last day, the sun was actually shining!! In November the sun hardly shines and the weather wasn't supposed to be good, so this was a pleasant surprise. We had been rushing to see everything in Paris since we got there and on our last day (the day we were leaving) we decided to take it slow and go back to look at two things we had already seen but a little closer and with more time. We went to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph. We didn't get the chance to go up either one (each is supposed to provide a beautiful view of the city) but that's okay because I have decided that before I go back to the states in June I will try to make another trip to Paris. Or Maybe in the next couple of years I will study abroad there. I've always wanted to learn French.

Herzlich Geburtstag zu mir

I turned 19 on Sunday. However, I had to work on Sunday so I celebrated Saturday night with my sister, brother, Cousin, Canadians, and Hector (of course). Hector took us to a great Mexican restaurant where the owner is from Mexico City (where Hector was born) and one of the cooks is from El Paso (where Hector has been living since he came to the states). A few weeks ago he came here and made some great friends. The food was excellent. It was real Mexican food, that's for sure. And I love the German food but sometimes it's nice to get something a little different in there. Also, I had some shots which were surprisingly good. Two shots of tequila and one shot of spiced rum. Oh and it was all for free. :)


After the restaurant we went to Robby's apartment (my cousin). Where we drank Champagne and ate donuts (because no bakeries were open and that's all they could get at 1 in the morning. I saw 11 prostitutes on my way to Robby's place. It was a very interesting night. Not my first time seeing prostitutes here but I always getting a little excited every time I see them. They're rare and it's kind of like seeing a white tiger at a zoo. Once at Robby's Johannes (my brother) drew me a picture of a prostitute as I read some cards, sipped on champagne and ate donuts.


The next morning I ate a beautiful breakfast with my mom, dad, brother, sister, and Canadians. I also got a few more presents, flowers, and tons of chocolate.

My first birthday abroad was pretty fun I would have to say.

Fallen Angels

So, I started my internship on September 24th. Much earlier than even I expected. It's at the English Theatre Berlin (www.etberlin.de). All the plays are in English and the actors (at least for this production) are all from Great Britain. Right now I work back stage with stage manager type tasks. Basically, making sure the props are all set up, checking to make sure the actors have everything they need, and other random things. Everyone is really nice. One guy working back stage is from Ireland, another is from Austria, one girl is from Colorado, and my boss is German (his name is Bernd Hoffmeister). I speak in English with most everyone except the guy from Austria. At the moment I'm only working in the evenings from 6-11 when there is a show. It's hard to say how my hours will be when the next production starts though.
I went to Nurnberg, Munich, and Oktoberfest this past weekend. Hector and I went from Berlin to Nurnberg by bus (a 6 hour ride) friday morning. We met up with some of our friends there and stayed in Nurnberg that night. Our friend Ben P. showed us around Nurnberg a little that night and bought us some interesting cookies that are famous in Nurnberg (or something like that). I thought it was a cute town even though I didn't get to see very much of it.








Saturday morning all of us went to Munich (where Oktoberfest is held). After a crazy 2 hour train ride we arrived. The place was filled with girls wearing dirndls and boys wearing lederhosen. Oktoberfest basically looked like a giant carnival filled with all sorts of rides, stands where you could buy candy, fruit, nuts, pretzels, and more. There are several beer tents (I think 6) and they are huge (of course). We managed to get inside the Paulaner tent and we managed to get a seat. We sat there for a few hours drinking, singing and dancing. It was crazy and fun.




After we did that for a few hours we decided to go see some of Munich. We saw a lovely church, some giant lego tower thing, a cute fountain (Ben's favorite fountain apparently), and saw the ever popular Marienplatz. We came back to Nurnberg that night and everyone sat in our hostel room (the one Kelly and I were staying in) and talked for hours.






On sunday it was time to go home. Over all, Oktoberfest was a pleasant success.

So much cake

It seems like there has been a birthday every week I've been here in Berlin. First my sister Julia turned 23, then my brother Johannes turned 19, this past thursday was my host dad's birthday and friday was my host mom's birthday. wow.
My host parents threw a big party friday night because they turned 50 this year. They rented a room on the lake Muggelsee and invited about 50 friends and family members to celebrate. The room was beach themed with actual sand inside, an open bar, a buffet, and a live band.
The night started off pretty overwhelming for me because I was meeting so many new people and I'm still feeling pretty lost in translation. After a while though the party started to become more fun for me once the band started to play and I started drinking some wine with Julia. The party ended at about 4 am. German's know how to party, that's for sure.
Earlier in the week I started my German language course. I have five Italians (four guys and one girl) and one Brazilian guy in my class. It's pretty funny because the Italians have very thick accents when they speak German, but it's not so bad when they speak English. Plus they keep speaking Italian during class and all I can think is "one language at a time please! I don't speak Italian!". The class is taught mainly in German except when things get really complicated, then the teacher speaks English. It's very small and personal and I like that.
The best news I received all week was that I am going to start my internship in early October instead of January. :) Other than that things are pretty slow. This means I only have two weeks of school left. And that really is exciting.
Below are pictures from friday. I didn't take a lot of pictures during the main part of the party but I got some nice pictures of the band, the sunset, the pre-party, oh and one of four cakes we had that day with coffee.

Learning in Berlin

How long have I been here? Three weeks in Berlin, Seven weeks in Bonn. Almost three months? Half of me feels like it's been forever since I was home and then the other half can't figure out how all this time went by so quickly without me noticing. hmm...
I've been in school for two weeks now and I honestly haven't learned that much. I have learned however that I was wrong in one of my older blogs. So, time for some corrections: Nudity is not popular now-a-days. Only among the older population every now and then will you see it or with children. But nudity is not big in Berlin (not like I expected it to be). I do know there is a nude beach up in north Germany (so, don't be too disappointed). :p
I start German language class again tomorrow, so I'm excited for that. It should last about 10 weeks and by the end I know I'll be golden. Plus, I'm forcing my family to speak to me in German (unless it's really important).
Other than learning a few new phases or words, I don't have too much to report. Things are slowing down for sure, but I'll keep you updated none the less. The funny thing is, now that I have time to blog, I have nothing to blog about. hah oh well.

BTW: The picture above is of Hector, T-mac, and myself. Hector is the Hero, T-mac it the evil villain, and I am the damsel in distress. Even in a museum the three of us clown around. :)

A new Chapter in Berlin

 

I've been in Berlin for 15 days now and I can't express how amazing it is. It's huge and I know it will take all year (hell it'll take 5 years) to explore the entire city. I'm going to school now, but it's only to meet people my age and I will only go there for about 3 months. School is hard because it's all in German but I get by and since grades don't matter, I try not to worry about it. :)

My family here is great. My host parents are doctors. My mom is a general practitioner and my dad is an ENT. My sister Julia is totally sweet and cool (she's 23) and she's studying medicine in Poland. My brother Johannes (Joe) is 19 and he's cool. He seems confused a lot but, that's okay. I think it's just the look on his face.Then there's Amar and Bilal. They're Canadian and both studying medicine in Poland with Julia. Amar and Julia have been dating for quite a while and they're practically part of the family, so I consider them my brothers as well. They're great. 

My family is really amazing. They're almost as amazing as my biological family. They make amazing healthy food, but also have plenty of cake. We drink coffee and play table tennis and take bike rides along the lake near our house. They treat me like an adult but more importantly they treat me like part of the family and I really feel like they love me. I've missed the feeling of having a family so long that it's just an overwhelming feeling. 

Anyway, I've made a few new friends through Joe and at school. But it's too soon to go into great detail about that. I can just say that two girls Irma (she's from Russia) and Marija (sounds like Maria) are very sweet and we've already become really good friends. They're great shopping buddies. ;) And they are both so beautiful, in personality and looks. 

Lastly, Hector, T-mac and I have slowly been exploring this huge city. We've seen so many things and you'll see in the pictures. Like I said it's going to take a while and I'll try to keep you updated on my adventures.

Tiergarten: It's huge and beautiful.

Hector loves this car.
Above is my piano :) and me sitting in front of the Reichstag the site of the Lower House of German Parliament. Below is Hector and me in front of the Siegessaeule (Victory Column in English) and a church that was destroyed during the war and only partly repaired to show the damage that was done as a reminder of how terrible the war was.  



I'm not really sure what Hector and I are doing in the pics above. Below is a picture from inside the top of the Reichstag. And below that is one of the most expensive cars in the world. 1.5 million Euro. 


Above is a memorial for all the victims that died in the Holocaust. And below is the TV tower and the clock from Alexanderplatz.



The Wall (aka the East Side Gallery). There are thousands of paintings along the wall now but these two are my favorite so far.