Christmas Lessons

Today, Mom, Dad, and Granna came with me to SMG to experience my school and my classes. One of the classes they visited was Frau Riehl's 7th grade class. I broke the students into three groups, and assigned Mom, Dad, and Granna each to a different group to discuss Christmas traditions with the students, thus allowing them to practice talking to native English speakers. The students learned a lot about Christmas in the U.S., and my family members got some insight into Christmas in Germany. Afterwards, we sang Christmas carols and songs, both in English and German. I've attached a couple of video clips of the students singing "Stille Nacht" (in German) and "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" (in English).

Christmas Markets

I love everything about Christmas- the lights, the sounds, the decorations, the church services, the Christmas story.... The weeks leading up to Christmas day are perhaps my favorite time of year. Although I will be missing out on some of my family's Christmas traditions this year, such as visiting the little Christmas village in Foley and driving around Monroeville looking for houses that are exceptionally well-decorated, there are a number of things that I am getting to see and do this year that I have never experienced before.

Going to Christmas markets is one such new experience. Essentially every town of any decent size has one, and I've been to three different ones so far. They are somewhat like the arts-and-crafts festivals that take place in various cities around the United States throughout the year. There are activities for children, live music, and stands selling food, and many different booths set up where different vendors sell their wares. Some of the vendors are selling hand-made goods; others are simply reselling commercially available products. Unlike the arts-and-crafts festivals, though, these markets run essentially concurrently and generally last around a month. Many of the booths are extremely decorated. The entire market is lit up with Christmas lights and stays open after dark. It's a lovely experience and a great place to do Christmas shopping!

Lighted sign for the Wormser Weihnachtsmarkt (The Worms Christmas Market)

Some things just shouldn't be this exciting

Can you imagine being completely ecstatic to learn that your local Wal-Mart would soon begin staying open until 10:00pm?

Believe or not, residents of Rheinland-Pfalz, the German state in which I live, recently experienced such excitement. For years, stores in this state (and many others in German) have been required to close by 8:00pm Monday-Saturday and to remain closed all day on Sunday. That was probably one of the most difficult things for Will and me to adjust to when we moved here. Recently, though, the law was changed to extend the closing time to 10:00pm starting on December 1.

Thanksgiving

A few people have asked me whether I celebrated Thanksgiving this year, and I am happy to say that I did.

Although the holiday is not celebrated by Germans, there are many Americans in Germany who do celebrate it, particulary members of our military. Will and I attend Rhein River Baptist Church, an English-speaking church whose membership consists largely of members of the United States Armed Forces stationed in and around Mannheim. While November 23 was a completely normal day for most Germans, these Americans celebrated it in much the same fashion as we do at home.

After finishing teaching my lessons at SMG, I took the train back to Mannheim to participate in the church's Thanksgiving meal. Another Fulbrighter, Shellie Ponce, joined Will and me in attending. The food was good, and we had a very enjoyable time.

Raucher sterben früher

We've all seen the Surgeon General's warnings on packs of cigarettes in the United States; they say things like, "Warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy." But have you ever stopped to think about what types of warnings are printed on packages of cigarettes in other countries? I certainly never had, but I have found the ones I've seen here in Germany very interesting.

Here, smoking is a lot more common than in the United States; smoking and smokers are everwhere- in schools, train stations, and every other public place imaginable. Not surprisingly, German cigarettes carry an array of scary warnings, including standards ones like "Raucher sterben früher" ("Smokers die earlier"). Some, though, are a bit more creative. Take a look at pictures below to see what I mean.

"Smoking can reduce sperm count and decrease fertility."

"Your doctor or pharmacist can help you give up smoking."

"Smoking can cause a long and painful death."

Chess

I am no great fan of chess. My father spent years trying to teach me to play, insisting, "It's a smart people game, Amanda. You'll love it once you learn the rules." I was never quite convinced. In fact, I joined my mom and brother in completely refusing to learn to play. It just never seemed like a game the would be much fun.

Will, however, loves chess. He and my dad make great chess-playing buddies, but unfortunately, they are currently on opposite sides of the Atlantic from each other. For the past couple of days, Will has been craving a good ole game of chess. Unfortunately, he has no chess set and no chess buddy here in Germany.

As you can guess, that's where I come in. Believe it or not, I just spent the past hour making him a make-shift chess set out of some spare cardboard and 32 euro coins. The layout is simple. Kings are represented by 1 euro coins, queens by 50 cent coins, rooks by 20 cents, knights by 10 cents, bishops by 5 cents, and pawns by 1 cent coins (for a total of 4 euros and 56- that's less than the cost of a cheap chess set). Coins placed on the "tails" side represent black chess pieces, and those placed on the "heads" side represent white pieces.

Now all Will needs is someone to play the game with him, so he made me a cheat sheet on the rules so that I can play. I have a feeling I won't be winning any time soon, but he's cute, so why not?

The chess set

Will, proudly displaying the rules cheat sheet and his new chess set
(Maranda will be happy to see that he's wearing the UNA class of 2010 shirt she sent him for his birthday.)

Advent Calendars

One of my family's Christmas traditions when I was a kid was an advent calendar that told the Christmas story. For those of you who don't know, an advent calendar is something with 24 numbered flaps, one for each day in December before Christmas. You open one flap per day, and each one has something different under it. My family used the same one every year. Each December night, Robert and I knew we could look forward to opening a flap on the advent calendar and hearing mom read us a Christmas bedtime story from the book "A Story a Day until Christmas."

Since advent calendars are not particularly popular in the United States, I never had one of my own. Last year, I was excited to find one at Wal-Mart in Tuscaloosa, although I was rather disappointed to find that it had a piece of bad-tasting chocolate under each flap rather than a line from the Christmas story.

Recently, I was very pleased to learn the advent calendars are enormously popular in Germany. They are everywhere! There are Lego advent calendars, Milka chocolate advent calendars, and ones filled with an assortment of other surprises. I eagerly purchased one produced by the German company Playmobil.

Playmobil's advent calendars are intended to be assembled by parents for their children, so I had to put it together myself. I really don't remember which items are for which day, though, so opening it should still be a lot of fun. Even though November has barely begun, I can hardly wait for December (and day 1 of the calendar) to arrive.

The box...Doesn't this look like fun?

My advent calendar

My Kleiderschrank

A major difference between the average German apartment and the
average American one is that German apartments often have no closets.
I don't mean that the closets are really small; I mean that they
literally aren't there at all. Instead, clothing is usually hung in a
piece of furniture called a "Schrank," which is similar to the
wardrobe in C.S. Lewis' book. My German apartment, as you may has
guessed, has no closets, and, until recently, it also did not had a
Schrank. I simply stacked my clothes neatly on the floor. I'm only
staying here for a year, so buying a big piece of furniture didn't
really make sense. Yesterday, however, I made my first trip to
Mannheim's Walmart and purchased the prefect solution. It's
essentially a piece of blue tarp pulled over some hollow metal poles,
but it does the job, and it makes me happy.

Duckies

As anyone who has spent time in Germany knows, there are lots of fairs, carnivals, and festivals in Germany. Practically every day since I got here on August 30, a nearby town has had one going on. Fortunately, I love fairs, especially when they have duckies. What do I mean by "duckies"? I mean the game where little plastic ducks float around in a pool and you pay to pick up a certain number of them and get points based on what color the underside of the duck is painted. There is absolutely no skill involved. This game probably sounds extremely boring to most of you, but I have played it at every fair I've gone to since I was really young (as my mom and Robbie both know), and it remains my favorite attraction. So, as long as there are duckies in Germany, I can feel at least somewhat at home here.

Yay! The Neustadt Weinlesefest has duckies!

Enten! (Duckies!)

These are the cutest duckies I've ever seen!

MY duckies!

I see duckies! (These duckies were in my own town of Worms!)

Colorful duckies!

No losers! Every duckie wins! (See why I love this game?)

Green duckies!

Es ist falsch getippt!

When I returned to Germany from visiting Ireland earlier this month, I had a tiny bit of trouble re-entering the country. After checking my passport, the border guard asked, "Do you live here?" I told him that I did, and he asked me if I had an Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residence permit). I smiled and assured him that I did, and he re-examined my passport. After examining my permit, he informed me that I needed a new one because mine had expired on August 30. Naturally, I was very confused. I'd looked at the permit at least 100 times, and I knew it was valid until July 2007. Furthermore, August 30 was the day that I had arrived in Germany, and I hadn't received the permit until September.

I somewhat nervously explained this to the guard, and he once again examined the residence permit. This time, he noticed something which greatly amused him. He nudged the other border guard and showed my passport to him, exclaiming "Es ist falsch getippt!" ("It's mistyped!") Apparently, the officials at the Worms Ausländeramt had entered the information on a permit in a non-standard way. I have no idea whether I should expect this to be a problem every time German officials check my passport, but it sure did create a bit of excitement that night.

Pizza "Hat"

Will and I went to a Pizza Hut in Germany recently and were extremely amused to find that the back of the menu had an explanation of the restaurant's name to help clear up a common cause of confusion. In German, the word "hut" is pronounced like "hoot" and means "hat," so most Germans assume that "Pizza Hut" means "pizza hat." The very hatlike Pizza Hut logo does nothing to dispell this belief, so the company decided to print the explanation on the back of menus.

Deutsche Bahn ist immer spät!

I started studying German in Fall 2002, and throughout the six semesters of German instruction I had, one of the main aspects of German life which I was taught to hold in high admiration was the Deutsche Bahn, the German train system. Deutsche Bahn, I was told, is the best mass transit system in Europe and perhaps in the entire world. It is incredibly fast, they said, incredibly clean, and ALWAYS on time. You can count on the Deutsche Bahn to be where it's supposed to be, exactly when it's supposed to be there, they assured me.

With that knowledge well in hand, I arrived in Germany in late August to begin my year as a Fulbrighter here. On my first major train ride, I was nearly late to Fulbright orientation due to a massive train delay. I assumed that this was a onetime occurence, but over the next few weeks, I discovered that delays are quite frequent. Will and I began counting, and so far around 80% of the trains we've ridden have arrived at our destinations more than a couple of minutes late. That is why I say that Deutsche Bahn ist immer spät!

The Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

Here comes a late train!

Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof

Will, hoping his train will arrive sometime soon