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