Salzburg Christkindlmarkt

Well, I've finally hit the home stretch. Only two more days in Duelmen, and then on Friday I leave for Bochum to meet up with Emily. The next morning we take off at the crack of dawn to go to Duesseldorf and begin the long journey home! These last two days are going to go by far too slowly...

This past weekend Emily and I flew down to Salzburg, Austria to spend a few days reacquainting ourselves with the southern German-speaking area. It was freeeeezing cold since we were nearing the Alps and were dealing with a higher altitude than normal, but at the same time we got to see some snow for the first time this year. Not a bad trade off all in all.

We flew in on Saturday around noon and stayed until Monday evening, and pretty much explored the city inside and out. We went to all of the Christkindlmaerkte (what they call the Christmas markets in the south, rather than Weihnachtsmaerkte). We had our fair share of Gluehwein and big pretzels, and got a ton of Christmas shopping done at the same time.

Probably could have made it a two day trip, but we ended up filling our extra time at the end of the trip by seeing Disney's new movie "The Frog Prince" in German, which is surprisingly well dubbed. It was definitely nice to have a break from being outside in the cold winter weather.

Upon my return to Duelmen, I immediately had to begin mixing some sugar cookie dough for the following day. Keep in mind I didn't get back to my apartment until one in the morning, so that made for a very tired Mary at school on Tuesday. Cookie baking commenced at my friend Nina's house (she's one of the student teachers at my school). Matthias and Florian (two other student teachers) joined as well, but let's face it - they were primarily there to provide moral support and to serve as taste testers. Long story short - many many cookies, and a very tired Mary. The good news - they were crazy about the cut-out sugar cookies. All of the cookies will be making it to the Ref-tisch (student teacher table) tomorrow, so hopefully they will go over just as well there.

So yes, currently working on packing and trying to concentrate long enough to finish my lesson plans for Friday and to finish up my Wisconsin grad school app which is due on the 20th (!!!). Wish me luck...

I've included some pictures from Salzburg for your viewing pleasure - ich wuensche euch eine schoene Vorweihnachtszeit!!! :)

Center of the market at Residenzplatz

Emily and one of the large Brezen (pretzels) at the market. Think this one had almonds and marzipan...?

Lights in Getreidegasse - famous shopping street

Center of the market at Domplatz

So. many. nutcrackers.

These things are everywhere. They're smoking figures, and you basically put a cone of incense in their hiney and the smoke comes out their mouth.

View of the Festung (fortress)

Tree at Residenzplatz

Bridge across the Salzach River

SNOWWWWW!

View of the Festung from Mirabell gardens

Emily striking a pose next to Mozart...showcasing the Mozartkugeln

Emily and I at the Festung with a view of the city in the background

FIRE!

They had a marionette museum inside the Festung. No explanation needed for this picture.

View of the market at Domplatz from atop the Festung

Me and Emily at the Festung

One of the vendors who was selling tasty liquors

Ice skating with the help of my penguin friend

Proof that I can still ice skate after five years of not having done it.

Emily was better than me...

Never thought I'd see a disco ball behind the Mozart statue...

Pic of the ice rink where we skated - located at Mozartplatz

About a week left to go!

Well, a week from now I'll be heading off to Bochum to stay at Emily's. We decided that we'd then take the train to the airport together the next morning, since our flights are about a half an hour apart in Duesseldorf (and her town is at the halfway point for me...looking forward to not having to leave my apartment at 3am to make the flight).

I'm definitely becoming uber-anxious at this point, but luckily there are some distractions so that I don't go completely insane. For example, my friend Sara came to visit yesterday and we went walking around at the Weihnachtsmarkt in my city. A little Gluehwine, some Schnitzel and good conversation were all in order.

Tomorrow Emily and I are flying out to spend the weekend in Salzburg!!! We're both really looking forward to that, since we've both had previous abroad experiences in the South. In fact, my whole first month abroad during my Junior year was spend in Salzburg, so luckily we won't have to worry about getting lost. That trip will distract us for a good three days, thank God! We're staying there two nights and will fly back on Monday (flying is surprisingly cheaper than taking the train down there) Here's a link to recent coverage of the market there:

http://www.partyreporter.at/Videos/29.11.08-Salzburger-Christkindlmarkt_1179

Next week should fly by relatively quickly as well. Tuesday I give a little presentation to one of my eighth grade classes on Christmas in the US, and then later that day I'm going to bake cookies with some of my student teacher friends. Looks like I'll need to brush up on my baking vocabulary...wonder what "rolling pin" is in German??? Then on Friday I'm doing another lesson plan for one of my tenth grade classes on peaceful protests in the US and the media's influence. Sounds kinda boring, but I'm thinking it should go pretty well. At the very least the lesson plan should keep me busy up until then.

At the moment I'm getting ready to go to dinner at one of the English teachers' houses, but decided to take some time to make a blog entry because it was requested that I entertain some friends while they're hard at work at their job :)

Also getting very excited about the New Year's Eve celebration that will be taking place in Chicago in a few short weeks!!! I'll have the good fortune of being able to see all of the people in the picture below (one of my personal favorites). The only way the plans could get better would be if T could join us, but alas she now has a real job that she has to get back to and will not be able to join us. Rest assured, T - you will be with us in spirit!

But yeah, there's the update so far. I'd write about more, but to be quite honest not too much has been happening. Will post some pictures from Salzburg when I get back on Monday, because they will most definitely be spectacular.

Liebe Gruesse aus Duelmen und bis bald!

Weihnachten in Deutschland

So in case some of you aren't aware of it, Christmas is celebrated a little bit differently in Germany than in the United States. For this blog entry, I thought I'd try to enlighten you all a little bit...

First of all, they know about Santa Claus, or "der Weihnachtsmann" (the Christmas-man) in Germany, but he is far from the main representative of Christmas. It's true, in recent years Santa Claus (much like the one popularized through Coca Cola's advertisements) has caught on in Germany, and you do see him around at the Weihnachtsmaerkte (Christmas markets) and in the Christmas decoration sections at the supermarkets.
However, he is not known as the one to give presents, and is not the one whom is awaited on Christmas eve. For Germans, they await the coming of the "Christkind" or Christ child. Not only is this different, but the 25th is not the biggest day of celebration here - rather, the 24th is when the family celebrates the most (since this is when the Christkind comes).

They also have Sankt Nicholas Tag, which is when Saint Nicholas comes and puts treats in the shoes of good children while they are sleeping. This is not as big of a deal, obviously, but is still a part of the Christmas season!

Anyway, those are just a few tidbits about German Christmas traditions...hope you found them at least mildly interesting! The countdown is just about at two weeks now - getting pretty excited!

So THAT'S why I came here...

All in all, this week has turned out a lot better than I thought it would. And honestly, I think that part of it was because I stopped trying to control many aspects and just decided to go with the flow. Hmm. May have to start doing this more often.

I've actually done a lot of activities with the kids this week, which has definitely made me feel like I'm actually doing something with myself. Definitely beats sitting in the corner and feeling very much like a walking/talking dictionary.

To start off the week I did presentations on American high school with the eighth graders, which was pretty funny. I think my favorite moment was when we had a discussion session at the end. I basically asked them if they liked American high schools, and what they specifically liked about it, what they would like to incorporate into German schools, etc. They immediately said that they loved how we have dances and sports teams, etc etc etc. It was then that I dropped the bomb on them: American high schoolers have homework every night, and (GASP!) that homework is graded. In Germany, teachers are very limited on the amount of homework that they can give, and it's never graded. I think I literally saw about 20 jaws drop instantly in front of me. I had to laugh out loud at that.......we play hard, but we work hard too.

Then came the Thanksgiving presentations/activities on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday I started off with the 10th graders, and it went SO. WELL. I was thrilled. They absolutely ate up the turkey activity (pun intended), where I had them try to put the instructions of how to roast a turkey in order. Epic fail on their part, but they had a blast doing it!

It was on Wednesday night that I made the last minute decision to stop being such a hermit and catch the next train to Bochum, where my friend Emily lives. We went to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) there, and had an absolute blast. The next day we once again made last minute plans and the two of us took the train from Bochum to Essen, where we met our friend Sara. There was another big Weihnachtsmarkt there, and we had a big dinner together since we all had to celebrate Thanksgiving away from home. I got home Thursday night oh-so-tired and broke, but oh-so-happy with life.

The week ended with my Thanksgiving presentation to the 5th graders, which I wasn't sure would go so well. Their vocabulary is pretty limited, so you can't do anything too intricate (read: interesting) with them. Probably the highlight of the week came when I taught them how to make hand-turkeys (you know, the kind that every one of us made at least fifty times in grade school by tracing around our hands). I drew one on the smartboard at the front of the class, and it was absolutely PRICELESS to see all their faces light up as if light bulbs had suddenly gone off in their heads - shouts of "OH, GEIIIIIIIIL!" (oh, cool!) came from everywhere and they scrambled to start drawing their turkeys. Best. Lesson. EVER.

Tomorrow I head off to Gladbeck for our big English TA Thanksgiving potluck...let's pray that the turkey works out. But yes - my mood is "spitze" right now, as they say in German. 21 days left until I come home, many activities planned to fill that time, and the only complaint I have is that I don't have an oven to make Christmas cookies. I guess that will have to wait until I get home!

Liebe Gruesse und bis bald,
Mary

Weihnachtsmaerkte/Christkindlmaerkte Pictures!

So here are some pictures from my spur of the moment decision to visit Bochum and Essen with the girls...enjoy!

At the entrance to the Bochum Weihnachtsmarkt

This brilliant spinny Christmas thingy...is also a bar. A BAR!

There was a flying Santa. He was on a cable, and stopped over the market to tell us the story of Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. FYI - German version has angels instead of elves....

Bochum Weihnachtsmarkt

All I really wanted was sauerkraut...nice lady sold it to me for a euro. FANTASTISCH.

Emily was excited about her crepes. If you haven't realized it yet, there are a lot of food choices at these things.

Emily and her Pfannekuchen (pancakes...but fried.)

I tried a Dampfnudel. Big steamed bread/cake thing with vanilla sauce. Looks weird, tastes great.

Emily was excited about the size of the Essen Weihnachtsmarkt

At one of the Gluehwein stands, there were animatronic (SP?) people stirring the pot.

THE COKE TRUCKS WERE THERE! Sara was excited as I was...

"Nostalgic Toys" AWESOME.

Gluehwein!

Lights over the Weihnachtsmarkt in Essen

I am thankful for...

In the spirit of the season, some things that I am thankful for:

• Family phone calls from across the ocean
• My new Fulbright friends...best support group ever
• Being placed at my school - the staff there, especially the Referendaren ("student teachers") have been soooooo understanding and supportive. After talking to other TA's I realized how lucky I was with how well they treat me at the CBG.
• Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmaerkte) and Gluehwein - for helping me put off homesickness until I come home for Christmas
• Skype's cheap rates - for giving me the ability to call people back stateside every once in a while

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Eenie meenie miney mo....

So it's been nice to put off reality thus far...

Now I guess it's time to bite the bullet and make some decisions.

Options that are currently on the table include (but are not limited to):

• Grad school AKA putting off reality for another two years (at LEAST)
• Looking for a real job back stateside...who knows where.
  
• Applying to teach for another year at my school here.
• Applying for another teaching program in Germany.
• ???

Things I miss most since coming to Germany...

1. My dogs. Let's face it - I'm hopeless without them.
2. Solo Cups...and American nights of beer-pong and flip cup.
   
3. Three words: Cheesy. Gordita. Crunch.
4. Halloween. That was a toughy this year.
   
5. Thanksgiving closely follows Halloween...they don't really do turkey here.
6. American TV. German humor is...well, different.
7. Being able to wear a t-shirt and a hoodie to the grocery store and not feel like a freak.
8. Salsa...they don't do spicy here.
9. American football...why are they so obsessed with soccer?!?
10. (Really this is since leaving college...but...) Random group dinner nights at CP - a little ziti, a lot of wine, and Mario Kart concluding with the standard trip to Finnie's.

Pictures - Barcelona

Emily and I at the beach

My disappointment with the tiny fried fish served with its HEAD attached

The bus trip into Barcelona from the airport!

We conquered the beach.

View from our boat trip!

Another beach shot

Group dinner - paella - ICK.

Too many things with eyes in this dish for Amanda and I.

Sagrada Familia Church

Group shot - Amanda, me, Sara, Emily

Sunset...

Outside of the large open-air market

Emily and Sara were excited about the fried fishies. I was not.