Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!
(Man I am nailing these seasonal greetings!)
As I said in my last post, I left my laptop in Bielefeld over the holiday break, so I have some catching up to do.
I forgot to mention in my last post that before I left Bielefeld for the holidays, I went to the cinema for the first time here! Chase ( my new friend from Alabama), Muge, and I went to see The Hobbit. Surprisingly,there was a late showing in English! Unfortunately it was in this strange 3D that wasn’t like any I’d seen before…so it all looked like a video game and I was almost laughing at it! I was disappointed but maybe if I’d watched it in 2D or another kind of 3D it wouldn’t have been so bad.
Over the last week my flatmates had gradually left, and by Saturday, the 21st (the day I wrote my last post), I was alone in the flat. For the last few days it had just been Kari and I, and we had been unnerved by how quiet our flat was! Fede is a loud person in general and without Momoko’s midnight opera singing, it had been way too quiet! I had spent the day cleaning and instead of going out on our last night, Muge, her flatmate Anatoli, and I watched a couple Christmas movies and drank some glühwein. It’s so Christmas-y! Neither of them had seen Elf before, so I introduced them to it, since it’s one of my favorite Christmas movies.
The next morning, I was packed and ready to head to Hannover for two weeks! I had been super paranoid about having my keys on me at all times since my flatmates had left. Before leaving, I was taking out all the trash in the apartment and walked right out of my apartment with the trash bags in hand. As soon as the door shut, I whirled around and realized I’d left my keys in the apartment! I had nothing with me-no coat, no phone, and not my suitcases! I went downstairs to Muge’s apartment, where she called the Hausmeister for me. There was a fee of 75 euros, which the Hausmeister said would be waived if I waited until the next day (since Sunday is considered a holiday). I had already planned to be in Hannover that evening to have dinner with Felix and his father’s parents, celebate Christmas with them, so I sucked it up and took the fee. I gotta say, that was the most expensive trash I’ve ever taken out!
On Sunday evening, I arrived to Hannover with an hour to spare before dinner. We ate a delicious dinner, something I’ve never had before! It was called Raclette, and I’ve never done it or seen it, so it was new to me. A little grill sits in the middle of the table, and everyone has their own little dish to fill and heat up. You can put anything you want in it- meat, cheese, shrimp, vegetables, noodles…you make your own dishes! It was really fun and I loved it, and we had it two nights in a row. After dinner, we sat in the living room and Felix played a couple Christmas songs on the guitar while the rest of us sang (er…I mumbled “O Tannenbaum” every now and then). I loved that moment-I was full from dinner, completely content to sit in the light of the Christmas tree and listen to the German Christmas songs. We opened presents, and Felix’s grandparents had been so kind as to make me a little present of candies and a gift card. It was so nice of them, I wasn’t expecting it at all, so it made me feel very included. We laughed because the little pretend potted plant they had put in the package was called “schneibell”, which means “snowbell” in English, perfect for the girl from Alaska.
Julia and I
At 9, Felix’s friends came over to meet before the school party that night. The high school students here pay for their prom, so they had rented a club and sold tickets to a party that night. When we got there, though, there were too many people there! Even though we had tickets, bought in advance, they didn’t do us any good and nobody was being let into the club. A large crowd was standing outside the club, waiting. Felix, his friends, and I decided to forget the club plan and just go back to his house to hang out there.
In Germany, Christmas is celebrated on the night of December 24th- presents, family dinners, everything. Around 4, Felix and I went to the nearby church for the Christmas service. There was a play about the birth of Jesus by the children of the church. It was pretty cute, even though we were at the back of the church and I couldn’t really see (or hear). The line I remember really, completely understanding was “There is a star, over the stable!” (but in German). I caught bits and pieces of the rest of the dialogues, but it helped that I knew the story ;) We sang songs throughout the play. It wasn’t a particularly insightful service, but it was still a nice reminder of the meaning of Christmas.
After the play, we went to Felix’s aunt’s house for dinner. This was his mother’s side of the family-his great-grandmother, grandmother and her significant other (boyfriend? Can you call someone that? Haha) , aunt, uncle, and two cousins. It was a much smaller family gathering than I’m used to-my grandma’s house on Christmas Eve was always FULL of cousins, aunts, uncles, and whoever else my grandparents would invite for Christmas. Christmases in the busy house are some of my favorite memories. This gathering was smaller, but cozy and welcoming too. I was introduced to everyone. Then we had a big dinner that lasted for a while (or maybe I was just full and my sense of time was off). After Christmas at Felix’s aunt’s house we went home and exchanged gifts just between the 5 of us. It was 11:30 or so by that time. It was really sweet and it was the perfect end to a wonderful Christmas. I got my very own pair of houseshoes, which are super German (or at least in my opinion!) and really cozy.And Felix got me a sweet Catan card game!
Felix, Julia, and I on Christmas :)
Catan! Auf Deutsch!
My house shoes!
The next day, we slept late, and then the 5 of us went and took a walk in the forest trails by Felix’s neighborhood. There were many families out for a Christmas walk! Probably walking off all the food! By the river, there was a whole little family of swans out for a stroll too. Later, I skyped my family. It was so nice to be able to see them on their Christmas.
I made my first pun/joke in German. On our Christmas walk, Felix had said something, to which I replied, “Weihnacht…get it? Weihnacht..as in…WHY NOT.” I laughed my face off at my own joke. I was just so proud :’)
It was a relaxing holiday, and we didn’t do too much on our downtime between the family visits (some member of the family came nearly every day…Julia called it the “family marathon :D ). I had a lot of fun just being with the family and hearing German constantly. We would watch TV at night, and that really helped too! I understood a lot of Star Wars, actually! It was very encouraging. One night a documentary about Alaska played, and there were pictures of Juneau…it was the first time I had missed it so much!!
One night, Felix and I went out with some of his friends…and let’s just say I learned the hard way why NOT to mix alcoholic drinks.
The day before New Year’s Eve, I went to get my hair done at a salon outside Laatzen, Felix’s town. Felix had been so great as to call different salons to ask if they had what I needed (I get my hair chemically processed so that it’s not as curly) and helped me look specifically for a Paul Mitchell salon. We found one, and he made my appointment. I had been in the shower when he did, so when he told me he’d made the appointment for that day and everything, I had been pretty impressed and surprised ;) It was a little outside of town, but we found it with no problems.
The end result…well…a bad haircut while on exchange was bound to happen. The woman doing my hair applied the chemical directly onto my scalp, which caused it to burn. It was pretty painful, especially when she raked a brush across it. I’ve had a burned scalp before, so I can’t say I was shocked. I WAS shocked, however, when she cut my bangs up past my eyebrows!! I could only stare at my reflection in horror. She “trimmed” my ends (cutting it too short, after all my hard work of growing it out) but that wasn’t that awful either, since maybe that was needed. But my bangs I couldn’t get over. When we got back to Felix’s house, his mother was furious that the woman had charged me 80 euros to burn my scalp. We went out for Italian dinner that night, so the pain was soothed by delicious pasta, but I was still so stuck on my bangs. I’ve always had bangs, and only put them up for sports. I felt a little naked. I’m getting used to it now, but at first, I was near tears.
crooked, too-short bangs, a burned scalp....nicht so spaß
Soothed by Italian food. (That's the sweater I bought Felix for Christmas! :D )
On New Year’s Eve I wasn’t looking to go crazy or anything, and I didn’t. We met at Felix’s best friend’s girlfriend’s house for dinner and some drinks, and then headed to the Rathaus. It was lit up, pumping music and there were many people. We got there and were able to check our coats and for Felix to buy everyone a beer before midnight. As the people around us started to scream the countdown to 2014, we ran outside onto the balcony of the Rathaus, which overlooks a small pond. Fireworks had been going off all day and in the evening (Germans are really crazy about this, this is THEIR HOLIDAY), but at midnight it was absolutely nuts! It was beautiful though, with the fireworks in the sky all around and the reflection in the pond in front of us. We stayed at the Rathaus for another hour or so before leaving. Our ticket into the party at the Rathaus also got us into a party at the Water Tower in a different part of Hannover, so we went there for a little but too. I thought it was really cool, an old building juxtaposed to all this modern stuff, but nobody else we knew was there. We ended the night going to laid-back get together/birthday party of one of Felix’s friends. I was grateful because I recognized some of the kids from the first night I’d been in Hannover and could talk to them, and the birthday girl lived really close to Felix…which was good because he may or may not have been quite inebriated ;)
The Rathaus!
Water tower
The next afternoon, we took a long walk in the same woods again, and the swan family was there that time, too! After dinner on New Year's Day, we did this fun traditional activity where you melt little pieces of lead in spoons over a candle, and then dump it into a little dish of water. The little cast-offs are in strange shapes, and you look at the shadow yours reflects to predict how your year will be! Mine was kind of sailboat-looking (or so Julia said)...which meant many travels :)
On New Year's Day, Felix's mom gave us "Good Luck Bringers" to bring us good luck for the year :)
We visited Hannover’s natural science museum, and found out there was a DinoPark in Hannover! A Museum all about dinosaurs! We have vowed to go there.
One day, Felix and I went to Wolfsburg, a city not far from Hannover. It is famous for being the home of the Volkswagon factory, the car silos, and “Autostadt”. We didn’t go to Autostadt, but we went to the Phaeno, a huge science center! We had to make our way around a lot of children, but it was an interesting place with lots of little science experiments to do! For you Alaskans, just picture a bigger version of Anchorage’s Imaginarium. And at the end, there was a pretty cool laser show! We spent a few hours there, then went to the outlet malls to see if there were any good sales.
This was a remote-control bug thing, if you can make it out, that I was TERRIBLE at making it move, coordinating its legs and such...my younger brother Shane would have been great at it!
Should I be in a Black Eyed Peas music video?
This mirror made us really short!
Volkswagon car silos!
The two week break went way too fast. When I stepped off the tram, I honestly felt like I’d never left. It was good to see my friends again, but I had really had a wonderful time in Hannover. It wasn’t the same as coming home from Berlin. The morning after I returned, we went for a walk in through the forest to that little café we went to at the beginning of the year…only to find it CLOSED. GESCHLOSSEN. NO DELICIOUS CAKE FOR US. So we walked to the city center and settled for Back Factory.
P.S. I was writing this in the Dortmund airport the weekend after I returned from Hannover. Friday, January 10th, to be exact. I was typing this blog as a police officer tapped me on the shoulder and asked for my ID.
...And thus commenced the WORST day I’ve had here thus far, and definitely the worst day I’d had all year (okay that’s supposed to be funny since it was January 10th but it was NOT FUN AT ALL). More on that later. That is why this post is so delayed, on top of leaving my laptop in Bielefeld over the break.
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