Today, the 24th of December, is Christmas here in Germany! Except actually, today isn't Christmas (and don't you dare get caught wishing people a merry christmas just yet), tonight is Christmas! Also sometimes referred to as "holy evening" instead of Christmas . Oh, and Santa doesn't bring the presents. Baby Jesus does. Yes, this is all just as confusing as it sounds, and I'm still trying to understand it all. But anyways, Merry Christmas! (I think..?)
So as you can see the Christmas experience here has been quite different for me, and although I'm enjoying it, it was quite strange to wake up on "Christmas" to a tree with nothing under it and a normal day ahead of me. Germans don't celebrate Christmas until the night of the 24th, so the rest of the day before that is just like any other day. But nothing planned today means that I have time to FINALLY write a blog, and boy do I have a lot to catch up on. I haven't written since before Thanksgiving, and as all exchange students know, and entire month of your exchange contains a lot. December has gone by with a wonderful blur of German Christmas markets and holiday shopping (I'm officially broke now), but I will start off this blog talking about Thanksgiving (I feel like that was 6 years ago...) Since soooo much has happened since the last time I blogged, I'm going to let pictures mostly speak for everything that's happened. Also, sorry in advance for the many spelling errors I'm sure are to come.
It feels weird writing about Thanksgiving, since it's Christmas, but gotta start somewhere. So I expected to be pretty homesick on Thanksgiving because obviously Germans don't celebrate it (Yes, I had to go to school), but ironically enough I ended up having 2 Thanksgivings. One, my host mom and I planned for my host family, and then the next day I took the train to Lippstadt to meet with Ari and her family to celebrate.
The dinner prepared for my host family. My host mom and I even made pumpkin pie -- which was actually a really funny process because neither of us can bake and she ended up accidentally baking the crust without the pie in it..... no idea how that even happened but luckily everything worked out in the end.
The dinner prepared in Lippstadt. Where's the turkey, you might be wondering?
Ari spent 30 euros to buy an actual, gigantic turkey. God bless her soul.
We were really excited about the turkey.
Sadly, our partner in crime (Lia) couldn't make it to the Thanksgiving dinner, but I ended up meeting up with her on another weekend. We froze our butts off at the top of a mountain, went to a Christmas market, and ate way too much pizza. It was really nice that she was able to come visit me in my town because I'm so far away from all of the other exchangers and it makes it hard for me to meet up with anyone.
That weekend, we also went on a "town tour" in which we rode our bikes with Elias around Beverungen. Elias, up to his usual antics, flipped over the handle bars of his bike and landed flat on his face. And yes, I have a picture of it.
"Seriously, you're taking a picture of me?" -Elias
But all is good, I know Elias doesn't completely hate me for taking a picture of him after he just face planted because he let me cut his hair. Twice now actually, and I also cut my older host brother's hair last night. (I've never done this before in my life. Didn't really expect to come to Germany and learn how to cut men's hair, but then again, I never expected to do a lot of things I've done here. Like dressing up Elias as a girl on my first day here, for example).
Not bad.
I think I've been to well over 10 Christmas markets in the month of December. Honestly I wish Christmas markets were a thing in the U.S. There's just something about Christmas markets that really get you into the Christmas spirit, which almost makes up for the fact that it's been so warm this entire month. Here are photos from all of the markets I've been to.
Bumped into the "Christmas man" (not to be mistaken with Santa) at one of the markets. As you can see, the German version of Santa is portrayed quite differently. He always has the staff and the pointy hat, and he doesn't have the big belly. Also, like I said earlier, he doesn't bring the presents, that's baby jesus's job. I really can't get over the fact that baby Jesus brings the presents, this is just endlessly funny to me. I just can't seem to picture a baby with a diaper hulling around a giant sack full of toys to bring to all of the houses.... and like how does he even get from house to house if he doesn't have a sleigh and reindeer? No idea.
Laura and I went to a particularly interesting Christmas market where, when it got dark, there was a parade of people that walked to the train station to "pick up" the Christmas man. A band lead the way, and all the children followed (we were the only people above the age of 8 that weren't adults with their children). Then, once we got the Christmas man, everyone walked back to the market.
But by far the best Christmas market I went to was in Münster. Iris and I drove to Münster so that I could see the city, and we stayed in the apartment of one of my older host brothers, who studies there. The market was amazing.
The next day, we explored the city and did lots of shopping, and of course went through the Christmas market a second time because if you only go once you'll probably somehow miss more than half of it because it's so big. I can definitely say that Münster is one of my top three favorite towns in Germany, next to Berlin and Rothenburg of course. (Side note: I bought another scarf)
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Before we went into the town on the first night, Iris and Janosh told me that Münster is pretty much the city of bicycles because most people that live there are in college so not all of them have cars. I was like alright, so there's a lot of bicycles. No. There are MILLIONS OF BICYCLES!!!!!!!!! I wish I had a better picture of just this area alone, because even though that looks like a lot, the next day I walked by this same "row" of bicycles and took a video as I walked past, and it's over 2 minutes long. It was like this all over the city.
About 4/5 of the way through, I took a picture.
So anyways, I think that Germans are more hype about Christmas than anyone else in the world. I actually think Germans get more excited about the month and a half before Christmas than they do for actual Christmas day. They even have what I like to call a "mini-christmas" on December 6th, which isn't really a mini Christmas at all but is a Saint's day. On the morning of the 6th, all the children wake up to one of their shoes outside of the door to their room filled with candy. I think they're just looking for a way to celebrate Christmas earlier, hence the nickname mini christmas. Fine by me.
These chocolate santas are really popular at this time of year. I think I've eaten like 20. Alright probably 10, but seriously I'm starting to become a fat exchange student. I thought I could avoid it but December proved me horribly wrong.
Even my school got into the Christmas spirit, which really surprised me because school in Germany is notorious for being nothing but school (Like, no pep-rallies/sports/clubs). But really, should this have surprised me? Probably not, it's Germany, and all must make exceptions for Christmas. These were passed out for December 6th, if someone bought one for you. Thanks Laura :) (ft. Lilly)
Christmas tree in my school.
Decorations
Speaking of my school, I took this picture of a beer truck outside of the cafeteria last week. (??????????????????????????????????????????)
Continuing with the topic of weird things that Germans do that I don't and never will understand, here's Santa with a beer.
Another weird Santa advertisement.
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An apple core that was somehow wedged into the branches of a really high tree. Saw this one outside the window in English class.
Thought I'd let you guys know that bubbly water has struck again :///// Not knowing that I was opening a bottle of bubbly water, I opened it too fast and it exploded all over me... Bubbly water: 3 Lauren: 0
Lilly in a bag of wood. (Not a German thing, just a cat thing)
Now here's a collection of pictures of some of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets I've seen to and from the way to school....
Advent calendars that Laura and I made for eachother :)
She really out-did me on this one.
A white elephant gift exchange (definitely NOT called this in German) with Laura, Conny, Celine, Lea, Mimi and Vera
And sometime between all I've done in December, all of the exchange students got together for a ROTEX weekend, in which we went to an ice hockey game, went to another Christmas market, ice skated, and consumed a lot of pizza.
I think that's 12 boxes of pizza...... I guess I'm not the only one becoming a fat exchange student.
Last weekend I cooked an "American breakfast" for my host family and some guests!! Didn't even realize how much I missed bacon until that morning. Now I really miss bacon.
And now, finally, here we are back again on Christmas day. I am currently writing this blog after all of the Christmas festivities have concluded, and I have to say it was actually nice to have Christmas in the evening. I still think I like having Christmas in the morning better (probably because I'm impatient), but it had a nice "atmosphere" to it. All in all, although I'm of course experiencing some home-sickness, I'm really lucky to have spent Christmas away from home with the family I'm living with now. They did everything to make me feel comfortable, and with them I really feel like I'm a part of the family.
To try and give back to my family, I made this for them for Christmas. It says, "It's not a year in your life, it's a life in a year". I painted the american flag, the columbian flag, and the new zealand flag and drew lines connecting it to Germany, because two of their kids also have gone on exchange. (Yes, I know that the American flag isn't painted on Hawaii and Alaska. And I also had to create a few new islands because I spilled blue paint on the wood..... oops....)
I also hand made stockings for each of the members of my family, because in Germany they typically don't have stockings. (the symbols on them speak to each of their interests, except the reindeer, because my host grandfathers name is Rudolph, ha ha)
Elias and his stocking.
She liked it!
Although I know that this blog has been filled with a lot of Christmas joy, something not joyful at all happened last week. My grandmother passed away, and it's been really hard. I went on this exchange saying "goodbye" to the ones I love, but I never imagined that I could be saying goodbye forever. It's especially hard not being with my family at this time, as we experience our loss so close to Christmas. Although my host family has been extremely supportive, it's been hard to be in a house of people that aren't grieving like I am. So please, remember to be so grateful for your loved ones this holiday season, and always. You never know when the last time you see someone might be. And please, say a prayer for my family back home, nothing breaks my heart more that not being able to be with them in this time.
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