December: Christmas

I am sorry I have not posted in a while. After being given the evil eye from my dearest aunt patty, I suppose its about time. Fact: my computer is possessed and works when it wants. Fact: That has been my excuse.  So now I am blogging on my phone...and yes that is set in german. So I  shall apolagize for this weird non corrected English at this time.

Ok so Christmas is in only 3 days!! Ahh. Time is so fast. The Christmas tree is not up yet here. That is very normal, we will go and get it today. Then you keep the tree up until middle of January. 

The trees are very different here, instead of being tall and "picture perfect" they are short, and very wide. They have a lot of character. Here is a photo of a tree I saw in Lübeck. This is very typical. Trees here all have those fake candles on them I think it is really cute. 

Interesting shape!!

Christmas here is celebrated on December 24th instead of the 25th. My Hosties  said that they go to church, exchange gifts, sing around the tree, and then eat wurst and potato salad. (It sounds very german!) 

Tommorow I will go into hamburg for the day and do some Christmas gift shopping, and then go to the Christmas  market with some friends. The Christmas market here is a very big deal. People all get together and drink this special drink it is called gluhwine. It is like punch with wine and it is served warm. They also have those almonds covered in sugar, and pretzels and wurst. It is very fun!!

Tuesday we will go Luneburg, it is a special Christmas market about 1 hour and 30 minutes away. For Europe, that is considered very far away! They all are really suprised when I talk about driving to Florida. They think americans are a little crazy! :D

Yesterday, I went to a play in Hamburg. It is "Backbeat: Die Beatles". The play was three hours long! But it was all about how the band started and there time in Hamburg. The play was over when they left hamburg but it was very interesting. I think that everyone was proud that they got their start here.  The play was all in german, and I understood all of it! When you reach the point of understanding, the direct translations can get a little hilarious.

For example, when introducing someone, instead of saying "oh hello this is my wife sue" instead they would say "oh hello, this is my woman sue." I thought this is just hilarious. 

A weekend ago, I had an Exchange Student conference. It was very fun. We went to Lübeck. It so so beautiful there. We want to the famous christmas market, and had a tour around the city. It was so fun! 60 exchange students barging through the streets is just a sight to see. I think we may have freaked out some people. : D

On the tour we went to some very beautiful churches!

Lübeck is famous for these little passage ways and in them are tiny streets to houses on the sides of buildings.

Until next time! 

Kenzie