Hallothanksadvent (I)

Last weekend brought a tornado of holidays into my life. We had been planning to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday. Patrick's family was going to drive down and we were going to cook a large bid. As you may have guessed, that was canceled at the last minute. I hope that the turkey we ordered was at least spared. In my subconscious, the absence of Thanksgiving automatically means Christmas, without realizing I was doing it, I went into Christmas mood the day I found out Thanksgiving was called off. I made plans to have dinner at the newly opened Christmas market, bought twinkle lights for our office plant friend and picked up an Advent wreath at the grocery store. The tree was decorated before I realized what I was doing. As we ate our 1/2 meter wursts, there was a bit of an empty feeling inside, partly because it was not cold enough, partly because it was Thanksgiving, and partly because I had burned the roof of my mouth the previous evening and was unable to indulge in a hot drink. We called it a night and decided to stop at the grocery store on the way home. While there, I had a change of heart which started in the dairy section when I heard Christmas music coming from the speaker above. It continued into the produce section where I saw a sign explaining the concept of buying apples by the case and not individually and got all the apples I needed (and more) to make my Thanksgiving apple pie. Finally, we strolled through the meat section where Patrick pointed out a sole Turkey leg sitting in the fridge. We picked up that leg and with it decided to have our own Thanksgiving the following evening, just the 2 of us. It was perfect. (Note: photos to follow, Blogger is having technical difficulties)

Easter Weekend

In the Catholic religion (and other Christian religions), today is Holy Thursday, tomorrow is Good Friday than comes Easter Sunday and, if you are really serious, Easter Monday. In Germany today is the last day before a 4 day Easter weekend. In a land where "Seperation of Church and State" is not an issue because it simply does not exist, and neither does religious diversity for the most part, Easter is a big holiday. At this point, I'm pretty sure it is not for the religion but more of a time to be with family and relax. However, I hear religion is very regional and present in the south to a greater extent so I don't want to generalize. Anyway, I feel like it is just that Germany takes these two days off as I've missed so many one-day American holidays (President's Day, MLK Day, Veteran's Day, etc.) Not like I get paid for them though since I am not teaching. I feel like I can't complain about my teaching wages at the moment as I got an April 1st raise as a result of profits being up in Germany. Anyway, it seems like people prepare for this long weekend at least one week in advance and I am not refering to planning family visits rather planning to do all or none of their work or take to some extra vacation days in conjuction with the Easter holiday. I will be spending my Good Friday holiday cleaning the apt. as my family is too far away and my boyfriend is preparing for a major exam in 10 days and nothing will be open. I will be missing my family and their two Easter hams and their colored eggs (I don't care if the chickens do live in cages!) and the morning Easter egg hunt (can you guys still hide a few pink eggs for me) and Easter Sunday mass and talking to people on the steps afterward and generraly spending time with my family. Holidays away from your family really make you appriciate them more and take them for granted less.