Random

Well, I've been away from the blog for a couple of days and now I'm going away for the weekend again. I thought I would leave you with a few photos of Braunschweig; mail box, some buildings and a road with a sprinkle of Christmas. Last night I had invited all of my class over for an international Pot Luck dinner via an evite. at first I had 6 guests and then 2 canceled 2 hours before the start and then one was added to total 5 plus Patrick and I. In the end only two came, I'm not sure what happened to the others but I learned it is frustrating when you try to get a group of people together and they don't show up. Oh well we had fun and the neighbors stopped in and I made gluwein for the first time! Enjoy the weekend!

St. Nikolaus

This morning I learned about ST. Nikolaus. I first heard the name last ngiht when Patrick wrote it on a paper and asked me to give him the paper in the morning. This morning he instructed me to look up Nikolaus on Wikipedia. I learned that in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, etc. St. Nikolaus is celebrated the night of Dec. 5th and the morning of Dec. 6th. Children put their boots outside and in the morning they find treats left by St. Nikolous. If the child has been naughty they should find coal in their boots. It is much similar to the American tradition of hanging stockings for Santa to fill (Germans don't do that). Well, my next instruction was to open the door and see if St. Nikolaus came to our apartment. I found my Nikes on our doormat filled with chocolates...a nice way to start the day. The funny thing is I saw three pairs of boots outside of our neighbor's door and thought it was cute that the whole family lined their boots up on the mat, I just assumed they were dirty and that's why they were in the hallway as people do that.

Personality

Patrick is the most un-German German I know. I say that because while he loves being German, he often does not act lick a German. For example Germans are energy consious. Patrick turns on every light in the apartment and does not think twice about going out the door without shutting them. However, Patrick finds it important to close the doors to each room so that we can conserve energy when the heat is on (the heat is almost never on). Students have bus passes in BS and most will take the bus or the Strassebahn throughout the day, not Patrick. Patrick has a car and he drives everywhere. In fact, Patrick will even drive "just down the street" to get a coke from the gas station. Germans are usualy clean cut, Patrick is most proud of his sideburns. Germans dress neatly and wear things smaller than Americans. Patrick loves his XL hoodie. The most un-German charastic about Patrick is his sense of time. Germans are very time conscious, Patrick is ALWAYS at least 5 minutes late. In fact, just today he told me that when he says we want to drive somewhere at 6am, he really means we should be on the road by 10am. I wasen't sure I hear that right so I repeated it back to him and he was not joking. That's 4 whole hours later and if I know Patrick the earliest we will be enroute to our destination is 10:15. This is Patrick but I love him. I would also like to point out that he was sleeping when I took this picture, genuine Patrick style sleeping!

Breman v. Barcelona

For the first time, I accompanied Patrick to the sports bar for soccer. Tonight's game featured Breman (Germany) against Barcelona. The background of the game is that Breman was seeded into a bracket in which they were not expected to succeed. Last week they played Chelsea and won against the odds and this week they were playing Barcelona, the defending champion. All Breman needed to do was tie the game in order to knock out Barcelona. If there was a game to see, I decided this was it. Besides, since I decided not to take my German exam I didn't have to wake up tomorrow so I felt I could enjoy the night w/o worrying about getting to bed. To make a long story short, Breman lost 2:0 both goals scored in the first 18 minutes of the game (sorry Ihab). The first goal was scored on a penalty shot. The defense jumped in anticipation of a shor in the air and the offensive player shot right under their legs - ouch! (See photo above) But the bar was packed and aside from the guy in front of me who had no idea of personal space (something Germans occasionaly have a problem with) I enjoyed being there. Before I end this entry I must tell you about the man who scored the first goal for Barcelona., Ronaldinho (see photos). He is actualy from Brazil and plays on their national team. He is also considered one of the best players in soccer today. However, that being said he is the ugliest soccer player I've seen. His face is busted, mostly becasue of his teeth/mouth region. As if that were not enough he has hair as long as mine and equaly as curly. Tonight he was wearing both a black headband and a red scruncci - who wears scrunccies to play soccer...12 year old girls! I'm still trying to determine if he is so well known because of his soccer skills or his ugly mug!

Do You Know The Marzipan Man?

Lubeck is home to Niederegger, the Godiva of Germany. Niederegger is a maker of marzipan candies and their flagship store in Lubeck is impressive. They have everything you could possibly think of made of marzipan from cakes to logs to red lobsters! They even have a marzipan based liquor, though that is imported from Spain. This year marks the 200th yead of the company and as such they created a marzipan likness of the founder (see above). In their windo display you can see things in history which have occured less than 200 years ago, of course, made of marzipan. Some of the creations included, Neopolean, the Statue of Liberty (green marzipan), Marilyn Monroe as a sex goddess, (glitterized marzipan) a famous soccer player, and the reunification of Germany symbolized by a car. It was entertaining. The store was packed out but I managed to buy some chocolates in spite of the crowd! Additionaly, they were making and selling fresh made donut like pastries in the front of the shop which made the entire place smell delicious. When I went to bed that night I noticed that my hair did not smell like smoke as it most often does when going out in Germany but like the sweets and nuts being made all around me in the martk, it was refreshing.

Weihnachtsmarkt Part II - Lubeck

I wish I had a night vision camera so I could have captured the people at the Lubeck Christmas Market! It was so crowded. On our way to Lubeck we passed through a toll booth, as it had been awhile since Patrick drove to Lubeck, he asked the toll booth operator if we were headed towards the city center (Zentrum). The man confirmed we were going the right way but warned it was packed and there would be no place to park, Patrick asked for his reccomendation and he told us to go home. Patrick was caught off guard by this response and as we drove away he translated for me then we both began to laugh. We drove almost 2 hours to go to the Market, not to turn around and go home so we proceeded toward the center w/o (ohne) hesitation. As we crossed into the city Zentrum there was a digital sign which listed open parking spots in our direction at 4. There were more if we wanted to park significantly further away. As we passed under the brick archway that seperated the center I noticed a silver Mercedes with its lights on and LEAVING a parking spot, it was going to be a good night! We got out of the car and bundled into our coats and scarves as I wished I brought my earwarmer instead of my umbrella and headed down the street without direction. We walked about 5 feet and Patrick asked a woman about our age in which direction we could find the markt. She was not German but gave great directions. The Lubeck markt is one of the more well known and larger markets in Germany. I hear the largest is in Nurenberg, unfortunately that is in the south, about six hours from here so I will most likely not be able to make it there this season. Anyway, we walked about 3 blocks before we stumbled upon the markt, the photo with the ferris wheel was my first impression and this was only a very small section. The section with the Ferriswheel also (auk) included a few other carnival rides, and some booths selling food and drinks. Next to this section was what appeared to be a large church. Patrick informed me that it used to be a hospital and the history in the building said it was build in the early 1200's. I was under the impression thatt his was an indoor Christmas markt until Patrick told me that was only part of the markt. We hesitated at the 2Euro entrance fee as we were unsure of the contents then we noticed the student rate of 50 cents and went in. We got to the door just as they started letting people which was nice as the line was cold and they were only letting new people in after so many people left. When the building was a functioning hospital it consisted of 85 single rooms and a few twin rooms. The original setup remains intact. The rooms are about 8feet by 8 feet with a celing that is about 7 feet high. I stood by the door in one photo to give an idea of how tiny the doors were. Each of these rooms was transformed into a booth for the night and some were open with benched to sit and eat or drink. People were selling all sorts of crafts from all over the world. I would have to say the most interesting was the woman who was selling jewelry made of the tusks of wooly mammoths (I believe from the netherlands). Unfortunately, she was so popular we were unable to actualy enter her room due to overcrowding. We ate heart shaped waffles made fresh by someone's grandma and covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon...yummy. On the outside we further explored the market, the unique and the typical. We stopped and drank a Lumumba, essentialy hot chocolate with Amaretto Liquor and topped with whipped cream (pictured above in our souviner mugs). It is typical in Germany that when you order coffee or some other hot drink it is served in a real mug instead of a paper cup and you pay a deposit, on these mugs you pay the 1.50 deposit and then most people keep them. You can also buy them for the same price and I realize that if we were smart we would have returned the ones we drank from and bought clean ones haha. I thought we had walked the whole thing when Patrick pointed out a whole nother section. This section was by far the most crowded and thus the least enjoyable and by this time we had been wandering the markt for at least about 3 hours so we got out and said Auf Weidersehen to Lubeck! I'm glad I saw this markt as it put the BS markt to shame. Lubeck is also famous for Marzapan...my next blog topic.

Weinachtsmarkt - Part I, Braunschweig

December 1st brings Christmas Markets (Weinachtsmarkt) to cities (Stadte) across Germany. The first one I went too was in Braunschweig (where I live), last Thursday (it began a few days befor December) night. The booths in the photos above are typical, there is prepared food, local specialties, snack foods, gifts unique to the city or region, international snack foods (few), crafts, etc. The BS Christmas market is famous for 1/2 meter Bratwurst, which we did not eat but Patrick promises I will eat next time, we shall see. I am still not convinced by any of the wursts. To be honest, the only one I tried was Curry wurst as it most simarly resembles a hot dog w/o (ohne) a bun. Anyway, another local dish looks like spinach with sausage in it and is made in a giant wok looking device, for the record I will not be trying that one either. They even has wurst made from Horse meat in one of the stands, also something of no interest to me. I did eat those little fried dough things you can see in the photo. They are called Deke, essentialy it is fried dough in bitesized pieces and served topped with powdered sugar in a paper cone with a small wooden fork. It is easier to eat then a gian ball of fried dough but also more greasy! Germans love grease and fat and cigaretted and fire hazards, all things Americans are taught to avoid. Christmas markets also have Gluhwein, a sweet wine heated with cinnamon added and an optional shot of brandy or Amaretto. I've had that at the University (minus the shot as I had to return to class) and it is growing on me. At first the concept of hot wine was not appealing. The second German Christmas drink involving heated wine is called "Fire Bowl" It involves wine and sugar on top which is ignighted. There is a classic movie to go with this which I plan to watch when it is shown at the Student cinema next week. I have yet to try this one. Well I don't want to go into all the Christmas stuff now, I must save some more information for Part II - Lubeck to be published tomorrow as I am off to bed now. Tomorrow is my last German lesson.