Valentinstag

It's refreshing to be in a country where Valentine's Day isn't such a big deal. I think the only commercial I've seen about the holiday was an advertisement for the movie Valentine's Day, which will be showing on German TV on Sunday.  Most of my fifth grade students seemed blissfully oblivious. When a student's mom (who is a fabulous baker, and, by the way, is also from Texas) brought in delicious pink cupcakes with red sprinkles this morning, some of my students asked, "Whose birthday is it?"

A few of my students knew, of course, and I did get some Valentine's Day cards. They were the best kind, too: the homemade kind. :)

some of my Valentine's Day treats...and snow, too!

Merry Christmas! Fröliche Weihnachten!

I have been in Texas for a week now, and it's been a whirlwind of friends, family, and Mexican food. 

My dog Allie on a trip to the farmhouse over the holidays

I drove for the first time since July. I went shopping (on a Sunday!), and this time, converted from dollars to Euro...and decided I could buy a little more.  I've made Christmas cookies and sweet potatoes with real brown sugar, too. Not everything about this Christmas is American, though;  I brought a little taste of Germany home with me for Christmas: an Adventskalendar, chocolate, Lebkuchen, Spekulatius (cookies), honey, and marzipan. I didn't bring home any Glühwein, but I did manage to bring some Glühwein gummi candies. 

The day after I arrived home, Mom and I went to church at St. Martin's in Austin; it's becoming a new Christmas tradition for us.  Each December St. Martin's has a church service entirely in German.  It's my kind of church service:  heavy on the singing, light on the sermonizing. :-) 

I was excited when I realized I was able to follow the sermon (all in German!) much more than last year. Hopefully next December I'll understand even more...I guess I already have my New Year's Resolution for 2012.  Fröhliche Weihnachten und alles Gute zum neuen Jahr!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I have so much more Christmas spirit this year!  Part of it could be because I have been away for a while, and I am excited about going home for the holidays.  It could also be because Wiehnachtszeit in Germany just feels like Christmas. No talk of Black Friday here; it just feels festive.  I can't seem to get enough of the Christmas markets!  Lots of things are for sale, of course--Christmas ornaments and decorations, hats and gloves, candles, and jewelry--but mostly it seems (to me, at least) to be about hanging out, eating and drinking.

This booth was typical of the Hamburg Christmas market:  Lebkuchen, candied almonds, and candied apples. The best part? Fruit skewers covered in chocolate. (Or was it the Poffertjes? or the Belgian waffle on a stick? I don't know. The Bratwurst was pretty good, too.) 

Christmas market by the Rathaus in Hamburg

What says Christmastime more than a Glühwein stand with a manger scene on top??? :)








Salvation Army organ grinder at the Lübeck Christmas market...so much more pleasant than the bells!

Lots of colorful lights in Frankfurt

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...that's not something I am used to getting back home! Now, if I could just get a little snow before I leave...

11/11/11

In Germany and Austria, November 11 is St. Martin's Day (Martinstag). St. Martin was a soldier in the fourth century who, according to legend, tore his cloak in half and gave it to a beggar. On St. Martin's Day children parade through the streets with paper lanterns, singing songs about St. Martin.   



St. Martin's Day Parade in Mondsee, Austria



In my classroom, though, it was Pepero Day!  What's Pepero Day? It's relatively new holiday celebrated in South Korea.  "Pepero" is the name of a cookie stick dipped in chocolate. The sticks look like the number "1", so 11/11 is Pepero Day.

One of my students brought boxes of Pepero for the whole class. My fifth graders decided that we should continue the "11" pattern, and eat our Pepero sticks at 11:11 A.M.  When I told them it was exactly 11:11, they spontaneously started counting, and it wasn't until they reached eleven that they began eating the Pepero.

So, if anyone asks me what I was doing at 11:11 with eleven seconds on November 11, 2011, I can tell them...I was eating chocolate.





You know you are in a whole other world when...

It's a tradition in Germany to give first grade students a Schultüte on the first day of school. They are usually filled with candy, and maybe some pencils or other small school supplies.  The administration at my new school decided to keep up this tradition and give us newbies a Schultüte, too.

My Schultüte, about 2 feet long

However, in contrast to what you would find in a first grader's bag, the contents of mine were:

So, to finish the sentence I started...You know you are in a whole other world when the school administration welcomes you by giving you a bottle of local liquor and follows it up with a short back-to-school party with beer, wine, and cakes in the faculty lounge.