A Very Merry Christmas

Hello all! To start things off, I would like to wish everyone reading my blog a wonderful Christmas (or Weihnachten)! If yours was anything like mine, then you had a good time.

To everyone dealing with "Snow Storm 2008" back home in Western Washington: Be safe asnd don't have too much fun without me!

So, a little bit about my German Christmas. I arrived at my uncle Stefan's house in Lübeck on Tuesday the 23rd. Lübeck is a beautiful city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea. It is the marzipan capital of the world as well. If you haven't heard of marzipan or have never eaten it, that is simply a shame. Marzipan is a delicious, sweet treat made from almonds and sugar with (normally) a chocolate coating. Just ask my good friend Sara Bear (Hi, Sara!).

I was welcomed with open arms into House Stefan Olbrich by the man himself, his wife Thesi, their two sons, Lutz and Jan. On my first night with the family, Lutz and I promptly went to a local "disko" to do some partying/dancing (Lutz pretty much took care of the latter of the two).

The next day was what we Americans know as Christmas Eve. Here it is called Heilige Abend. This day is the Germans' true celebration day for Christmas in terms of spending time together, going to church, opening presents, etc. Christmas day is also important, but Heilige Abend is the equivalent to our Christmas. We ate a nice dinner, went to a short church service (where the pastor used Harry Potter as a metaphor to his message), then returned home to do the opening presents thing. Now, I like to think of my time here in Germany on the Fulbright Fellowship a good enough present: I am essentially on a year-long vacation, get to see my Mom's side of the family, and have the opportunity to fully immerse myself in a new culture and learn a great deal of 'stuff.' However, I was taken aback when I was given a few very thoughtful gifts from my uncle's family. Add them to the gifts that were in a rather large box sent from the States (from, guess who, my lovely mom) and I essentially made out like a bandit. So, I'd like to thank Family Olbricht and Family Wacker for a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas! :)

The actual day of Christmas was more or less a lazy day around the house. The high point of the day was definitely in the evening, when I got a little "cultured." One of the Christmas gifts from the day before were tickets for the whole family and I to go see a movie called Buddenbrook. This movie is based on Thomas Mann's novel about the rich Buddenbrook family in Lübeck in the 18th century and it's eventual demise. It was a good experience. A pretty good movie that gave me a good perspective on how port cities thrived in the "olden days."

Just when I thought things couldn't get any nicer, the day after Christmas day the boys of the family and I went to visit Oma! (that's grandma for you non-German speaking folk). The last time I had seen her was waaay back in 1997, the last time I was in Germany. We spent a great afternoon talking with Oma and exchanging yet even more gifts. Oma seemed to be in very high spirits and surprised me with her agility when she moved around the house. It sure was good to spend a day with the only grandparent I have yet.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this post - I am using Lutz's computer and don't have the necessary equipment with me to upload photos.

Tomorrow Lutz and I are going to Hamburg to take part in what sounds like a very fun night of what essentially amounts to bar/disko hopping. That should be interesting!

So, again, I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas!

If you have a chance, drop me a post and let me know how you are doing! Keep tuning in. Ciao!

russ.

the last trip w/ the girls

So I met the girls in Bremen on Wednesday the 3rd after a particularly long day at work. It had already been decided that our last trip together would be to Amsterdam, so we needed to get ahold of our tickets. I had to get my roundtrip tickets, the girls had to get tickets from the German border to Amsterdam (because they had a German Rail pass, which pretty much meant they could travel wherever they wanted to in Germany for free), and we had to get one for Colin, who is a friend of Leah's from college and who was in Europe trying out for several football (soccer) clubs. After a short while, the tickets had been purchased and the trip was set.

On Thursday, the day before we left, we met up with Colin in Bremen and I got to play tour guide once again. So we walked about the historic parts of the city, checking things out, and looked through the (very impressive) Weihnachtsmarkt they have going on in Bremen. The last part of the day was spent on a tour of the Becks brewery located on the river Weser. It was a good tour (much, much better than the heineken tour in Amsterdam) with a great ending - a sort of beer testing session, where we had to try and distinguish between Beck's and Haake Beck's beers (Leah, Sara, and I were right. Colin was wrong). We ended up drinking a decent amount of beer, which helped because the weather outside was freezing with snow flurries.

On early Friday morning we began our 5 hour trek to Amsterdam. The trainride was no fun, as we had to switch trains 3 times. We eventually arrived at the old and always crowded mainstation in Amsterdam. After taking a bus to our Hostel and freshing up, which included a nap for me, we rode back into the central part of the city to do some walking around. Colin had to meet up with a friend of his who happened to be living in the city, so the girls and I went and got some dinner. After dinner, we met up with Colin and his friend. His friend ended up showing us around, kind of giving us an insider's guide for what we should do/see while there.

Saturday was a day of an immense amount of walking. We started off in Rembrandt Square intending to find a place where we could rent bikes. However, at the beginning of our search, we found a huge flea market adjacent to the square and ended up spending a decent amount of time there. By the time we had walked through the whole thing, we were close enough to the museum area that we decided to just go there by foot. We ended up seeing the Rijksmuseum (but did not go inside), which is a wonderful museum of art and history and features a magnificent selection of Dutch paintings from the Golden Age (okay, I stole that last part from the Rijksmuseum webpage), and spent time in the Vincent van Gogh art museum. That was wonderful. I had learned a decent amount about van Gogh from art classes way back in my college days (I can say that now, can't I? hehe), but wow, seeing all of these original pieces of work from him was just amazing. If you are ever in the neighborhood, the Vincent van Gogh Art Museum comes highly recommended from me. (Pictures: Leah and Sara hanging out with a Rembrandt statue, the Rijksmuseum, a sweet shot from behind the Rijksmuseum)

We concluded the day with meeting up with Colin's friend for dinner at a nice restaurant called Ocho (I couldn't help but think of Chad Ocho-Cinco/Johnson when hearing of this place), I had the ribs. On Sunday, right before our train left, we hopped onto one of the canal boat tours you can do while in Amsterdam. It was nice to be able to see the city without walking, but I still prefer to go and see things for myself. However, the very funny captain/guide of the tour had some quality bits of information to share with us. (Pictures: Te smallest flat in Amsterdam! It is only one window wide. It's the one in the center with the protruding white window. Some typical Amsterdam flats.)

After Amsterdam, the girls and I returned "home" to Bremen for their last couple of days in Germany. The last two days were essentially spent in Bremen (when I was done teaching, of course) at the Weihnachtsmarkt because the girls wanted to do some shopping and buy some gifts for their families back home (they also bought a gift for my colleague with whom I live, which was very nice). It wasn't all that bad for me though, as I made a couple of necessary purchases: warm socks and a nice side-satchel man purse type of thing, big enough to carry things I need for school, or food, or clothes for a small trip.

This past Wednesday, at 4 in the freaking morning, the girls were picked up by a taxi and went to the Bremen airport for their 6:30 flight back home. I had a wonderful time with Leah and Sara, and am so thankful that they found the time, money, and motivation to visit me over here in Germany. The three of us accomplished a great amount in 3 weeks and had a heck of a time in doing so. Now, after 3 weekends of spending money, I have accepted the fact that I will have to have a few quiet, uneventful weeks of life if I want to keep my money budget where I want it.

Coming up very soon is Weihnachten (Christmas), which I will be spending with my Uncle Stefan, his wife Thesi, and their family in Luebeck, which happens to be the Marzipan capital of the world, if I'm not mistaken. I am very exited to have the opportunity to spend a Christmas in Germany! Although, nothing beats being home for the holidays, and I will definitely be keeping my family and friends in my thoughts during my time here.

The last time I wrote, I had just returned from a great 1st weekend with the girls (Leah and Sara) in Berlin. Since then, we were able to make a couple of other fun and exciting trips.

The weekend following Berlin, I met up with the girls down in Cologne. They spent the week down in Bavaria, checking out the Swiss Alps, among other things. So, when it came time to meet up with them on thursday evening, we decided to meet at the hostel I had reserved in Cologne. Everything worked out nicely and they were in the lobby of the place waiting for me when I arrived.

Our time spent in Cologne was really awesome. The Weihnachtsmaerkte (Christmas markets) were in full swing this time around which made it all the more fun (the weekend before, in Berlin, they were merely setting up the markets, so we didn't have a chance to check those out). Our first night there, Thursday, happened to be Thanksgiving! The three of us decided that it was only right to try and have as close to a Thanksgiving dinner as possible. So, we walked around a little bit, on the lookout for a good restaurant and, low and behold, we found a place called The Chicago Steakhouse. After a short deliberation, it was decided that this was as close as we were going to get (plus we were by that time very hungry) and we went in. It was a nice Turkey Day Dinner spent with good company, but it didn't even compare to the real thing back home. Despite these shortcomings, we made the best of it and had a good (and our first ever!) Thanksgiving away from home. The rest of the night was just spent checking out the various stalls at the Christmas market and enjoying ourselves. (Pictures: The main stage at the Christmas Market right next to the Cathedral, our Thanksgiving Dinner restaurant!, the three of us at dinner).

The first thing we did the next day was conquer the Cologne Cathedral (Koelner Dom) and all 500 or so steps required to get to the top. It was a pretty decent workout and the reward at the end was great. If you have never seen it, the Cologne Cathedral is really something to behold. It is incredibly large and just as beautiful. We also got to learn a little bit about it's history. During WWII, the entire city of Cologne was bombed, leaving it literally in shambles. Amazingly, the only thing left standing, for as far as the eye can see, was the cathedral. Here's a good link to get what I'm talking about: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral-photos/wwii-bombing-cc-gordonr.jpg

(pictures: view of Cologne from atop the Cathedral, the three of us at the top, the Cathedral from ground level, the part of the Cathedral that we climbed - the tallest part!)

After returning to the safe earth, we had to rest our weary legs a little bit before setting out again. The rest of the day was sort of spent walking around, checking out things here and there, getting coffee occasionally, and getting meals. That night, we went out for drinks with a couple of British fellows who Leah and Sara happened to meet during their travels in Southern Germany. It was a fun time and a good way to cap out trip to Cologne.

The next morning we hopped on a train headed to Duesseldorf, where we would be spending the day/night (we could only get the hostel in Cologne until Saturday, so we kind of had to). By this time, however, we were all kind of tired from all of the traveling. So, long story short, the three of us pretty much were content with getting dinner and relaxing at our hostel with a dvd and some beers. From what I did see of Duesseldorf, it looked like a pretty alright city to me.

On Sunday morning, we had to once again part ways - seeing as how I had to teach for another week, and the girls had to travel for another week. So we said our goodbyes, I headed back up to Bremen, and the girls headed East to Baden-Baden for a (from what I heard) very luxurious time at the world-renown spa. The next time I'd be seeing my two friends would be the following Wednesday in Bremen.