Christmas and Eric's Birthday in Kaarst

(Pictures from Andrea's Birthday Party!!!)

Eric and I headed to Kaarst, Germany, where our friend Flo lives, and stayed there from December 20-27th for Christmas and other festivities. I only stayed until the 27th because I had to leave for Chamonix, France on the 30th for New Years. We got there on Saturday the 20th and it was Flo's mom, Andrea's birthday party. She made a ton of food, we had chili, bread, tons of different hours devoures, and this alcoholic drink that they let sit all day, it was made up of cherries soaking in Vodka and then at night they added Ice Cream, it was really delicious; it pretty much tasted like cake frosting. Andrea had a few friends over and then Flo's friends also came over, so it was just a chill night and Eric and I got to practice our German a little bit more, so that was definitely a plus. Being around a real German family really helps the process of learning and actually putting to use the words you learn, so I always like visiting Flo and his family because it helps me out tremendously, and I hadn't seen them since I got here in August, so it was an awesome reunion. Eric and I are going back in February for Karneval, that will be really fun! So for her birthday she opened presents and we all just hung out and talked, it was a nice relaxed night.

(Pictures from Slava's Snow Show, it was so cool!!! I am so glad Andrea got us tickets to go! )










In the morning on Sunday we went to a Flo Markt (Flea Market), they had a really big one like a block away from their apartment so we went to go check it out. They had a lot of stuff, I don't know what it is about Germany but about every weekend during the year every town has a big Flea Market, it is kind of weird, but fun to go to, because it's basically just one big outside garage sale, and there are usually a lot of good deals. On Sunday night we went to a show, not really a musical, but it was from the makers of Cirque de Soleil, so it was very different and creative. Flo's mom works for a company that sells theater tickets and she always gets good deals for shows around the area, or for free. So we went to this show called Slava's Snow Show, it started out really weird, it was just a bunch of clowns on the stage, no talking, and just music plays. It was mostly about the visuals, after the intermission is where it got really cool. The best way I can describe it is a dream in real life, lots of colors, imagination and nothing that is realistic. At the end they had these huge balls in the crowd and we could hit them and they were bouncing around the crowd for like a half an hour and there was a ton of paper throw out at the crowd, being the 'snow,' it was so cool, one of the coolest things I have ever been to.

We didn't do too much on Monday because I had a 5 page paper to write for my class called Spiel Zeit, all in German, it was really hard getting started but Eric helped me out on some ideas, and he and Flo helped correct my grammar mistakes which was nice. Overall I think it turned out pretty well. I was happy to finally get it done, if I look back to last year, I don't think I could have ever written a 5 page paper in GERMAN! It is awesome to think about the progress I have made just being here for 4 months! I remember just coming here and thinking my German would never get better, but I think it just snuck up on me, because communicating now is so much easier, I am pretty proud of myself, mastering another language is really difficult.

(Pictures of Eric's Birthday Party, we went to a Greek Restaurant and played Kageln, sooo much fun)













On Tuesday we went to go do some last minute Christmas shopping and then we were keeping a secret from Eric all day that we had a surprise Birthday party planned for him. So that night Flo left to go set up the party spot and then Andrea, Oliver, me and Eric left like 30 minutes later, claiming we were going shopping. On the way it was really hilarious because Eric tried to do a hop or something over some dirt and then hit ice and fell into the splits, he was definitely in pain and we laughed a lot at his expense. He said he was hurting really bad and needed to go to the bathroom, luckily we were just arriving to the party location so he went into the bathroom there and then I took him into where everyone was waiting and we all sang Happy Birthday, in English actually. We planned to play Kageln, which is basically a different form of bowling, the lane and the ball are slightly different. The lane is more narrow and the ball is smaller. We had a lot of fun playing, and making up different rules, one round we had to roll the ball in between our legs and stand with our back facing the pins, and then another round we had people spin us and see if we could knock any pins down, it was hilarious. We drank some beer and ate a lot of Greek food, it was a good time, I think Eric had a really good time for his birthday too.

(Pictures from Christmas Eve at Flo's house) The first ones are of the Raclette grill, it was so fun!
















The next day was Christmas Eve or in German Heilige Abend (Holy Night). We wrapped some presents during the day and just kind of hung around the apartment. At night we had Raclette; it's a tradition that their family does every Christmas Eve, I have seen other Germans do it too. Raclette is actually a type of cheese, it originated in Switzerland and parts of France. The modern way of doing Raclette now is with the electric style grill, where there are little pans that you put your food into and cook your own self meal by mixing whatever ingredients from the table you want, the meat is cooked on top of the grill. We had so much food; potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, corn, pineapple, different cheeses, beef, lamb, pork, chicken, shrimp, brussel sprouts, broccolli, and bread. We all sat there listening to music and eating for over 2 hours, it was really fun, and really filling. After our dinner they wanted us to have the full German christmas experience, so we went on a walk and while we were walking supposedly the Christkind (baby Jesus) came to bear gifts. They believe that the Christkind is who brings the presents, not santa. There are other countries including Germany, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and parts of Hispanic America, that believe in the Christkind and not Santa. It was brought on by Martin Luther because he wanted to discourage using the St. Nicholas figure because it was adopted by catholics in the 19th Century. When we came back from our walk we opened presents, it was really fun! We got them all Abercrombie clothes and they were estatic over them. They bought us some clothes, perfume, Germany scarf, and Eric also got a cigar and a book about cigars in German. Julia and her boyfriend and then Flo's girlfriend also came over to open gifts. It was a really great Christmas Eve, I really wasn't homesick at all, which was nice. It was also weird to hear a stereotype about American Christmas, they thought that we all open presents on Christmas morning, but we told them that our family always opens them on Christmas Eve. It was weird to see that they celebrated Christmas almost exactly how our family does.

(Pictures from Christmas Day with Flo's family)







The next day on Christmas, Flo's whole family came over and we had a traditional German Christmas meal. For a while we all lounged around and drank coffee. I played with Flo's little cousin, she is 11 and it was weird speaking to her in German, although her English was great too, we played some card games, I taught her some and she taught me some. Finally we all sat down for dinner, we had goose, 3 different kinds of sauerkraut, potatoes, cucumber salad, bread, gravy, and later pudding. From what I heard Germans like to keep it simple on Christmas day because they feel like they don't need to have a huge expensive meal because at one time no one could afford that, so it's more about your family and spending time together. I am not really a fan of sauerkraut, but it seems like in Germany, it pops out of everywhere, the whole family kept telling me to try and it and finally I tried the Rotkohl (Red Cabbage) and the plain Sauerkraut, it was weird because they were hot, and I think it brought out the flavor much more, I didn't really like it, but I am glad I tried it. It seems like Germans could eat piles of it and still want more, I don't get it haha. After dinner we all just talked more, just like at any Christmas of my family, lots of laughter. Everyone opened their presents, so it was a long fun night with the Germans.

On Friday Eric and I both went to get our hair cut by Julia at her apartment and then Flo picked us up and we went to his girlfriends house and watched TV and ordered pizza for dinner. It was a great end to a really fun trip to Kaarst. It was sad leaving them, but I know I will meet up with them again in February, I can't wait!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years, it was sad not being there, but I know next years will come in no time! Froehliche Weihnachten und eine gute Rutsch in das neue Jahr! ( it means...Merry Christmas and a good slide into the New Year)

Auf Wiedersehen!