Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum

Phase 2 of culture shock, meet phase 3.

I am now transitioning into the phase of culture shock in which I'm finally starting to come to terms with being in Germany, including its traditions, language, and culture. I am comfortable with pretty much everything, and more and more so as the days go by. I am on my way to a fantastic time here in Deutschland!

Holidays:
German weihnachten (Christmas) was actually on Christmas Eve, and was celebrated with the immediate family. Usually a typical german family will go to church and then come back home, open presents, and then eat dinner. My host family attempted to go to church, but we had thought it was an hour later than it actually was, so we went for a small walk instead. Then all of the children were sent upstairs into my host sister's room to "play" while the Christkind came (Christ child- something like an angel) and put all of the presents under the tree. Then my host parents called all of us down and said the Christkind had come! How wonderful! (Santa Clause = Nikolaus and he came on the 6th of December, called Nikolaus Tag, or Nikolaus day, where we receieved our stockings along with a small present). We proceeded to stand in front of the Tannenbaum (Christmas tree) and then all of the children repeated a christmas story or a christmas lied (song) and then we opened presents. Everything was so beautiful! My host family gave me 2 t-shirts and my mom sent many things such as shoes and scarves. I was so thankful for everything and felt a little silly for how greedy I felt I'd been previous Christmases, as germans don't receive much for Christmas, at least in my host family. Everybody was happy with what they'd gotten, and I was overjoyed. Next we ate fondue for dinner, which is also very typical for holiday dinners, then played monopoly for four hours, of which I lost and picked teams with my host mom against my oldest host sister and host dad. It was fantastic. The next day, the 25th, is the 2nd Christmas day in which most german families visit non-immediate families (we went to the Black Forest) and spend the day there. The 26th is the 3rd Christmas day in which germans have another excuse to have a party (oh how germans love to party!), however my host family and I just stayed home and relaxed on that day.

New Years Eve is celebrated pretty much the same as in America- drinking, eating, talking, partying until 12 midnight and later, with the exception of watching a ball drop. I did, however, see the film Happy New Years, which is New Years Eve in America, but because New Years Eve is actually called Silvester in German, they changed the name (they do have New Year- Neue Jahr). On the 3rd of January, we packed up all of the Christmas stuff and our holiday spirits along with it. It was very nice while it lasted.

The past two weeks I haven't had any school, and therefore not much to do, so I pretty much sat around the house waiting for an opportunity of entertainment to come along. However, my host mom wasn't happy with us not doing anything, as most moms would be, and she sent us to a pool in the nearest city, which turned out to be extremely nice and relaxing. I have also started going on walks with the dog and that's a good way of relaxation.

That brings us to today, in which I went to Speyer with my host family to visit an old church, which was beautiful. There was a Christmas market still going on by the church and there was a clarinetist (?) playing along with beautiful lights and german christmas spirit. That's when I decided that I should start enjoying things here instead of waiting for time to go by (which I've gotten into the habit of) and when I finally realized that I loved everything that I've experienced so far in Germany. How wonderful that feeling was. Then to top it off, we went out to eat in a nice restaurant. What a great day today has been.

My German has come along pretty well and I can understand and speak 300 times better than I could in the beginning. I am starting to be able to not only get my point across but form my sentences correctly as I do so. Everyday it gets better and better, as well as with my host family. I've moved from not being my baby host sister's friend to being "her alex". I've become good friends with my oldest host sister, and my middle host sister and I get along very well. I can now steal my host mom's food from her plate and talk with my host dad about things such as maps and anything interesting about where we are in the moment. It's a good feeling.

Well, I think that satisfies the definition of a novel of an update. I'll try and be better and not send you one update per month... ;) Hope your holidays went as well as mine! Happy New Year everybody!