Christmas in Germany

The Schruhl family made my holidays away from home very comfortable. In Germany Christmas is celebrated on the 24th. We spent the day preparing for a huge multi-coarse meal and setting up the Christmas tree we had cut down earlier in the month. In the evening we went to an interdenominational church service in the city's Dom (largest church and gathering hall). We came home as is tradition to find presents under the tree and all of the candles lit (in Germany it is common to use real candles on the tree, but we just had electric ones which liked like candels in the stands). I received a pair of dancing shoes for salsa class (as there was an incident earlier this month where my strappy heels went flying across the dance floor). I gave the family a Celestial Tea's gift pack, a book of Colorado, a gold dipped aspen leaf, and some other treats form the states. On the 25th we had another large lunch of turkey (approx. 12 lbs.) with extended family. Christmas in Germany is huge as virtually all traditions and songs surrounding Christmas came from Germany. I struggle to think of anything which did nto originate here.

BIG HEARTS

Every Weinachtsmarkt (christmas market) in Germamy has multiple booths selling Gingerbread hearts. I had heard the tradition. When one receives a heart this person must wear it around there neck for the rest of the day.

I recently moved in with a new host family the Schruhls, and they took me to a few historic Weinachtsmarkts in Dresden with some family friends, where the first ever weinachtsmarkt began in 1434. There they bought me a 12 inch heart, and being a good exchange student I put it around my neck despite its unusually large size. As the day went on, people kept giving me weird looks and I began to notice that no one else was wearing a heart, despite how many were being sold. They assured me that this was tradition and took many pictures, but continued to giggle. I really began to wonder so they told me to ask a "random" boy on teh street if this was tradition. He assured me it was and that sometimes it is good to even wear it to school the next day. The heart was becoming quite heavy and my hsot family could not stop laughing. I found out they had bribed the boy to give me that answer.

The day's hazing event has been told to many since. My new host family is fun, playful, and they have very large hearts.

The German Language -- Die Deutsche Sprach

I have not become virtually conversationally fluent in German. I can understand almost everything conversationally, but not necessarily in school as this requires knowledge of lots of technical terms. Although with reading I am still struggling as well with speaking. I have found that more than gaining alot of German vocabulary I am forgetting English. Students frequently ask me questions about grammar, spelling, word usage and/or translations and I am completely at a loss. But I thought that now that I am getting a better grip on German I should compose a blog concerning the German language and its unique properties and how difficult it is to translate German concepts into English.

The German language leads to a completely new way of thinking. In their hearts, Germans believe no foreigner can speak the language properly. In fact, they believe only those of their region speak German properly. Having been learning the Berliner dialect, I can say that there is nothing more barbarous than the Bavarian version of the language and I am sure the feelings are well reciprocated. Each bundesstadt in Germany has its own dialect.

German is a remarkably felxible language. New words are easily and frequently made up. You simply take two, three, or any number of existing words and stick them alltogetherlikethis. This does not just create a new word, but a whole new concept, explaining why the German psyche is so complicated and well atuned for philosophy and psychology. For example, in a park the notice "Astbruchgefahr" informs you in one swift glance that you are within "branch-dropping-off-danger."

A slight and complicated alternative is to create a long string of words and then omit all of the sounds you don't like and smash it all back together. This is especially popular with words dealing with the government. For example "Staatssicherheitsdienst" is the State Security service of the GDR).

Many are startled at first glance when viewing a page of German text. The words are so long! It is common for a newspaper article to consist of just four or five words but take up two small columns. The same is true in German books. I am currently reading a book my Thomas Mann, a famous German author who managed to write a one thousand paged book which is divided into half a dozen paragraphs.

But the beautiful thing about the construction of the German language is that it has given rise to many new and innovative notions and ideas contained in a single word unmatchable in expression by other languages. As Mark Twain once said, "Some German words are so long that they have a perspective." For example:

Realpolitik: The pursuit of political advantage or survival. So it is like when someone of superior standing drops something heavy on your foot and you say, "No really, it doesn't hurt."

Schadenfreude: This is the emotion you feel when you find satisfaction upon hearing of another's downfall. Other languages are very coy about honouring such a feeling with a whole word of its own so consequently, everyone else uses the German one.

Weltschmerz: So you woke up late, missed the bus, spilt coffee on your shirt, recieved a speeding ticket, got caught in the rain, and came home to find your dog has barfed all over the new carpet. This feeling is weltschmerz.

Froemmelei: This is the saccharine-coated pity expressed by annoying televangelists who tell you their God urgently wants you to send them money, and who are subsequently found in bed with three people all named Tammy only two of whom are female. In relation to culture, it describes people who have never read Shakespeare, but reverently refer to him as "the Bard".

Zeitgeist: This is an invaluable word when discussion German literature or cinima. This word litteraly translates to "the spirit of the age". This is a cue for sighing and lookign world-weary. It basically refers to a rather realist nature.

Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung: The sum total of difficulties a nation encounters in struggling to come to terms with a troubled past. This word perfectly encompasses the feeling one gets and the culture one experiences in Germany.

The classic longest word in German is "donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskaptiaen," although many German words can boast to be over 80 characters long. There is really no such thing as the longest German word... "die laengeste deutsch Wort?" Most of the "longest" German words are simply creations rarely used in common speech but mainly dealing with government offices or numbers. Even a German Scrabble board like the English, has room for only 15 letters.

German Salsa!

I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, "Salsa Fuerstenwalde," so I just had to ask. "Salsa dancing or salsa dip?" I would have been happy with either! I learned he had been attending salsa dancing lessons for many years. I decided I could not pass up the opportunity to dance with a tall cute German boy and I was missing my weekly dancing with my buddy Emmy in Ft. Collins.

Like the dances in CO, the evening began with beginner lessons and then advanced dancers turned up later. One difference that made things quite difficult though was that all of the dancing was circle dancing with rotating partners. I held my own in the beginning but was quickly lost in the advanced class following. The salsa style was Cubana which was quite different than what I was used to and I had difficulty following lead as well as the directions being called out in a mixture of Spanish and German. The Germans held to stricter ballroom rules, and the Cuban style is a bit more ridged. I was told I needed more structure and less hip movement. I was compared to the dancer in Dirty Dancing Havana Nights. I never thought I would be told to wiggle less! :)

Chris (the T-shirt guy) helped me alot. He was much more advanced, but when we had an opportunity to dance as couples he was patient and helped me, laughing at my "Mexican style." He is the perfect lead, making every one of my mistakes look like that was what he wanted, and giving strong direction. I am looking forward to next week where I shall try again but only stay for the beginners' course and work on less hip action!

Eiffel Tower!

Visiting Paris – The City of Light

The Rotary Exchange students from the Berlin Brandenburg region (plus one student from England) travled to Paris, France for 5 days. We rode overnight by bus there and back with the idea we would sleep inbetween the regular bathroom breaks every 3 hours. (Ya that worked out well... I am still trying to catch up on my sleep!) I sat by Qia from Indonesia on the way there and by Jeremy from Canada on the way back, but we moved around some and talked to everyone, and Jeremy did some stand up comedy on the way back for the bus. He had me laughing for much of the trip and is probably one of the most talented comedians and natural leaders I have ever met. He always kept the group together with fun "camp style" games and intellectual conversations. And Qia was great to sit by because we shared all of our food, and tried to speak only in German. She is an incredible photographer and took many pictures along the way with her 35mm. I am looking forward to her posting a few. She showed me pictures of her home in Indonisia and shared some great stories.

We stayed in a Hotel next to the Red light distrect which we walked through to see the famous Moulan Rouge caberet-dance hall and dance the can-can in front of it. (We also watched the movie on the way back and Jeremy and I softly sang along.) Some looked into going to a show only to find that it cost up to hundreds of dollars per ticket, dress code enforced.

On top of spending one hour in Paris's redlight district, the Rotarians asked us to lie about our age once so our tickets would be cheaper which led to lasting jokes about the sort of values being instilled upon us.

We did some shopping and all bought berets, and Jeremy bought pink boxers which he left in my purse for the majority of the trip leading to some embarrassing security checks. We then proceeded to take pictures with the underwear in front of nude statues in the Louvre. I gave my host mum a burette and I bought "pluto" pants for myslef, which are becomming more and more popular in Europe. They look like Genie pants and are very comfortable.

We switched flags around and dyed Jeremy's hair black. He said he was embracing his latin culture (he wore the Argentinian flag).

We ate crepes, crossants, and yard long bagettes. Lets just say I am lucky I am not on my exchange in France. The food is too good! :)

Jeremy and I danced the waltz in a castles dance hall, I danced salsa to street music (I miss my weekly salsa dancing in Ft. Collins) and we had a huge can can line going on one of the subway trains.

I was dubbed "mom" because I carried everything in my purse, loaned money to Jeremy once. Jeremy was called "dad" and there were many jokes because after the nicknames were awarded we kept seeing chalked babies on the sidewalks around Paris. I beleive we counted 9 total.

I took a group of people on their first ever carousel ride.

We visited many major tourist attractions including the Eiffel tower, Gate of Liberty (which we all paid for Jeremy to go up and take pictures right before they opened it up to the public for free) and the Louvre. At the Louvre I was given a guide sticker and tried in vain to keep the group together which only led to more mom jokes. There were also many jokes about my "guide" sticker as security guards came to talk to me a few times and I explained the religious symbolism in a few paintings to some leading to a new short lived "Robet Langdon" nick name.

Wes from Texas had a "Where's Waldo" looking shirt so we made jokes about finding him aroud Paris. Look at my pictures. I found Waldo!

Although Paris was a dirty city, I loved its culture, energy and overall vibe. But lessons learned, avoid public restrooms (unlike Germany, they are free, but often not worth it), and use caution on the subways (were we were often packed so close that we were literally touching on all sides and the locals attempted to push people off before the doors closed), and beware of street vendors and people offering you things on teh street (Koki, Jeremy and I got majorly ripped off).

Au Revoir!