My last report left off somewhere in the middle of the fall break, just before my host family took me on a trip to the North of Germany to visit my host mother’s parents.  Now it’s December 12…..wait a minute, what happened to November?   I guess it just slipped by in the daze of loooong German feierabends, family visits, Fasching, and the beautiful Weinachmärkten.  I love reading all the other outbounds’ reports because of the similarities that one can trace between our experiences.  I felt the same sense of accomplishment that Kalie described when I made it through my first phone conversation completely in German.  Just like Jillian in Finland , I sat through a Christening feeling underdressed and awkwardly out of place.  And of course, like Suzie in Germany , I have come to know exactly what it means when Germans say that they are going to celebrate a birthday….

            That was the reason that we were going to visit my host grandparents – to celebrate my host grandfather’s sixtieth birthday.  The celebration began in the early afternoon and lasted till sometime between ten and eleven in the evening.  It began with a long, elaborate coffee that was followed by a long stroll, followed by a long dinner, with a long round of toasts with schnapps and champagne as the grand finale.  Wow.  A true test of endurance, perhaps even more trying than the running competition I described in my last report. 

            My host grandparents live in Stralsund , a beautiful historic town on the Baltic Sea .  We stayed in an apartment above a traditional tobacco shop that is owned by my host grandmother.  Many old German shops are known by the name of the original owner, which is often displayed above the entrance to the shop.  My host grandmother’s shop has been in her family since her grandfather opened it, and his name still stands over the entrance.  My host family and I spent our days seeing the sights in Stralsund and other nearby towns and cities.  We visited the northern most point in Germany , Hamburg , and even Rostock ,…..inbound Robbie’s hometown!  Tante Anke (who we visited in Munich for Oktoberfest) travelled with us, and she and my host father could never agree on whether or not the national park we visited was  really the northern most point in Germany .  In Hamburg we visited my mother and uncle’s old host brother, from when they were exchange students!  My mother and uncle both stayed with his family in Germany …..and he stayed with my family in Miami …..way back at the very beginning of District 6990’s youth exchange program.  We spent the day making a lightning quick tour of Hamburg in the awful weather that it is famous for, but the city was still beautiful and it was great to get to see some familiar faces.  A highlight of our visit to Rostock was the Marienkirche, which had some of the most incredible church art that I have ever seen.            

Much of the fast paced feeling of November resulted from FASCHING.  What is Fasching?  It’s the German (well, actually Thuringian) version of Carneval, and my host family celebrates it with a vengance.  My host father is president of a Fasching club, meaning that my host family was busy for almost the entire month preparing for their “Große Faschings Premiere.”  Fasching is also known as the fifth season, because it is actually a four month long period of parties that lasts till February!  The so called fifth season begins on 11:11 am on November 11 when the presidents of all of the Fasching clubs in town wear funny hats and gather on the town hall steps, where they try and steal the key to the city from the mayor.  The following Saturday, every Fasching club throws a “Große Faschings Premiere” and there is much competition over which club can attract the most ticket buyers.  My Fasching experience was a showcase of typical exchange student akwardness.  My host parents gave me an old pirate costume to wear, but forgot to tell me that Fasching is popular mostly with older people, and the few young people who go don’t wear costumes.  As I sat there alone in my Pirate costume, waiting for the other exchange students to show up it occurred to me that every other “embarrassing moment” that I had ever was now dwarfed in comparison to this moment of monumental akwardness.  When the other two exchange students showed up (both elaborately costumed) I experienced the biggest feeling of relief that I have ever known.  It was short lived however, because before I knew it all three of us had been called up onto the stage where our picture was taken for the newspaper……like I said in my last report…..“as if exchange students weren’t stared at enough”…..  Three hours later, the “Große Faschings Premiere” that I had been hearing so much about was finally over (not to say that I didn’t enjoy it)…..and how can I describe it?  I’m not quite sure.  I just can’t get away from the statement that it was basically a three hour variety show that began with a Rockette style dance Routine and ended with a man strip……something for every member of the family!

            The end of November brought the beginning of the Christmas season.  I don’t think anyone celebrates a more traditional Christmas than the Germans.  The Christmas season begins at the end of November with the opening of the Weinachtmärkten.  Weinachtmärkten are traditional Christmas markets.  Each city has its own Weinachtmarkt, at the center of which stands an enormous Christmas tree.  The markets are made up of wooden pine bough covered stalls that sell traditional Christmas crafts and food specialties.  But what seems to be everyone’s favourite is the Gluwein, which people crowd around little wooden tables to drink in the cold night air.  It seems that there is almost always a brass horn ensemble nearby whenever my friends or host family and I decide to make a Gluwein stop….and all those essential Weinachtmarkt elements combine to create a scene that seems just too traditional and “Weinachtlisch” to be true….

            The final experience that I have to relate is last weekend’s visit to Dresden .  Dresden is famous for its Baroque architecture, museums, and Weinachtmarkt, but nothing could have prepared me for how amazing this city really was.  Dresden is also famous for a much more tragic reason, that being that it was destroyed by American and allied bombs in World War II.  The bombs completely destroyed the beloved Frauenkirche which was (and now is) a beautiful example of Baroque architecture.  The church was left in ruins until the early nineties, when the rebuilding began.  It was just reopened last month and stands as a beautiful symbol for world peace.  I feel extremely honoured that I was able to see it so soon after the rebuilding was completed.

  Nothing could have prepared me for the museums that we saw in Dresden .  The first was the Gallery of the Old Masters.  It was just an endless collection of art to rival the Louvre in Paris or the Prado in Madrid .  This gallery is home to the famous Sisteen Madonna, a painting that is home to the perhaps even more famous little bored looking cherubs that have been reproduced on T-shirts and posters all over the world.  The Mona Lisa is famous for being a let down.  Every one has heard at least one person complain about how surprisingly small they found that famous painting.  I guess as a result of this cliché I was expecting the Sisteen Madonna to be small as well, but I was amazed to find a huge painting that I could see from the other end of the immense gallery.  As I approached the painting I was drawn into Raphael’s heavenly world of clouds and saints, and I just couldn’t believe that there I was, an exchange student in East Germany taking in some of the world’s best art treasures……

            As you can see from this description, I am having an amazing time!  I am so excited about everything that I have seen, and I am thankful that I have even more amazing things to look forward to.  At the end of March, district 6990 outbound Catherine and I will be meeting up to go on the same Euro tour! 

            To my friends and family….I miss you all….and I sincerely hope that everyone has a perfect Christmas and holiday season….