Suzie Reports from Germany

January 23, 2006

Hey everyone,
  As my aunt calls it, this letter is definitely going to be another 
diarrhea of the hand. I'll skip the unimportant things though. ;) 
December 24, the day German's celebrate Christmas. There traditions 
are totally different actually. They actually have 24 days of 
Christmas, before Christmas. Then Christmas day, and two more days of 
Christmas. So altogether, the holiday seasons last 27 days. If I was 
christian, this would be paradise. The celebrations didn't actually 
start until after sundown. The whole day, we were kept out of the 
living room, with curtains drawn, and no one allowed in. We spent the 
morning visiting my third Host family briefly, so I could deliver a 
Christmas present of a Key Lime Pie . Back at our house, a little 
after five, a bell rang from the top of the stairs, the baby angel of 
Jesus had come and left presents. The kids raced up and opened the 
door into a real Christmas scene. Candles all over the place, on the 
tree, on the tables, everywhere. Presents were piled up under the 
tree, but before anyone could open anything, we had some jobs to do. 
First the story of Christmas. My Host brother, Carl-Friedrich, got 
out the bible and started reading. Then, in order to open presents, 
every kid had to sing a Christmas carol. It was so cute. So after the 
animalistic opening of presents, it was time for our "Christmas 
feast". For the first time since I had been there, my host mother had 
made something from scratch, a wonderful soup. Then fish, huge plates 
of fish and calamari and who knows what else. A totally different way 
of celebrating Christmas, yet just as, if not more, satisfying.
    The next day found us at my second host family's, the Gaumann's. I 
met my host sister, Alexandra, and we all sat down to a wonderful 
meal. This was a real traditional German holiday meal, with potato 
dumplings, red cabbage and a goose.  ok, enough gushy stuff. fast 
forward. Car ride to Austria.......arriving in Gastein.....skiing in 
Gastein...shopping...new years fireworks.....new years parade with 
lots of scary animals that attacked us (literally) ....having 
fun.............trying to ski.....falling on my butt.....switching to 
snowboard........leaving for Salzburg........seeing Cathedral and 
walking around...........heading to Dachau. Here I'll press play for 
a minute, because even though these new places were important, to me 
Dachau was very significant. For those of you who don't know, Dachau 
was a concentration camp in World War II, and though not an 
extermination camp, many people died there. You wouldn't beleive what 
they did to people there. Strung them up by their arms tied behind 
their backs for hours. Beat people to death, or made them wish for 
death. Walking through the museum, I was really touched and was 
disgusted at what had been done to innocent people.
    We spent the evening in Munich. A gorgeous city, that I wish I had 
days to explore. But we just took a little time to shop and eat, 
trying some Bavarian food.
    So then it was back to Siegen.  I started moving into my next host 
family right after I got home. Moving into my new family was quite an 
experience too. It's leaving home all over again, because this 
family, and this home that I've come to love. But I must say, that I 
love my new family. It's a completely different atmosphere, and I 
love it. My host parents are wonderful and I feel a part of the 
family, as opposed to just an addition. It's really wonderful. and 
they're wonderful cooks. I swear, by the time I get out of this 
family, I'll have to go shopping for a new waistline, :) its horrible.
    So other than that, school started again. We got our exams back, and 
I didn't do too bad. Last week we started our internships for school. 
Every eleventh grader must do a internship for a possible profession. 
I am working in a firm that creates large scale smelting machines. I 
was hoping to learn how a professional engineer manages daily work, 
but I ended up in General Services, Sales, and Books. But I'm still 
learning a lot, working behind the scenes. It's really fun. My host 
grandparents are visiting now, wanting to meet me. So that's really 
all that's going on in life. Hope I didn't bore you too much. Write 
me back anytime, love to hear from you all
Liebe Gruesse,
Suzie