Christmas in Germany
Hallo everyone - (Hallo is hello here)I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I hate to tell you this, but it was probably colder where you are then where we are. Even with all of our snow the weekend before, the cold is nothing like at home. We don't have that nasty wind and windchill thing! By the time Christmas was upon us all the snow was gone but it's snowing again tonight. We'll see what it adds up to.
Last week I took the train to Marianplatz in Munich all alone! Everything was going just fine - I knew how to get on the train, I already had my ticket so I didn't have to figure out how to buy it, and I got on going in the right direction! However, a few stops before my planned stop I heard the train announcer say something about the next stop being the last stop and everyone would have to get off the train. Imagine my panic! Thank goodness I already had my cell phone. I knew that I just needed to look to see how to get on the S1 train but I called Robin anyway and thankfully he answered his phone. He assured me I was doing the right thing and he stayed on the phone with me until I was confident I could get on another train, going in the right direction, to my final destination. I got off and headed to the Galeria - not a lot like the Galleria at home, but a single mutli storied department store that was packed with shoppers.&n! bsp; The higher up I went, the less crowded, so I checked out the whole store, bought Robin a couple of winter scarfs for Christmas and then headed out to the sports store to get Sam a soccer ball he had seen the week before. I managed to get back on the train and made it home in time for the boys to get home. I was very proud!!!
The boys had their first training session with the SV Lohhof soccer club. I think they'll do just fine with these other boys. Sam, was however, not thrilled upon hearing that the team had finished in next to last place. That is hard for him considering his team finished in 2nd place at home. On the teams here, they have 90 and 91 players, for Joe, 93's and 94's so it's a bit different. There is a boy on Sam's team that I would swear is at least 16 or 17 but one of the dad's said, no, he is 14. Sam has an indoor tournament with them on January 9th.
Later in the week we happily received our air shipment with my winter coats!!! Robin stayed home from work to help with it and then I went with him to Freising where the TI is. We did a bit more Christmas shopping and I took my next lone train excursion back to Lohhof. I made it there safely but as soon as I stepped off the train and started the walk home, I realized that I didn't have a key to the house! I just had to laugh!!!! But thank goodness for my neighbor. I called to see if they were home, and they were and since we have both exchanged house keys, I was able to get in. But when I got in the house, I realized that I had no power! Doug, my neighbor, came over to check. We figured out that Robin had tripped the power when he plugged in part of my computer to an adapter that couldn't handle the voltage or wattage, or whatever it is. We got the power turned back on, but then later realized that when Doug wa! s helping me out he had flipped the power off for our water heater without turning it back on. We had no idea until later when we had no hot water for showers or washing dishes. It wasn't until the next day when we mentioned it to Doug that he came over and flipped the switch back - it's just like a light switch but it's higher on the wall down in the basement laundry room! Again, we had to laugh!
On Thursday we went with our neighbors to Nuremburg. We were going to take the train for the 2 hour trip but it would have cost us 160 euro which is almost $200. So we each took our car and caravaned there. One of Sam's friends from school came too. His name is Sebi (Sebastian). He is German/English and has a British accent. He's a great kid. He helped us all out with translations. Nuremburg was great. We didn't do any historical stuff, just holiday stuff. We went to the Chriskindlmarkt, ate, shopped, ate, found Starbucks, ate, shopped more, and ate! They had this Gluwein with amaretto that was to die for, and we followed that up with Eggnog that was the strongest eggnog we've ever tasted. It comes bottled too, so we each left with a bottle! Then we drove back to Lohhof and ate Chinese food! I have to start running! Too much eating, too many bakeries, really good wine, really good food!!!!!
On Christmas eve we went to an Anglican Episcopal english speaking church service. It was a family service which meant everyone with little kids was there. Churches are very small here and by the time we got there, yes, we were late again, it was standing room only. Thank God all the service involved were some songs and communion and then we were out of there. It was just so crowded and hot inside. We were thrilled when a man we were standing next too decided to open one of the church windows!!!
When we were waiting for our train in the subway all 5 boys, ours and the neighbors, started singing carols. Then these 2 elderly German ladies came over and gave them all their sweet pastries they had just picked up from the bakery. It was so nice. I have no idea what the sweet ladies had for breakfast the next morning as everything was closed, and there are NO 7-11's. Anyway, not 10 minutes after that when the boys were singing again, this mean German man, probably in his late 20's or early 30's, walked by and shouted "Yankees go home!" Jake, one of the neighbor boys innocently said "did you just tell us to go home?" The rest of us were in shock. Of course Sam started singing again and the man told us to stop torturing them! Anyway, it was really weird. That was the first instance of "we don't like Americans" that we've experienced.
We woke up on Christmas to open gifts. Sam gave me a wonderful self portrait of himself and a Christmas card on which he wrote on the inside "even though we moved to Germany, Christmas won't change at all cause we have each other." He may be 14 but he still knows how to touch his parents' hearts. Of course, he also threw in a $20 US bill that he found in a drawer in the house - teenagers!
We shared a late lunch/early dinner with our friends/neighbors the Islers. Because our ovens are SO SMALL, and you can only get small turkeys here, we were using both ovens and doing some major time management! Everything turned out delicious. I made homemade chocolate pie especially for Joe, homemade rolls like my grandmother used to make - though never as delicious, and mashed potatoes. With everything that Kate made, it was a banquet!!! We stayed late, drank wine and got to know our new friends even better.
Today, Sunday, we had planned to go to Neuschwanstein Castle, the one that Walt Disney modeled the Disney castle after. But we got lost and couldn't figure out how to get there. We are getting a navigational system in early January!!! Since we couldn't find our way there we ended up going to Daucau to the Concentration Camp Memorial. It was so eery! Walking in places were so many people were murdered - in the gas chambers, seeing how they lived. It was a lot to deal with. Then we went into downtown Daucau to find the Schloss but we couldn't get in so we just walked around it. Hopefully on Wednesday we'll go to the castle that we had planned to see today.
I am going to take Robin to work tomorrow so I can have the car and then I'm going to Walmart!!!!!! It's mostly German stuff but there is supposed to be a small US section. Then I'm going to another grocery store to get a beef tenderloin for about 25 euro. I've paid over $100 at home for a tenderloin the size of the one I'm going to get tomorrow. It's crazy! I just hope it will fit in my oven!!! Then I'm headed back to IKEA. There are so many things that I need, especially for the kitchen and for storage. If I ever move like this again (which is highly unlikely as the only other place for TI expat would go would be Japan or somewhere else in Asia and I'm NOT going there) I would send much more of my kitchen stuff. Trying to make cakes and breads without my really nice mixer is a pain in the butt! My neighbor has done this inte! rnational thing many times. I used her mixer and it came with this big transformer box thing so it could work.
The boys are home for about the next 3 weeks so I hope that I'll be able to keep them entertained. They got some sledding stuff from Santa so hopefully we'll get some more snow so that they can try it out. I hope to take them to the Deustch Museum to see the crown jewels. I don't know whose jewels they are. . . but I want to see them. Of course, the boys want to go into Munich to shop again - Sam got a gift certificate from the Haines House of shoes for a new pair of soccer shoes for Christmas, so he's ready to get them!
We'll work on sending out video sometime later this week of some of these adventures. Love to all of you!
Deidre
posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 8:30 AM
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