First Snow

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Wesel got its first snow on Wednesday! It was during first period, English:

Person in Row #2: Hey, look, it's snowing!
Herr Häuser: You want to stop the class and run outside? How old are you? What, you haven't seen snow before?

No, not really. Not falling like that!

It was only a 10 minute scattering, but since everyone here has been telling me Wesel gets virtually no snow, I was a little disappointed to have missed it.

Little did they know that that Friday we would get 12 cm snow. 17 by Saturday morning. And now, in the next 6 hours, we're supposed to almost double that amount.

So far I've made a snowman, biked in the snow, caught flakes on my tongue, had a snowball fight, and taken lots of pictures:

The Kiefer's house.

Eulenweg in hibernation.

A deep step for man.

The snow is really wet, and the flakes are super thick.

What's also fun is to watch clumps of snow falling off the school roof in math class. I also enjoy riding my bike when it's snowing at night (going with the wind, that is). You don't fall off as much from hitting ice clumps.

Jutta and I have been slowly decorating for Christmas. She says she accidently put the wrong lights on the tree, but I think it looks fine in blue.

On Thursday night Jutta, Stefan, and I got to see the famous German comedian Bernhard Hoecker in live performance. He spoke too fast for me to understand most of what he said, but what I did understand I enjoyed. It was a great experience. Now whenever I see him on TV I can say, wow, I got to actually see him in person! All the pictures I took weren't so good, though, because we were sitting so far away. But this one's only a little blurry:

What's up in Life

This post is of the more recent events of this weekend. It will have no pictures, though, because I just celebrated a completely picture free weekend. They will commence again this week, hopefully, when anything interesting occurs.

Alicia and I finally found the Theatre Groupe we've been trying to find for the past 5 weeks or more last Friday. Apparently they now meet in a different building because they're too small and not imortant enough to make use of the auditorium. But we may as well have not found it, because they told us that it was only for 10th grade and under (a lot of groups divide ages like that), and we could stay for that day only. I never thought it particularly mattered what age we were, because even a 1st grader can speak better German than the both of us put together. But okay, how they want.

After that, we sat in the Innen Stadt and played Set on a bench. And who should come along but our good friend Katri from Finland! It's a small world after all.

Okay, so I said no pictures, but this one is from the AFS camp in Duisburg in September with Alicia and Katri.

After a few rounds of Set, we got some bread from a bakery because we were hungary, walked around the shops, and then it started pouring. It rains a lot here. As compelling as it is to run out into the street, dance around, and break out in a chorus of "I'm singing in the Rain," we didn't. Instead, we went to Martin's ice cafe and ate some ice cream, because we weren't cold enough already. The ice cafes are about ready to shut down for the winter. A lot of them already have. We have to stock up.

The reason I didn't go home was because I was going to be trying out a Schachverein that evening. That is, a chess club. Unfortunately, the building Jutta and I originally thought it was in is in reality a police station.

I did manage to get to the Schachverein yesterday (Wednesday), though, with Jutta's help. It was fun, but my head hurt so much afterwards. I really don't know how to play chess. Sure, how to move the pieces around is easy enough, but stategy is beyond me. My first two games were with one of the best members of the club. Guess who won. He did give me a lot of advice and sent my brain on overload, which is normal these days. The next three games were with a girl far younger than me. I won the last one, but maybe that was because she was winning so easily the first two times she started playing recklessly.

The club meets twice a week, which is good for me because it gives me a lot to do. They are a competitive group, with timers and everything! They compete on practically every weekend.

I was alone for most of the weekend. On Saturday I did math, biology, and read my lovely German copy of Harry Potter 6. I understand a fair amount of it, I'm very proud. In the afternoon Hannah and Christina came over and we listened to music and danced. They teach me theirs and I teach them mine, a great bonding experience.

Sarah, a friend from school, slept over Saturday to Sunday and we had an original Star Wars Trilogy marathon. I couldn't find Episode VI, however, so we only got to watch two. Afterwards we played Mau, dominoes, and a Snakes and Ladders type game until 1 in the morning. That's the latest I have ever stayed up here in Germany. The mental exhaustion here is a real knock-out.

Sunday Hannah, Christina and I went ice skating. Barbara, another of my friends, was going to come, but she was having some back pains and her doctor told her no sports. Sarah was also going to come, but her parents already had something planned. We had fun with just us three, though.

But now I can't feel my toe. I went to the doctor the other day and he said my skates must have been too tight and now I pinched a nerve. Hopefully it will wake up in a week. If not, he's going to start giving me shots.

That's all the exciting news for now, besides all the class tests we've been having. Those aren't too exciting, though. Yesterday was English, and we had to read and answer questions about the short story "A Man who had no Eyes," about the Westbury chemical explosion. We read that story in Mrs. Byrd's class in 7th grade, I remember, and I loved it. It's so brilliant.

I'm always so amazed at the level of English the students here can do. In 11th grade they're reading material we studied in 7th, and in a foreign language, too. They don't analyze it in the same, in depth ways we do, naturally. But it's still quite impressive.

Fabiola, our chapter's AFSer from Mexico, is changing families and now goes to Konrad Duden. Today was her first full day here, and she got to have a test! Of course, it was a Spanish test.

Catchup

Okay, now that it's Thursday (the only really unbusy day in the week, surprisingly, since I feel like I have way too much time on my hands here), it's time to catch up on everything. Including pictures. This is in no particular order (especially not chronological). Prepare to be

Here's Jenny, one of my many neighbors. A couple of weeks ago she invited me to go out for a milkshake at one of the local restaurants. That is, the American themed restaurant. Besides the rather obscure oldies music playing in the background, I wouldn't really call it "American." Then again, I have no idea what a "typical" American restaurant would be liked. The restaurant had a small collection of lit-up gummi bear figurines, though, which I found pretty cool.

We spent maybe an hour at the restaurant drinking our chocolate milkshakes (which were nothing compared to Rubies or Red Robin, but they're still milkshakes) and making conversation completely in German. After that, we went back to Eulenweg to watch a French film dubbed German. Le Baum. It was, um, interesting.

Here's a picture from the Hansenfest. This man, in his awesome cape and cap, runs what I can only call a juke box on wheels. In Europe at practically every celebration you'll find at least one of these trailer-sized carts that plays carousal style music. He explained how his machine worked to us (Katri, Natasha, and I). There's a motor which, through conveyor belts, wheels, and pistons, runs a bellows. All of the organ pipes run on this air. As does the parts which read the music.

The man is going through one of the music books rights now, exposing the pages to air so any water there can evaporate. Water makes the pages stick together, and when they're being read, that can be disastrous. We got to request songs, too. He played Mambo #5 and the Macarana for us, as well as a couple other songs. Here's the front side of the machine:

But personally, I found the backside much more interesting:

There are lots of "American" themed stores and restaurants here. The other American AFSers and I always think they're the funniest thing (which is therefore amusing for everyone else in the party). Don't ask why, you'd have to be here to understand it.

Maybe it's just the names.

Here's that American juggler with the lame skater jokes and waaaay too many "under the leg" jokes from Düsseldorf:

And the new height of Harry Potter obsessiveness. In Duisburg once Alicia, Katri and I actually found platform 9 3/4. Well, almost. I did try to go through it, but I was a bit too scared, and maybe not as obsessed as I think I am, to take the running start. Oh, and it's Germany, not Britain. Though there are rumors that our chapter is making a trip in January to London. Maybe we'll put King's Cross on our list of places to see. What Harry Potter pilgrimage isn't complete without that?

I'm really not this obsessed. Really.

A lot of people have been wondering what on earth happened to poor Luka. Well, Jutta and Jonas had taken her to the animal clinic where the little hedgehog could get some better care. She didn't make it through, though. Here's a picture of her with Jonas, when she was alive, and, we hope, happy. Who knows how good a quality of life hedgehogs have when they live like pigs?

She loved to burrow in my sweater. A little uncomfortable sometimes, but you get used to it.

Halloween and Hansenfest

This past weekend was Halloween, which is not traditional in Germany, but is steadily developing. More traditional in Wesel is the Hansenfest in the Innenstaadt.

A little bit of background: In the Middle Ages, some of the countries in Europe founded the Hansen League. It was a way to set up trade routes between towns, cities, and states. The arrival of merchants every year in town was always a cause for celebration. These festivals in Germany are the Hansenfests.

Imagine the Renaissance fair, except based a couple hundred years earlier. That's what it looked like walking around the booths.

Many people were dressed up in Medieval costume. There was a lord and lady walking around the area very slowly and bowing or curtsying every time they caught someone staring at them or taking pictures.

There were also artisans doing traditional metalwork, woodwork, weaving, and a variety of other crafts. They were fascinating to watch. Many of their contraptions seem simple enough to make and work, but to produce such incredible outcomes is unbelievable.

About half of the booths were actually advertisements to visit different German states or Holland or Poland. One man in traditional Polish dress playing a humongous accordian gave Natasha, Katri, and I free pencils (big colored pencils). He knew some Russian songs, and Natasha got to sing along.

On one end of the Innenstaadt was a stage where a minstrel group performed. How do you keep 3 old-fashioned bagpipes in tune? Well, you don't. They did make it sound good, though. They taught Katri's host dad how to dance old folk dances, too, courtesy of Natasha. We thought it was a good laugh.

American Food

There's nothing like a foreign flavor, or a taste of home. It's been two months in Germany, and I have made a total of 4 dishes from home.

My second week here I made my mom's secret (now not so secret) Rosemary's Rosemary Chicken recipe. Actually, I think it was originally my grandma's chicken recipe, and perhaps it originated long before that. But that's not the point.

Rosemary Chicken is my favorite food at home, and I wanted to do it justice. It took awhile to explain to Jutta and Stephan that I wanted the leg of the chicken with the thigh attatched. It was a very lucky chance that I actually got to use the part of the chicken I wanted. Jutta bought me only legs, but she had also bought the combination leg and thigh to freeze for another meal.

Jutta also managed to find some fresh rosemary. It was more of a potted plant, and I think I used the entire thing. They had steak seasoning as well, which made me very happy (I was very happy that night).

In the end the chicken turned out very good. It tasted almost as good as mom's.

During the first month we also managed to get our hands on some cheddar cheese at a market in Wesel. Germany has a lot of cheese, from France and Switzerland, most of which I don't like that much. But cheddar cheese is extremely rare and a lot more expensive, because it must come from the US or England. This particular small block of cheese came from England, and it was delicious.

On a particularly rainy day, I made Maccheroni and Cheese with it. Maccheroni was another one of those foods difficult to explain. Jutta and Stephan had about 5 types of noodles called "maccheroni" but they looked nothing like the maccheroni noodles my family, at least, uses in Maccheroni and Cheese. Federico, the AFSer from Italia, explained it to me later. Apparently 80% of noodles are maccheroni, the smaller type of noodle. I never knew that. I learn something new every day here.

The maccheroni was delicious. The cheddar cheese was marvelous. Lucky Stephan doesn't like cheese, so I got to eat 3 big platefuls of it.

I also made some not-so-cheesy Potato Cheese Soup with the rest of my lovely cheese. Stephan actually ate some this time, and even he thought it was delicious. It turned out a tad salty, but it was still edible.

This last week was chocolate chip cookies. Those turned out nothing like back home, and I think it was because of the brown sugar. They were way too sweet than normal, because the sugar grains were so much bigger and didn't have as much molasses as ours. No matter, though. I gave some to the neighbors to try, and they passed the test.

Normally, though, we eat German food (hmm...wonder why). Sometimes Jutta will make something Austrian, or Italian, but not too often. We eat most meals with some form of potatoes, or kohl, or both. We do eat a fair amount of wurst, but not so much as the stereotypes hold. I've eaten schnitzel here perhaps 3 times, bratwurst maybe a tad more often. Bratwurst is like the hamburger here. At every market or social function in the city people will sell bratwurst, and that's when we eat it.

Today was another feiertag (holiday) for NRW. Yesterday was also a holday, but it's one of the ones that the school gets to decide, and my school decided to have it yesterday to avoid the annoying Veterans Day type event. Some German states had yesterday off for religious reasons, apparently (e.g., Thuringen and Sachson) but not NRW. Anyway, I rode down to Sanja's host family's house for an impromptu visit (only the second time I've done that with an AFSer). Her host mom had some leftover Kurbiss Suppe which she had made in celebration of Halloween. I cannot express how good it was. Then again, how many times in my life have I eaten soup with pumpkin in it?