Catching Up

Two weekends ago (was it really two weekends ago already?) had a different event on every night. Friday Alydia and I went downtown to the Christmas market. Every German town has their own Christmas market. It's wonderful and beautiful, and they sell a bunch of homemade things like ornaments and snow globes and those awesome little houses that you can put either candles or electric lights in. They also have food, mostly crepes, potato pancakes, and, of course, wurst, and they have a carousel. The one and only downside is that it's nearly impossible to find non-alcoholic beverages for sale. So, enjoy the crepes, enjoy the display of craftsmanship, but bring your own water. I forgot my camera on Friday, but Alydia and I are planning to go back (hopefully tomorrow) to make a few purchases, eat something yummy, and enjoy the carousel. Saturday of said weekend I enjoyed yet another Thanksgiving with one of my new friends who lives here in Trier. It was also vegetarian, and also very yummy. And then, last of all, Sunday I traveled to Luxembourg. I traveled with a group of friends, and we did a relatively quick tour of the city and the Christmas market. The reason it was so quick is because we got rained out, which was unfortunate, but I did manage to walk away with a bunch of nice pictures and having seen some amazing things. Top on that list was a group of live performers playing at the Christmas market in Luxembourg. It was a trio of accordion players from Moscow who played one of Mozart's Symphonies. I was able to get really close to the stage and make a 2.30 minute recording that I'm eager to share. 

The following week Alydia and I went to a Secret Santa party where Alydia received her first big Barbie. Two of my friends gave her a Ballerina Barbie and a chocolate Santa Claus! It was just as much a surprise to me as it was to her, and the doll hasn't left her side since. It came with us to the grocery store the next morning. The party overall was a lot of fun. We made waffles, and a friend of mine from Japan made rice balls that were absolutely delicious! The other exciting thing that happened that week is that Alydia and I both got our temporary visas, so now we're officially allowed to stay in the country until the end of July. 

Both last week and this week we had a movie night at my apartment. First was Finding Neverland, in German with subtitles. It had been a long time since I had seen that movie, and it was good to watch it again. It was also interesting to a) see how they had translated it, since I knew what was actually said, and b) to notice the differences between the voice dubbing and subtitles. With German films there's always a difference because the spoken language takes so much longer than the written one. This does not bode well for the paper I have due next week. And the second movie we watched, in honor of the holidays, was Love, Actually. I had never seen it before, and I must say I enjoyed it. This one was in English, with subtitles for those who weren't native speakers, and was thoroughly enjoyable. A friend brought some Christmas cookies, and we were a happy bunch. The only problem was getting up for school the next morning... we obviously had to wait until Alydia was in bed to watch it, which made it a late night for all of us, but well worth it. I'm just glad I didn't have an 8:00! We've talked about continuing this weekly movie-night tradition, which I am all for. Being with friends is always fun, and getting to watch new movies (especially in German) has to be good for my language skills. 

Tomorrow Alydia and I are going back to Luxembourg. There's a St. Lucia celebration in town, which I'm excited to see!! The St. Lucia celebration takes places from the night of the 12th to the morning of the 13th --an all night celebration. But to kick it off, there's a parade through the street at 5. There's a girl, a young girl, dressed in white with a wreath of candles on her head who leads the parade and hands out sweets to children. And I've wanted to see (ok, ok, be *in*) one since I read about it in an American Girl Doll book when I was 7. And after that we're meeting a family that knows my boyfriend's family. More specifically, the dad was an exchange student who was hosted by my boyfriend's grandparents while his dad was in high school. So that'll be fun. We've been invited to dinner, and I haven't had a real home-cooked meal by a mom since, you know, September. So that'll be fun around the holidays. 

Alydia's been learning so much. I think she's even learning more than she's letting me know about. She's completely replaced the word "no" in her vocabulary with "nein", and has started counting in German and English interchangeably. At the Secret Santa party Alydia was asked if she knew any words in German. She nodded and said "ich", which means "I". I had never heard her use this word before! So it's been an exciting experience for me, at least. And her school continues to do fun things. Last Friday they had a visit from St. Nikolaus, who handed out treats that they collected in cans decorated to look like Santa Clauses. 

One more week of classes, which will be busy. 3 presentations and a paper --and this isn't exams? But after that there's a two week break, which will be absolutely lovely!!