Weihnachten! (Christmas is in the air!)

Weihnachten!

Christmas, that magical time of the year! The snow falling across the lawn, the old christmas music on the radio, and the candles burning 'o so bright on the Christmas trees. Wait. Did I say candles burning on the Christmas tree?!?!? I did indeed! 



Candles! Something I have only heard about in christmas specials on TV!
It was the real deal. Of course it was a little dangerous, but I was told by my host parents that they have never EVER seen a Christmas tree (or Tannenbaum) spontaniously combust into a pillar of flames. It does not happen (apparently). Danger aside, a Deutsche Tannenbaum is an extremely relaxing and even spiritual image. The illumination of the candles flickering in the halflight of the room is almost hypnotic. The way the shadows move with the Candles is something that can never be captured by the traditional north american electric lights. 

There were also electric lights, so that the candles were only burning in the evenings when the family was there, and the christmas tree is living, not plastic. I have been told there are also many families with plastic trees, but the traditional tree is living, almost exactly the same situation as the traditional Canadian christmas, both with plastic and living trees. But this year instead of going to a parking lot outside of a store that sells trees, I went with my host family to a 'Christmas tree forest', and we cut down three trees for each of the homes (my host aunt and uncle, and grandparents). It was a thrilling experience, because we first had to hunt for the best trees. So we all split up and started walking through this little forest, looking for a tree that isn't to small, but isn't too big (it was actually quite challenging). And when we finally found a tree we wanted, three people would stand next to it, one with a handsaw and two bracing the tree for when it comes free from the cut.

When we were finished with cutting our trees, we hauled them to the back of a cart attached to a car, and then after securing the three trees with ropes, we drove to each of the three houses and dropped off the christmas trees. 

The German traditions are very similar to the traditions my family has in Canada. The season is all about family, and much of the holiday time was spent at the different houses of my extended host family. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed just sitting together inside while it was cold out, drinking tea and eating cookies (German Christmas cookies are great!). 

A Change in the traditions is the actual day of Christmas. In Canada, we celebrate on the 25th of December, but in Germany it is one day earlier, on the 24th! And that is not all that is different; instead of opening presents as soon as you wake up in the morning, presents are instead opened in the evening, after going to the local church. My family and I were in the church in the evening, and we arrived home a little after it was dark. My host parents made my sister, my oma, and me wait outside in the hallway while 'DerWeihnachten Mann' was in the room, delivering presents. At the ring of a tiny hand ball, we were able to spring into the rooms, to find new presents and gifts tucked under the tree. We then started to take turns un wrapping presents and giving thanks, the typical christmas atmosphere all around. I had recieved a packet from home, and inside were treats and candies from Canada, and little personal objects to remind me of my family who sent the gifts... and of course CANADIAN MAPLE COOKIES!!! 

I recieved an amazing badminton racket from my family, as well as a Hobbit calender from my host sister.

I had a fantastic and wonderful Christmas in Germany, and I hope everyone enjoyed the season wherever they may be! And I hope one day you will be able to experience a German  Weihnachten as wonderfully as I have!

Change - An Introduction

 -This is the official start of my blog for the last half of my exchange. 

The very fact of this blog makes me sad that so much time has flown by, and that my year is already half finished. But by no means does that mean my year has been half wasted. I have grown more than I could ever have had I remained at home, and this exchange has been the single most important event in my life concerning my development as person in general. I have seen, experienced, and lived through so many different events from my time here in wonderful Germany that it would have been impossible for me to remain an unchanged person. The fact that I have changed (in my opinion) is something great, because it entails that I have learnt, grown, and adapted to life. Everything changes, it is a fact of life.

-So, where have I been all of this time?

 I am sorry for the long delay of my blog, there is no excuse for not maintaining it. To be completely honest I am every time afraid (I don't really know which word to use in this context) to write in my blog, so I have been always pushing it a little farther back. 'I'll do it tommorow, or the next day, maybe next week' because it reminds me just how fast everything is flying by while I am here on exchange. I am loving everyday, and am experiencing so much, making sure to take pictures, but to sit down and write about what I had done makes me unexplainably sad (which I have just attempted to explain). But now I know I can not keep running from this blog, and so I am now running towards it (so to speak).

-Englisch, with a c. 

The mother language of every exchange student is the bane of the exchange year. The more immersed you are in you host language, the better your exchange. The more you use english, the worse off you are. Sounds simple right? Just tune out englisch, you are not even in a English country. Factually, you could go the entire year in Germany speaking only english. Almost everyone in Germany knows a little bit of english, and many are fluent. Most of the music on the radio is english. English is everywhere, and to be able to completely remove it I would frankly have to sew my ears shut. It is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done, and I have to say that I have not been able to completely remove english, it is a fact. Sometimes I need english to keep me sane, and I think that is okay, but too much is bad. Sometimes you need a little bit of your mother language to keep you balanced, but you need to be carefull not to overtip. And even when you try speaking German, where ever you may be, some people would insist on trying their english. It is the most frustrating occurance in my entire exchange year. If you walk into a store, or a restaurant and speak in German (with my apparently think accent, so I have been told), the clerk or server or whomever will switch to english. And then I say, 'Oh, no thanks, German is okay (In German) and then 2 sentences later in German and then BAM. English again. This can repeat up to 30 times a day, sometimes 5 times in a conversation, while I have been speaking in German. One of the greatest things I love in Germany is the saviours that come to my aid and say. 'Stop speaking english, he's here to learn German'. It is a great feeling to have someone help you out. They have also helped me, because sometimes I do, when my concentration lapses or because I am simply to frustrated or unable to express myself, or feel simply dumb because I can comprehend but not answer, switch to english and they remind me to keep with german (in a nice way) and everything begins to work out.

-An End to An Intro

I will be continuing my posts about my year, covering Christmas, New Years, Sports, Youth Groups, and all the madness in between that is my life. I apologize before hand for my slightly less than stellar english (which is full of mistakes I am sure) but I have been living and thinking in German, so even in writing this blog, sometimes I think of the German word before the English even comes to me. I am even starting to forget vocabulary. Maybe that is a good sign. Once again I look forward to sharing my adventures with you, and hope that you enjoy my blog. Maybe reading about how I have changed will help change something in you.