The Wonder of Weinachten

Christmas in Germany is a big deal. All the shops start only selling xmas paraphernalia, all the food being sold is wrapped up festively and all the shop windows decorate their displays with some sort of fake snow base with festively dressed mannequins. Its pretty cool and spirited… I've quite enjoyed getting all involved, and found these little gems…

If you didn't know, the Teddy Bear was "invented" in germany, and also so was the Gummy bear…. and when its christmas, they too decided to get in on the fun and turn their gummy bear product into "Weihnachtsbären" = Christmas bear.

Somewhere on the way, I think they messed up the mould with "Gremlin Bear" and came up with millions of little scary gummy things that I'm sure are planning on haunting me in my dreams tonight.

Another slightly strangely spun christmas was in the below shop window…. which I found rather un-PC…. this half naked gentleman perched in the window has been decked out in a burbury scarf, fox fur hat, selling pipes and holding a digital photo frame…

Lucky for us, with all the other less strange decorations, yummy food, drinks and merryment, we got a 15cm dumping of snow last night and looks like we are heading for a white xmas!

Very white city

Outdoor table tennis anyone?

Being merry in the snow at xmas markets with my boyfriends parents

PS. I also learnt that the song "O Tannenbaum" - means "Oh Fir Tree"! (has a better ring to it in German I see!)

On the home stretch - kinda

So in a few weeks we plan to head back to Australia for a month. I plan to get some sunshine (which was poorly missing from Vancouvers' summer this year), rest my brain (from previous blog - self inflicted alzheimers) and adjust to driving on the left side of the road.

In preparation for the sun, I have been thinking about why people live in the cold. Many people prefer the colder weather, but countries that get anything below 5 degrees for weeks on end, I have little understanding why the place was colonised in the first place, let alone kept functioning for years.

So far, I've figured out your skin turns into snakes skin, your eyes dry out, you lack vitamin D, you get dark circles under your eyes from having to wake up in pitch black the morning (which feels like midnight), you aren't allowed any fashion - and if you try, you either freeze or its covered by layers of coats, hair styling goes out the window with constant use of beenies/toques/hats and we all get fat due to lack of activity outside the household.

On the plus side when its cold, you can ski, spend copious amounts of time reading and watching TV, its the only time you get to enjoy HOT red wine (called Glüewein), you usually have it as a good excuse to stay in bed, and lastly, if you do get fat, you can cover it up with puffy winter clothes pretending its just fabric padding.

I still don't think these things can make up for feeling like your going to freeze to death 60% of the time so I'm going to invest more time trying to figure out why the Germans (and really anyone from the north of the northern hemisphere) likes coping with this.

But! Before all these investigations and going to Australia - there is an Austria ski trip & xmas Germany style - here I come!

Below is a crappy picture of a very fancy xmas tree I found at a christmas market - if you look closely, you can see it is self snowing!!!

Ich habe vergessen… (I have forgotten….)

It seems with the 'pro's of learning a new language full time (culturing, brain exercise, expanding the mind and of course being able to function in Germany society!) comes also with less enjoyable cons. There is the permanent tiredness, constant dread of homework, repetition of work that seems like child's work but some reason you can't even understand what a 2yr old can… Then there is the worst, memory loss.

I have never been known to be to irresponsible (teenage years excluded) and have never been described as aloof or forgetful - yet I seem to have delved into the dimension of accidental Alzheimer's whilst learning a language (might I add first named by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer).

Never in my life have I lost a wallet or keys… yet in the past two months of German learning I have forgotten/lost:

My German bank account pin number

Both my Canadian pin numbers

My handbag

My mobile phone

Left my handbag at a restaurant

Anything my boy asks me to bring when I meet him after work (receipts to return items, shopping lists, measurements for furniture items, gift vouchers).

Useful information like: what time your friend arrives into the airport to pick them up

And sometimes (yes, more than before!) how to speak english properly.

It seems the capacity to take in a certain amount of new information daily has reached its max when learning a language and carrying out homework tasks is the extent of what output my brain can do.

I have officially found a new patience for old people who forget things and genuinely don't know how and are confused as to why. So until I get a little more relaxed with this whole brain exercise with language thing, feel free to call me Nanna, or at least forgive me if I've temporarily forgotten who you are!

Here is what I haven't forgotten - more pictures!

walking through the streets, i found a street filled with rose petals leading up to this doorway (if you look closely), awwwwwww

coolest outside fireplace design!

looking up at the castle from the christmas markets

pretty snow on grasslands

autumn (leaves bottom of photo) meet winter (snow on mountain far at the back)

cute snowy streets

over the Neckar River

looking over the castle to the city

us chubby and slightly cold snowmen