Lunch Adventures, Hiking, Christmas Markets, PHOTO'S, VIDEO'S and much much more!!!

Sorry, I know it’s been awhile reader. I’ve got tons of pictures for you this time, so I hope waiting for this entry was worth it!! (I will put up some pictures of some of my art and the wire art thingys next time Deniege! My next blog will be about the art classes I promise!!) I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately so I wanted to get some of them on my blog now.

On Sunday I saw Stephan again. We went to the Rotenburg Christmas Market and talked it was nice to see him again. We also spent some time with Marion and Lutz. That day, I took some pretty cool pictures which I think captured the Christmas Market in Rotenburg pretty good. So I hope you can feel like you were there too!

That evening I sang some German Christmas songs with my host family and their neighbours. Many of you who know me pretty well know that I can’t really sing. Well I can, but not well. LOL And of course the neighbours had voices like angels. They had a amazing voices. I was sitting by all of them so I couldn’t really hear the Wagner’s. Anyways, it was fun, but my voice was a bit strained afterwards. I didn’t recognize any of the songs, although some of them were quite pretty. Insanely high, but pretty!!

I was finally able to get my camera this week!! Woohoo!! So I picked that up and I’ve been snapping pictures ever since!

I have a pretty funny story from last Thursday. I had a few free classes after lunch before I went to my Theatre Group so I decided to grab a bite to eat in town. I returned to Aladin’s the scene of the crazy garlic incident and I knew that I couldn’t buy a doner, because I wouldn’t have time to brush my teeth like crazy before Drama. So what’s a hungry Canadian exchange student to do? Well clearly order pasta! So I did just that. The same lady was there and her accent was just as noticeable this time. After I ordered she asked me something which I didn’t understand and I asked her to repeat it. I didn’t understand the next time and I figured it was just something to do with my pasta. Like do you want this or this. So I figured she was just giving me an option. So I told her the first one.

What I later figured out is she asked if I wanted to stay and eat or to go. I’d said to go. Well that wasn’t such a big deal. I would have rather stayed, but no harm done. Well there was one slight problem. After I left I realized she hadn’t given me a fork. OH BOY. I was pretty hungry…so I went into a small grocery store near by looking to see if I could find some plastic forks or something. Ya I know it was a long shot, but what else was I suppose to do?? Needless to say nothing there and nothing in the other small grocery store I tried.

I did how ever find baby spoons. Now I considered buying a baby spoon to eat my pasta, but I just couldn’t do it. I thought oh man they are going to think I have a kid or I’m pregnant or something and I’m so young. It’s a small town…ya da ya da…So I convinced myself not to do it. Besides those baby spoons were quite expensive! They come in a pack of two and are about 8 bucks Canadian!

So I wandered over to the Christmas Market which happened to be open over the lunch hour and I looked to see if I could find the little forks you use when you eat your sausages. Well I couldn’t find those either, but I did end of finding a thick plastic stick thing that I used to jab at my stuffed pasta. I ended up getting sauce over my jacket, because I ate as I walked. So it was kind of funny. I felt like a New Yorker. Someone who has no time to sit down to eat, so they eat while they walk.

I walked to the library at the stories don’t end there! So I go to the Library pick out some DVD’s and grab an English book. I don’t read a lot, but I read in English when my brain is so fryed from German that I can’t think straight. At the counter I explained to the clerk, in German of course, that my address had changed. She wanted some sort of proof that it had changed. (Like a bank statement or something.) Well I didn’t have anything like that. I told her my situation that I was an exchange student and I had switched families. Well that was no big deal she believed me and that was that. Thank goodness!!

Then another clerk asks me if I’m from Canada. I think my jaw hit the floor. How did he know that?? I’ve only been in here once or twice. As I left it was really cute, he said ‘I hope you have a nice day’ in English.

Now I know when I will be performing in our school play. We will be performing in the middle of March. I have some pretty intense rehearsals before Christmas and then we don’t rehearse over Christmas break.

On Saturday I went to Nürnberg with my 3rd host family to visit the Nürnberg Christmas Market which just so happens to be the most famous Christmas Market in Germany. BAH!! I was so excited. Renato came with us too. (He’s living with them right now.) First of all we went on a tour of the city which ended up being a bit of a let down for all of us. The tour guide spoke in really strange German so Renato and I understood practically nothing and my 3rd guest family had a hard time understanding him. After almost 2 hours of listening to him talk outside, it was a bit chilly, we went to this Bratwurst house and ate a very traditional German meal of Bratwursts (a type of sausage), sour crowte, potatoe salad, and pretzels.

Then I was set free to look around the Christmas market. Pretty excellent!! I bought a few really cool souvenirs. I haven’t taken pictures of them yet so I’ll wait until next time to explain them and I will include pictures!!

Yesterday, my host family took Renato and I on a small hike to the place where the old castle of Rotenburg once was. There are some ruins, but almost nothing is let there. We had a great time!! The sun was out and the sky was bluer than I have seen it in ages. Sometimes I really am starving for a vast blue Albertan sky.

After looking at the castle we hiked to a little restaurant on the mountain and had some traditional sausages, mustard, bread, and pickles. The German’s really know how to make sausages and their mustard is soo much better than anything we have in Canada.

Renato lost his camera in the Frankfurt rive (I know…) so I let him go crazy taking pictures. The landscape, for me, wasn’t so unusual, but to him it was. So it took a lot of pictures and after looking at them today, he took some gorgeous shots.
Now I’ll explain briefly some of these pictures and yes I also have a few short videos so you can really feel like you were at a German Christmas market!!! ENJOY!!

Above is what remains of one of the towers of the Rotenburg Castle!

This is Renato from Brasil.
You are looking at the biggest Pyramiden in Germany. I KNOW!! It's in Rotenburg! Go figure! It is really impressive. You can buy little Pyramiden and they tend to be made of wood. They are a common Christmas decoration. There are candels around it a wind mill like thing on the top. When the candels are lit the middle begins to rotate and the wind mill thing turns. It is sooo cool! I bought one! You'll see pictures next time!

You can see some of the figures!

Here are some more!

At these Christmas Markets there are also small rides and things for kids.

Wood handcrafted decorations are quite typical. So these stands are quite common at these markets.
Here I am in Nürnberg with my new scarf!! I love it!!! Here are also my gloves from EDIT which are super warm and comfy!


Welcome to my pictures of the Nürnberg Christmas Market!


Here it is during the day. It's more impressive at night!

Here is a typical stand with lots of wooden decorations and ornaments.

Here is the Nürnberg Pyramiden. Pretty tiny compared to ours in Rotenburg I know!!

The following 3 videos can hopefully give you a better impression about what the Christmas marekts are like. I hope you enjoy it!!