Vesele Vanoce!

That's Czech for Merry Christmas! I am taking a break from the "meanness" of the Germans and spending my Christmas break in the Czech Republic.

Here are some highlights so far (I will elaborate and add photos later):
-2 hours in Prague. I had about two hours between my train to Prague and my bus to Brno, so I decided to do some sightseeing while lugging around my bag. In my 2 hours, I took 90 pictures, which I think is pretty impressive. Prague is really beautiful and we are going to be making a trip there tomorrow to do the city some justice.

-the refilling cookie plate. I am staying with Alice, a Smith friend, and her mother seems to be worried that we are not going to have enough to eat. There is a plate with delicious Czech cookies and when it gets empty, her mom comes to refill it. She always putting some kind of food in front of us.

-the snowy hike of death. We went on a hike up to a church on top of a mountain. It was icy and treacherous, but a lot of fun.

-various forms of hot wine. I am not sure why Americans haven't hopped on this trend. Weihnachtsmarkt Glühwein is not the best tasting stuff in the world, but homemade is really tasty.

Viva Colonia!

Last weekend I made the trip to Köln (or Cologne, as you Amerikans call it). Köln is famous for a few things--its cathedral, its beer, and being colonial, among others. I met up with Matt, another Fulbrighter, to check out the Dom during a Sunday mass. The Kölner Dom is pretty amazing--I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area. If you choose to visit during mass and would like a good seat, I recommend NOT getting there 5 minutes before it starts





When I couldn't understand the sermon because German is hard to understand with an echo (and in general) and also because my kirchliche Wortschatz--church vocab--is lacking, I stared at the pretty colors cast on the wall (above) by one of the stained glass windows (below).

The Dom is huge. It's really hard to capture the scale and beauty of it (especially with my lack of skill as a photographer). After hanging out for a little bit, we were kicked out before the next mass by a guy in a red robe who said something about 'no visit time now.' I forget exactly what he said, but it was cute.

We then headed out to the Weihnachtmarkt next to the Dom. Köln has several Weihnachtsmärkte scattered around the city, connected by this train, which costs 5 Euros. As you may expect, Matty and I did not choose to take the train.

The second Weihnachtmarkt we visited featured swinging gnomes (Heinzelmännchen).

The Markt der Engel (Market of the Angels) featured stars in the trees. I was pretty obsessed with the stars in the trees. Nice touch, Köln, nice touch.

Herzlichen Glückwünsch, Flocke! (Happy Birthday!)

Today is Flocke the little polar bear's first birthday!
Unbeknownst to some of you, I am obsessed with small bears. Flocke was rescued from her mother, who tried to eat her. Knut is the other German polar bear who was saved from his own mother and raised by humans. I think it is not a coincidence that this happens to German polar bear cubs. Gemeine deutsche Mutterbärinnen.

For more info on Flocke:
http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/eisbaer/bilder.html

Sonderbare Deutschen (Weird Germans)

The Fulbright Program is all about cultural exchange. I've gotten to experience lots of culture--eating pig blood, making my own lantern to march in the St. Martin's Parade, receiving gummy bears in my shoes on Nikolaustag. All very cool. I've also gotten to experience what the German people are like. And they are weird.

Here is a list of the weird things Germans like:

1. Homöopathie--homeopathy.

Homeopathy is apparently very popular in rural North Rhine-Westfalia. If you're not sure what homeopathy is, let me fill you in on some of the details. Homeopaths believe that when a sick person takes a substance that induces the symptoms of their sickness in a healthy person, the symptons will go away. So for example, if I take something and it gives me headaches, that medicine would be perfect for someone who already has headaches. What is weirder is that when less of a substance is ingested, the healing effects are stronger. Homeopathy has the strongest effects when it is so diluted that there is literally nothing left of the substance in the dose. WHA?!? Hitting the bottle the remedy is in also somehow varies the potency. There is no chemical explanation.

Even the animals get homeopathic treatments around here. The arme Katze (poor cat) has homeopathic remedies forced down her throat with a syringe. We are going to go live under the bridge together.

I have what I call my Homöopathie Gesicht--homeopathy face--which I make as I observe the preparation of homeopathic remedies. You are not allowed to think bad thoughts as you take your homeopathic remedy--that's smirkworthy, oder? I thought medicine worked because the small molecules interacted with various enzymes...but maybe things are different in Germany..


2. Kopfkratzers--head scratching instruments
So head scratching devices are not THAT bizarre. We probably have them in Amerika too. But this picture from the packaging and ads for the Bokoma original Kopfkratzer is just bizarre.
a. The thing's barely touching her head. b. That is one of the most fake facial expressions I have ever seen.

Also bizarre is the fact that last night there was a box of ten Kopfkratzers sitting on the dining room floor, so that many Germans (and a few Dutch) can receive them for Christmas, further perpetuating the weirdness.

3. Reden mit Tieren--talking to animals

Something Claudia brought to my attention on my first day here was how much they talk to the pets. At first, I thought, "Okay, everyone talks to pets a little bit. That's not TOOO weird..." But I underestimated how much the Germans talk to their pets. It is a lot. I do not understand what the animals say...maybe they are speaking Cat German (Kateutsch...as incomprehensible as Bayerisch or Kölsch), but Roger and Claudia seem to have meaningful discussions with the animals.

4. Spiele--games (weird games, obvi)

Germans aren't serious and mean all the time. It's surprising, but sometimes they even laugh, smile, or play games. They even have a word for joke (der Witz). Who knew? When Germans play games, they are weird (they being both the games and the Germans). Zum Beispiel: Es war einmal... Once Upon a Time, a game where you have to tell a fairy tale with cards. Actually the game is not that weird. I was just grumpy because they made me speak German (I'd rather speak Denglisch...eine Sprache that I've totally beherrsched...a language I've totally mastered.) and also because I didn't win. I like to win.

Obviously Americans do weird things, too, like eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, answer the phone by saying hello, and sing songs with German prepositions. If you'd like to read about the weird things I do, check out Claudia's blog, Host Family.

Cooking, American-Style

This week has been a busy week for cooking, due in part to a desire to avoid working on graduate school applications. First, I made my squash ravioli on Monday. Needing to use the rest of the squash puree, I decided to make butternut squash-apple soup.

Mmmm...Vegetables

Medicat helped by ravenously licking out the leftover squash puree. Matt, we challenge you to explain this cat's love for all things not meaty. A co-evolution of Americans who cook squash and German house cats? Doubtful.

The finished product. Pretty delicious.

My next cooking project for the week was Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to forego the turkey, since I'll be eating turkey this weekend, as well as the pumpkin pie, since we'd already eaten squash twice this week. Also, the sides are really the best part anyways, in my opinion. I ended up making cornbread, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, and green bean casserole (Grüne Böhne Auflauf).

You may be wondering what those five random circle on top of the casserole are. Well, those were my attempt at homemade french fried onions. The canned version don't exist in Germany and Alton Brown's version called for panko breadcrumbs, which also do not exist in Germany. I used some German breadcrumbs and then proceeded to burn the onions (they burned before the allotted time), except for the onions which you see in the picture. It tasted good, despite the lack of onion-ness.

Germans wondering what the heck this strange American food is/trying to convince the cat to look up for the picture.

Frohe Erntedankfest! (Happy Thanksgiving!)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. There is football, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, my wonderfully "unique" family. I also like the idea behind the holiday. A day to sit back with people you care about and be grateful for what you have. That is a pretty cool concept and something that we don't do enough.

However, today doesn't feel anything like Thanksgiving. There's no football, no delicious smells coming from the kitchen, no pumpkin pie, no fake boxing with the Gramps. No intense displays of affection from Geoff and Mike--I'm looking forward to a rib-crushing hug from Mikey upon my return. It makes me a little sad to be in lab and not to have anyone realize that this is not just a day like any other.

Despite the lack of Erntedankfest Stimme (Thanksgiving spirit), I can't help feeling blessed and thankful. I have turkeyless Thanksgiving to look forward to tonight, and Thanksgiving part two to look forward to this weekend. Also, I am getting paid by both the American AND German governments to live here for a year and do some chemistry. That is pretty awesome. I am thankful for all of my family members, be they biological, surrogate, American, German, or adopted Chinese. Frohe Erntedankfest, guys!