Der Weihnachtsmann kommt
For Christmas I divided my time among three families here in the Altes Lager area (and I was even extended 2 extra invitations that I could not take up) The first hint that Christmas was coming up was the Diakonie Office Christmas party. This involved a nice meal, a little German speaking, The 12 Days of Christmas a la Gary, Tim and Keith (in English), and a sneaky Santa style gift exchange. Now, everytime I have done the sneaky Santa game it has been a time to give Gag gifts, so I just assumed that it was also the same here. My present was a rubber duckie key chain. As the gift exchange begain, I noticed that all the presents were in fact quite nice. This made me nervous. In the end I was given my own gift back, either as an act of mercy or belittlment, I can not be sure. But I was relieved.
Then I spent Christmas Eve with Jake and Dorothy, where we ate Christmas Tacos (and I am not complaining there, it is a rare dish in Germany, and one I enjoy) and talked about how Christmas goes down at my place. On Christmas day I went for lunch to Ina Albers’ house. Ina works sometimes at the office in Altes Lager, and is one of the people I talk to on a fairly regular basis. I went there for lunch, and we had Duck, Goose and potatoes made in every form imaginable. It was a good lunch. Then we went on a walk which went on for about 4 hours. Then I had a long conversation with Ina’s husband, who happens to speak english very well. We had a good conversation about life, which is something I hadn’t really discussed with a German before, so it was a fun conversation. After that I played Fußball with the Albers’ son and I started practicing my German with him. Kids I can usually understand no problem (their son is probably about 4 or 5). We got through a couple of general comments, and then he asked me if I was leaving yet, but I think with the air of ‚Do you have to go home soon?’ I tried to ask him if he wanted me to leave now, but I couldn’t figure out how to ask the right way, and after my third try he said ‚Ich verstehe nicht, dein Deutsch ist anders als mein.’ (I don’t understand, your German is different than mine.) It was a pretty cute thing to say. Then I drove home (around 8:30) and called my family, which was nice as I got to talk to not only my parents but also my brothers.
The day after Christmas (which here is a holiday, called the 2nd Christmas Day) I spent with Familie Förster, who I lived with for a week upon arrival to Germany. Keeping in tradition, I arrived a good deal late. I was under the impression that it wasn’t going to be anything special, but it turned out to be a dinner with the whole family. But I wasn’t late on purpose, my laptop, which served also as a clock, happened to break that day (which stinks), so I wasn’t really sure about what time it was. (The next day I borrowed a clock from my buddy Walde, which I still use, he said I could keep it.) It was also a good time, and we talked for awhile in German, which was difficult (I attempted deep conversation about how work was going) but it is always nice to spend time with the Försters. (We affectionatly refer to Frau Förster as Mom and she calls us her Children.) It was fun.
For Christmas I divided my time among three families here in the Altes Lager area (and I was even extended 2 extra invitations that I could not take up) The first hint that Christmas was coming up was the Diakonie Office Christmas party. This involved a nice meal, a little German speaking, The 12 Days of Christmas a la Gary, Tim and Keith (in English), and a sneaky Santa style gift exchange. Now, everytime I have done the sneaky Santa game it has been a time to give Gag gifts, so I just assumed that it was also the same here. My present was a rubber duckie key chain. As the gift exchange begain, I noticed that all the presents were in fact quite nice. This made me nervous. In the end I was given my own gift back, either as an act of mercy or belittlment, I can not be sure. But I was relieved.
Then I spent Christmas Eve with Jake and Dorothy, where we ate Christmas Tacos (and I am not complaining there, it is a rare dish in Germany, and one I enjoy) and talked about how Christmas goes down at my place. On Christmas day I went for lunch to Ina Albers’ house. Ina works sometimes at the office in Altes Lager, and is one of the people I talk to on a fairly regular basis. I went there for lunch, and we had Duck, Goose and potatoes made in every form imaginable. It was a good lunch. Then we went on a walk which went on for about 4 hours. Then I had a long conversation with Ina’s husband, who happens to speak english very well. We had a good conversation about life, which is something I hadn’t really discussed with a German before, so it was a fun conversation. After that I played Fußball with the Albers’ son and I started practicing my German with him. Kids I can usually understand no problem (their son is probably about 4 or 5). We got through a couple of general comments, and then he asked me if I was leaving yet, but I think with the air of ‚Do you have to go home soon?’ I tried to ask him if he wanted me to leave now, but I couldn’t figure out how to ask the right way, and after my third try he said ‚Ich verstehe nicht, dein Deutsch ist anders als mein.’ (I don’t understand, your German is different than mine.) It was a pretty cute thing to say. Then I drove home (around 8:30) and called my family, which was nice as I got to talk to not only my parents but also my brothers.
The day after Christmas (which here is a holiday, called the 2nd Christmas Day) I spent with Familie Förster, who I lived with for a week upon arrival to Germany. Keeping in tradition, I arrived a good deal late. I was under the impression that it wasn’t going to be anything special, but it turned out to be a dinner with the whole family. But I wasn’t late on purpose, my laptop, which served also as a clock, happened to break that day (which stinks), so I wasn’t really sure about what time it was. (The next day I borrowed a clock from my buddy Walde, which I still use, he said I could keep it.) It was also a good time, and we talked for awhile in German, which was difficult (I attempted deep conversation about how work was going) but it is always nice to spend time with the Försters. (We affectionatly refer to Frau Förster as Mom and she calls us her Children.) It was fun.
posted by Keith @ 9:37 PM
1 Comments:
It sounds like you had a good Christmas! I am glad.
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