It's Finally Here!

This just in, ladies and gentlemen, Gomaringen has snow! The town continues as usual but now under a beautiful blanket of white. The snow brings with an unmistakable winter spirit that brings the children rushing out into the bitter cold, bundled by very experienced mothers, and before long snowmen, snow angels, and the remains of countless snow balls are expected to be found scattered throughout the town. This long awaited season of winter isn't something unusual for the citizens of Gomaringen, however, there have been unconfirmed reports and sightings of a teenage American girl exhibiting an abnormal amount of excitement and as one individual put it, "freaking out about the snow". More to come as the story unfolds. :-D

There are worse things to wake up to!

The view from my window about the time I left for school this morning.

Okay, so I'm just going to plead guilty as charged and continue on in my excitement--SNOW!!! For those of you laughing, I don't mind. For those of you rolling your eyes, I'm from Coquille, where school is cancelled when we have half an inch so give me a little break and let me pretend I'm 10 again!:-) I will admit that a world of white does trigger an extreme lack of desire to go to school but my mood was so high that nothing could bring it down. Perhaps it is a bit pathetic that I act like a lovestruck adolescent over the weather...but it wouldn't be the first time I've appeared pathetic and certainly won't be the last! :-)

Oh, and it isn't even 6:30pm and I've already had five cups of tea...hehe

The Little Moments

Not the huge exciting things that could easily fill up an entire blog post and not the things that I think to share when I'm skyping with home. The little moments are the things that too often go unnoticed and occasionally are forgotten until I flip through the recent pages of my journal, but these are undoubtedly the things I will remember with a smile on my face in the years to come and these are just a few of the things making my year in Germany so incredible.

1. After informing my teachers that, despite the language barrier, I wanted to fully participate in the class--and therefore also take the tests--I sat at my desk in my Religion class staring blankly at the text I was supposed to analyze. I did my best to write out, in broken German, the points from the text that I understood and five minutes later, turned in my paragraph--embarrassed and disappointed.
A week later, we got our tests back and written in red on the front of mine, was the following note:
"You obviously understood the text's most important thesis and I appreciate this very much. Don't forget that this is a highly philosophical essay and consider what enormous progress you have already made. It's very nice to have you in this class, Julianne, and I hope you enjoy it too. If you need any help in school matters or beyond, I'll be glad to be there" 
She made my day and maybe even my week!

2. Last Saturday I was serving coffee at a wedding and before long I'm pretty sure everyone in the building knew I was American. A younger lady came up to me and asked for her coffee--in English. I replied in German and when she asked for creamer (in English) I replied (in German) that we didn't have any left but I could check in the kitchen. I returned with the last creamer and my uncle began a conversation with me as I handed it to her. At that moment something clicked and with wide eyes, she said (finally in German), "you can speak German?"

3. Recently, my friend Eva and I went shopping in a nearby city. After we'd finished our "hardcore" shopping, we decided to poke around in a little jewellery store. After commenting on a pair or earrings here and a necklace there, we found the rack of headbands. Oh. My. Goodness. Never in my life have I seen people try to sell such hideous attire! I"m still certain a number of them belong to one of Cinderella's step sisters. They were in fact so crazy, that we just had to take pictures and Eva even bought one! I told her that now we just need to find a peacock costume and she'll be set!

These stories go on and on...and on :-) But to keep from boring you, I'll stop with three and share a few more next week.

My Final Hours

Of 2011 that is. No worries, I'm still alive and still in Germany :-)

I realize this post is several weeks late already, but better late than never, right?

So, back to New Year's Eve. Around 4:00pm, my family piled into our VW bus and drove for about an hour until we reached Nordsingen, the home of my aunt, uncle, and four cousins. In what felt like only a matter of seconds, the two girls had snuck off to the bedroom giggling, Mama, my aunt, and I had set to work in the kitchen, and the six boys--well, six boys under the age of 12? I'll leave that one up to your imagination!

After a yummy dinner of baked potatoes with the works, everyone slowly made their way into the living room. We opened up the red Christmas songbooks and enjoyed the last few moment of our already extended Christmas season. Once we'd finished singing, we took a few minutes to reflect on 2011 and share our favorite memories, highlights, and experiences.

We started with the youngest and worked our way up gradually, and I'll take a moment to brag that my stockings made the highlight list for one of my little brothers. :-) But when it came to me, I wasn't sure where to start. After actually taking the time to think back over 2011, I felt so incredibly blessed. In broken German, I briefly talked about Disneyland, tried to explain Girls State, mentioned my time touring the East Coast, and, of course, my five amazing months in Germany in which I've experienced far more than I had time to share! Later in the evening I went up to Mama and said, "I forgot to talk about London!" She just laughed.

Christian ready to jump on!

Sami first

Once everyone had shared about their year, the majority of the six boys had no attention span left so we changed the mood a bit and began an hour or so of "the betting game". "We can knit a meter in a minute", "I can walk to the front door and back three times while bouncing this ping pong ball" and so on and so forth with lost bets usually resulting in more chores. My bet? "I can carry Samuel, Jonathan, and Christian for an entire minute" Well, with the help of three boys clinging to me desperately, one minute later, the four us went tumbling to the ground in success....and afterwords I felt very awake!

A few minutes before midnight, everyone bundled up and went upstairs onto the balcony. Then the fireworks began--everywhere! I'm used to sitting in one place and watching the bright colors explode above me, but not this time. Dozens of houses set off fireworks and the result was breathtaking. In Every direction, all around us, fireworks welcomed 2012. When the clock struck 12, the church began ringing its bells and hugs were exchanged along with warm and genuine new year wishes. I was all smiles, hardly noticing the rain and oblivious to the cold.

Not too long later the little ones were tucked in and the adults gathered downstairs to chat, laugh, and celebrate the new year with a bit a peace. It was a wonderful end to 2011 and the perfect beginning for 2012.

Ritter Sport!

  So, regardless of what the results of my recent blog poll showed, Ritter Sport chocolate is the brand to buy when your sweet tooth kicks in--just ask any German :-) But as it turns out, there is something even better than picking up a bar of chocolate off the shelf, and that is making it yourself! ...hey, that even rhymes :-)

 According to Ritter Sport, only kids make chocolate and so once my 18th birthday rolls around next month, I'll be banned forever from the chocolate workshop--I'll still be a kid though! So, knowing our time was limited, my host family took advantage of the two week Christmas break and took off to the nearby Ritter Sport factory for the day.

Once in the workshop, I sat down at a little table with Selina and her friend and it began. Everything, from the presentation of information to the available ingredients for the chocolate, was obviously geared for children, but at least that meant I had no problem understanding.

Jonathan and Christian were undoubtedly in heaven!

After being briefed on what we were supposed to do, (and not supposed to do) they lead us into another room where we choose our ingredients, mixed them with our portion of chocolate, and then poured the chocolate into a Ritter Sport mold. I chose roasted hazelnuts and gummy bears....I wouldn't recommend gummy bears but with chocolate...how bad can it get?

After 45 minutes we were set with our two bars of self-made chocolate. Only a few minutes later, I reached the discount factory store. Having just stocked up on extremely cheap U.S. bound Ritter Sport, I restrained myself and only purchased two limited edition flavors Once home, they joined the twenty-something other bars of chocolate I've accumulated on my chocolate shelf.


Yes, I have a chocolate shelf.

Weihnachten with the Weihings

Weihnachten is Christmas...let me just start by getting that out of the way :-) And Weihings? Well, the Weihings are family that accepted me as their daughter and over the course of the last five months, have become my family. Although I only live with six of them, there are over twenty others within an hours drive of my house and every single one has welcomed me warmly into the family.

Once the great stocking adventure had come to a close on Christmas morning, everyone began preparing for an afternoon to be spent with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins drinking one too many cups of coffee and eating...well, it's Christmas time, so all rules that once applied to sweets are no longer valid, right? Let's just say that between the baking of Mama and each of my three aunts, there was what seemed like an unlimited supply of goodies to ensure a delicious afternoon.

Once the children began growing restless and the adults began feeling quite full, we all shifted away from the dining room and into the living room, squeezing more than twenty bodies onto sofas, benches, and chairs that were dragged in. The stack of thin red advent songbooks was set on the table and although everyone picked one up, I was among a minority who actually needed one. :) After a few favorite songs, all the mothers slipped out of the room to gather the gifts they'd stowed away. As soon as they returned, the Christmas songs stood no chance against the eagerness of twelve children and so round three of exchanging gifts began.

As the last of the gifts were opened, a bit of peace fell over the house--and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that all the boys went to play outside ;-). Several more cups of coffee were poured, new gifts were admired, and relaxed conversations full of laughs and love sprung up all around the living room. Several people slipped into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on our dinner--that was thankfully neither big nor heavy because my tummy had long ago put up it's "No Vacancy" sign!

  The evening came to an end with all the children upstairs playing games. I'd joined them and after using up my beginners luck in the first round, did a wonderful job of losing quickly and still having a great time. We bundled back up, gave our one last round of Christmas wishes, hugged everyone goodbye, and next thing I knew, I was home and the wonderful day of Christmas had come to an end.

Christmas Morning-American Style!

Okay, so I didn’t make them wake up at 5:00am…I just kinda figured that tradition may not carry the same excitement found among my American family every Christmas morning. And considering I didn’t get to bed until 4:00am, a few extra hours of sleep were greatly appreciated and I had little desire to wake up any earlier than 8:00.

 Around 9:00am, everyone sat around our table for our typical Sunday breakfast of zopf which was to be followed by “Julianne’s presents” or “The big red socks”. So with everyone seated in the living room, I carried in six red stockings overflowing with tiny packages wrapped in every assortment of wrapping paper I could find! It was a moment I won’t soon forget.  The three boys, who were squirreling around and complaining about having to sit and wait, instantly froze. Christian’s mouth dropped open. In that moment it occurred to me that since the kids had never experienced, or even seen, stockings, there were no expectations behind my “big socks”—after all, who wants over sized socks for Christmas?

I handed the stockings out and the fun began. Christian tore through his packages at the speed of light and only after everything was unwrapped did he take to time to see what exactly he had received. Samuel was SO CUTE—as usual—and after every single package, looked at me and said, “Danke Julianne!”  with a smile stretching from ear to ear and eyes sparkling with excitement.  Papa (my host dad) was only beginning as the boys pulled out their lasts gifts and took a good 15 minutes longer than everyone else because he refused to actually open his stocking. Instead, he picked up his camera and joined me in the task of capturing the moment.  The room was filled with laughter once he finally began opening his gifts only to find another camera—this one made out of chocolate J

Once all Weihing stockings were opened, the kids handed me my Christmas present from them. I sat on the sofa with the four of them crowding around me and opened the package to find Lumpi--the cutest stuffed puppy I've ever seen. 

It wasn’t America, but it was undoubtedly a Christmas morning I’ll never forget. Although receiving gifts is always fun, watching my family open the stockings that I’d spent the last month putting together for them was more enjoyable than if I’d had a stocking of my own. I scurried around the room trying to get the right angle for my pictures and seeing the smiles, hearing the laughter, and feeling the joy made me think to myself, “This is exactly what Christmas is supposed to be like.”

Christmas Eve

Meat for dinner!

How I would love to be able to cover Christmas in one giant blog post! Sadly, I have neither the time nor the effort or motivation to sit in front of my laptop for hours uploading pictures and writing stories--so let me break it down a bit :-)

Bakery fresh baguettes!

In Germany, the main day of celebration for Christmas is Christmas Eve and so the countdown to Christmas isn't actually accurate ;-) Of course none of the kids wanted to go to bed Friday evening and none of them...none of us...slept very well that night ;-) So, instead of being sane and sleeping in while I had the chance,Saturday morning I committed to running all the Christmas Eve morning errands with Mama. At 7:15 when she came knocking on my door, I wondered just how crazy I'd become, but all in all, we had a great time running around for bakery fresh bread, farm fresh milk, fresh meat, and a variety of Christmas sweets...which I'm pretty sure can't be called "fresh".

Anyway, we got back to the house, ate breakfast, and put the finishing Christmas touches on the house--in other words, we cleaned everything. Lunch was earlier and therefore smaller than usual and as soon as everyone was done we began getting ready for the Christmas Eve service at 3:30. Mama told me my skirt looked better than black pants and I assured her that the black scarf matched better than the tan one. We were ready just in time.

The service was for kids as well as adults and I really enjoyed it. The majority of the service consisted of a Christmas play involving over 25 kids--who all new their lines perfectly. Christian was Joseph :) As soon as church was over we spent a few minutes giving and receiving Christmas wishes and hugs as everyone made their way outside and then hustled home.

The first round of Christmas celebrations unfolded downstairs with Oma and Opa as we received gifts before watching a Christmas movie together. However, I ditched my childhood for a few minutes and helped Mama put the finishing touches on the dinner table and then shut the dining room door--symbolizing no one was the enter the room until dinner time.

Several hours later, after a wonderful dinner of meat fondue (bite sized pieces of meat cooked in a special broth) everyone shifted into the living room. First we sang several Christmas songs..several of which I'm now getting the hang of...and then read the last chapter of our advent story and finished with a time of prayer. Then came the gifts and I thought a few of the kids were gonna explode with excitement! Mama passed them out one at a time until each kid had one and then everyone opened them at the same time. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more--opening my gifts, or watching the kids faces as they opened theirs.

At 9:30 I left for my first every Holy Night service. I got the church a few minutes before 10:00pm and the pews were packed. I waved at friends and family and sat down next to my host aunt. The service far exceeded my expectations with a variety of songs sung first in German, then in English and a humorous skit that followed. However, the highlight came at the very end when a boy who couldn't have been older than 10, stood up in front of hundreds and sang "Happy Birthday Jesus".

 Several minutes later everyone bundled back into their scarves, gloves, and jackets and shuffled outside where an abundance of Christmas punch was waiting for anyone who had the Christmas spirit to linger and chat. Chat? Me? Oh, but of course! :-D My friends and I finally left the church a little after 11:30...only to congregate with a large number of Gomaringen's youth for a movie night at the youth building. And so I spent my last minutes of Christmas Eve snuggled up on a sofa with friends, watching The Bucket List in German. And for the rest of my amazing Christmas, you'll have to wait :-)



Me, Leonie, Eva, and Damaris after the Holy Night service