Letters from Germany -2008 - part 5

Hi

I hope you are all well and excited about christmas. One of the few good things about being here at this time is that even the air changes in December. Everyone's baking christmas cookies so the air's always filled with 'good stuff'. Today was a good day. Pay day! Yay! Now I can consider going to London for Christmas plus a weekend in Munich, another in Freiburg and another in Nancy (France). I discovered I have friends in Strasbourg who are keen on me visiting so I might take up that offer as well. The Sweden trip was supposed to happen this weekend but I thought I had double booked, I'd planned to go visit someone else but they cancelled and now I have no plan for this week. Tracey's off to see her Grandma on Friday so I won't have her company for a while :(  I'm still working with Tracey and it does not look like I'm about to be moved. There seems to be more work to be done within the project she's doing than was initially anticipated.
 

Well what have we been up to lately! We had a Saint Nikolaus walk & dinner for International students on Thursday night and I met Chinese. Lots of them!! I had the a hilarious conversation in Chinese/German/English. And they really do say,  'I cannot spikka good Engrish!' I met a German who had been to Cape Town this year who claims that I sound Cape Townian! What nonsense! Anyway, he says he did the Cape to Cairo by bus by himself in 4 months. He's my newest inspiration! The Walk was nice, we had carols, Gluhwein and dinner in a cute Schwabish (Southern German dialect) restaurant.

On Saturday, I went to a concert by the Symphony Orchestra for the Music School in Stuttgart. I made friends with a German (Sandra) when she came to Cape Town and she took me out: music and a meal. For all those who are not interested in classical music, you may yawn at this. But I was pretty excited to listen to German musicians performing music by German & Austrian composers. My friend's friend was performing (he's a violinist) so I was glad to know at least one of the performers. It was a grand show. It almost took me 200 years back :-) And it was free! By the time we were done, it was past 1am. The subway and rail weren't running but the Germans have this amazing thing called the nachtbus (night bus) that runs at 1:11, 2:22, 3:33 AM. Apparently the times were set so that even a drunkard could remember when and how to get home. There was an interesting crowd on that bus!
 

I think I already mentioned the Xmas markets, right? Well, each market makes its own xmas cups and they try to sell you hot wine (Gluhwein). Tracey and I have decided to see as many markets as we can and we have a plan to collect cups from each one, which means we're doing a lot of drinking! They're like €2. Don't bother converting. That's cheap, for a German trinket! On Sunday, we went to see an old Baroch Castle and then went to two xmas markets. The castle had a whole museum dedicated to porcelain. I've attached a photo of an interesting piece that had black Africans on it :)  It also had something on Greek gods and the history of fashion (Fashion Musuem). The second market was medieval. So the attendants looked like something out of a Robin Hood movie (i. e. wearing dark clothes that looked like they had not washed in a long time!) The town was pretty neat. They managed to keep a lot of their old buildings in shape, in spite of the world wars.

I finally watched Madagascar 2! And was a bit disappointed. It was hilarious but the original was much better, although the Penguins were classic, as usual. Otherwise, life's becoming normal. My German's not getting any better. I'm trying to listen harder and speak more often but the more I listen, the less I understand! I decided to by a book and force myself to read, so I got a Bible (it's the easiest book to read, for now)! And a dictionary! :-) I hope they help.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your week.

love you

Clara

p.s. My German friend from the orchestra is coming to Kenya in Feb and might drop by Ug sometime. If you meet her, please be nice :-)