A Pav, A Sea, And Some Hockey

The day after Christmas we decided that we had had enough sitting around and gaining weight from the Christmas chocolate, and visited the Ostsee (east sea). It was a roughly 40 minute drive, the length meaning we actually had to take off our jackets and put them in the boot before driving away, unlike all the other trips. It was a nice drive, just gazing out the window at the country side that passed us and daydreaming. When we arrived we had to find a park, then pay for parking - you have to pay for parking everywhere in Germany, according to my host dad. There wasn't really much to see at first, the river with a couple of ships on it. We followed it for a bit though, and the river opened up to the sea. It was a bit grey, and the sand was a bit dull, but still beautiful in its own way. We walked out onto one of the piers. The pier had a nice lighthouse, a bit on the smaller side, but still really pretty. We walked back down the pier and started walking along the beach, Anja and I taking the lead and Ute and Lorenz behind. It was a pleasant walk, if a little bit chilly. There were many pretty houses on the walk, and sometimes we stopped to admire them. With our young legs, Anja and I ended up far in front of her parents, so we stopped to wait at another pier. When they finally caught up, we turned around and walked the way we came, then back up the river until we got to town. Along the way we detoured into a small Weihnachtsmarkt by the sea, but there wasn't really much apart from fish, so we continued on. Once in town we decided it was time for afternoon tea, so we  

stopped at the Lübeck Marzipan café for a drink. I ordered an apple strudel and a pot of tea, and we had enjoyable conversation until we had all finished our cakes and random marzipan flavoured hot chocolate. We continued further into town, stopping by a restaurant in the old police building, until we reached an old street with some cool old houses. It was dark by the time we started walking back to the car, and the cold air from the sea was starting to penetrate the layers I had on.

The Lighthouse

The next day, I made a pav. We'd gone shopping a few days before for the ingredients, and I had to make do with the lack of fruits - no strawberries! It was a pretty easy recipe, and the clean-up was quick (I definitely did not lick the bowl, nu-uh). I put it in the oven and relaxed while I waited for it to cook, and my family kept mentioning how odd it looked. I actually got worried and went to check up on it, but it was fine, just a peculiar thing I guess. After dinner I rushed into the kitchen to whip the cream and prepare the fruit, decorating the pav as best I could. I brought it out and it out and everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed, and it quickly was demolished. We saved two pieces for the neighbours though as a thankyou for early Christmas presents they had given us earlier, and Anja and I dropped them off after dessert. 

My beautiful pavolova 

The next day we went to the ice hockey with some family friends. Before the hockey though, we went into town for dinner. After catching the train in, then winding around some of the backstreets in Hamburg we arrived at the restaurant Vapiano - a really cool Italian chain. We walked in and each got handed a card, and instead of sitting down and ordering, there are several stations set up with small kitchens for various foods - pasta, pizza, dessert, and the bar. You line up at one of the stations and order from a menu, good thing there were ones in English because I spent long enough deciding was it was! Upon choosing spaghetti bolognese, can't go wrong with a good spag bol, I waited until it was my turn. When I got to the front it turned out they didn't have any spag bol (the nerve!) so I got the cabonara instead. As soon as I had ordered the man started making my pasta, right in front of me! Each serving station had a stove for two pan, various fresh ingredients, and two pasta cooker things. Watching him was amazing, never still for a moment, always reaching for an ingredient or swirling the wok, or cracking an egg. It was the fasted pasta I've ever received, 7 minutes from ordering my meal I had a bowl of bacon and egg cabonara sitting in front of me. I swiped my card (you pay at the end as you leave) and went to sit with my family. The tables at this place were also cool - our bench was around an olive tree! Quickly all of the meals were consumed and we left to meet the friends for dessert. We met outside of Kartstadt, a big department store, and preceded to to go up many escalators until we reached the top floor, an open buffet. Even though I was bursting from the pasta, I still accepted a slice of cheesecake, and we ate and chatted until it was time to catch the train to the arena. The trip was quick, and it was a quick walk through a cool graffiti tunnel to the bus stop where a shuttle bus was waiting. The bus left just as we arrived though, but it was worth the wait for the next one because we actually got seats. After a ten or so minute drive to the arena, we all piled out and got in line to enter the building. Before we could actually get in though we had to have a quick pat down, to make sure we wouldn't blow up the stadium. None of our party members had anything on them though, so we quickly made our way to our seats, only stopping for some snacks. We had arrived early, so I got to experience the hype-up in full action. There were many light shows, loud music, and team patriotism? Even though it was my first game, I still got right into it, singing along with the team song and banging my paper clapper that came with the seat. When it actually began, and the members of the team started running out, an audience member was picked to call out the names, with the rest of the audience calling out the last names as a call and response thing. There was even a name and picture for the mascot - apparently it is a knight! As it was a home game, the Hamburg Freezers got all of the focus, and there was nothing for the Köln Haie (Cologne Sharks). When the Freezers got the first goal (Woooo!) there was a break in the game for celebrations, but when the Haie got a goal, I didn't even notice at first. It was so fun, and ice hockey is so cool! The amount of effort the players put in, and how tiring it must be skating around must be massive. There is an unlimited amount of player swaps allowed, and they certainly made use of that, players jumping over the barricade as other skated in, giving the game fresh blood. The breaks were also fun, and with three parts in all there were two breaks. There would be little games as entertainment, the first pause had ice soccer with no skates, resulting in a lot more slipping and falling over than goals scored! In the second break there was a mini kart race around the ice, also very funny. As well as the games they had the kiss-cam - something I've only ever seen in American movies at baseball games. They did the usual thing with pointing the camera at the audience, letting the rest of us laugh when they didn't even notice because they were on their phone, or bickering with their siblings (more than once actually!). The people next to me managed to attract the camera, and last moment I stuck my head in - finally on the big screen! The Hamburg Freezers ended up winning, although even if we didn't win I'm sure I would've had a brilliant time! After the game we followed the crowds back to the bus stop and waited in the cold until we could get on. This time we were near the end so we stood up the entire time, our bad luck following us to the trains. When we finally got home it was almost midnight, and I went straight to sleep.         

Bacon and Egg cabonara, with random mineral water (Spring water? In Germany?)

Last Day of School

Friday was the last day of school and you could barely call it school. It started normal time, so we had the usual ride to school, but when we got to school we went to the big hall instead of class. It was here that the junior years (5-6) and the older years (11-12) met for Christmas songs. Together we all sang songs, reading the lyrics from the projection of the front wall. There were English songs and German songs, and I was able to sing both. It was fun squished on the back row all singing together. A gemütlich end to the school year, and a good way to build Christmas spirit. After the 2 periods of Christmas singing, we had German. Of course we weren't going to have actual class, and the student convinced the teacher to play a fun game instead. The game we played was called 'Regierungsbank', government bank, and the aim was to have the 'bank' run by all girls, or all boys. Everyone had to sit in a circle with one chair empty, and our names were written on slips of paper and were handed out. The person to the left of the empty seat would call out a name to join them, and the person with the corresponding name on their paper would move, including those on the table. You then swap names, so to get the bank filled with your gender you had to remember who everyone's names. It was a fun game, and a good way for me to learn the names of those in my class. The guys and the girls both won once, which was nice. After that game we played a game of celebrity heads, 'Wer bin ich?', using teachers, which was hilarious because we got such questions as 'are they actually a cool teacher', or 'are they older than 50?' (we said yes, but apparently we were wrong and the Deutsch teacher looked scandalised). Next was Pause, and we ran around trying to get teachers to sign a note for Anja, saying it was okay for her to go on Wintercamp - leaving it to the last day, my speciality. After Pause we had a class party in geography class, with a bunch of the younger years as well. It was chaos- children eating lollies, making craft, Christmas songs on repeat. Annkathrin, Janina, Anja and I all squished into one corner and chatted among ourselves, waiting for the waffles to cook. Did I mention the waffles? Well there were waffles. There must have been 3 waffle makers going at once, all around the classroom, and one of them was set up next to our spot. After the waffle boy had made a couple of batches I thought it was an appropriate time to get my own, so the next batch I practically jumped on a waffle as soon as it was done, and after finding where the puderzukar was I sat down to enjoy the warm waffly goodness. The chocolate waffle mix was cracked open soon after that, and the girls ordered two from one of the waffle makers for us. When they arrived it was glorious - chocolate waffles are much better than normal even without icing sugar. The waffle boy next to us started making choc waffles as well so I managed to get a whole one for myself. Nom nom nomAfter the geography class school was over, but instead of going to the bikes and heading home, we went to the train station instead and caught a train into town - what's better than a student rally to finish the school day? We were a bit early for the rally though, so we decided to do some shopping, but had to ask directions first. Just our luck, the first 2 people that we asked couldn't actually speak German! What is with these tourists? But eventually we found our way to the mall where we went shopping for an hour, until it was time to go back to the rally. By the time we got back to the hauptbahnhof quite a crowd had gathered, and I got a taste of what it must have been like back in the day of student rallies against war and such - apparently there are still uni students walking around with dreadlocks and plaid. I haven't mentioned what we were all doing there yet - we were gathering to support refugees in Hamburg. On our march through the city we called out things such as 'refugees are welcome here' and 'Kein Mensch ist illegal – Bleiberecht überall!' which translates to 'no person is illegal, the right to stay anywhere'. It was really cool, seeing all of the people who care so much about those in need. We ended up at the Rathaus, where a bunch of refugees spoke about their troubles, and how much they want to have a life and education here in Germany and Hamburg, but can't. It was different from anything I have been in before, the feeling that I was part of something bigger and more important than myself. Eventually we had to separate ourselves from the rally though and go home, so when the mass passed a train station we slipped away and got on the next train.  

I've never seen so many people with dreadlocks in my life

In front of the Rathaus

I didn't have much time to rest though when we got back home, because we had to leave to go to a family friend's party. We walked there, seeing as though the house is only two streets away, and were greeted warmly. There wasn't enough place at the table for us all at dinner, so the kids stayed sitting on the couch, that is - me, Anja, the two daughters of the birthday woman, and the two cousins. After a while I had to go back home to skype home - it was Andrew's birthday and I had been meaning to get in contact with everybody for a while. After speaking to everyone (minus Mahalia because she got back from work late and was still asleep), I went back to the party, expecting it to be just as boring as it had been before. When I got back though, Anja and one of the girls were up in her room, so I joined them, and slowly the rest of the teens joined as well. I ended up having heaps of fun, playing Uno and various card games with snacks and the music turned up loud. I even ended up winning a couple of rounds, even though it was my first time playing one of the games. The cousins had to leave at one point, so we all went back down and found out it was late - almost 1 in the morning. The daughters, Anja, and I went back upstairs after the others had left and played another game, then it was our turn to leave. I'm glad the walk wasn't long, because I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the spot. It was a very long day, but a great end to the school year.

Illness and Misadventure + Musicals

So, I guess that the rain on regional day was bad for me because the next day, and the next 2 days, I was sick in bed with a cold. I literally slept all day, or read. Tuesday I was a bit better and was able to watch 3 Star Wars movies in a row, preparing for the new movie coming out. It was lucky I was a bit better on Tuesday, because Anja had a performance at her other school that I had to watch. It was late, and Lorenz and I rode our bikes to the school. Soon after we sat down in the hall it began, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Before the actual performance, we had an hour or two of speeches and interviews concerning freedom of speech and refugees. It was interesting, but also boring, as I couldn't understand much, except for the interviews in English. The host discussed how in other countries reporters and the like cannot talk about what they want to, how people can't speak out against the government or religion. They also interviewed a couple of reporters and bloggers who managed to flee to Germany, and they spoke about the things they have gone through. Then, finally, it was the drama performance. 3 small acts about the subject, then it was over. Anja didn't have any major roles, but was still very good. After it had finished we rode home and I went straight to bed (that isn't even a surprise at this point).

Wednesday I was well enough to go to school, which I was happy about. I did get an early day though, and managed to watch another Star Wars movie when I got back home. I did end up going back to school though, because there was a Christmas concert. Katinka, one of Anja's friends, had managed to save us seats, so after ditching our bikes, Anja and I squeezed through the crowds to sit down. The concert was really fun, with various music groups from the school performing pieces. Some were Christmas carols, but some songs had nothing to do with Christmas, like the teacher's song 'People get ready'. My favourites were the jazz band and the senior choir. Through the night they sang a lot of songs that I had sung with vocal at home, so it made me a bit homesick, but not enough to make me not enjoy the night. Anja and a couple of others also presented a check to a charity for €14,200.00 (or something like that) from a charity walk they did last year.

On Thursday it was Lorenz's birthday, and after school we went into town for dinner. Anja and I caught the train and we met Ute at the Rathaus, where we were having dinner. Lorenz's train was late, so when the grandmother arrived, we went inside and got our table. Because we didn't have much time, we had chosen our meals before hand so we could order immediately. I had picked Labskaus, because it is a typical Norddeutsch food. I wasn't really expecting what arrived though. Who'd have though that minced corn beef, onions, potato and beetroot would look so much like brains. It was good though, after you get over the texture. The egg on top helped as well. Lorenz arrived shortly after we ordered, and we had a nice family meal. After dinner we bid farewell to Ute's mother, and caught the train to the harbour. It was here that we caught a ferry over to the musical side of the harbour - where we were going to watch 'Wunder von Bern'. Hamburg is famous for its musicals, and the fact that the only way to see them is by catching a ferry over. The ferry was nice though, and it was beautiful to see the lights of the city from across the dark water, hearing the lapping of waves against the side of the boat and feeling the cool air against my skin. I really understood what Robert Gray talked about in his poem 'The Late Ferry', about how small it all seems, discovery and all that. (Thanks Mrs Elliot for making me think of English class while I'm in Germany). The ferry ride was over far too quickly, and soon we were docking and walking up to the musical building. Inside is impressive, and we handed in our coats before entering the hall and taking out seats. When the doors closed and there was no one else in our row, Anja and I spread out, taking up 4 seats. The musical was amazing, one of the best I've seen, even if it was in another language. It was easy to understand, even if I didn't get the complexities. 'Wunder von Bern', or 'Miracle from Bern', is a musical set in post WW2 Germany, and follows a young boy and his father who just returned from a Russian prisoner of war camp for 11 years, and never knew his youngest son. It also follows Germany's need for hope, which comes in the form of their miracle victory at the 1954 World Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland. It was a funny and moving piece, with great musical numbers - everything you could want. I totally recommend it to all those musical lovers out there, but perhaps get the subtitled version. All too soon it was over, and we collected our coats and headed back to the ferry, then caught a train home. It was late by the time we got home, especially for a school night, and I had a big day the next day.  

Dinner at the 'Parlament' in the Rathaus

Blurry picture of the musicals from the ferry

Wuner von Bern!

Hamburg Regional Day

Every so often is a day where all of the stipis in an area get together, along with their hosts and other previous stipis, and hang out. Since I live in Hamburg, I went to the Hamburg regional day, along with the others who lived around, except most of them lived further than 20 minutes. We all met outside the Hauptbahnhof, missing one because Helen missed her train. Together we went to a cathedral, and climbed billions of stairs to get to the top. (There were many stairs). We eventually got to the top, and although the view was amazing, it started raining. When we finally went back down, we found Helen and her host, and headed to the Rathaus. We split into groups then for lunch, and the stipi group decided to explore the Weihnachts market. Matthew and I were in charge, because we'd both been before, so I introduced the others (who wanted it) to apfel punsch. After wandering around for an hour or so it was time to meet up again with the others for our guided tour of the rathaus. We stood in the entrance hall for a little while waiting for the tour guide, and admired the architecture, watching as at least 3 couples had wedding photos. Although the tour was in German (and rapid German at that), I still managed to understand some stuff, and appreciated the architecture and gilded artworks that covered the building, much more impressive than our local council building I can tell you that for sure. After that was dinner, and we walked a while until we got to a restaurant on the harbour. The stipis had our own table, managing to squish all 6 of us where 4 were meant to sit. One look at the menu and it was easy to see what we would eat - I think curry had been sorely missed by many. That being said, the curries that we ended up eating were no where near as hot as they would have been in Aus, 2 chillies on the menu barely tickled the tongue. After dinner we went back to the Weihnachts market at the Rathaus, and we (the stipis) got lost, aka we were lagging behind the larger group and suddenly couldn't see the others anymore. Needless to say we were a bit worried, and wandered around outside the market for a while until we managed to ring someone. Turns out they had just gone inside the markets, and sent someone to pick us up. We ended up just hanging out alone anyway, finding the others when we wanted to go on a Maccas run. We were in fact allowed to go to Maccas, and enjoyed the 2 euro McFlurries until we realised one of the girl's train was leaving in 15 minutes. In panic we all ran to the hauptbahnhof, without telling the rest of the group where we were going, but managed to get there in time to put Lauren on her train. While we were gone the rest of the group slit up, so our hosts came to retrieve us from the station and we all went home, ready for sleep after a long day of catching up and getting lost. It was a really fun day, speaking with the others after so long and building friendships. It was weird, because most of the people I had only met one or two times (the Victorian stipis only at Abu Dhabi airport), but we all got along like we had been friends for years. I guess the shared experience, and being the only Aussies around really formed a bond. It was great fun none the less, and I can't wait to meet up with them again at Winter Camp!  

Stipi selfie from tower

View from cathedral tower 

Dinner selfie! Notice 4/6 wearing our GASS jumpers..

Weekend of Castles and Weihnachts Markts

Friday night after school Anja and I went into Hamburg proper, where we met up with Lorenz (the father). We went to the Weihnachts markt at the Rathaus, and drank Apfel punsch together. We wandered around for a while, buying Schokokussen at the market and walking along the edge of the Elm, admiring the lights. We also ate some dinner - kartoffelpuffer - which are mashed up potato pancakes deep fried and eaten with sugar and apple sauce. Lorenz called it an all-you-can-eat-buffet, going from stall to stall eating everything I hadn't tried before, but I got full pretty fast. Before we went home we detoured to another out-of-the-way market that was supposed to be really good, more modern, aber it wasn't quite what we expected. The walk was nice though, through a different part of Hamburg, and my interest got peaked for the Hamburg dungeon. To get back to the Hauptbahnhof from the other market was cool, because the closest train station was under the river, and was really new. It was massive and echo-y, with blue tiles everywhere that made it feel like you were underwater. There was even a ship encased in glass in the centre of the platform. We didn't get home too late, but I'm always tired over here so I went to bed pretty early.  

Anja and I across the river from the Rathaus Weihnachts Market

Rathaus Weihnachts Market

The next day was Saturday (obviously) and Lorenz and I went to visit Ahrensburg Schloss, a beautiful castle in a nearby town. We took the car for once, probably because there was no train station nearby. The castle itself is in the centre of town, on a big block. The castle sits in the middle of a small moat, and is surrounded by a large park area. While is is relatively small for a castle, it is a startling white in colour, with decorative ridges and towers, and all of the furniture inside is period and was the real furniture used by the inhabitants over the years. Ahrensburg Schloss was built in 1586, by an envoy of the King of Denmark, but the next owner was Heinrich Schimmelmann in 1759, who fixed it up after years of disuse, renovating many parts. You have to put on special slippers before entering the rooms, to protect the tiles and floorboards. Mine didn't really fit though, so I had to walk strangely so that they wouldn't fall off. I got the audio tour - in English - and loved walking through and listening to all of the interesting history and tid-bits, learning the back stories of various paintings and statues. The artworks in the rooms were particularly cool, including the room with paintings depicting various foreign scenes (including a monkey feeding colourful birds nuts), and the various paintings brought back as souvenirs from different parts of Europe. It was a bit of unfortunate timing though, because the rooms that were closed for renovations were opening the day after, so we didn't get to see the library, or the highest floor. At the gift shop I bought a cool period headband, then we left the castle and circled it from the grounds, seeing all of the decorative architecture and the sundial. Lorenz and I then went into town for a little bit, stopping by the Weihnachts market for a lunch of sausages.
We went out as a family soon after we got back, and went to another castle. We didn't do a tour of this one though, because the main attraction was the markets that were held in some buildings off to the side. Like normal Weihnachts markets, this one had the sweets and stalls, but inside there were boutique stalls selling bags, clothes, and various home wares. I didn't buy anything, but looking was still enjoyable. On the way home we stopped for dinner. The restaurant was cute, and I assume it sells strawberries while in season, because outside was a large strawberry shaped stall (closed), and a strawberry shaped play equipment (in used by many children). It was nice inside, and I ordered roast beef, which I didn't expect to come out cold... apparently that's how it is served in Deutschland. After dinner we went into another room where there was a large Christmas shop, and spent some time looking around in there before heading home. (to bed)

View of grounds from Ahrensburg Schloss

Fashion at it's finest - the slippers

Sunday, after going to a different church close to Ahrensburg Schloss, Ute and Lorenz took me to the Museum of Hamburg. We caught the train in to Hamburg proper, getting off at a stop next to the Hamburg Dom. It was only a short walk to the museum, and soon we were there. The exhibitions were really interesting, all about the growth of Hamburg over time and Germany's history. There were even a bunch of old canons and model ships. All of the history was really interesting, except for the room just filled with model trains. I learnt a lot about the history of Hamburg, but eventually we had to go back home, school day the next day and all.

View of Dom from museum

Hanging with Matthew

I have mentioned it before, but there is another stipi at my school from Victoria - Matthew. He's pretty cool. Anyway, one Thursday we were able to hang out after school, because we both have several free periods at the end of Thurdays, perfect for going into town and back before dinner. So after our day had finished Matthew's stipi Erik dropped us off at the train station and pointed us in the right direction, then it was up to us to find our way there and back. It was pretty easy though, only having to change once (we almost didn't get off - whoops). I had a curfew of 10 o’clock (which is 22:00 Germany time), but Matthew had a curfew of 6:00, so we only had a couple of hours as the train trip back is longer than half an hour. We still had a lot of fun. We were planning on going straight to the Weihnachtsmarkt at the Rathaus - the council building, because that is apparently the best Christmas market in Hamburg, but the stop we got off was several blocks from the Rathaus, so we visited a couple of other markets along the way. We also went down to the harbour, and looked out onto the beautiful water, while eating some yummy pastry ball things we got at the market - I can't for the life of me remember the name of it, but they had a slight orangy taste and were served covered in icing sugar - yum! On the way to the Rathaus markets I had the great honour of passing through the 'Europa Passage', which is a big shopping centre. It's not that impressive, but when Matthew came into town with his family they made a big deal out of it, and so he did the same for me. It was quite funny just walking through, literally 10 meters from one entrance to another. We eventually got to the Rathaus markets, despite our detourm and they really were quite impressive, especially the entrance arch. Soon it was time to get to the train station though, so we had to pull ourselves from all of the different stalls selling delicious sweets, sausages, and homemade wares to rush through the streets of Hamburg and find the station. On the way though we realised we still had another half an hour till the train, so when we passed the impressive building that was Starbucks, we dropped in for a coffee (and free wifi). Although I don’t drink coffee much (especially the fake syrupy stuff Starbucks sells) I thought I would try some Christmas coffee. I ended up buying the toffee-nut latte, which the best coffee I have ever tasted, but it was interesting! Apparently Matthew is a difficult name to understand for Germans, as unlike me my fellow Aussie didn't decided to give a nickname and received a coffee for Basti. The Starbucks building itself was cool, as it looked like a mini Greek temple, complete with columns. We ended up getting on the train in time after our coffee break, and I felt quite accomplished getting to my stop after navigating a foreign train system. I ended up walking home from the station, and although it was kind of freaky in the dark (dark at 5:30 - I’m having serious UV deprivation), it was still really pretty to see all of the gemütlich Christmas lights and the stars. I ended up getting home much earlier than 10 o'clock like I was expecting, but had a great day and was able to see more of the beautiful city that is Hamburg, my home for the next couple of months.

Was machst du, dieses Wochenende? (die sonn ist aus, bleibst nicht im bettttt)

Well, I left you last Friday night, before going to the movies, so I will fill in the gap from there till now.
It seems we ride our bikes everywhere here, and late night movie trips into town is no exception. So, after a short ride to the train station, Anja and I caught the train (well, two trains) into Hamburg, picking up a friend along the way. We got to the cinema early for pre-drinks, aka non-alcoholic cocktails, and met up with some others. Then we made our way to the actual theatre, with a pit stop for snacks, and got ready for the 3 hour long movie that is Mocking Jay: Part 2. It was all in German (duh), so it's probably a good thing that I have read the books, which meant that I could understand what was going on and piece together the german. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I could actually understand all of it, but it was good all the same. One weird thing was that there was a 15 minute pause half way through, a chance for some to rush to the loo, but kinda boring for the rest of us. By the time the movie had finished and we were back at the bus stop, it was 11:20, and we discovered there was over half an hour until the next bus to the station - not good in freezing weather. Things were not to happy, and we were contemplating getting a taxi, when the bus we were catching went past on the other side of the road. Shrieking (Schnell! Schnell!), we ran across 4 lanes of traffic (at 11:30 - there was only one car) and an almost red pedestrian crossing, but we managed to get on the bus, and in two stops we were at a train station. The first train was only a 5 minute wait, then we caught a second train, and finally, after the third train and a bike ride, Anja and I were back home and embraced by the heater and our warm beds.

On Saturday night Anja and I went back into town to the Dom, a big carnival in Hamburg that opens in summer and winter. It's massive, with carnival games, and big rides, and food stands everywhere. I swear there were over 20 stands selling Lebkuchenherzen - gingerbread hearts with frosted writing. We lapped the carnival a couple of times - which is a long walk - and went on several rides, including the dogem cars, and a rollercoaster. For a light dinner, we had mushrooms in a delicious sauce, and we ended the night with a ride on the ferris wheel, which showed a beautiful view of Hamburg and the Dom. We caught the train back, but at the next station we had a wait until our next train came. It was another late night, as even though it was only 12:20, the ride back always makes it feel later.

The late night made it hard to get up in the morning, but I managed. Sunday morning I went to church with Lorenz, my host father. It was a cool experience, because the church was so old. Even though I couldn't understand the sermon, I was able to sing along with the hymns (from a hymn book - it's pretty surreal). I explained to Lorenz afterwards about how different my church back at home was, about how it's much more modern and inviting, unlike the dark cathedrals here in Deutschland. It was good to go anyway, I felt much better after going and experiencing a familiar, but unique, part of my life.

In Germany, there is a tradition where four Sundays before Christmas you celebrate the first Advent, a time where the family sits together and enjoys sweets and chocolates, a time for bonding. You continue this every Sunday up until Christmas, lighting a new candle each time. This was the first Advent, and after church I helped Ute decorate the house in preparation for Christmas. All of the old general decorations went away in the cellar, that meant saying goodbye to the normal candles, pictures, and random stone hearts. We brought up large boxes from the cellar then, which contained all of the Christmas decorations - stars and Santa's galore! It was really fun putting them all up, and the house felt very festive after we had finished.
We went to Anja's volleyball game then, which was long but exciting, because her team won. It was here, at the treat table in the corner of the school gym, where I had my first pretzel of my trip - I can't believe it took me so long! Then, it was back home for our Advent meal, sehr lecker!  

Bis später!!