Unfortunately, there is one theme that undoubtedly appears on every exchange student's blog at least once during their exchange year. And that is (*cue the suspenseful music*) ... sickness abroad. Maybe it's because when we're sick we have nothing better to do than write about it, or maybe it's because we want everyone to take pity on us that our own mothers are no longer here to dotingly fetch us tissues and throat lozenges. Either way, it's now my turn to write the obligatory I Am An Infected Exchange Student post.
But before I get to the harrowing tale of my Nasopharyngitis (widely known to non-medical-folk as "the common cold"), I want to talk about my amazingly perfectly wonderfully incredible weekend. It all began on Friday afternoon at 3:15, when school was over, and Laís (who, for new readers, is the Brazilian foreign exchange student in my class / one of my best friends here) and I decided we wanted to go to a Christmas Market together. So thanks to the freedom of Berlin's public transportation, we hopped on the U-Bahn to go to Alexanderplatz, a large public square in the Mitte District which many Berliners simply call "Alex". (I do not think I have yet reached this level of cool native-ness - I still refer to it as the Alexanderplatz).
The Christmas Market there was great. Clearly a tourist trap, but nonetheless great. Despite the fact it was not even 4pm it was already very dark, but I have found that this actually really adds to the atmosphere. So we walked around, buying a few little trinkets here and there before stopping to fill up on what I have heard be described as both "God's gift to man" and "Christmas in a cup" -- Glühwein. We took our steaming mugs over to a nearby fire pit, which ended up not being such a great idea because soon enough we each got a face full of ashy smoke. I wasn't quite sure how to express the sudden sting without speaking English, so I ran off saying loudly, "Es gibt Schmerzen! Es gibt Schmerzen!" (There is pain! There is pain).
And then Laís and I took some snazzy photos which we though made us look pretty cool - like we were drinking the real stuff and not just kiddie punch. (But it may as well have been the hard wine because ten minutes later we forgot to look both ways before crossing the street and almost had our feet plowed off by a tram).
As we left, though, we were kind of disappointed because our expectations had been REALLY high for the Alexanderplatz Market. We had heard it was SO cool, but as far as we'd seen in the last hour it was only average. However, as we were walking back towards the subway station, we saw it. Lights and roller coasters and hordes of people -- everything we'd heard was just on the other side of the square! So we followed the crowd heading quickly towards the entrance, and we could not believe what we found. It was like a full-fledged Christmas carnival!
First we had dinner (I literally had no idea what I was eating - something with dough, meat, and cheese - which was so incredibly delicious), and then we rode the huge Ferris wheel, together in a cart with a pair of boisterous British women. The view from the top was simply incredible - we were right up close to the famous TV Tour, and we could look out and see all of the beautiful city of Berlin (well, maybe not ALL, but just about).
After walking a few laps around the carnival, we looked at our watches and realized it really wasn't very late. What to do next? We decided to take a quick subway ride over to Friedrich Straße, a major culture and shopping street in Central Berlin. There wasn't anything in particular we had in mind to do, but on a Friday night at Christmas time on one of the busiest streets in one of the biggest cities in the world, there's bound to be something exciting happening.
So we walked along Friedrich Straße for awhile and ended up at the Brandenburg Gate (which had been beautifully decorated for Christmas) and then further to the Reichstag - the meeting place of the German parliament and a huge Berlin landmark. We snapped some stereotypical tourist photos there, and then walked through Tierpark (sort of like the "Central Park" of Berlin) to get to Potsdamer Platz, which is comparable to NYC's Times Square in terms of size and importance and awesomeness. There we visited yet another Christmas Market, and then got on the subway to the Hauptbahnhof, which is comparable to Grand Central Station (I apologize for all of these New York City comparisons - I would need ten more pages to give an exact description of each place). The Hauptbahnhof, where I should've arrived back in August had I not gotten off at the wrong station, was also beautifully decorated for the holidays - lights, trees, the whole shebang. From there we rode the subway back to good old Schöneberg, completely exhausted from such a whirlwind evening.
Then, the next morning, I was up bright and early to hit the road with my host family! After traveling two hours to my host dad's hometown, we enjoyed breakfast with my host dad's parents before heading out to one of best Christmas Markets in all of Germany. Quedlinburg, where it takes place every year, is an over 1000 years old UNESCO World Heritage Town, where Christmas spirit seems to have completely taken over. Quedlinburg itself looks just how one might imagine a quaint little German town - cobbled streets, huge old buildings, and plenty of Fachwerkhäuser (brown timber design on white houses - like in the picture below).
The most unique thing about Quedlinburg, however, is the "Advent in the Courtyards". On the second and third weekends of Advent, over twenty beautiful historic courtyards in the town open their gates, and inside small markets are set up, selling all sorts of small treasures and trinkets. Additionally, Quedlinburg is the site of Germany's biggest Advent calendar -- on each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas, the door of one of the 24 houses with Christmas decorations around the castle-hill is opened.
Even after spending the majority of the afternoon in the town, I still don't think we quite saw everything. The town's cheery holiday feeling was simply unlike anything I'd ever experienced...I'm definitely going to have to find a way to return someday!
After all of our Christmas-marketing we headed back to my host grandparents house, where I tried Schneewittchenkuchen "Snow White cake" for the first time. Inspired by the Grimm Brothers fairy tale, it uses cherries in the cake to represent Snow White's red lips, cream in the middle for her pale skin, and chocolate on top for her dark hair. It was soooo good!!! Afterwards, for the rest of the afternoon, we just had family time, and after dinner I got a full tour of my host dad's hometown, including a trip to yet ANOTHER Christmas Market!!! (That was the fourth all in one weekend!! And while you may think it would become boring after awhile, each has such a unique spirit, so it's always exciting).
The next morning (Sunday), when we were back home in Berlin, I woke up with a bad sore throat/headache/cough/running-nose. Fortunately I had absolutely no plans, so my day was simply spent laying in bed with multiple packs of tissues, two large blankets, and a whole lot of rom-com movies (The Proposal, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Dirty Dancing, A Cinderella Story). And also a large mug of my host sister's soothing homemade lemon tea, which has been working miracles on my throat.
When I Skyped with my dad later in the day, he pointed out that the very low level of stress I experience here probably has a direct relationship with the incredibly few number of days I've been sick. In the exchange student life, there's really not a whole lot to feel stressed about. No one's expecting you to have good grades (well, maybe except for in English class...), and you don't have a million commitments to fill your schedule. But just because being an exchange student is not particularly stressful does not mean it's in any way easy. (If you want to experience for yourself what many of my school days are like, drive to your nearest video store and rent a foreign language film. Preferably one without any plot whatsoever, where the main character stands in one place and talks while writing on a chalkboard for ninety minutes. Watch it without subtitles. Try not to fall asleep.)
But although there are many things I do miss about my life in America, the last week of school before winter break does not make the list. For the past few years I had found it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit with so many tests and projects due in every class, all culminating together in the same week and creating A LOT of panic, but fortunately the same is not true for grade ten at my school here in Germany. For grades eleven and twelve this is the last week of the semester, so there's definitely more pressure than usual for them, but luckily for grade ten it just feels like any other week, aside from the fact that Friday is a day just for celebration - no classes. (Will have to write about that next weekend!!)
And now I'll finish up with a quick story from today about the language barrier, because people always seem to find that kind of thing interesting...So this morning during breakfast my host sister and I were talking about the differences between German and American foods. I was explaining that my family in America doesn't usually eat so much pork or beef, but rather we love to eat chicken, always buying it fresh from the butcher in the grocery store. However, instead of saying Hühnchen (chicken), I instead accidentally explained how much we just love eating Hündchen (puppies). My host sister looked completely horrified for about one second, until she realized what I had actually meant...And then we both laughed for a while over my innocent mistake.