Christmas in Cologne (cologne)

I now want to tell you some things about the Deutsche Weihnachsten that are different and that I love!

1. Obviously…..WEIHNACHTSMARKTS! as if I haven’t mentioned them enough. They’re so cute, there’s so much going on at them, they’re so German!

2. Saint Nicholas- on the 6th of December, kids are supposed to put out their shoes and Saint Nicholas fills them with candy. But Santa Clause isn’t really that big here. He doesn’t visit Christmas Eve, because what we generally do on Christmas morning (the opening of presents, church services ect.) they do on Christmas night, therefore Santa has no opportunity to drop in. NO WONDER he flies all around the world in one night!....if he gets to skip Germany, who KNOWS how many other countries he has no obligations too. I can’t believe I never knew!

3. Kuchen, Gebäck, Glühwein, Fruchtbrot etc.
The eats. There are so many traditional German Christmas cookies, cakes, wine etc! Its actually unbelievable! I know we have all kinds of sweets too, but they have so many that are ONLY for Christmas. You don’t just make cookies for Christmas, you make CHRISTMAS cookies for Christmas!

4. I think one of the main things I’ve noticed, that I actually really like is the fact that people don’t seem as stressed out by Christmas. In our culture, Christmas is labeled as the “busiest time of the year”, and I don’t’ really think that’s the way its supposed to be.
At first here, I thought it was just because I, myself, don’t have all the traditions and stuff to do like usual, but I’ve thought about it a lot and talked to my friends and I really think that it different here.

For starters, at home University students have exams in December. That right there is a load of the most stressful stuff in school! I also think that the whole consumption/consumerism part of our Christmas is less here. People buy presents, but you don’t see ad’s EVERYWHERE blaring that you MUST buy this and this and this and this and this!!!!! I think consumerism is less in general.

So those are a couple of my insights, I’m definitly experiencing a different kind of Christmas this year. One that will come with its own set of memories I guess.

SO, treasure your traditions, savor the flavours, love the family that you get to see, laugh a lot and just be merry in general k? MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love,
Katrina

Christmas in Cologne (home)

So last night I was out drinking Glühwein (hot wine) at a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) with one of my favourite friends and her boyfriend. They asked me about Christmas traditions I had at home that I was missing this year, and about other traditions we have in Canada. I have to say, it doesn’t really feel like its Christmas for me here……I think due to the 5-7 degree weather (with not even a hint of snow), the fact that I have no family or tight friends around me (but my mom is coming next week!!!!) and just the normal hustle and bustle is not going on.
SO, I wanted to share some of the things that come along with a Deutsche Weihnachsten and also the things I miss at home.

Most of the Christmas traditions I’m missing have to do with my family and my church. I will list them off…..

1. Turkey Supper at my Church. This usually happens the first weekend of December, it’s a big meal put on by the youth. I was in it for 4 years and have attended all the years before and after ☺

2. Candle Light Choir. My church Choir that I usually sing in every year, or on years when I can’t make the practices (like last year) I at least go and see it. It is a definite mandatory part of Christmas.

3. PUTTING UP A CHRISTMAS TREE!!! And this event has a whole other set of its own traditions in our house. (mandatory music, mandatory first ornament on the tree, mandatory ceremony for the first ornament on the tree, mandatory second ornament on the tree etc. ☺ and mandatory hot chocolate in hand while all this goes on!)

4. Then there are a couple Christmas parties with friends that usually happen. Ex. The Doug Hunt Christmas party, last year we did 88 Columbia and Marshal St. house combined dinner-way too much fun!

5. General decorating of the house. General massive cleaning of the house (which I am doing this Sunday here), cleaning and airing out of all blankets, sheets and pillows.

6. Trying to remember which cousin’s name it was that I picked out at Thanksgiving, and then trying to think of something to get them :P

7. Christmas Eve Children’s Ceremony…..always super cute!

8. Christmas Eve Dinner with my Oma and Opa, where we eat a lovely meal, and get to open up one present!

7. Also, I told my friends about general traditions we have like Santa Clause parades, Candle Light Strole,……..

…..and much much more. As I’m thinking about all these things, I have a giant smile on my face. Traditions are awesome! Sometimes they’re so silly, (mandatory first ornament on the tree ceremony) but that’s what makes them so fun!

Sprichst du Deutsch??

The Language.

This is going off a train of thought I had from the last blog. Because I spoke so much German and only German yesterday at my concert day, today I’ve been thinking a lot about learning a language, and being in a country of a different language. Let me try and explain what its like for me on a day to day basis. This is an example of where I began to where I’m at right now….

Stage 1
(the first month I was here)
Pretend you can’t speak. ….yes that is basically the way it was.

(and yes, I know that that’s a bit exaggerated but sometimes its exactly how I feel, I can’t say what I want to say, its like being tongue tied. And also, yes, they understand English, but I always try to speak German first cause I think its more respectful……if I just spoke English it would be like a person coming to Canada from France and only speaking French to you because he just assumed because we learn French in school, that you could understand it perfectly)

SO, pretend you can’t speak. Think about how you would try and express yourself through your actions, your facial expressions etc……think about how much you would just want to say what your thinking…..but are unable.

Stage 2
Next, pretend you can only say every other word in a sentence.
So if you were talking, people could probably guess at what your trying to say…..but they never actually understand you completely.

Stage 3
And this is kinda where I’m at right now. Pretend you could think of 70% of the words that you wanted to say (which is great!) but half of them are in the wrong tense lol. For example lots of my sentences probably sound like this (and this was really hard to come up with a grammatically bad English sentence cause when you know a language, the best part is you DON’T have to think about every word and tense, it just flows)

“Play he more but one instrument?”

Which would mean—“Does he play more then one instrument?”

I have a feeling that that is the way I sound to my German friends quite often. To cut myself some slack, German is a HARD! Language! They all say English is so easy to learn cause you don’t have, male, female and neutered nouns, plus a million other crazy grammatical things.

I like talking German in my head WAY better then out loud cause I can make it flow better. The sounds and the way the words feel in your mouth are different too which makes speaking slow. Every time I think I’m getting better, I say something stupid or am unable to say something at all and I think, when will I finally get a handle on this?!

The greatest test will be when I head back to my relatives for Christmas, cause I havn’t seen them much since my first couple days that I was in Germany and I hope they will see a big improvement!

Ok bis bald! Habt ihr einen ganz guten Tag!!

Choir Mania

Yesterday was a total Choir day! My school gospel choir called “Vocal Journey” performed with an orchestra in neighboring city. We, caught a bus at 9:30am and didn’t get home till 12:30 at night….. needless to say I was pretty tired, but I had a great day!

I had really been looking forward to this, cause my choir is filled with a bunch of really cool people that I only kinda of know from class. I thought that if we spent a whole day together, there would be more opportunities to get to know people better.

The rest of this blog isn’t really gunna talk about the concert, more about what I learnt and am constantly learning about myself, about meeting people, about the amazing concepts of expression and language etc., and to try and give you and myself a better insight into this experience on a day to day basis. (I’ve actually cut it into 2 blogs)

SO, I began this day thinking that I would hang out with the people that I’m already more acquainted with….which happened, but I also talked with a ton more people too. I find myself often in a tug-a-war when it comes to these situations, cause sometimes I just want to talk to people that I’ve had previous conversations with, so I don’t have to explain for the 10 MILLIONTH time where I live in Canada, why I came to Germany, what I’m studying, where I live, how do I like it here, and oh ya,…have I heard about KARNIVAL?! Hahaha oh Karnival, it really is what this city lives and breaths.

Anyway, so I like talking with my friend-acquaintances cause I don’t have to repeat stuff, but I also like getting to know a little bit more about people in my classes and letting them get to know me better.

One of the things I’ve struggled with the most here (especially cause my classes are all small…around 20 ppl) is being the quite foreign kid, who sits in class, doesn’t speak, doesn’t really input, and has a hard time speaking the language. That’s just not usually how I am. I like to talk to people, know what’s going on, tell a joke with the person beside me….but I don’t have the confidence in my speech to do those things yet. I feel like when I talk to people, even if its just for 10 minutes or so, I can show my real personality a bit more an hopefully actually be a real person, instead of the “Corner Mute.”

So, this concert day was really good…met some more people, hung out with some oldies….the concert itself was ROCKIN! We sang with about an 60 person orchestra and band, there were 2 other choirs in the program and the concert went for 3 HOURS! We sang songs like “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough,” “Joyful Joyful,” and “Hallelujah” chorus to name a few…..complete with hand clapping, dancing, wicked solos on piano, drums and voice ect!
By the time it was time to board the bus and go home I was exhausted! Not only from singing, but also cause I had basically only had German conversations ( and lots of them) the whole day, so my mind had been working double time. Anyway, I hope you are all having a great time getting ready for Christmas! Happy Holidays!!

Love,
Katrina

A New Member to our Household

So upon deciding to write you this story, I've realized its actually not as funny as I thought when I have to write it, but I'm half way there anyway so I may as well continue. So,

Here is a little background info first, just cause I think its also somewhat amusing.

My one roomate who plays the violin (Jelena) just started seeing/dating this French viola player from my school (Baptist). (yes she is also the one that used to be dating the Korean piano virtuoso who was always traveling Korea) Baptist travels between Paris and our school weekly to play concerts and practice with quartets there so....as you can imagine, when he is in town they try and soak up as much time as they can together.

Well, somehow it began that because his house here in our town is far from ours, when he only stays in town for a couple nights he just sleeps here. (although a couple nights also equals the last 4 NIGHTS)

Its not like they're really loud or anything, he's super super shy and super respectful, to the point that yes he sleeps on her floor....and when they say bye to each other they barley hug.......and that's only if she initiates it! (Jelena thinks he's scared of her) also, to further the little bit of weirdness that is their relationship right now, he doesn't speak very good German, she doesn't speak very good French, so they sit in the kitchen and speak broken English which I think is kinda cute. (In my opinion, not so sure how long this relationship's gunna last but we'll see.....) ( also when he says hello to me he kinda bows..........should I curtsy?)

Ok so this is why musicians shouldn't date musicians (and I may eat my words someday if I find some hunky musician :P)

Today they were in the kitchen having a little chat.....I went in to get some tea and this is the conversation snipit that I heard.

Baptist: "tomorrow I go to Paris to practice with a cellist I've never worked with before."

Jelena: "oh, what pieces are you playing?"

B: "Beethovens 3rd"

J: "mmm....like da da da da da da da" and she begins singing it

B: "no, like.....da da da da da da da" he sings a different tune

J: "oh right, I only know the first movement of that one"

......I leave the room replaying what I have just heard in my head.

..........
...........
..................


.......These are the nicest people,! but they only know one way of life and that is music.

wow, their children will know every Beethoven, Bach, Mozart sonata ever written!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!

Anyway, so I miss you guys TONS! hope you enjoyed this little tale....its just that if it had happened at home I would have wanted to share it so I thought I'd do it anyway.

LOVE

Katrina

See, "the Sea", by the Sea

Country: England
Town: Newcastle
People: Me, Julia and Nico

1st half of the trip, 2nd part of the blog.

So, lets get started then. Friday, me and Jules took a 2 hour train ride to visit our friend Nico. Nico is a buddy we lived with at Grebel, my residence in Waterloo. He’s studying at a University in Newcastle. He met us at the train station and showed us around his city. Its really close to the North Sea and definitely had the feel of fishermans town.

On our way back to his flat, I got to ride a double-decker bus! Front seat baby! I know we have them here and there in Canada, but this was a first for me in a long time!
My legs loved this bus too, cause again, you are NEVER walking on a flat surface in England, its always either up or down.

Nico lives in a 6 person flat, one Irish guy, one British guy, him, two Irish girls and a British girl. Its always so interesting to be surrounded by people from multiple countries, I really love it! Its opens my eyes to cultural differences (such as accents, we all spoke English as our native tongue, but we were dealing with 3 different accents….I often had to get the Irish people to repeat themselves cause I couldn’t understand them) but I’ve also learned that even though we’ve grown up on different sides of the WORLD, we’re all just people and we have a lot in common!!

Saturday, we slept in (if you can call it sleeping) me and Jules each had a thin sleeping bag and sliver on Nico’s floor. ( I am SO thankful Nico let us stay at his place, but I definitely learned a new appreciation for not only my bed, but ANY bed!!) Our day turned into a trip to the North Sea. The train ride itself was eventful!...complete with a totally drunk English guy threatening to smash a bottle into an Italian guys head if he didn’t let him play his accordion…. ( Don’t worry dad, we were safe the whole time)

Once we were at the sea, we walked along this giant peer, it was absolutely gorgeous! I love being by the water and we caught the 4 o clock sunset! Its crazy how early it gets dark here! I don’t like it! Following English tradition, we stopped for the best Fish n Chips I’ve ever tasted before saying bye to Nico and heading back to Sheffield.

It was really cool to spend time with Nico and Jules. Alot of the time it felt like we were just hanging out in Waterloo and not on the other side of the ocean. Its also really weird that I definitely feel like Germany is a home for me. This was a great trip, but ya know how when you’re traveling you miss your shower or your room or whatever…..I thought about my little apartment in Germany every once in a while and was happy to return to it late on Monday night…..

I’ve added a bunch of new pictures to my photo stream, so check em out!! I miss you!!

Perfectly Posh, and loosing Pounds

I got to visit Jules in England last weekend (Thursday till Monday) and oh what a time we had! I feel like I have so much to say it will go on forever, HOWEVER, I will try to combo it into a nice neat 2 little blog entries. 1st half and second half.

This is the 1st half of the blogs, but it describes the second half of the weekend…..try and figure that one out, its just what I felt like writing about first ☺

Sunday, I got to go hiking in “The Peak District”. This district is exactly as it sounds…..full of peaks! I’ve only been in cities while in Germany and Holland so to walk in the beautiful countryside of England was AWESOME! They have public footpaths that go through farmer’s fields, up mountains, through forests and around little towns. We spent four hours getting lost on these paths, it was great! (Mom you totally would have LOVED this exploring adventure, it reminded me of creek walks ☺)

After our feet were soaked and our pants covered in mud, we returned home to shower and get ready for a French meal!

Julia lives with 14 other exchange student girls from all over Europe. 5 Germans, 4 French, 3 Spanish, 1 Poland, 1 Swedish. They’ve taken turns making meals from their countries and I was lucky enough to get in on the French one. So as you can imagine this living situation is very different from my 2 roommates. At dinner I found myself in a room full of 17 GIRLS from 6 different countries speaking who knows how many languages, but the cool part was that we could all communicate just fine. We’re in England so everyone can speak at least decent English. After dinner, we played a round of Uno with everyone and then me and Jules headed up to her room to have a quite night just the way we like it…..watching Gossip Girl and eating chocolate! ☺

Monday morning we met Leah for breakfast (another friend from Grebel studying at the same Uni as Jules) and went shopping and strolling around town. In general I’d say in England some of the differences are:

1. People dress a bit nicer then Germany (yes, now my comparisons are to Germany not Canada cause that’s what I see everyday)
2. England is definitely POSH! Which I like in some ways….for example, everyone is really polite, they say “excuse me”, their houses, stores and cities have the Victorian architecture feel, it’s a little bit like going back in time.
3. If you’ve ever seen an English soap opera such as “Coronation Street” (which I’ve had the pleasure of seeing many times due to my mom’s previous love for this show) that is a perfect example! Even their soap operas are a bit different.
4. The hills! I had no idea England was covered in hills!...that would be the part in my title about loosing pounds. Everywhere you walk its up and down and up and down…..plus their currency is called pounds (I was trying to make some sort of a pun??.....oh boy)

When I first arrived I realized it felt really weird for me to be able to understand peoples conversations, and all the signs and announcements in the airport and train stations!! I’ve gotten so used to my half understanding, I forgot what’s its like!! That being said, by the end of 4 days really really missed thinking and trying my German! I was real ready to practice again!
So, I had to say goodbye to my friend Julia until we meet again in the home country in the summer. ☹ It was really sad, but I’m happy she gets to go home and see her fam and bf! She was an awesome host and I’ll definitely miss our traveling adventures!!!