Well my intention for the last few days of 2007 was to be good and answer emails, write a blog entry, upload photos, write in my journal, tidy my flat and have some quiet time, contemplating changes I want to make and making a list of new year's resolutions.
Well as usual, this intention remained an intention, but minus writing in my journal and doing my new year's resolutions, I've made a start on all of them. So I guess I should be happy about that.
My Christmas turned out to be not too bad at all! After my initial Christmas plans fell through, it looked like I would be spending Christmas alone. That was going to be a very character building experience and one that I had come to accept. But when my friend Lisa found out that I no longer had Christmas plans she got back to me quite quickly, saying that her family would be happy to let me crash theirs. So that was really lovely of her and them. Then she got back to me again and said that they (her and her bf Waldi) were going to Waldi's family on the 25th and that Waldi had spoken to his family and it was also ok if I joined them there too. So that was very very nice of Lisa and Waldi to once again look after me on Christmas. You guys rock! :) I even got some pretty sweet presents too, which was really cool, considering I was just the "blow-in".
Lisa's mum also invited me to a boxing day lunch with her side of the family, with Lis and Waldi, at this restaurant in Freiburg which had very blackforest cuisine. Lis and I both had deer. The serves were so big that we both couldn't finish! On Christmas eve, back at Lisa's parents house, the food was pretty amazing, including this super special sauce that Lisa's brother made, following instructions from a friend that he phoned in Sweden, and who then emailed him the secret steps. he had his laptop with him in the kitchen! It was funny. Our celebrations began with "real" Champagne! Spoilt!
After dinner we did the traditional thing of singing Christmas carols together (instead of watching them on "Carols by candlelight"! :P), reading the Christmas story and lighting the little Christmas tree candles (instead of turning on the Kmart Christmas lights :P). I must say Germans and Austrians know how to celebrate Christmas in an authentic way. It is far less commercial, in comparison with home. Although some would argue that it is becoming more commercial here. However, get this: Shops here are always closed on a Sunday. Europeans celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, therefore this year being a Monday night. And guess what... The shops on Sunday were still CLOSED. Nuts (or perhaps not...)! The day before Christmas in Australia is retail intensity overdrive. But here it's a good old quiet little Sunday. Nuts.
Anyway, back to Christmas with Lisa and Waldi. So after presents we went to Church. We were half an hour early and it was already packed!! We had to stand up the back. It was a really pleasant, festive service, on the top of a big hill/small mountain in Spaichingen. The next day we had a grand breakfast and then it was off to Waldi's family. Waldi's sister is also called Ela, and with one 'L' too! It was nice to finally get to know Waldi's family. We had a pretty Polish lunch, which was cool 'cause it made me think of my own Polish grandmother and her cooking.
On Friday night, back in Freiburg, we saw this really sweet film, one that I'd been waiting for to come out (the new Til Schweiger one "KeinOhrHasen" translation
no eared rabbit). I enjoyed it, and understood about 90 percent of the dialogue, which was often pretty fast. It was mainly the slang I couldn't understand and I missed out on a couple of jokes. But 90 percent ain't bad. It's the first movie that met my expectations in a long time.
Gabi and Josef's daughter's have been down from Berlin and their son-in-law had a concert at the concert hall last night. They had a spare ticket and asked me if I'd like to join them. It was really great. Swing music, a tribute to Glenn Miller. So you know, what I've learnt over the last few days is that if you just relax and keep yourself open to good things, things pop up and have a way of working themselves out (i.e Christmas, concert, movie etc). As always there's plenty more to tell you, but how about I post this for now. I'll post a link to the photos I organised too.
Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!Literally: A good slide into the new year!
Figuratively: Happy New Year!
But only wished before 24:00 of the 31st, after then it's "Frohes neues Jahr!", which is simply "Happy New Year". Gotta love the specificity! ;) Well that's were I'm living right now and when in Rome... Have a good one guys!!
Love Ela xo
