December in Germany

I'm going to start my December post in November.  I got a lot of pressure from my German friends to cook a Thanksgiving meal.  I also cook every Monday for the host family.  I figured I would kill to birds with one stone and cook a giant portion of holiday food.  Unfortunately, Turkey is expensive, so I cooked chicken instead.  The recipe was delicious (hyperlinked) and will be used again.

You guess: did I force this picture on Susi and Fabi?

I also cooked a bunch of green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole.  Green beans went over well, sweet potato confused everyone... "But Jourdan why is it sweet?" "BECAUSE It'S WHAT YOUR ARTERIES WANT."  It may have also been because I used too much sugar.  The house doesn't have any 'Merican measuring devices so I often go with my gut, and my gut is fat and loves sugar.

Later on in Novemdecember, Uncle Bob stopped by in town.  He came to see me, but also because mom forced him to mule a bunch of clothes and gifts to me (Thank you again Uncle Bob).  We met at a local brewhaus with Jochen and enjoyed a meal and beer:

Afterwards we went back to the house and Uncle Bob got to meet everyone as well as load up on coffee.  It was real nice seeing family.

In an effort to quell homesickness induced by an uncle visit, I cooked Enchiladas and Spanish rice.  Fabian is a huge fan of "Mexican wraps" and I will be having to make them again soon (actually I was supposed to tonight- eek).

Christmas hit Saarbruecken pretty hard.  I noticed that a lot of the Christmas decorations family back in the US have originate from Germany (Nuremberg):

St. Niklaus Day happens in Germany and is a big day for the young kids.  I was invited by the Nani/grandma to the family's celebration of Niklaus day, which was mainly for Lena's younger cousins.

(Sidenote: coming up with labels for associations within Kleinblittersdorf is difficult. Everyone is very close and treats each other like nuclear family, but I think that the closest blood tie is five generations up from Fabian and Lena, or 3 generations from the Nani. Nevertheless, everyone is very close and it reminds me of family back home)

St. Niklaus Tag featured a performance form the kids parents, who are all in a Musik Verien (club) together. They practice and socialize once a week, and play a couple gigs a year (mostly around Christmas at the church of Xmas market).  They were really good:

Then St. Niklaus showed up.  The tradition is that Niklaus has in his book a summary of naughty and nice behaviors of every kid. On Niklaus day every kid gets a small lecture on becoming behavior and then eventually a gift.  The little kids really hate being criticized and so they were very anxious about the whole event.

"Now little Johnny it says here that you don't always brush your teeth and that you drive your parents absolutely mad most of the time"

Fabian and I were too old for our names to be in Niklaus' book, but we didn't escape unscathed.  There were a couple moments where Niklaus dropped some hints: z.B. "Oh yes Hanz it says here you are always a great older brother to your sister... wouldn't it be nice if every older brother spent as much time with their little sister, even if one such brother was 17 years old or perhaps that brother was bad at German and busy with studies."

Also in December I started volunteering at the Stadtwerk, which is the previously mentioned organisation that helps take care of and/or train people with special needs for the work environment.  I am volunteering at a small production facility that builds parts for Mercedes Benz buses, parts for doorframes, parts for Electrical transformers, and oil-filter housings for front-end loaders.  It is a good experience, I mainly walk around and interact with everyone.  People are very curious and love to hear how long it takes to get to Germany from Albuquerque as well as general trivia about the US.  I also get to learn about each job that everyone does within the facility, which ranges from operating CNC equipment, milling, stamping, welding, assembly, and packaging.  The emphasis isn't on production though, which is nice.  And here is a half a million dollar machine that punches/lasers metal very quickly:

Another Monday I cooked Will's famous Margarita Chicken on Grape Salsa. It is probably one of my favorite meals. I have decided that I will bring it to all of Saarland once it is Schwenken season again.

Grape Salsa Recipe:

green grapes (or red if you're into it)

avocado

cilantro

red onion

red wine vinegar

chopped tomatoes 

jalepeno (or serrano, depending on how spicy you want it)

green onion

a little EVOO

salt 

pepper

just buy one of everything. use about half of the grapes in one bag (initial slice using stacked-plate sandwich technique, then you can get your sous chef to meticulously cut them again), about a quarter of the cilantro, about 1/4 of a cup of red wine vinegar, 1/4 - 1/2 of one red onion, one or two chopped red tomatoes, about half a jalepeno (more for more spicy), about two inches from the top of the green onion, about 5 or 6 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, Salt and pepper to taste.

Food Review:

School has been alright, although some days I can't take it.  And other days, I see an absurdly long word I've never heard of and I laugh and think of how cool it is to be in Germany.  Also, I applied to a lot of companies for an internship.

Steifegkeituberprufung

Applied to, waiting to hear back.

During December everyone ate too much, including the little niece.  This is her "I'm full and will potentially throw up later tonight pose":

Everyone loves babies.  That's a fact.

Little person in big clothes. Classic.

For all of the family in town I cooked New Mexican Christmas food. Pozole:

Posole Burrito aka German Innovation

We played dance dance revolution quite a bit:

And then everyone got in on the fun of Fabian's 18th birthday.  He had friends over until the wee hours of the night:

On Christmas day itself, a couple houses in the neighborhood grilled out (and crepe'd out).  We stopped by a couple get togethers for mulled wine, beer, sausage, and crepe- it's a tradition I could get down with.

And then we played dress up the American who is wearing an unfortunately western jacket:

I showed Fabian and Lena the "elf shoe" knapkin folding. They showed me the "classic crown":

And there was more eating. I had escargot- which was actually really good, as opposed to the food you convince yourself is good even though it really isn't (alligator, frog, water chesnuts, kale, almond milk, liver, veal, etc.).

Germans celebrate the gift portion of Christmas on the 24th, 2 minutes before whatever time of night the youngest member of the family loses composure (I had forgotten how absurdly exciting opening christmas gifts used to be).

Big gifts were a blender, towel's with names, soccer jerseys, a purse, and tickets for everyone to a christmas dinner-show on the 25th.  Fabi and David got me a Saarbruecken soccer jersey with my name on it, which I find totally awesome.

Random photos:

and on the night of the 25th, we went to the dinner Theatre:

Dinner theatre meant a 1 star chef (out of 3) cooked dinner and that between courses there were live performances of circus-esque acts.  The food was absolutely incredible (better than the photo):

And the acts were super cool. There were singers, a comedian, trapeze artists, rollerblading 'danccd' event, show girls?, and other feats of unique talent.

Crazy spinning ring dancer and shake-your-tail-feather dancers. I blushed more than once on this night.

This girl was balancing on a pole. The two guys would bend and jump launching her into the air, where she would then do flips and somehow land back again on the pole.

And December also brought snow:

Strassbourg

One weekend, Viktoria (Friend from swing dancing) and I decided to go to Strassbourg (France) for a dance party.  It was last minute, but sounded like it could be fun. 2hr drive.

First impression of France:

Yes this Pug has a fur hood on. ha!

 Strassbourg is the "Capital of Christmas" according to signs around the city- I'm inclined to believe them.  The Christmas celebrations dwarfed Prague and exceeded my wildest expectations.  Around every corner was a christmas market and every single street and building was covered in lights.  It was also the most crowded place I have ever been in my life.

We walked around a lot:

The Strassbourg Cathedral is pretty awesome.  It was the world's tallest building for over 200 years and has some fun stories associated with it (relayed by Viktoria who had to come when she was a student).

The Rosetta (seen below) was removed from the church and hidden away during World War II to prevent it from being lost forever.  It was found and returned by the US army during post-war occupation.

 There is an astronomical clock that is over 40 feet tall within the church.  It can predict Easter according to the lunar and church calendar, which is apparently difficult, especially for when it was built.  It also has figurines that run around at different times of the day.  Because it was Saturday, Saturn was shown on one of the tiers of the clock.  It also had figures relating to the church season as well as the season and time of day.

 Fun story: One of the priests who gave the sermon was particularly long-winded, to the dismay of parishioners. He would speak for hours and hours, driving people mad. So the community decided to give him a dog so that he would have to take care of the puppy and end his sermons earlier.  People would rub the nose of a particular dog statue as they waited for the priest to remember his duty to the pet, causing the head of the stone statue to become polished.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the polished dog... you'll just have to believe me.

There was also this nice engraving within the church:

Nighttime Christmas Market:

Lights on every building.

One of the buildings in the main square had a show projected on it that was very weird. It was the cartoon journey of a boy who was avoiding monsters but for no real clear reason (I concede that the narration was in French and may of been helpful).  The music was very suspenseful and loud, causing a few of the toddlers watching the show to cry, which was pretty ironic.

 

Building with projected show.

I call this "framing the shot"

 Strassbourg and this region of France are known for the traditional timber housing construction:
 

37,000 Euro ring on display:

Is this one of those "Emperor's new clothes" rings, or are they in storage for the night? You decide.

 After wasting time wandering around until the dance started, we headed to the Metro in order to get transported to the party.  Unfortunately, the public transit went on strike (starting at 9pm) that night- dammit France!  We had a long walk....

When we showed up to the dance we found out that you had to have tickets.  Viktoria works and goes to school in France, and speaks fluent french, although she is German.  She begged and pleaded with the doorman, who was dressed like a 1920's mobster (pinstripes, hat, mustache and all).

Funny parts:
At the beginning, mobster says, "We can speak English if it is easier for you."
Viktoria in French "We can speak French too"
Mobster, "I can speak English-"
Viktoria, "and I can speak French" <<STARE DOWN>>

Viktoria (translated later) tells this guy about how she has built up how cool the French are to her american friend for weeks, that we've driven from Germany just to come dance, and how she promised me a proper French party, etc.  The guy does not budge at all.  He keeps saying it is a safety concern and that he told people 'no' earlier and that he is honor-bound to not change his position now.

.... There is a long pause, almost a full minute.  I assume Viktoria has given up... She stands there, sighing and staring at the man... his eyes are hardened and his emotions non-existent...

Viktoria is at it again with new reasoning and argument for why we should be allowed in.  I'm convinced this ship has sailed, and I'm not even mad- all of the walking has tuckered me out.

As we start to leave the man runs up to us and says that we can come at midnight after enough people have left (for reduced price).  I am not interested in waiting nearly two hours but Viktoria explains I have no choice as she is driving.  Or maybe she said something else and I heard that.

We go to the bar on the corner and I load up on Coffee.  Midnight:

 We got to the event right as they were hosting the dance competition for the night.  The couples were insanely good... I took a video of one that was below average for the field, which is saying something:

The live band was really great.  I would have been convinced they were from down south USA if it weren't for their french small-talk during water breaks.  Viktoria and I danced for a while and it was fun being in such a huge crowd of talented dancers.  We were way below average (and almost the only ones not in costume).

This was also the same time I got a Fitbit for Christmas from Will, which ended up being a really cool gift.  The whole experience ended up being around 11 miles of walking and 3 miles worth of dancing.

Step counter from Running to catch the train to school all the way through my lazy Sunday following Strassbourg.