On playing crib and other activities

Okay, let’s start with Tuesday: Tuesday was a pretty good day. I got up fairly early and Katie and I went to get our monthly money from the place where we get our monthly money. We decided to walk home and on the way we stopped in at Karstadt (big department store) and I found myself a couple of scarves that I really like. The scarf thing is so funny. Europeans love scarves. And if you go to Europe, you’ll start loving scarves, too. I don’t know why that is, it just is. We also stopped at the bank to deposit the cash. I need to explain the German deposit system at the ATM. It’s fantastic. Well, fantastically novel. You don’t put the cash into an envelope at all; a little door opens up and you drop the money into it. The door then shuts and the machine counts what you have. It reports it’s findings on the screen (like, 2x100=200 and 5x50=250 so, you’ve deposited 450) and you confirm that it counted correctly. I find it absolutely hilarious. Also, on this topic, I have spoken to several Americans and they have no idea what I’m talking about. Apparently, you can’t deposit cash into ATM’s in the States. That’s weird if you ask me, or surprising at the very least.

Okay, back on topic. So then I went home to wait for the package that I had arranged to have delivered. They said it would come some time between noon and 5 o’clock so I prepared to sit around and wait. Turns out that the package came just after one, and I was so excited that the Deutsche Post guy probably thought I was crazy! The first thing I did was run to the computer and MSN Nicole and Katie with the word “PACKAGES!!! PACKAGES!!! PACKAGES!!!” This is especially funny because I’m not sure why referred to the package in the plural, but I did. Then, a few days later, my mom sent me an email asking something and commenting about the package and the subject line in the email was “Packages!!!” Also in the plural and also with three exclamation points, proving once again that I am my mom’s mini-me.

The package looked pretty beat up; the brown paper that was on the outside was covered with Deutsche post tape and I thought, “Wow, this really took a beating!” But after I took off the outer wrap and realized that the box was taped up with this same tape underneath the brown wrap, I read the tape and it said something to the affect of “This box was opened by Deutsche Post for customs purposes,” and I realized that they had actually opened it up and looked through it, then taped back up again. There were really weird about it, though. Here’s what I got:

1. A card from my mom that is so cute. I haven’t read the inside yet, because I’m waiting till Christmas, but on the envelope it has the words “Extra Postage Required” and my mom wrote “Yeah! No Kidding” underneath it. I laughed and laughed. The customs people opened up this card to see what was inside.


2. My ski pants. This is important because I’m going skiing for New Year’s.


3. A couple DVD’s and a CD I’d asked for.


4. A couple pecan logs because I love them!


5. A few cans of stuff that I love at home and can’t get here. (This was weird because they didn’t confiscate them, but we kind of thought that we weren’t allowed to import them. Oh, well. If they didn’t confiscate it, then it’s not illegal!)


6. A box of Toffifee (also a Christmas tradition). This is really funny because, for one, even though the box was sealed by the manufacturer, the customs people sliced it open to see what was inside. That’s just weird if you ask me. The other funny thing about this is that I am in the country where they make Toffifee. It is so cheap here! I can get a box of 15 for less than one Euro, yet I’m sure mom probably spent several dollars on the box in Canada and then paid to have it shipped here! I was going to send some home for Christmas, but mom sent me some! It’s funny, but also really sweet because there are some Christmas traditions that you just have to have; Toffifee is one of those traditions.


7. Several wrapped packages that I am waiting for Christmas to open. Customs didn’t open any of these.


8. A CRIB BOARD!!!

I think that’s it. It was awesome to get. I love packages from home! If anyone wants to send me a package, I’d totally be down with that!!

I think that the rest of Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Katie and I went to the Christmas party for the language lab and anyone who has anything to do with the language lab, but we only stayed for a little bit.

Wednesday was a pretty regular day, but then in the evening Katie and I went with a friend from the language lab to one of the markets around town. I’m not sure if I should call it a Christmas market or not. It’s a really big version of the sort of little shops they’d have at the Fringe, except that it isn’t the same things over and over again. It’s just lots of little booths with awesomely interesting stuff. Anyways, I have 2 favorite parts from the evening: 1. This guy had these puppets that were awesome. I don’t know what to call it, but if you saw it you’d be like, “I’ve seen those before. I didn’t think they were that impressive.” But this guy was incredible! He could do things with this little marionette-esque toy that were so adorable! So I bought one. It was only 7€ and I hope to learn how to do what this guy does. I was completely enthralled by his mad-puppet-skills. 2. Katie and I found a food stand that sells Polish food. What’s so exciting about that? Perogies!!! I didn’t realize how much I loved perogies until I couldn’t have them. They are a little different than Ukrainian perogies, but it was close enough to fill the void. Anyways, as Katie and I were walking along eating these I was suddenly like, “Can I eat this styrofoamy container they came in?” (don’t ask why I thought this because I have no idea myself) and I snapped off a piece and ate it. Sure enough, the little bowl-thingy was made out of something similar to those foamy ice cream cones. So then I cracked a bunch of jokes about “And then I ate the bowl!!” and laughed myself silly. I crack me up.

Thursday I went to class in the morning and then Katie and I headed to Wal-Mart. She had to buy a very large pot for her floor’s Christmas party. She couldn’t tell me what it was for, all she knew was that they were making some kind of special drink in it. So, the afternoon went on and the two of us met up with this guy named Richard because we are going to work on a project for the university (again, this is good because I feel like I’m overpayed and underworked). Basically they are overhauling all of their materials for foreign students, so they are starting with English and then will translate it to all the other languages after that. I’m pretty excited to help out. So, Katie had to work in the language lab and then she swung by and grabbed me and we headed off to the party. Turns out that the pot was for a Feuerzangenbowle, which I should have known, but I was obviously not thinking clearly. A Feuerzangenbowle is a very popular German Christmas tradition. Basically, you heat up some wine and add cut up fruit (oranges and lemons) and some spices. Then you need a special holder for a special cone made of sugar (I think this holder is called the Feuerzange) and you saturate the sugar with a very strong rum and then light it on fire. The fire melts the sugar and it drips down into the wine concoction, and you keep pouring rum on the sugar to keep it aflame until all the sugar is gone. I have heard about it before, but this is really the first time I’ve seen one done. It was really neat.

Friday Nicole, Katie and I took the train to Nuremberg to go to the Christmas market there. We had heard so much about it that we just had to go. It was about a 3 hour train ride each way and the round trip was 27€, so that was a pretty good price. The thing is that it was raining in Nuremberg. Not snowing, raining. But it wasn’t bad, so we headed off in the direction of the market. Well, I gotta be honest, I wasn’t super impressed. There was nothing there that I couldn’t get here in Munich at a Christmas market. And the rain got worse. Lots worse. It ended up hailing and everything. It was brutal. Whatever, we came home and all agreed that we were unimpressed, but glad we went and it was fun taking a real train instead of just the trains around the city.

Then in the evening we went to… (are you ready for this?)… A KARAOKE BAR!!! I was going to arrange a Karaoke party, but decided that I better scope out the joint first. I don’t want to go sending a bunch of emails and SMS’s just to have everyone show up and find out that the selection stinks, the host sucks and the system blows. So Nicole, Katie and I headed out. It was awesome!! So now I have to plan a Karaoke party for sometime in January. We only stayed for a little while to read the list and hear the system. Nicole and I each sang one song and then we left. The other girls headed home, but I headed off to go to a party at some bar near the Ostbahnhof (east train station). It ended up being a real comedy of errors getting there and meeting people and on and on. Bottom line was that I got there and stayed for maybe an hour and a half before I was like, “This DJ is possibly the worst DJ I have ever heard, and I have made my required appearance. I’m outta here!” You want to know how bad this guy was? At one point, after playing several techno-ish songs in a row, he played Don McLean’s American Pie. Now, I love this song, really, nothing against the song, but he played at a dance club. And that is my point. I’ve never been to DJ school, but I just imagine that breaks some sort of rule. It worked out really well that I left when I did because I caught the very last train home! And, let me tell you, it’s no cheap taxi ride from the Ostbahnhof to home!

Then, yesterday, I spent most of the day messing around in my room. I absolutely had to clean the place up and I still hadn’t decorated my Christmas tree (*hee hee*) even though I said I’d do it on the tenth. So, in amongst my dancing around, cleaning up and drinking, I was having a conversation with Olivier. He ended up inviting us over and said he’d make us crepes! So, after much SMSing, Nicole and I decided to take him up on the offer, but Katie wanted to get ready for heading back to Canada (which she does on Tuesday). We made it to his place with relative ease and a fair amount of fun (see, I had been drinking rye all afternoon at this point) and then had to walk up the five flights of stairs. Ugh. That was tough. Olivier – every day, really? Anyways, I brought my newly received crib board and Nicole and I started playing while Olivier started on the crepes. We didn’t make it too far into the game before we started helping too, and then some of Olivier’s roommates came and joined and we all ate crepes together. Shortly after dinner Nicole left and I played crib with Olivier and his roommate, Dijana. I ended up staying there very, very late and caught the train home this morning after they had all started running again. Very, very late.

So, that was my week. Sorry this is one long post instead of several short ones, but I was really lazy and pretty busy all week. There are classes this week, and then it’s vacation until the ninth of January. Even the language lab is closed, so I don’t even have to work. I love Christmas time! Oh, I should also mention that the last post was number 50. I'm pretty proud of that.