The Boots

Last night I cleaned my boots and left one by the front door and dutifully went to bed "early" like a good little girl. I am sure you are wondering why I would do this. Isn't it obvious? Sankt Nikolaus was coming, and I had to be prepared!

My very clean boot.

I can bet most of my American readers are very confused as of this moment. As for my German readers, they know exactly what I am talking about (duh). Shall I explain for the clueless out there?

When I think "Sankt Nikolaus" (Saint Nicholas... in English) I come up with two thoughts. One being of a big, jolly man in a red suit who comes and brings me presents on Christmas Eve. The other being the legend surrounding the actual Saint Nicholas, and all his kind deeds hundreds of years ago. But most Americans would only think of the first thought. Because Saint Nicholas and Santa are one in the same for us. But, this is not so in Germany.

Germans give Sankt Nikolaus a whole holiday all to himself. And the Weihnachtsmann (literally translates as "Chrismas man") gets a whole holiday to himself as well. Because they are different people! Nikolaus was an actual man who became a saint in the Catholic Church; while the Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) is not a real person, but just an embodiment of the Christmas spirit and a great way to bring joy to little kids, and parents, across the country. So Sankt Nikolaus day is on the 6th of December, and the Weihnachtsmann gets to spread his holiday cheer on 25th of December.

How this holiday works is that on the night of December 5th, you grab your boots and scrub them clean. Then, you put them on your doorstep with some milk and cookies. And if you have been good this year, Sankt Nikolaus will come in the middle of the night and fill your boot with candies and sometimes small presents. Then of course when you wake up in them morning you run to the front door to see what you have received. As you can tell this is a kid centered holiday in many aspects. The fun for the parents comes in another form. Usually if you have a party on or near the 6th of December, Sankt Nikolaus will show up. He will then read off all the naughty things the children in the room have done this year. Then the children are expected to sing a song or recite a poem to curry his favor. If they do well, all is forgiven and they get goodies. If not, Sankt Nikolaus' helper will swat you with a birch stick. Of course, all in good fun. Usually the parents get a good kick out of the kids squirming and trying to deny their bad deeds of the year.

So last night, Martha, Frieda and I cleaned our boots and set them in front of our front doors. We also prepared a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. All in the hopes that we had been good enough little girls this year and cleaned our boots well enough to receive candy. Then we went to bed early like good little girls should. (I must confess I didn't go to bed early. Shame on me...).

Martha and Frieda's boots. Along with the milk and cookies.

This morning I hopped out of bed (an unusual occurrence) and swung open my front door. There stood my boot. Full of chocolate. I was so excited! Before I closed the door, I noted that the girls had already grabbed their own boots. Typical. I hopped back into bed and gleefully dumped out the contents of my boot. All chocolate. Then, like the "grown up" that I am, I had to get ready for German class. I sadly couldn't linger over the awesomeness of the morning.

My boot and my loot.

I just got back from class and thoroughly enjoyed a few pieces of my chocolate. I want to make these last me till Christmas (when I will be getting more chocolate), but I doubt that will happen. Chocolate is just too good to resist.

17 Again? Nope.

Last week I had the pleasure of being reminded that I am most definitely getting old. This twenty-year-old body just isn't the sprite youthful thing that it used to be. Kidding... sorta. As much as twenty-somethings have youth and spunk unknown to their elders, we don't have the crazy energy of teenagers. That is zapped out of you quite quickly once you aren't a teenager anymore. This past week Johannes and Christiane's seventeen-year-old niece stayed for a couple days. I absolutely adored hanging out and going on adventures with Lea! It was one heck of a couple days. After which I proceeded to take a nap.

Lea and her family dropped by for a few days before they went on their Fall holiday house boating in France. Everyone in Germany gets a Fall holiday, how fancy is that? But Lea and I had so much fun that she decided to stay for a few days once she was done house boating with her family. This first adventure was before they went house boating, all the rest are once she got back.

On Monday (not this past week, but the week before) we visited was Karlsruher Schloss, which is one of my favorite places to just frolick about. It was a gloomy, cold, and windy day. But I love those kinds of days. Lea and I roamed about the vast castle grounds, including the Hartwald (a forest). I told Lea that one of the things my friends and I love doing is taking pictures when we are on adventures (or when we are bored haha). So I made sure we took a couple pictures while we walked around. My favorites are the ones of us walking on one of the tile spokes that show that the castle is in the middle of the city and most of the streets radiate out from it. After the castle we went to a fancy little cafe and drank absolutely amazing hot chocolate.

Lea in front of the castle.

Me walking on the blue tile "spoke".

Lea came back on Sunday with her family, and then they left that evening to go back home. Monday morning we found ourselves trying to figure out what to do. The museums aren't open on Mondays, so we couldn't go there. And other things would take too long (I had slept in a little too late). So we decided to watch the movie 'Bride Wars'. We laughed so much! But for the afternoon we did go on an adventure. Lea and I took Martha to the Karlsruhe Zoo. Now, when I think of a zoo, my mind goes directly to all the trips I have made to the San Diego Zoo and the LA Zoo. Both are huge and have a certain fancy California feel to them. The Karlsruhe Zoo is pretty much the complete opposite. It's really quaint, sprawling but not huge, and has a fanciful quality to it. It is almost like a park. I would say the main focus of this zoo is its botanical gardens (which are gorgeous) and then amongst the gardens, lakes, and rivers are the little exhibits. Another thing that surprised me was that they have animals I would never expect in a zoo because I don't consider bunnies, goats, sheep, Shetland ponies, and ducks to be exotic. There is even a petting zoo within the main zoo. This is where we spent most of our time. Martha was totally enthralled by all the goats. She spent the better part of a half an hour "training" them. It was so adorable; and Lea and I couldn't stop giggling.

See! I wasn't joking about the Shetland Ponies!

On Tuesday we once again found ourselves not being able to go to a museum because they were closed for some reason. But that morning we had more time, and were able to go sort of far. So we chose to take a train to Durlach (a suburb of Karlsruhe) and ride the Turmbergbahn. What is that? Well it's the oldest train in Germany! And it goes up the side of a mountain (more like a hill) where at the top you get an amazing view of Karlsruhe and the surrounding areas. You can even technically see France. The Turmbergbahn was really neat! But when we got to the top of the "mountain", I stopped thinking about trains. We climbed up a old watch tower from like the 1200's or 1300's to get the best view of it all. I was totally floored. The view was so amazing! The pictures I took just don't capture the vast beauty. Lea had packed us a snack (gummy bears and cookies) and we ate those as we basked in the view. It was really windy, but I like to think that it made it all much more epic.

Lea and I in the Turmbergbahn.

Just one of the epic views from the top of the tower.

Once Lea and I left the Turmbergbahn, we realized that we still had time to kill before we went to pick up Frieda from Kindergarten. Lea suggested we go and see Gottesaue Schloss, which was actually about a five minute walk from Frieda's school. The castle isn't really a castle. Nor has it ever been, so I'm not quite sure why it is called one. For a really long time it was a monastery. And then at some point it became a music college. Unlike a lot of old historical buildings, this one is not a museum. This meant we could only look at the outside. Which was fine; it was neat just strolling around the grounds  listening to all the students practicing their music.

Me in front of Gottesaue Schloss.

Lea in front of Gottesaue Schloss.

On Wednesday we finally got to go to a museum! And what a museum it was. I was super impressed by it all; I have never been to a museum like ZKM. I was really excited to go because ZKM is a modern art museum. And I do love a good art museum. But, unlike all our previous adventures we couldn't take the train (because the workers were on strike that day). So it was about a twenty minute walk from the house, in the rain. Great day for the train workers to be on strike right? Ha. The museum is in the same building as an art school, which I thought was pretty darn smart. Lea and I spent the morning nice and warm (as opposed to our walk in the cold, cold rain) looking at and interacting with the exhibits. The main exhibit at the moment is all about crazy modified cars. But the mini exhibits were all about technology. There were iPads, classic arcade games, karaoke, futuristic virtual reality games... the list goes on. It was the most amazing thing to see stuff that I am familiar with, in a museum already. I can already tell I am going to be one of those grannies that takes her grandkids to the museums and says, "When I was your age the iPad was a new fangled idea..." Nothing wrong with that right? Oh geez.

Me playing with bubbles that react to my shadow.

One of the cars from the main exhibit. It was an art piece all about the environment.

All these morning adventures combined with watching my girlies in the afternoon really made me one tired girl. When Lea left I was super bummed that I was losing my adventure buddy; but man, was I stoked to spend the next morning at home in my pajamas. Lea still has that teenage vivaciousness that I can't quite keep up with anymore (though I am pretty sure I talked her ear off). And I adore her all the more with dealing with me: the tuckered out twenty-year-old.

Four Stories Up

When I think of apartments, several mental images come to mind. The first being flashes of nasty, grimy apartments that I have been to in my lifetime, and that can be found in many corners of the globe. The second being the ritzy apartments that can be found in major cities (like NYC) that I have only seen in movies and TV. The third being the apartments my friends are slowly beginning to migrate into after leaving home. The last image is a newer, less familiar mental image. It is of the apartment that I live in, and of all the many interesting apartment buildings in Karlsruhe.

The word "apartment" brings a lot to my mind. Some thoughts negative and others positive.

Apartments hold a particular intrigue to me. As a child I grew up knowing that to live in a house was an amazing blessing, and only people on their way to the top had to live in apartments (unless you lived in said ritzy apartments). I always wanted to live in an apartment though. They were just so different from what I was used to.

I currently am living in an apartment for the first time in my life. And I love it! Of course I live in a beautiful apartment, so that makes it hard not to like. It's not the Ritz. But I think it is just perfect.

I will describe it to you!

To get to my apartment you must walk up "four flights" of stairs (more like eight in my opinion... there isn't an elevator since the building is like 200 years old) and then you will arrive at the fourth floor landing. Here you have the option to open two doors. The door directly in front of you takes you into the main apartment. The door to your left takes you to the mini apartment (my room).

The main apartment is where Johannes, Christiane, Martha, and Frieda live. It is very open, big, airy, and sunshiny. The walls and ceilings are all white and the whole apartment has light colored hardwood floors. There is a modern flair to everything, with a touch of traditional here and there.

My room is big, white, and full of light. The floors are a light hardwood, and the walls and ceilings are white. It is a very odd shape because it goes along with the shape of the roof (we are on the top floor), but it is roomy and big all the same. I have my own bathroom which also has white walls, and the floor has really pretty jade tiles. All of the furniture and accessories in both my room and bathroom are from Ikea; which gives it a modern feel. I think the coolest looking thing is the big, white flower light that hangs in the middle of the room. I am not quite finished decorating my room; it is a work in process. But I like how it is shaping up.

My flower lamp! Isn't it the coolest?!

So that is my home here in Karlsruhe! I love it so very much. Whether I spend time in my room, or hang out in the main apartment, I feel very at ease. The sense of "home" hasn't quite happened yet, but I don't think it will be too long before that feeling occurs.

From now on when I think of apartments I think this home will be the first thing that comes to my mind. And that doesn't bother me one bit.

And the Year Begins

I have been in Germany for two weeks this upcoming Friday. How strange! I still doesn't seem real. It's kinda like I am waiting for someone to tell me, "Hope you had a nice vacation, but it's time for you to go home now." But that isn't going to happen. I am going to be here a whole YEAR.

My first day here feels like ages ago. I don't recall a lot of it already because I had jet lag and that made the whole day kind of fuzzy. But I will do my best to think really hard and remember it all.

Johannes picked me up from the airport at 10 am (ish) in the family car. I have only been in that car once since that day. Germans have cars of course, but because they have amazing public transportation (ex. trains) and everything you need isn't "super far away" you can just bike or walk. Cars are used only for holidays and places where it would be easier to drive to than take the train.

It was a beautiful drive; I didn't expect Germany to be so green! Of course the leaves are starting to change colors, and soon there won't be any colors at all... but that is besides the point. Another thing that suprised me was how much open space there was. Coming from LA County, the land of squished together suburbs; it's strange to find myself in a very different place (we aren't in Kansas anymore Toto). A place where cities are actually not right next to each other. Weird. But neat.

I didn't just look out the window the whole time! Johannes and I talked the whole way. Or should I say I talked the whole way... he got in a couple thoughts in here and there haha. We covered a wide range of topics, but I won't bore you with a play by play of the conversation. One of the things that we did talk about was speed limits on the Autobahn. I was pretty stoked at how fast we were going (and that I was actually on the Autobahn) and Johannes was like ehh no big deal, I like driving in the States better. What?! Ehh.

The middle part of the day is a blur. But it is kind of coming back to me as I really ponder it. I met Christiane and all her colleagues and her boss at her work (embarrassing! I looked a total mess after being on a plane so long. But they were all so sweet). And then I got to go with Christiane and Johannes to get Martha from school. Martha was having two new friends over so they played all afternoon at the house. I think it was Johannes that went and got Frieda from school around that time. Point being, we all had lunch at the house and I got the tour.

The first I walked into my room I was so stoked. I still get pretty stoked every time I walk in. It is big and white and airy. It's amazing how much light gets in the room. The room was pretty bare, except for the bed, because I was going to go with Christiane the next day to get stuff from Ikea. They wanted me to personalize it. Which I am so thankful I go the opportunity to do. I am quite the interior design nerd. It looks much more homey now, but it's not quite there yet. Just a couple more things to add. All in due time of course.

Then as a family we went on a bike ride (me on a rented bike since I didn't have my own bike at this point). I got to see the castle grounds and the castle in the middle of Karlsruhe. The city is really amazing and I could scarcely take it all in. I was loving it all though. We stopped at an organic food store (think German Trader Joe's) and bought some items we needed. And then we went to a Biergarten by our house and had dinner. I had pasta (not very German, I know, shame on me) and my first legal beer! I love the drinking age here.

I didn't take any photos today so here is a great aerial view of the castle and part of it's grounds that I found on Google. Amazing right?

We got home and I pretty much jumped for joy that it was bedtime. I don't think I have ever been so excited to go to bed before midnight. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light.