It’s beginning to look A LOT like Christmas……

A week ago, I walked out of my class and was SO excited to see a humongous tree being set up in Stuttgart’s Town Center. Now, more and more things have been added. Turning the city into one big holiday party! It’s quite a site to see! There are tons of boutiques as well as rides for the children, food and festivities. Christmas and holiday decorations fill the atmosphere and make everything lively and joyful!

The Stuttgart Christmas Market which is called the Weihnachtsmarkt, is the oldest, and largest market in Europe. People from all over the world come to this and while I was walking around I could hear Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Italian and of course German being spoken. It has over 200 booths that sell everything from handcrafted ordainments, to toys to gloves to lights to candles to tea to pots/pans, etc. etc. All the booths have uniquely decorated roofs with nativity scenes, reindeers, Santa’s, nutcrackers, angels and more! I could spend hours looking at all the items in the booths plus it’s also great to go to and get some Christmas shopping done! I got to go to the market on opening day with my Aunt and her friend and we enjoyed a nice hot glass of Gluhwine!

Protesters for or against Stuttgart 21 has lead to many demonstrations in the city. Stuttgart 21 is a project that plans to move Stuttgart’s main railway station underground. This way it will connect to more stations and brings in more tourists to the area. The only problem is that many(over 300) trees that are over two hundred years old will be cut down as well as tearing down part of the old train station. What I think is funny is that the project is still in the “talking” stage and nothing has been decided but there are already many trees being torn down. If you want to read more about it: Stuttgart 21

I went and volunteered in Leila’s classroom this week! It was really fun! I asked the teacher if I could observe English and I ended up teaching it. lol I brought in a few English books to read (Today I feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtus, There’s A Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss as well as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish). I then, taught them the “If you’re happy and you know it song” And then they sang the “Good morning” song to me.

Herr Kaiser is a really fun teacher! He brings out the guitar and sings with the children. Although, when I first asked him to come and observe he said that they weren’t teaching English that day. Kind of makes me wonder if they ever do teach English. Leila says that all they do for English is sing American songs. Plus my German teacher told me that some Elementary teachers that teach English can’t even speak it that well. Hmmm. The first graders in her class didn’t really know any English. Which, for me was good because it made me pull out German words and phrases I learned but when I read the books Leila ended up doing a lot of translating. She is becoming so good at it!

The rest of the time I was there, the kids colored a Christmas tree and put fancy decorations on it. Wow. Teaching in German seems so easy because the kids don’t do anything. It kind of frustrates me though because these kids have to be ready for to get good marks in the 4^th grade because that determine their future and all they are doing is drawing a Christmas tree. It just doesn’t add up. I mean, if I was the teacher at the school, I would push the kids to work hard to learn and prepare them because I would want them to do well and get good marks so they could succeed and have bright futures. Luckily for Leila- she is naturally smart and catches on quit.

For my family who still thinks Aunt Victoria works for fruit and vegetables, I can now tell you not anymore. My Aunt works for a company named Coilex and on Friday I got the grand tour of the factory. Coilex is a company that specializes in steel. Coilex itself, receives the coils of steel and then cuts the coils into smaller coils (usually in 3rds) or flattens them and then delivers them to companies for use on cars, desks, tool boxes, lockers, etc. My Aunt works as an accountant in the building and the other day she had to write a check for $999,000 dollars! It was very interesting to see how the machines take the big coils of steel and compress them. Also, one coil of steel can be used to make 26 cars. Wow!

Random observations/my take on things-

*Backpacks for children are square.

*Being a train driver would really test one’s patience. I would be so annoyed if I had to slam on the brakes every 2 min.

*Bushes are decorated with bows. Lots and lots of bows.

*Heated floors are just LOVELY.

*The word for zit in German is pickel. Pronounced like pickle. teehee

*Water with gas is definitely an acquired taste. I don’t think I will ever acquire that taste.

I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving with your loved ones! I missed seeing my crazy huge family and of course the pumpkin pie. It snowed here the day after Thanksgiving!

All my love.

-L

Germany vs. America?

Currently, I decided not to pursue the German language. Well, not in Germany anyway. I am a perfectionist and would probably have spent the entire rest of my visit studying if I would have continued. I didn’t want to stress out about studying and wanted to enjoy the rest of my time here. Plus my heart wasn’t in it. When I was in German class, I was really wishing it was Spanish instead. I have learned common phrases and enough to get me by and that’s all I really wanted to know anyway. My brother told me I really should be learning Chinese because those people are the ones taking over the world. :)

The class wasn’t a total loss though, I learned a ton of German history and the basics of the language. Also on the way out, I saw a flyer for an American-German Choir so I decided to go! Two days later, I took the train, and arrived at Vereinsheim Chorgemeinschaft Stuttgart-Munster Choir loft. The place was filled with older ladies and gentleman who were all passionate about singing. It was awesome! A lady named Franny took me under her wing. Introduced me to everyone, sat me in the alto section and gave me the music that we were singing which included John Rutter’s Christmas Carols as well as a variety of German pieces. The choir was getting ready for a Christmas concert so I just jumped in and followed suit. It was a fun, very fast practice. Although, the choir director was really stern which made me very thankful for having Mr. Philpot (the coolest H.S. choir director around).The music was so beautiful and I can’t wait to listen to the concert they invited me to on Sunday! I made many new older friends that night which is great. When I meet Germans, I always like to ask them what they think of America. One lady said that the only place she ever saw in the USA was Detroit, Michigan. We both then laughed REALLY hard and she said, “There must be prettier cities.” lol Another lady chimed in with“Americans are very friendly, always on the go, make perfect housewife’s, not very cultured though.”

I, then asked her what she liked best about Germany and she replied the culture. It’s a big thing here in German to be ‘cultured.’ She continued by saying that in America, we have really big televisions but not much good news on to watch and it seems people hardly watch the news anyway or read the newspaper. From the outside looking in, I can see that. In Germany, American pop culture and the entertainment industries are HUGE. They know about all the celebrities, have American movies/television shows; American music plays on the radio, etc. That’s what we’re known for. They also REALLY love Obama. I am willing to bet 8/10 Germans could tell me about all the latest happenings in America. BUT if I were to ask an American about Germany, possibly 4/10 would have some idea of what was going on here.

Everyone also always asked me what people in America think about Germans/Germany. So I need your input, please. What do you think about the people, the culture? What first comes to mind when the word Germany is mentioned? Let me know! It would be interesting to find out.

I think being here, people try to compare the US and Germany but I don’t really believe that they can be compared. BECAUSE if you compare them, you are saying one is better than the other. That one holds more or less value. I don’t see it that way. I see the countries as being extremely different. Different types of people with different history as well as different customs. BUT that’s what makes my travel to Germany SO exciting and what makes Germans travel to America!

As far as life goes, Leila continues to make it so great. I know I will miss her so much. This 7 year old just exuberates joy and I can’t help but catch the beam when she’s around. She makes me laugh so hard. We play this game of finding words that are the same in English and German (ie- Hamburger ist Hamburger, Pizza ist Pizza).So far it’s only been food. lol She also teaches me lots more German then I learned in the class. Leila is very outgoing and loves to talk to EVERYONE…has to be the Murillo in her. The other day, I took the kids to the museum and she let everyone know that they need to speak English because I am an American and come from the USA and that I’m her cousin and am 23…..so pretty much my whole life story in a 5 min time period. Anyway it was funny because as I was purchasing a postcard she told the lady to speak English to me as I paid. When I was finished the man behind me told the cashier, “Deutsch bitte (German please).” ha! we all cracked up.

Alex is funny, too. He thinks that he can get away with things just because I might not understand. He doesn’t like the fact that I know more German and am catching on to what he is saying. I got him into reading The Diary of the Wimpy Kid series and he loves it which is great. I think those books are hilarious and perfect for kids his age. It’s hard to explain but I feel as if his personality is different when he speaks German then when he is speaking English. Is that even possible? Anyway, he reminds me of my brothers because all he talks about is video games. His obsession with Stars Wars has lead him into hoping that when he has kids, he has a little boy with blue eyes and blonde hair so he can name him Luke. lol But right now he is too busy being a Jedi. I love it! 12 year olds are hilarious.

I hope you all are having a great week! Thanks for reading my rant. The food blog is currently still in the works and will be coming your way soon!

All my love.

-L

ps...All my pictures are random and don't really have anything to do with what I'm talking about but this one I love because the school children are learning about traffic safety this week and get to wear these super cool neon vest. :)

My weakness revealed......

This is probably the best cheap thrill around. It's incredibly fun and they have a bunch of them around Germany for children to play on. It's more fun when I go on it my self but Leila wanted to join me on this one. Take a look:

Shout out to my brother Matty who thinks my blogs are T.L.D.R (too long to read). lol I will try to keep this one short and sweet but I think you would get a kick out of this Matty and everyone else.

Tipping in Germany is actually considered impolite. One of the ladies in my German class told a story of how she was chased down after she left a restaurant because she left too much money on the table. My teacher told us that waiters/waitresses make 8-10 Euros an hour but also get a 10 percent cut of what the restaurant makes while they are working. Wow! So different then what we're use to.

My cousin Alex also taught me today that the German word for blood is blut and the word for stupid is blod. When spoken they sound very very similar. As do a lot of words so I have to be very careful not to use them incorrectly because that would be no good.

It's almost the weekend, folks! Keep on truckin'! :)

My next blog is going to be all about the food so stay tuned!

All my love.

-L

Celebrating St. Martin/German Class

As my fellow Americans were celebrating Veterans’ Day on Nov. 11, in Germany the feast of St. Martin is celebrated. St. Martin is a real life Robin Hood who once, while he was riding his horse, found a man in the snow who had nothing. He took the cape off of his own back and gave it to him to save him from freezing to death. For that he is looked upon as a hero. At the Stuttgart street fair there was someone who was dressed as St. Martin (picture above). Lights in paper lanterns are also lit in his honor as a reminder to let your light shine through. At school the children celebrate St. Martin by singing songs, coloring pictures and learning about his story. I celebrated St. Martin by eating duck- a dish that is served during this month because of him.

This week I started my German class. It’s an intensive course that goes for 3 hours in the morning for a few weeks. I have learned so much that my head is still spinning from trying to retain all the information that has been given to me. In the mornings I walk Leila to school and then catch the train into the city. It’s really fun to be studying a language that is spoken in the country I am in. I love getting to go to school again and being a student.

Although, there is no rhyme or reason behind the way things are done in the German language, you just have to know it. For example, the article for ‘the’ can be der, die, or das depending on if the subject is feminine, masculine or natural. If you don’t know the article of the word then you are at a complete loss because then you won’t know how to refer to it when using the word ‘A” (ein/eine) or making it plural. But here’s the kicker, with Spanish where all words that end in O are masculine and are used with El and all words that end in A are feminine and used with La. With German there is kind of a pattern that some words follow but not all do and again like one of my instructor says, “It’s just the way it is.” Are you as confused as I am yet :P.I am having a difficult time with the pronunciation but when I do read correctly I get compliments on how I speak the language and that it sounds really nice.

I have two instructors. My first instructor teaches Mon-Wed. She is a very good teacher and moves at a pace that works for me and my fellow classmates. My other teacher that comes in the rest of the week hardly knows any English which makes things a little more complicated. Good thing 80 percent of what is being said doesn’t actually come out of your mouth or I would be at a total loss. She does however do a good job using the board to show conjugations of the verbs but German script is a little difficult to read. She is a really cool person though. I tried talking to her after class and found out that she knows 5 other language and Latin was the most difficult to learn and she says she’s just not very good in English.

My class is made up of 4 people- Cathy, Devin, Rasha and me. Cathy and her son, Devin are from NY. Cathy’s fiancé is in the military and is out here for two years. Devin is my age and is taking a break from school and visiting his mom as well as learning the language with her. Rasha is from India. Her husband also has a job out here so she wants to learn the language. She is pretty good and when she grew up, she had to learn 3 different languages which I think is neat. It is fun being in a small class because I always get to participate!

I love the fact that the class is located in the city’s town center and that I get to go there every day. I think I like this fact more than the actual class itself. The city has a long main line of stores, shops, cafés, malls as well as a pretty fountain/park area with lots of benches and much entertainment. When I arrive in the morning the place is so quiet with hardly a soul in sight but by the time I get out of class, it is pretty hoppin’. Tons of people quickly fill in this once desolate area and all the sudden it’s alive. The people constantly amuse me and I enjoy the live music because there is always a band playing or some musician on the street. It’s lovely! Since winter is quickly approaching, there is now a Winter Wonderland set up in the town center as well. It’s like a little Christmas snow globe town that has come to life! Today as I walked in to explore the area, Micheal Bubbles Christmas album was coming out of the speakers while people where prancing around the ice skating rink and munching on German food, sweets, as well as sipping on beer and wine . It was super fun. There is also a beautiful Catholic Church downtown located in the center that I like to go and visit and pray in. It is so warm and much more inviting then the church that I live by.

Because I know you’re curious what I learned this week, I wrote a riddle. Try to read it and guess what it says!

Wer bin ich?

Ich komme aus den USA.

Ich wohne in Stuttgart.

Ich bin grundschullehrerin.

Ich liebe Tanzen, Musik und Fotografie

Ich bin dreiundzwanzig Jahre alt.

Wer bin ich?

Mein name ist Lauren.

More Random observations:

*A “fun size” bag (which is the kind one would receive when Trick or Treating) of M&M’s cost about .65 euro cents (90 cents). In those there are about 8 M&M’s. Talk about a rip off!

*Clerks at the grocery store get to sit in a swivel chair all day while checking out items. Kind of makes that job seem a little more enticing..lol

*The host at communion tastes like a dark English tea.

* Pommes (French fries) are served with mayo! YUM!!!

*Kids are given big soft Bretzels (pretzels) to be quiet instead of suckers. lol I always see kids walking one hand with a Bretzel and the other holding the hand of the parent. ha!

*People at Starbucks drink out of the mugs not the disposable coffee cups. Germans are so eco-friendly!

*Germans REALLY like to drive backwards.

*Glass bottles come out of vending machines.

Thanks again for reading about my current life adventures! You are so kind! I am having fun hearing where life has been taking you all as well.

All my love.

-L

Happy Now-vember!

I never thought I would love Germany as much as I do! I’m constantly in awe of the beauty that surrounds me daily. I adore the fact that there is a forest in my backyard and I continuously get lost and swept up in the beauty of it! I feel as if all of Deutschland is at my fingertips. Everything I need is just a bike, train or bus ride away. It’s pretty amazing!

When I came to Germany, I knew I also wanted to get as much traveling in as possible during my short stay here. One of my Colorado friends, Andrew lives and works in Garmisch Partenkirchen which is about a 3 hour drive from where I live in Stuttgart. He knew of my ambitions and was nice enough to invite me on a trip that he planned with one of his co-workers, Ben. Originally, the destination was going to be Mallorca which is a little island off of Spain but last minute it turned into a Norwegian adventure!

What did I find in Norway, you ask? SO much more than I ever expected! Not only did I meet and get to hang out with my new bestest buddy, Ben but I also saw so many things that were worth marveling at. Oslo, Norway is located on a stunning harbor and is known as the city that hosts the Noble Peace Prize. The city itself was very clean, had a safe feel and reminded me of Paris mixed with a bay area.

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In Norway, the currency really through me off guard though. For every 1 dollar in the US, it was worth 5.73 kroner. Things were pretty pricey around the area but it was just strange seeing a banana that cost 20 kroner or a meal that was 99 kroner.

Ben and I decided to buy an Oslo pass for the day that gave us entrance into a ton of museums as well access to all the public transportation. We were glad we did this because the weather was really foggy, rainy and somewhat cold. Museum highlights: The Noble Peace Prize museum where we learned all about this notable award as well as the prestigious winners, getting to see “The Scream” by Munch, The Modern Art Museum that was filled with interactive exhibits as well as sci-fi collector’s items section and a whole floor with expressions of the feminist movement. We ended the day at Vigeland Park which was so neat. It was filled with hundreds of human sculptures that you could climb all over and take some really fun and silly pictures. That was probably the highlight of the trip for me

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I arrived back from Norway to Germany just in time for Leila’s school autumn festival. Halloween is not really celebrated in Germany but the school puts on a fall party for the kids and adults. Pumpkin soup, baked goods as well as drinks are sold and served. They have a pumpkin carving contest… well it was more of a pumpkin decorating contest. And these parents and kids REALLY go all out with berries and leaves, and twigs (pic below). On Halloween Leila begged me to take her on a “Halloween walk” but instead we just ended up carving some fun pumpkins, ate chili bean soup and watched a ghost movie.

This whole past week Leila and Alex were on holiday. Big shocker there :P. They just started school about a month ago and already have a week of break. We spent a lot of time bike riding around the town, in the forests, to the TV Tower and we even stumbled upon a little pasture filled with cute little sheep. One day we took the bus into Neuhausen and visited Leila’s old Kindergarten where the kinders had way too much fun attacking Alex and I!

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I have been helping Leila with her math and she is finally grasping the concept of zero plus another number is always the other number. She is going to be the smartest in her class since they haven’t even started addition! English wise she is becoming so good! Although, she always says, “Can I look TV” and is finally remembering that we use the word watch TV. She also likes to add not on the end of sentences which is kind of funny like “I like that not” because that is the direct translation.

My Aunt Victoria is really good at making sure I am getting an authentic German experience. This weekend we went to a beautiful Castle called Burg Hohenzollern. When we went on the tour, we had to wear slippers over our shoes and slid around the inside which was a ton of fun! She has showed me around Esslingen (which is a beautiful older town) and Neuhausen (where she used to live). Cafés are all around and I have been able to try an Eis (ice cream) café, a wine and cheese café and my favorite was one that served a variety of desserts. I had a chocolate torte and it was really like a little piece of heaven. Probably a sin to taste that good (picture below). Yesterday, Stuttgart was having a street festival where I got to try my first Glühwein which is heated wine with water, sugar and spices!

I recently started a job as a conversation partner with a mother (Sylvia) and her daughter (Katarina). I love talking to people and listening so it’s perfect! I met with the mother once last week and the daughter twice. We spend a couple of hours just talking in English, discussing the differences in culture as well as interest, politics and life. Katarina is 16 and is in year 10. She really loves American music, movies and shows. She thinks it’s cool that in American when someone wins a show like “American Idol,” they actually become a star unlike in Germany where they might be popular with a one hit wonder and then you will never hear of them. Katarina goes to a private school and gets to travel lots. She is hoping to study in Canada next semester so she can practice her English and French. She also makes me laugh because when I asked her what she wants to do with her life, she said she is uncertain but at one point she hopes to marry a black man so she could have chocolate babies. :) Sylvia has been a stay at home mom for the past 20 years. She has a part time job as a physical therapist and a cute bunny named Freddie. I have taught Sylvia her new favorite word which is grocery shopping. She just loves saying that word and it makes me smile that using this word gives her so much joy. It’s been fun getting to know them so far and I look forward to our future interactions!

Some random observations:

*In Germany, Dora does not teach Spanish. QUE!

*Hamburger buns have to be sliced opened. They don’t come pre-cut.

*If I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies- I would have to slice my own chocolate chunks because chocolate chips are not sold. Talk about a lot of work. By the time I was done chopping, I wouldn’t have any energy to make the cookies.

*Movies from America have different titles. Remember the really popular 90’s movie called “Bring It on?” In Germany it’s called “Girls United”, “The Pacifier” is called “Babynator” and “Hitch” is titled “The Date Doctor” lol

*Germans are follow the rule kind of people. When there is a stop sign, it really means to stop. Go figure.

*Tea light candles are a must at ever table in a restaurant and at home.

*Recycling is a BIG part of life here. All water, wine, pop bottles are taxed but if you take them back to the grocery store, you get the taxed money back. Picture below of what it looks like.

Thanks for reading! I hope you are doing fabulous. Let me know what you have been up to! I miss you all and appreciate all the skype calls, emails and fb messages! It's so nice to be connected! Hope to hear from YOU soon!

All my love.

-L

PS...Clarissa-I put in a ton of photo's just for you! :)