A German Christmas.

A direct quote from one of the teachers at school, addressing a 4th year class (9-10yrs old) learning an English Christmas Carol: 'Because after all Christmas is a church festival, maybe you've heard the story about Jesus being born in a stable?' and even that doesn't emphasise enough how it was such a throw away comment, as if it was perfectly normal for 10 year olds for really never to have heard the nativity story. I know the Germans have a lot of their own Christmas traditions, and possibly it is more about Nikolaus and the Weihnachtsmann, but they are big on Advent, and I thought that was always linked to the Christian side of things. Possibly it's to do with the fact that the childrens parents nearly all grew up in East Germany, where religion wasn't taught in schools, and wasn't very widespread, but still, it surprised me.

It snowed today, and at least this time the children seemed excited about it, though I explained the concept of 'Snow Days' to the group I was working with, and they were completely and utterly mystified. Which is promising, considering I have to get a train and a plane tomorrow, but hopefully the snow won't affect that!

At school one of the teachers invited me to join her and one of the others getting a Glühwein before the proper teachers' Christmas celebration starts. It was nice of her to invite me, though it was funny how she seemed to be trying to convince me, and telling me that Glühwein is nice! (As if I didn't already know- a fair few of our trips to Weihnachtsmarkts in different places have involved a Glühwein at some point).

So I better be off, I don't want to miss out on the Glühwein!

For anyone who has been counting, as of tomorrow I have been in Germany for exactly three and a half months. I still think the most impressive thing is that I actually got on the plane at all, once I'd got through all the stress of packing my life into a bag, saying bye to everyone I knew, and then leaving mum behind at the 'Passengers only past this point' sign at the airport, I suddenly remembered that I don't actually like flying, which didn't really do much to improve how I felt. Hopefully the excitement of returning home will get me through the flight tomorrow, and then I will see the vast majority of you at some point in the next couple of weeks!

Now that's an exciting thought! =)