Friends, Markets and Potential Bankruptcy

For all you worried readers out there, I'd just like to clarify, firstly, that there is not that much potential for bankruptcy at the moment, despite my wild spending in the last few weeks. Choosing to be an ELA this year was the best decision I've ever made, not only because it has allowed me to afford the unbridled amount of food and drink I have consumed at the Christmas markets. However, as a generally careful person when it comes to money, this new sense of freedom to buy as much tacky Christmas merchandise and as many waffles as my heart desires is not only liberating, but also somewhat terrifying, hence my blog title. But enough of my unfounded fears. To the blog post!

So this last week has been eventful in the extreme: Zoe came to stay, I finally saw Mockingjay, a teacher invited me to his house, it became really ferociously cold, I skipped two more classes at the Volkshochschule, there was a Chemnitz Christmas party, and we acquired a kettle.

Zoe came to stay
After a prolonged time apart (six months!!) I finally saw Zoe's delightful face again when she made the eight and a half hour journey from Vreden to Chemnitz on Thursday. In the map below, which I have absolutely shamelessly stolen from Zoe's excellent blog post earlier this week, you can see her convoluted jourmany (a journey across Germany, obviously) all the way from almost Holland to almost the Czech Republic.

Exhibit A: '541km from Vreden to Chemnitz - Zoe Sherwood, 9/12/14'

I attempted to reward such loyalty and commitment in the only way I know how: by turning up to the train station a several minutes late, having misunderstood the train times and had a literal fight with a tram. Our tearful reunion successfully navigated, the first stop on the Weekend of Fun was to show her around my flat, which took all of ten seconds, and then instantly to drag her out to, you guessed it, the Chemnitz Christmas markets. We sampled a steaky thing in a roll, a Feuerzangenbowle (not as exciting as the Dresden ones, as they come ready made), some fruit dipped in chocolate, and of course the heavenly waffles. So far, so good!

On Friday we went to the Freiberg Christmas market with some other assistants I'd managed to rustle up in order to maintain the pretence that I have friends here in Sachsen. Freiberg is a small, quite pretty town, with the usual Christmas market stuff, that I would like to emphasise that, while no longer brand new to us, continues to be incredibly exciting (to me, at least). All in all, Freiberg was pretty and Christmassy, and it was nice meeting some new people too. After only one unfortunate incident involving very hot melted cheese and a burned mouth, we headed back to Chemnitz, where we did a spot of shopping before splitting up. The others went to a restaurant while I dragged the politerly unresisting Zoe to the cinema to see Mockingjay. I don't want to write a film review, mainly because I haven't really critically thought about the film at all; my only reaction to it was to cry at all the emotional bits, which were especially poignant considering current situation and events around the world. And then to feel bad about comparing fictional characters to the lives of real life people who actually matter. Suffice to say, I loved the film, apart from Jennifer Lawrence's disgraceful wig, but I'd like to reserve the right to change this statement once I've actually thought about it at all.

On Saturday we journeyed to Dresden, and the Stollenfest! If you are not lucky enough to be acquainted with this, the Stollenfest takes place in Dresden on the second weekend of Advent, and it involved a giant 1.8 tonne Stollen cake being baked and then paraded around the town on a cart pulled by four horses while being followed and preceded by numerous marching bands, jugglers, baton twirlers, flag throwers, various sundry children, people in all kinds of fancy dress, and those poor unfortunates who had the job of producing the mammoth Stollen. It was truly weird.

The Riesenstollen itself

The Stollen eventually wended its way to the Dresdner Striezelmarkt, as featured in my previous blog post, where, after many speeches and false starts - this old man kept leaping in and trying to get the last word - the cake was finally ceremonially cut with the ludicrously long knife that had also been paraded around the town.

The unnecessarily long knife

Anyway, despite being incredibly odd, the day was absolutely lovely - the Dresden markets did not disappoint, we ate some delicious food, and tried some of the Riesenstollen itself (riesen meaning 'massive' or 'huge'), which I have not included in the delicious food comment, as it was very dry. However, ten out of ten for impact, ceremony, and size.

After an enjoyable train journey back to Chemnitz, during which Ben shared with me the Out of the Blue album called 'Soul Sisters' which I didn't know existed - it has been added to my Christmas list - we returned to my flat. There we ate pizza, listened to Taylor Swift, did a Harry Potter 'Name all the characters' quiz (we got a respectable 140 or so out of 200) and a similar Hunger Games one, in which I must say Zoe excelled, looked at pointless Buzzfeed articles, and watched an episode of each of our favourite TV shows (Parks and Recreation and Pretty Little Liars, respectively).

All in all, it was truly lovely to see Zoe after such a long time; I'm aware it's a cliche, but it was as if no time had passed at all. All I can do is thank her for making the enormous effort to come all the way to ol' Chemnitz - I can't wait to go and visit her corner of Germany soon!

Yes Zoe, I stole this from your blog post too. SORRY, I LOVE YOU

Annaberg
On Sunday, after an emotional goodbye to Zoe, I got the bus to Annaberg-Buchholz, two small towns that have apparently become merged into one tourism hotspot, with adorable buildings and shops selling traditional wares from the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains). As mentioned previously, I was unexpectedly invited by a teacher whom I'd assumed disliked me, due to his having only smiled roughly twice in my presence. However, I discovered that this doesn't appear to be the case, and he and his family are in fact incredibly friendly and welcoming. After picking me up from the bus stop we went to his house, where I met his wife, daughter and their daughter's boyfriend. Before having lunch, we drank tea and they showed me some of the various Christmassy decorations around the house; they were mostly traditional ones from the area, such as the Räuchermännchen (smoking figures), Pyramiden (you can see a large version in the photos below - the tall construction with figures standing on different levels), and Schwibbogen to go in the window to light the way home.

A Schwibbogen from Google images, just to show you

Räuchermännchen - you put a cone of incense inside and smoke comes
out of the mouth, as if he's really smoking his pipe. ADORABLE.

All of them were really genuinely beautiful. I've become completely enchanted by the Räuchermännchen, about which we were ambivalent at first; I must stop myself from buying an army of them before I go home.

We went to the Annaberger Christmas market, which I think was the best one I've been to (marks awarded for cuteness and beautiful location), and Christian treated me to a Glühwein (of course) and my first Krapfen, which is like a little spherical doughnut, and doesn't sound nearly so unappetising if you're thinking in German.

Roughly what Krapfen look like

We also went to the top of the hill/mountain to get a look over the whole valley, as you can see here:

So pretty, but so cold

IN CONCLUSION, Sunday was wonderful, it was great to get some German practice in, and even greater to be infiltrating the life of yet another teacher! That's three whole teachers who have allowed me into their homes now. I am a PRO. And I'm actually looking forward to sending Christmas cards this year, something I haven't properly done for the last ten years or so.

Christmas Fest
Just wanted to say a quick something about the little party organised by the Chemnitz town council for all the assistants in the area. (Shoutout to Beth for reminding me on Monday that it was happening the next day, otherwise I would have entirely forgotten.) They took us on a tour around the Museum of Archaelogy here, with the amusing acronym 'SMAC', which was really cool and modern on the inside and a lot more interesting than I'd thought. Turns out Sachsen is kind of a big deal in terms of archeology. Then we went to the church and saw the various Nativity scenes there, before being left to our own devices in the Christmas markets for a few hours. At 3.00, the true partay began, in the Bildungsagentur. It took place in the most comfortable and festive conference room I've ever seen, with many plates of Stollen and Lebkuchen, tea and coffee, and lots of traditional decorations. Our mentor teachers were invited as well so Ronny valiantly showed up, despite knowing no one there. We had a nice chat/gossip about some of the teachers in my school, which flowed a lot better than normal, as we were having a proper talk in English for what I think was the first time ever. Ronny was mistaken for an assistant several times - the only downside to looking incredibly youthful.

At the end of the afternoon, we talked about Christmas in our various countries (there were assistants from America and Russia too), compared Christmas traditions, and sang O Tannenbaum before we were allowed our giftbags.

Giftbag contents - look at that tiny snowman!!!

As you can see, they were full of very sweet, thoughtful gifts, and I felt incredibly lucky to be in such a lovely town with these kind people taking care of us!

Kettle
Finally, I wanted to mention the arrival of a kettle into our flat this morning! It has already been christened with several cups of tea. Shoutout to Ulrike, who will never read this, for reacting so quickly to my call for aid - I asked if she had a spare kettle and she had it for me the very next day.

As I hope you can tell from the tone of this post, everything is fantastic at the moment. I'm feeling entirely happy and content, there's lots to look forward to (e.g. home in seven days!), no immediate problems (apart from how to do four different lessons about Christmas without losing the will to live) and a warm glow over everything - amazing! It must be all the Glühwein.