The weeks go by...

Sorry about the lag. As most of you probably know, it was a busy week. I had visitors!

So I'm not really sure where I left off. The week before last involved a lot of errands and trying to stay motivated to sit down and learn stuff. that's the biggest issue right now. then the trying to figure out classes part, but I'll get to that.

On Saturday... my mom and grandmother came to visit! And it snowed! They weren't too pleased about the second part. Saturday we toured Olympia Park and they suffered from jet lag. Sunday we hit museums (some of the art museums are 1 Euro on Sunday), so we went to the Alte and Neue Pinakotheken (Old and New art museums... so like 1300-1600 and then 1600-1900? something like that).

Monday was my birthday! After my class, we toured the Alt Stadt (old city... main cites), I went to class again, and then got a birthday dinner complete with cake, a candle and presents! Tuesday we did the other half of the city tour. Wednesday was my long day they they kept themselves busy. Thursday my morning class was canceled (teacher was sick... subs don't exist in Germany) so we went to Schloss Nymphenburg (the Nymphenburg palace)and then I went to my other class. Friday we went to Oberammergau. It's famous for hosting the Passion Play once every ten years (next showing: 2010...) and for it's painted houses. See pictures. They are pretty neat. Friday was also the day Kristkindlmarkt opened in Munich! Kristkindlmarkt is the open Christmas market. It's really, really pretty. The square has a lit Christmas tree. Little wooden booths are everywhere selling ornaments, candy, chocolates, glühwein (heated, spiced wine... mulled wine in English, if that means anything to you), toys, carvings, lots of food... etc.

Saturday we went to Nuremberg. Nuremberg is home to the biggest Kristkindlmarkt (and most famous) in Germany. The train was packed. We toured the city, stopping back to the market everytime we needed something warm to eat. Fresh lebkuchen (like gingerbread), glühwein, chocolate covered fruit on a stick, roasted nuts, are the big sellers. Then one more walk around Munich's Kristkindlmarkt when we got back.

And Sunday I sent them off to the airport... and started working on my German presentation!

The presentation on a topic of my choice (which the teacher chose for me because it interested her) was on the relationship between Germany and America... she wanted me to focus on Obama. For my "three main points" I chose Bush, Angela Merkel (Germany's leader if you don't know) and Obama. And put together a powerpoint on it. The interesting this is that this is my grade for the class. This one presentation in the middle of the semester. After this I just have to keep doing homework and showing up to class. Well, after a week of speaking straight English I was a little worried about my ability to conduct a 20 minute presentation while being graded on my speaking ability in German... but apparently I did great, because she was really impressed and gave me a 1,6! (the German grading scale ranges in decimals from 1-6 with 6 being failing... 1,6 is really good. It's a solid A). This is great news! One less thing to worry about!

After the presentation, I went to the student run movie again... they were showing Arsenic and Old Lace! In German! It was great! I managed to catch about 75% of this one. They talk pretty fast at times! Especially Mortimer. The jokes all got translated really well though. I was impressed. The Germans were rolling on the floor laughing which was also really funny.

For the rest of the week: Tomorrow is apparently a university holiday. Or so I found out today. Doensn't matter all that much for me. I have two classes on Thursdays. One meets every other week and this is the off week. The other is at LMU, the other University... which does not have a holiday. Way to waste a day off...

Tomorrow night I'm working at the cafe again. They have stand-up comedians coming in so it should be a really busy night! And entertaining too, which is cool.
Friday I'm meeting with the study abroad adviser here to work on classes again... I think I'm getting somewhere... every so slowly. Hopefully I'll finally have it all figured out by the end of the semester. Just in time to start over again!
Either Saturday or Sunday I'm hoping to go to Salzburg to see the Kristkindlmarkt there. We'll see though... that might get pushed to next weekend because Monday is going to be a big day. We're cooking dinner for 120 people... Thanksgiving dinner nonetheless.

Every other week on Monday there's a "stammtisch", a get together for the international students. Each week a different nationality gets a budge of 120 Euro (it's one euro per person basically) to cook for the 120 people. We got assigned around Thanksgiving so figured we'd go for that since that's about as typical American as you can get... since you can't find the ingredients anywhere in Germany. Luckily in the meantime we've made some progress. And recruited some help. Nicole and I were originally recruited. We've pulled in another one (possibly two) Americans, a Canadian, a New Zealander and a couple of English guys. Canadians have Thanksgiving too, and well, we were English once. The New Zealand girl just happens to know how to cook...

So my Friday and Saturday are possibly going to be spent buying frozen turkey, pumpkin, cranberries, and stuffing (the mashed potatoes will be the only easy one...) and my Sunday will probably be spent cooking. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Now for the pictures: as I have no idea what order they get posted in, use your imagination please!
me and the life-sized nutcracker
mom, grandmother and the life-sized teddy bear
a blue painted building in Oberammergau (it's a very religious city... see the bit about the Passion Play)
the Cinderella house! (look for evil stepsisters and a shoe)
the Four Musicians house! (look for the four animals... that one's easy)
the Little Red Riding Hood house! (look for a wolf?)
the Hansel and Gretel house! (um... the scene where they push the witch into the oven is on there)
the Pontius Pilate house! (they're at the top of a staircase and Jesus is being sent down it)

Hope you figure them out! More next week... after the cooking experience!