Plätzchen, Pläztchen, und vieles mehr Plätzchen

First off I have to appologize for not writing anything for such a long time. I have been really busy lately. With Christmas coming and everything there is alot more to do. I have also been helping out more while I am off work instead of coming to my room which has also shortened the amount of time I have to sit at my computer. With that said I'll try and fill you in on as much as possible.

It is Christmas here in Dusseldorf. Actually Christmas started the week before Thanksgiving. The town is now full of tourists and the Weinachtsmarkts. The Weinachtsmarkt is the Christmas market ( Weinachten=Christmas, markt=market, easy). They are little stands that are set up all around. In the stands you can find various Christmas food such as Pfannkuchen, Damfnudeln mit Vanille, Speckpfannkuchen, Lebkuchen, various flavors of Mandeln, and a lot more. One other thing that you can get at the Weinachtsmarkt is Gluhwein, this is a hot mulled red wine. I think it is really good, Katie thinks it tastes like cough syrup. They have booths that sell Gluhwein everywhere. When you buy a cup you get a mug with it, if you return the mug you get your Pfand back which is like a deposit. I can't say I have kept a mug yet, I don't really know what I would do with it.

Another thing that the Weinachtsmarkt brings is tourists. There are buses that come over from Holland and bring tons of people just for a day to these markets. Susanne gave me a heads up about the Dutch people coming every weekend from now until the markets closed. She said if I heard people that sounded like they were speaking German but I couldn't understand them at all they were probably the Dutch.

The weekend before Thanksgiving it snowed here in Dusseldorf. On Sunday there was a good 3 inches from the whole day. I really appreciated the fact that everyone told me that it never snows in Dusseldorf, all of my friends said that it wouldn't snow. One friend said he has lived here for 5 years and has never seen it snow. Well let me tell you, it snows in Dusseldorf, maybe not a lot I mean we are not in the alps, but it snowed and it was really cold. The temperature is cold here anyway though. It hasn't gotten much above the low 40s. 43 degrees is a warm day here. Even when it rains it is freezing.

Thanksgiving wasn't very eventful. I would however like to thank you all for your Thanksgiving day wishes. I had to work on Thursday and also baby sit at night. My friends and I were going to go out to dinner on Thursday in memory of the holiday we were missing, but because I had to work they were nice enough to postpone the dinner until the following Friday. We went to an Italien restaurant, the food was ok.

On Saturday I worked alot, but I got an extra 10 euro which was nice. I took Carlotta and Cecilia into Kaiserswerth for Carlotta's ballet class. After that we went to the International Library so they could check out some books. Some woman there asked me if they were mine, I told her no I was their babysitter ( you never say nanny because that is a legitimate career and people over here know the difference, if you say au pair they give you a blank look). She told me how much the girls looked like me and that they could easily be mine. I told her in return that they could easily be mine if I was an unwed mother who started having children when I was 15. She didn't push the 'they could easily be yours' thing again.

After we left the library we went back to the house and I helped making Plätzchen. These are Christmas desserts, just a broad term that I think mostly means cookie types of things. I don't understand why they are called Plätzchen instead of Weinachtkekses which would literally mean Christmas cookies. Who knows maybe that is one thing I will never know. We made a type of sugar cookie on Saturday. I made the dough ( I'm getting good at reading German recipes) and the girls helped me roll out the dough and cut out shapes. Cecilia the youngest kept smushing her cookies when she tried to pick them up. The cookie smashing would be following by an "Ach nein!" and she would put her hands to her face. By the time we were done with the cookie dough her face was entirely white with flour.

After we were done with the cookies we all went out for a walk along the Rhein. Dirk rode with us there but then went for a run and ran home. The girls had bikes and Susanne and I chose to walk, quickly. It was really cold out on that day. By the time we got back to the car I seriously could not feel my face.

I had to babysit that night so I was able to have Katie come over again and stay the night. We decided to order pizzas because we had never done so in a foreign country. So I found the number and Katie called it in ( her German is better then mine). We had the money ready to go 11 Euros for two little pizzas and litre of cola, seemed like an ok deal to us, we of course were starving by this time. We started worrying about the tip though, we didn't know if you were supposed to tip pizzamen in Germany, sometimes that kind of thing is just included. So Katie made me text one of our other friends to ask him if you tip a pizza man. I'm sure he started laughing at that, the two clueless American girls not knowing what to do when ordering a pizza. In the end we decided to tip him 1 euro, the drive wasn't that far after all and he was 5 minutes late.

On Sunday Katie and I ate breakfast at my house and then went out to shop a little. Completely forgetting that everything is closed on Sundays. Luckily the Weinachtsmarkts were open. We wandered around them for a while before getting bored and heading into Starbucks.

At 4 we were supposed to head over to some friends of ours apartment so that we could practise German. The friends, Shane and Steffanie are a married couple not too much older than Katie or I. The wife is German and the husband is from Dublin. The German practise was not only for Katie and I but also for Shane.

I couldn't believe how nice this couple was. They invited us into their home and made us tea and had chips and salsa (actual spicy salsa not German ketchup salsa). They were also very nice about helping us with our German. We had two hours where we could only speak German. I didn't really add much to the conversation, but I understood everything and at least I am absorbing it right now. Maybe by next Sunday or possibly the one after I will be able to add a little more then stories about my host children.

After our German 'lesson' we all headed to Macloughlin's for the Sunday night quiz. The four of us decided to play this week. The questions in the quiz are difficult. Anytime there is a question concerning America everyone always looks to Katie and I. Most of the time we have no clue though. I guess right before I came there was a question asking which state Salem was the capitol of. Everyone guessed Washington...if only I had come a few weeks earlier...haha.

On Monday I helped make more Plätzchen. This kind Susanne had made the dough for on Saturday and it was in long rolls. I cut the rolls into little circles (like the premade cookie dough back home that you just cut and cook.) then cooked them. After they were a little cooled off you dipped them into a sugary mixture. The mixture had vanilla sugar and regular sugar in it. I am not really sure what the vanilla sugar is. The cookies kind of looked like snickerdoodles, but tasted different.

Tuesday was eventful. I worked the normal schedule then headed off to Mac's. Jessica met me there. Going to Macloughlin's is not like going to a bar or a pub in America. It is like going to your friend's house. On Tuesday there was no one there besides Damo, Trevor, Jess, and I so we decided to play Wii. I beat Jessica at bowling and then got beaten by Trevor at everything else.



Wednesday was a busy day as well. This was cake day. Cecilia's burthday was on Thursday so we had to prepare cakes on Wednesday. We made 3 of them. Two for her to take to Kindergarten and one for her birthday at home. She told her mom that she wanted a cake that tastes like chocolate but looks pink on the outside. I thought this was funny. She is all about pink, everything has to be pink. After the cakes were finished I was off to Mac's. I had promised the guys that I would be there to help decorate the pub for Christmas.

I walked into the pub and it looked like someone had chopped down a forest and left it in the front room, there was a tree lying there and tons of green garland type stuff. There was also a pile about 3 feet high of Kügen ( i think that is how it is spelled?) I am not sure what we would call these things in English. Boughs maybe? They were tree branches and we hung them up everywhere.

My first job was to put the lights on the tree. I was corrected on the proper way to do it by Katie so I let her put the lights up. After she was done though the guys made fun of her and re-did it themselves. I am starting to think that the only reason they keep us around sometimes is for entertainment. My next job was to hand Trevor presents while he stapled them the the ceiling. After that I put up snowflakes on another ceiling but hit my head hard and was told to tend the bar. I've gotten pretty good at tending the bar I must say. Granted I can't take people's money, but I can pour a mean Guiness.

After decorating for a few hours we decided to take a break. The pub was getting busier and I don't think Damo was trusting my bar tending skills with that many people. After the other bar man got there we decided to go to another local pub called Spinnstrube. Anyone who comes and visits me will get taken to this little place. It is a little whole in the wall place that is decorated with traditional Swiss decor. There are also giant fake spiders hanging on the ceiling, this I don't know why. This place is also run by a little old man who is always wearing a colourful vest. They have a drink there called a Löffel (that is German for spoon), you served a little shot of something that tastes like cinnamon on a big spoon.

The rest of the week as been uneventful so far. It is Friday today and I have the girls all by myself from noon until 10pm Saturday evening. I will write on Sunday or Monday to update you on how my weekend went. Katie is coming over on Saturday to go to the Aquarium with us and for dinner, and to help me out, and give me some sanity.