Homeward bound!

As beautiful as Neustadt is, it's missing a key element or two. So I think I'll hop a plane tomorrow and see what they're all up to in Arizona for Christmas! :)

A new roommate

My cozy apartment just got cozier, thanks to my new roommate from Dresden. He's quiet, doesn't eat much, and he sure smells good!

Lemme explain. The Erzgebirge is a mountain range near the eastern German border, which is famous for its woodcarving: especially around Christmastime, the area's hand-carved wooden figures, finely-cut Christmas tree decorations, Pyramiden (diaramas in which the figures spin around by means of a candles and wooden fans), and especially the characteristic Schwibbogen (arched candle holders with traditional images underneath) are staples even in western Christmas markets.

Pyramide:
Schwibbogen:


The most famous of the hand-carved figures, however, are the Räuchermännchen: "little smoking men". These are hollow, often wearing miners' costumes -- "Erzgebirge" literally translates into "ore mountains"-- and have round holes for mouths. When you place an incense cone inside one, the scented smoke comes drifting out of his mouth. Eeee! If ever smoking could be made adorable..! Anyway, they range anywhere in size from a couple inches to a couple feet. The problem is that, no matter how simple or detailed, their fame and quality make them pretty pricey. I was coveting every Räuchermännchen I saw when Bert and I visited the Annaberg Christmas market a couple weeks ago. Alas, they were too cute for my pocketbook.

Well! Bert went back to the Erzgebirge last weekend for his sister's birthday. And what did he return with? My very own Räuchermännchen! Except this guy isn't a miner -- he's a rockin' wizard. Delicately stained, with a long beard, walking stick, dark red hood, and heavy-lidded eyes, he is cool indeed. We lit him up (with appropriately-scented "wood moss" incense), and the long tube of smoke curling out of his mouth made him look strange and sorcerous. I wonder if he comes alive at night and casts spells? We shall see. I might wake up tomorrow morning in a forest of mushrooms.

staring:


smoking (while contemplating some spells):


Dunno about you, but I hear a men's choir when I look at him. Ahh, AAHHH, aaah!

So! What should I name him? Merdalf? Gandlin?

How to make Feuerzangenbowle

Step One: fill a pot with mulled wine.

Step Two: suspend a cone of sugar above the pot.


Step Three: douse the sugar in something tasty and flammable, like rum.


Step Four: fire!


Step Five: watch the sugar burn, until Step Six....


...when it has almost entiredly melted down and dripped, caramelized, into the wine.


Step Seven: Enjoy!

Step Eight: Enjoy again.

Step Nine: Apply Christmas wreath to head. Dance around a little. Pour more Feuerzangenbowle. Sing off-key and loudly along to Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas."

Step Ten: Spend entire next day in your pajamas, eating Nutella straight out of the jar because getting up and making real food sounds like too much effort! ;o)

Happy Hanukkah!

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, which means that Temple Emanu-El back in Tucson is enjoying a flurry of activity. To Rabbi and Marjorie, and all the Temple staff: I hope you had a fun and successful first-night service! Wish I could have been there to sing this year. To everyone else who lit the first candle last night: chag sameach!

Slate magazine posted a lovely series today of photos taken of Hanukkah observances over the last fifty years. Some are quite introspective; others make an impact. Have a looksee!

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20061215/

Neustadt at Christmastime

Ooh, speaking of Weihnachten: went for a lovely long walk today with the camera. Check out this Rheinland Christmas paradise! :)

(The above album can also be found under a new link to the right: "And More Pix". The pictures have finally overflowed onto another picasa page!)

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Well, this week has just been brimming with culture! Some high, some not so high... though I suppose it all depends on your perspective. ;)

First of all, I should mention that Frau Griesemer is a champ at making sure I have access to all the yummy little cultural tidbits around Neustadt: clipping out newspaper articles on exhibitions and concerts, finagling me free tickets for various excellent performances... a couple weeks ago, it was a Klezmer concert by a world-famous Jewish music trio! That was awesome. Last night, we saw an operetta: "Madame Pompadour". If you haven't seen/heard it, I'd recommend it! Although my enjoyment was probably exclusively the doing of the fantastic cast. I've been to operas before where the players could sing... and that was pretty much it. Mom and Shauna, remember when we saw "Romeo et Juliette," and during the death scene, the two expressed their undying love for each other by standing stiffly on opposite sides of the stage and reciting their arias like dutiful human clarinets? Or Ron, remember when we saw "Carmen", and the set consisted entirely of a single chair and an abstract, sloping wall? Not this troupe! They could not only sing, they could act. They were funny, creative, engaging -- and the sets and costumes were so sumptuous that sometimes I had trouble focusing my ears on the music, my eyes were so preoccupied! And to top it all off, Frau Griesemer treated me to a glass of sparkling wine at intermission -- and as you can imagine, sparkling wine in this region is almost as good as an entire opera. All in all, 'twas a lovely evening.

...And quite different from Monday night, when Bert and I went to a metal concert! It was in Mannheim, with a band called "In Extremo" (hahaha, love that name). I'd enjoyed a couple of their songs before, and Bert had gotten me a ticket to accompany him that night with some of the other Ludwigshafen crowd; so, always open to new sounds, I went gamely. And it rocked! Their music is pretty hard, but also surprisingly melodic at times. And get this -- they have bagpipes! Three bagpipers stalk about the stage while the lead singer sings his studded dog collar off, occasionally punctuated by the Standard Bursts of Flame, Without Which No Metal Concert Would Be Complete. Actually, at some point the drummer even lit his sticks on fire, and proceeded to play almost a whole song with these fireballs on the end of his drumsticks. Awesome. Oh, but no worries, family: I think we were not only sweaty enough from dancing to be pretty flame-retardant, but we also stood near the back, anyway, 'cause Bert forgot his earplugs (though weirdly enough, I just happened to have some floating around in my purse; however, he insisted I keep them for my virgin American ears). It was really fun. The music was good, and I don't think there was a single person there who wasn't all decked out in black... though the band's reputation for using bagpipes brought a funny array of SCA-types, too. Haha! So now I can say I went to a German metal concert.

(Here are some of the girlies from Ludwigshafen, at the concert.
L to R: Anne, Nadia, Julia, me):



Ooh, and now I jusht got back from a -- hic! -- Chrishmash party with some of the teachers from shcool. It wash fun... more tomorrow! ;oP

Cookery

As a side note, cooking/baking is always fun in my apartment. My "mixing bowls" consist of various saucepans, and a plastic bucket that must have originally come with a brightly-colored sand shovel. The "cookie sheet" is that pot roast pan -- you know, the one which comes standard in every oven? -- luxuriously covered with a fine layer of brown wax paper. (Only as they do in the finest bakeries, of course.) And Nigel discovered for himself the joys of making an omelette with a wooden spatula in a non-nonstick pan. Oh yeah!

But hey, it all still works. :) And thanks to Mom's piemaking tools, Dad & Sarah's measuring cups, and Brigitte Hamann's electric mixer, my first attempt at self-made piecrusts for Thanksgiving actually came out pretty well! :)

A proud display of two rootin' tootin' all-Amurrican punkin pahs.

Ach, du lieber Dezember!

Yayyy! I love this time of year. Especially when it's in such a beautiful place... went for a long walk yesterday, and kept stopping to look around and pinch myself that I get to live here until at least next summer. It's been three months, and I still do that on a pretty regular basis!

Gosh, so much to catch up on, and so little time before I have to pack up and catch a train to Ludwigshafen (where I'm meeting Bert to drive to the Erzgebirge today). So I'll try to just hit the highlights real quick:

Thanksgiving: marvellous! Cooked a dinner on the evening of Friday the 24th with a bunch of other English teachers at the high school. My coworkers are so great. Funny, friendly, open... and brave! Mom (bless her!) had sent me a bunch of ingredients for various holiday goodies that I just can't find here in Germany, some of which being pureed canned pumpkin and pie tins. So most of the teachers were able to try pumpkin pie for the first time... a leap of faith, given that my description of it was "sweetened, spiced squash filling in a dessert crust". And then they proved themselves even more valiant when I ceremoniously removed the lid from the Watergate Salad: pistachio pudding, whipped cream, crushed pineapple, multicolored minimarshmallows, and coconut, all blended up into a radioactive green goo. Yum! Everyone at the table peered into the bowl, glanced surreptitiously at each other, and then dug right in. And happily, both desserts appeared to be quite the hit! :)

The next weekend, Nigel came to visit, and we had a nice, chill (heh heh, get it?) start to December. On Friday evening, he and Anna and I, along with Annette (another new English teacher at my school) checked out the Christmas market in Landau. Then we went to see the new James Bond; and the next day, Nigel and I hopped a train to Heidelberg to see what it has to offer during the Adventszeit. Answer: an even bigger Christmas market! We had a lovely time... strolling around in the low winter sunlight, sampling gingerbread and candied almonds... and about three cups each of various forms of Gluehwein (mulled wine). Mmm! That made for a very merry trip back on the train! :)

That night, I went to a party in Ludwigshafen with some of Bert's friends; and like everything else, it was a blast. We listened to music, made dinner, and exchanged gifts. Bert was the "Weihnachtsmann", and he even showed up in a white beard and Santa cap. At some point, he pulled his beard down to take a drink of something... and one of the other guys pretends to burst into tears, yelling, "There is no Weihnachtsmann!! It's only Bert!" Hahahaha! Oh man, I like the Ludwigshafen folks.

Oops, I gotta wrap this up. Long story short: December has been fantastic so far. :) Will take lots of pictures this weekend! Huggles aus Deutschland...