Es sieht aus wie Weihnachten!

(It looks like Christmas!)

Christmas season in Germany is just as good as everyone claims it to be. Maybe even better. Hannover has several Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas markets) that opened a couple weeks ago. My favorite market is the one in the old part of the city, where the all the cool buildings and tiny brick streets are. They have booths that sell ornaments, and little Christmas things, but mostly food – potato pancakes, bratwurst, crepes, chocolate covered stuff, etc – and drinks. Glühwein is the traditional Weihnachtsmarkt drink, and is really delicious. It’s a hot drink made out of red wine, rum, sugar and spices. They also sell eggnog… Linda, Noah and I decided to get some but little did we know it was 90% rum. We couldn’t drink more than a few sips, so we got rid of it but got to keep the cups.

This picture was taken before the first taste.

The whole city is decorated with lights!

Decorating Christmas cookies with Oma

Before

After

In Germany, Advent calendars are taken to another whole level. They have the ones with chocolate here, but more than just two choices to choose from. A whole section of the department store is dedicated to advent calendars. Some are huge and have toys or makeup instead of chocolate inside.
Instead of chocolate advent calendars, my family has little individual presents for each day. We hung them up on the ceiling of the kitchen, all 72 of them. So far, I’ve gotten gum, warm socks, nail polish, and little chocolate sticks.

Opa and the presents after we finished hanging them all

Other than Christmas stuff, everything has been normal. On Friday, I went to my first night club with a couple AFS friends in Hameln. Ask me if you wanna know more about that night.
Lastly, my latest great accomplishment. In Germany, 10th graders have to do an internship for two weeks at some place similar to where they might be interested in having a career in. Since I’m in 10th grade here, I have to do this too. In the beginning of October I started sending out applications to marketing companies. My host mom and opa helped me write it and make it look really professional. Since then, I’ve sent out 15 applications and finally got a response from a company inviting me in for an interview. I left school early on Thursday and my host mom took me to the company. The idea of being interviewed in German kinda freaked me out, but it went really well. The guy asked me a few questions like why I want to work in marketing, how long I’m staying here, and what I would like to do for my internship. After about five minutes he said we were done and that I got the job! He showed me around the place, introduced me to some people, and that was it. So for two weeks in February, I’ll go to this place instead of going to school.

That's all for this update. The next one will probably come sometime after Christmas!