As of Monday, the Christkindlmarkt is open! I imagine you can gather this much, but it is a Christmas Market in the center on town. I headed down with some friends on opening night to have some snacks and a glass of Glühwein.

The Neue Rathaus accompanied by the huggggge Christmas tree and the Frauenkirche in the background.

A Glühwein stand.

Glühwein is essentially mulled wine: red wine, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and lots of sugar. I had high hopes for it, but didn't consider one thing: I really hate red wine. So I got a mug, but I really can't say that I enjoyed it..Though, I promise that I love Lebkuchen and everything else Christmas related!

Michael with his red bratwurst sandwich. Red bratwurst is the best.

 In addition to food stands, the market also has tons of souvenir-type stuff, and toys! The people that work at these stands appear to love it (could be because it was the first day, and not freezing outside..) and it's just so lovely and cheery to walk through. I can't wait until it snows (tomorrow!).

Our first, and probably my last, glass of Glühwein.

This stand is one of my favorites. It's a mini Frauenkirche!!

Ilana, providing some scale. This tree is huge (perhaps not Lincoln Center huge, but still.)

By the way, isn't this so cool? Justin and I found it while wandering around on Sunday.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! On Thursday, we celebrated as a group, with the addition of our "mentors" (German students that are our age and interested in spending time with Americans), as well as our teachers. So, in total we were about 40 people. Us Americans were assigned the task of cooking, being that it's our tradition. So we each cooked a dish or two to serve 40 people.

I chose to make the stuffing because I loooove to make stuffing. Making stuffing for 40 people, though...Exhausting.

They don't do stuffing here like we do in the states, so I bought 5 loaves of bread and cubed them myself!

Ultimately, I think it turned out well. I forgot to photograph the finished product though..whoops. Also forgot to bring my camera to dinner...

Justin made roasted carrots, they were awesome!

This was my second Thanksgiving away from home, and despite missing my usual celebration, I had a really great time.

   

Sorry that I haven't said much in a while, but honestly there hasn't been much going on in my life worthy of writing about. Not that things are going poorly! ; just business as usual with classes and the like. But today! Today I got mail! Halloween/Autumnal mail! And I am so happy. So, I am taking this opportunity to offer you mail! Be my pen pal, pal. Send me your addess, and I'll give you mine. But, just to give you fair warning, Deutsche Post is (as far as I've experienced) incredibly slow. 

 

This morning I made pancakes in my bedroom using the hotplate Justin gifted me. So lovely. (This is just an excuse to show off syrup pictures.) More luscious food photos to come, as we too will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday. Mmm.