December

Last weekend my host family and I took a two hour road trip to two very old cities, one of which is over a thousand years old. They're called Wernigerode and Quedlinburg. We went to Quedlinburg first and visited this very old castle and church where King Henry I, the first king of Germany being elected in the year 919, is buried. Afterwards, we went to the Christmas Markets in the two cities, where we drank and ate our fair share of Glühwein and Bratwurst, respectively. Seriously though, so much food, it's crazy. Glühwein is mulled wine. It is usually made with red wine, mulled spices, and raisins. It is a drink served hot, and it is "the drink to drink" at Christmas Markets. And well, Bratwurst is practically the national food of Germany, so that one explains itself. There are Christmas markets in practically every city and village in Germany, but the more well known ones are in the west, like Cologne, and the south, like Nürnberg, of Germany. There is something truly beautiful about Christmas Markets in the evening with all the Christmas lights on, the dark blue sky as the backdrop, and extremely old buildings surrounding the market. It's very fairytale like, and it doesn't hurt that there is usually an old castle in the vicinity.

The building in the back is the town hall.

Right as it was becoming dark

I love this photo because it's totally candid; the funniest thing happened when it was taken.

On Saturday, my host mom, my host sister and I went shopping in Berlin and to a couple more Christmas Markets. The city was all lit up and completely full of people! Lots of fun though.

a Christmas market entrance
It was raining, as you might be able to tell, but even that can't ruin our Christmas spirit. 

I love Berlin!!!

Last week in biology my teacher gave us this paper to fill out saying it was for this experiment we were doing. I naturally filled out the form, but still have no idea what this is about. Turns out, these two biology people were coming to our school to do an experiment with us, which was their way of doing outreach. We were testing DNA to find a match to a "murderer's" DNA. It was pretty cool and fun actually to do; however, my lab partner and mine's didn't turn out the way it was supposed to. It's okay, thought, because we tried. Even though ours failed, we still got out picture in the newspaper! So I mean, who is the real winner here... 

I had a paradoxically eventful yet uneventful week at school. The grading period was over last week for my class, so this week was filled with free periods. However, my class had the task of putting on a Christmas Concert for the school on Friday morning, so during those free periods we were preparing. The really cool thing was it was 100% organized and preformed by the 12th grade. We sang songs, the really talented singers had solos, duets, or trios, there were instrumental duets and trios, a skit, and a Christmas monologue. It was mostly for the students at school, but my host mom came to watch and take photos. The whole show went spectacularly, and I think it was quite a hit! Afterwards, my host family and I went out to lunch to this Greek restaurant, which I thoroughly enjoyed because I had never had Greek food before.

My friends :)

I'm not planning on posting a blog next Monday. Ya know, the holidays, spending time with friends and family, that kinda thing. But after that, I will probably write about Christmas break, but who knows.

Merry Christmas!

Shannon