Well I've officially celebrated my first holiday here in Berlin. Last night was New Year's Eve, known as Silvester in Germany. I had planned to go to Brandenburger Tor to celebrate because Berlin has the world's biggest outdoor celebration there. Over a million people show up to listen to the live music and watch the fireworks. I ended up not going though because I was just too tired and not really ready to set out on my own, especially with a crowd of that size. Instead I stayed home with my host family, which turned out to be a really great decision. We watched an old British comedy skit called Dinner for One. It's about a 90 year old woman who is having a birthday dinner, but all of her old friends are dead. Her butler has to pretend to be her four different friends and drink all of their drinks, which results in him being hilariously drunk. Apparently the German people love this and have adopted it as a yearly tradition, even though the British know nothing about it. And it's in English, so I was actually able to follow along :) After the show we had cheese fondue for dinner and I had my first German beer! We lit some Tischfeuerwerk, which are little fireworks that pop and shoot confetti or little toys out. Then we did Bleigiessen, which were one of my favorite parts of the night. Bleigiessen are these little lead figurines that get passed around to each person. You put it on a spoon and melt it over a flame. Then once it is molten you quickly dump it into a bowl of cold water. The lead forms into a weird shape when it hits the water and you have to decide what it looks the most like. Whatever shape it takes gives you a fortune for the new year. J (the family's six year old boy) decided that mine was a fish. So my fortune was "A bath would do you good." Lol, I take this to mean that I need to relax, not that I smell bad! At midnight we had champagne, which was surprisingly good. We also indulged in another German tradition, which is to eat Pfannkuchen for the new year. Pfannkuchen are donuts with a range of fillings. I'm told that they sometimes even fill them with mustard as a prank. Fortunately I just got a delicious jelly filled one. Outside of Berlin, Pfannkuchen are known as Berliners. Hence the old JFK joke, I am a jelly donut :) After the midnight countdown we went outside to light fireworks. I guess this year was a big deal because it is the first year that they are legally allowed to put 3X as much black powder as before into the fireworks. It's crazy to think how much money was shot up into the air last night. The smoke from the fireworks going off everywhere made all the streets look hazy. It was really beautiful, in an eerie sort of way.
Since I didn't manage to go to sleep until 3am last night due to all of the rockets going off, I basically slept until noon today. AM (my host mother) and I went to Zumba at the fitness center this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, but definitely very different from home. We did two of the same songs that Heather teaches at home and I have to say that I prefer Heather's routines. I ended up purchasing a membership to the gym so I can go to more classes and maybe try the pool sometime. I am definitely looking to get in better shape this year and I'm sure the money that I'm spending on this gym will be a good motivator, lol.
Tomorrow is the start of my first real week of work (and my second week in Germany!). I am excited to be working out my schedule. I'll hopefully be getting signed up for my German classes tomorrow and Tuesday I am meeting the woman from Au Pair Care that helped arrange everything. We are getting my visa so that I can officially start working in Germany. My first day at the Kita is Wednesday and I'm surprisingly not that worried about it.
I finally feel like I'm settling in here. I still miss everyone back home, but the initial shock is wearing off bit by bit. My tooth feels way better, so that's a definite plus. I am still kinda jetlagged though. I'm working on getting onto a normal eating and sleeping schedule. No more of this waking up starving the middle of the night! Speaking of which, I attempted to make Mom's hashbrown casserole today, but it came out really weird. I couldn't find ground sausage in the store and the only mushroom soup they had was powdered, not in a can like I normally use. So the flavor was completely off, but at least it was edible!
Well tomorrow marks the start of a very busy week for me, so I'd better get some sleep. I'd also like to make a quick shout out to Ben, who leaves for Japan in 24 hours. You're gonna do great and have an amazing time Ben!
Talk to everyone soon!
Click Here for New Year's Eve Pictures
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