So, the 24th was an early start to the day (and by early I mean 10am...my host brothers and I usually sleep very late on weekends/breaks...), as I realized the night before that I didn't have any gift bags for my gifts. Luis needed to buy a few more gifts too, so we went together into the city. After that we went to my host grandparents house to give them flowers and wish them a Merry Christmas. They are such nice old folks...I love visiting them! They ask me a lot of questions.
Later that day my host family and I went to church, but we ended up being late so we missed half the service. It wasn't too exciting anyway (was a really strange service...there was some sort of non-Christmas related play in the middle of it that I didn't understand. Something about bugs on a table I think. I was so confused). After that we went back home, and waited for my host aunt, uncle, and cousins to get there. Once they were there we enjoyed a glass of Sekt (cheap champagne) and then opened presents. In Germany they open presents on the 24th rather than the morning of the 25th. Santa comes while the family is away at church during the evening, and when they come back the presents are there. Magic! Opening the presents was a really intense and stressful (but fun!) experience. If anyone has ever experienced a Handy family Christmas, you know that we take a minimum of 2 hours to open all the presents. We open them one at a time, spend a few minutes giving praise and exchanging snide remarks about the gift, and then move on to the next one. The process takes at least 5 minutes per gift. Well, my host family tore through the gifts in about 3 minutes, and I was so stressed between trying to thank people for the gifts they gave me (and trying to figure who even gave me the gift in the first place), trying to make sure everyone got the gifts I was giving them and making any proper clarifications with the gift ("This is for your desk in the office" or " Sorry, I didn't know what size you were, so here is the receipt."), and trying to see what other people got. I didn't know what to do with myself! But I won't blame this on cultural differences, just on the fact that my family in the U.S. is weird and takes hours to open Christmas presents. Love you guys!
After present opening, we went on to eat a delicious dinner. It looked like this:
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| There were two little stoves like this, and you prepare your own meal on a small pan and cook it. Then there were various meats and vegetables cooking on top. Yummy!
We played a really fun card game and just chilled the rest of the night. I felt so happy on Christmas Eve - it was actually a highlight of my exchange.
The next day did not go so well. All the relatives from my host family met in one of their houses. There were so many people there, and many of them I didn't know very well, so I felt very lost. This is when the homesickness set in. But I survived that night and moved on, and I think that is enough to be proud of!
Host family + relatives
On the 26th we went to my host dad's parents' house in Hagen (which is by far the ugliest city I have seen here in Germany...it was heavily bombed in WWII, so most of the charming old buildings are gone. It's amazing how effects from the war can still be seen today). My host dad's parents are so nice, and we ate really delicious food. We also met my host dad's brother and his family there, and they had three cute little kids. It's funny how the 24th and the 26th were so great, and the 25th was so bad. Well, 66% isn't too bad, so I'm satisfied with my Christmas in Germany!
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