Hans the Hamster

I got an early birthday present today and his name is Hans and he's a hamster! Bettina, Joe, Emmi and I all went to pick him out and then Emmi and I carried him (it was a tiny box, but Emmi really wanted to help) and sang all the way to the checkout "Wir haben ein kleines Hamster!" (We have a small hamster!) and told the little kid behind us too (he didn't care). Then when we got home everyone helped to make his cage ready, with his wheel, house and a platform. And then we all watched him for a good 10 minutes..now he's next to my bed (making a lot of noise) but he's very cute and cuddly! 

I asked Emmi to help me think of a name, and first she said hamster...and I told her no were not naming the hamster hamster. Then she said Schmetterling which is the word for butterfly, so she wanted to name the hamster butterfly...which I said no to also. Then I suggest Hans, a stereotypical German name to Americans, and she thought for a minute and said okay! so that is how Hans got his name. 

An American-German-Belgian-Irish Thanksgiving

Last Saturday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and friends. The weekend before my host dad, Emmi (little sister), and I went grocery shopping and tried to buy everything. However, some things can't be found here, for example, cranberry sauce or actually even fresh/frozen cranberries don't exist. On Friday I didn't have any school because it was parent/teacher conference day, which worked out really well cause I basically cooked all day with a friend who came over to help me. We made apple pie, mini gluten free apple pies for Bettina, mashed potatoes, stuffing with hazelnuts, apples and dried cranberries, cranberry sauce from dried cranberries (I was worried how it'd turn out but it was actually really good), shrimp and bacon Mac and Cheese (the other American insisted Mac and cheese is something you need at Thanksgiving but I disagree) and of course pumpkin pie (it was actually maple pumpkin pie and gluten free!). Saturday morning I made sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, which everyone besides the two Americans thought it was really weird and wondered why you would ever put marshmallows on sweet potatoes...then Bettina and Joe helped make the turkey, the gravy, biscuits and grilled the squash. By then it was around 12 and three of my friends were already here (they were Grant, the American, Louis, Irish, and Yoann, Belgian) and there wasn't really that much to do, so we all went to the Christmas Market and met Jill, a friend from school there. German Christmas Markets are amazing...they're so pretty and have amazing things. For example, there's a chocolate hut with chocolate hammers, shoes, bolts, roses and they're incredibly detailed and look way too good to eat. Then there's huts with beeswax candles, little music boxes, hand carved wooden things and of course food huts with Glühwein, which is basically mulled wine but apparently it's deadly (I've stayed away from it...I prefer the hot coco with whipped cream). Then we went back to help with the grand Thanksgiving dinner and another friend came, Marlene, from lacrosse. Everything was so incredibly good and I stuffed myself so much until I just wanted to curl up and sleep....but instead we watched a movie then went back to the Christmas Market until everyone's train left. However, the conductor almost didn't let Grant and Yoann in the train cause the closed the doors as they were walking up to the train, and they closed them early. But there was a lot of other people who wanted to get on too so they made it! 

Essentially, Thanksgiving was a success. I got my American Thanksgiving with all the typical food and ended up spending it with good friends and my host family and we all had fun! 

From left to right: me (obviously), Yoann, Jill, Grant and Louis

The view of the Christmas Market from the Ferris Wheel