First Post of the New Year, Part II

Here come the Christmas and New Years pics!  I went to Leipzig for Christmas to spend a week with my old host family the Schmidts.  For those of you who don't know or remember, I was a foreign exchange student in Leipzig for 6 months back in 2003, my junior year oh high school.   A few other students were traveling in the same direction for Christmas, so we all traveled together in a rented car and split the costs.  They dropped me off at a place called Gera, and then I took a short train ride the rest of the way to Leipzig.  See?...

I had a wonderful time with the Schmidts.  It's always good to see them again. The last time I saw them was when I had my second foreign-exchange adventure down in Passau, Germany; that was in 2006 when I was a sophomore at Augustana.  In any case, we all agreed that it didn't seem like all that much time had passed since I was there last.  Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt are both a lot of fun and extremely hospitable.  They have 2 sons: Stefan is about my age and I was good friends with him and many of his friends back in '03.  He doesn't live with his parents any more (shares an apartment in Leipzig with a few friends,) but he spent the entire Christmas week at his parents house.  As a result, I got to hang out with him quite a bit.  The Schmidts' older son Christian lives down the street with his girlfriend Janine and their 5 year old daughter Lena.  I never saw them all that much when I was in Leipzig in '03 (and '06), but this time around I got to see them all several times.  I also got to see Stefan's aunt and uncle who also live down the street, Stefan's grandmother, and several of Stefan's (and my) friends, some of whom I hadn't seen since 2003.  I received several presents, got to eat way more delicious food than I needed to, stayed out too late with Stefan and company, slept in too long, got to go on a day-trip with Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt, and more.  All in all, it was lovely.

After having spent Dec 23-28 with the Schmidts, I then traveled farther eastward to a tiny little village called Weigersdorf (almost in Poland) for a few days of New Years activities and celebrations with several SELK youth. (Remember, the SELK is the sister synod of the LCMS.)  

While Weigersdorf consists of only a few hundred people, there is a rather sizeable SELK congregation there.  My classmate Renatus is from Weigersdorf, and he organized what was basically a four-day long sleepover/hangout/party for 38 people, who ranged in age from 13 to 32.  Renatus was nice enough to invite me along, and I said "sure."  I hadn't met most of the people there, but I got to know them quickly and we had some good times.  The entire event was also very Lutheran in nature.  It wasn't like a Bible camp or anything, but we did have morning and evening devotions together every day; Renatus' dad, the pastor in Weigersdorf, led us in a Bible study one day; and we got to go to 2 New Years Eve services and one on New Years Day.  On the "secular" side of things, we played lots of games, indoors and outdoors: card games, trivia games, ping pong, foosball, soccer etc. etc.  Unfortunately I wasn't a very diligent photographer this time around, so I don't have a whole lot to show.  But I think you'll get the idea.  Then without ado, let the slide show begin!

Leipzig

Dec. 23 - Dinner in downtown Leipzig with Stefan and several other friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time.

The Christmas Eve service at the SELK congregation in Leipzig wasn't quite what I expected.   I'm used to a divine service with communion for Christmas, but this was more of a Lessons and Carols service with a nativity play in the middle.  Even stranger was that the participants in the play were all at least teenagers, if not adults.  I went again Christmas morning, however, which was then a very nice Christmas divine service.

Christmas Eve dinner  and distribution of presents down the street at Aunt Helga and Uncle Dieter's.  That's Dieter on the left, Helga in the middle, then Christine and Rudi on the right (Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt, that is.) 

Rudi, Stefan, and I.  The main course was pork tenderloin, which was delicious.  There were plenty of tasty sides, too, including bratwurst :) 

Stefan and I

I'm showing everyone a picture of the whole family and explaining who's who.

Look at all those presents I got!

Schmidts' Christmas tree - Weihnachtsbaum

Chilling after a long evening of food, drink, and gifts. 

This is the next day (Christmas), and I'm wearing my new flannel shirt that my mom sent me across the ocean.   All my brothers got one too (see below).

I stole this pic from Facebook...

Christmas Day dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt and Stefan's grandma - Oma.  This meal was perhaps the best one:  Kaninchenkeulen mit Rotkraut und Klößer (Rabbit legs with red cabbage and dumplings.) 

Stefan's brother and family: Christian, Janine, and Lena

The whole Schmidt fam + me. 

Christmas meal #3, Dec. 26.  This meal was another winner: Lamb with red cabbage and dumplings again.   

One of Rudi and Christine's gifts to me was to take me on a day trip somewhere not too far away so we went to Altenburg for half the day and Seiffen in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) for the second half of the day.

  This is the Altenburg square - not bad, but not exactly riveting either.

I would have like to have gone inside this church, but stangely, it was closed.

A nice mosaic on the church façade

Rudi and Christine

The Altenburg Brewery - there's a museum attached, which we toured, but it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be.  I was hoping we'd get to have a tour of the brewery itself and see how the beer's made, but we didn't... 

I found this to be the most entertaining item in the brewery museum: Textbook of Brewery.   :)

Ok, I admit - I didn't take this picture myself.  I got it from Google.  The highlight of Altenburg was the castle.   Here it is from above... 

Christine and I outside the castle entrance with the castle church in the background

This picture is from the internet, too, because we weren't allowed to take photos inside the castle.  This is the Trost Organ, supposedly one of the most famous organs in Germany.  I would love to hear it played sometime.  Bach played on this organ a couple weeks before it was officially finished and he praised it to the highest degree.

This is the Grand Hall - eat your heart out!  (Photo also from internet.)

Day Trip, Part 2: Seiffen in the Erzgebirge

The entire Erzgebirge region, but especially Seiffen, is famous for its handmade wooden Christmas decorations, as seen in the photos below.  It seems just about every German family has something from the famed Erzgebirge. 

These are to be placed in your windows during Christmastime.

They call these things pyramids, and they are a vital part of a traditional German Christmas.  The heat from the candles, or in this case lights, causes the blades on top to turn, thus turning the entire inner part of the pyramid.  Very neat. 

But they're not cheap.  This is the price for the big pyramid on the left in the above picture: 1,499.00 Euros (~$1900) for the pyramid itself and another 839 Euros (~$1070) for the figurines!

A view of the main street in Seiffen.  Shop after shop after shop, full of the same handmade wooden Christmas things. 

In one of the shops, you can pay a couple bucks and get a behind-the-scenes look at the ornaments being made. 

American soldier nutcracker.

I felt like I was in Santa's workshop.

Red or white stars like these ones are also extremely popular and traditional for Germans at Christmastime.

Notice how each and every window has one of those arched candle things (Schwibbogen) in it.

After a long day of sightseeing, we got to relax and have a filling meal and a delicious beer.

Later that night Stefan and I were invited to go play Texas Hold'em with Christian and Janine in their apartment.

They have a pretty hip place.

Lena was supposed to be in bed, but she wanted to hang out with us (and the cats) instead.  She's a cutie.  I had fun talking to her.  I don't often have the opportunity to speak German with children, but when I do I always find it fascinating.  How can such little children speak German so easily when I've had to work so hard at it?!

Weigersdorf New Years Thing

Playing Doppelkopf

Getting ready for a Bible study with Pastor Voigt

A full evening of volleyball.  That was lots of fun. 

New Years Eve:  From 11:30 to midnight there was a small prayer service in the church.  Afterwards, the brass choir played Christmas chorales to bring in the new year!  It was a very pleasant way to celebrate New Years.

Chinese ping pong

I was then invited to stay another couple of nights with Renatus' family, which was very, very nice.  On the last evening we had a Skat tournament.  I love Skat.  For those of you who don't know, Skat is a lot like Sheephead which is another German card game that my family has always enjoyed playing.  There are lots of folks up in Wisconsin that play Sheephead.  We kids learned it from our dad who, being from Sheboygan, learned it from his dad, who learned it from his dad, etc.  But I think I enjoy Skat just as much, if not a bit better.  Interestingly, most Germans have no idea what Sheephead, or Shafkopf, is.  My guess is that it's a Bavarian variant of Skat, Skat being the most popular card game in Germany.

Whew! I'm finally done.  That took a long time.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories.  Until next time!  A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!
- Peter