Unlike the States, they didn't start putting out Christmas stuff in the stores until All Saints Day, Nov. 1. But it wasn't until about a week ago that we began to see Christmas decorations going up in the nearby towns.
The week of America's Thanksgiving is when the Christmas markets (Christkindlmarkt) begin to open up. I think Thursday is the official day, but some open Tuesday or Wednesday. The larger cities will have a main square set up with vendor stalls featuring hand-made crafts from that region, and special foods and sweets characteristic of the region and season. The markets are usually in a Medieval part of the town. Christmas decorations, especially lights, decorate the area and musicians play while people shop. They're open for about one month, usually until either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Since we are leaving Europe early in December to go home for Christmas, and the weekend before that A. is tied up with the school's series of Christmas concerts in the area, that leaves this coming week and weekend as our only opportunity to experience this.
Since I might not get another chance, I was hoping to hit about three of them next week. Getting sick put this in serious jeopardy, but since I've had three good days in a row, I'm starting to think I might be able to manage seeing at least two.
There is one in Basel, which is a cheap, 90-minute train ride away. We could manage to see it by taking off work a few hours early in the afternoon and be back by about 10 p.m. There is another one in Germany's Black Forest, in the city of Freiburg, which I think would be cool because they would have a lot of Black Forest wood carvings among the shopping options.
A. and I have never been to Munich. We are interested in going there on Saturday, as it's about 3 hours' drive away. It would have a huge Christmas market, and there would be a few other city historical attractions we could take in, as well. I'd like to absorb the atmosphere of these famous holiday markets, try some of the regional holiday foods and do a lot of photography.
Europeans don't celebrate Thanksgiving, of course. Eight years ago, when I was here for 6 months, I learned that the office didn't break for Thanksgiving, either. Most of the missionaries just gathered in the evening after work for dinner. Nowadays, the office is closed on Thursday and everyone meets up in the huge conference room at about 5 p.m. for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. I'm glad I won't have to work that day.
This past week, there was another holidayish activity hosted by our church. They rented out space in the larger village free church for a candle-dipping fundraiser to raise money for the child development center in Bangladesh that the church sponsors. It's also a way for the church to remind people in the area that we're here and for church members to mingle with families from the community. They advertised the candle-dipping at an international school in Schaffhausen, so it attracted a lot of British people who are working there. (Schaffhausen has very attractive corporate tax rates, so as a result, there are quite a few very large international companies who have or are in the process of relocating to the canton -- state -- and bringing their English speaking workers with them.)I stopped by the candle-dipping to make a few candles, as well as get some photojournalistic practice so I don't get rusty. My coworker decided to do an article about the fundraiser so my photos will actually get used after all. The candle-dipping was really fun. I've made candles before, but not this way. They turn out really nice. There were sheets of honey-combed beeswax that could be cut out with little cookie cutters and stuck to the outside of the taper. You would then dip it one more time to seal the decorations onto the tapers.
Apparently it takes a year for the candles to harden enough that they don't collapse into a gooey mess when you burn them. I was told you could speed it up by sticking them in the freezer, although I don't know how long to do that. I kept the loops on the wicks so they could be hung, as well as stuck in a candle-holder. While dipping I had the chance to meet a couple people from the community. One of them was a DEAD-RINGER for Julianne Moore. If not for her strong British accent, I would have asked her for an autograph.
Last night, a German girl who attended seminary with A. and worked with him in the library there, drove down to have dinner with us. She only recently returned to her home town, about 2 hours away by car. When A. found out she was back in the area, he invited her to come see us. She's also friends with our neighbor (turns out EVERYONE is friends with her. I can't believe we never met her before now, since she knows everyone we know).
We went to our favorite restaurant, an Italian place with very cheap prices and amazing food. It was great to catch up with her. Our neighbor friend was a missionary kid who grew up in Hong Kong. Our German friend lived for 7 years in France before living in Kansas City for 5 years. Both of them talked about how difficult it can be to live in different countries, because after a while you don't feel at home anywhere. A. and I haven't been overseas for a long time, but for some reason after I left Missouri, and all the moving around I did afterward, I've had the same feeling about not knowing where home is. It was nice for all of us to be with people who could identify with us.
That's our November so far.
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