Belated New Year's post

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a few weeks! It's not that I haven't had any free time, but rather I've been enjoying my lazy days of Christmas break while they still last (unfortunately I only have a couple days left. On Jan. 6 everything starts up again). But! I did have an excellent Christmas with Erika's family in Friedenweiler, they provided delicious food, good conversation, and were overly generous with the Christmas cookies and gifts. I'm very pleased with the abundance of chocolate in my apartment now, all thanks to her family.

I also thoroughly enjoyed their little town too. It's located in the hills in the Black Forest, nestled in between tall pine trees and narrow gorges with little streams running through. When I first arrived I was amazed at how soft and green everything was for a late December day.

 The day before Christmas it was quite warm, probably around 45F

There's also tons of hiking trails just minutes away from the apartment, you can walk for miles without using the same trail twice. In summer there is space for plenty of mountain biking and horseback riding. A little outdoor lovers paradise (which fits Susanna and Sven pretty well). 

Sisters!!

The day after Christmas was a different story though. It snowed big heavy flakes for most of the morning and we went for a snow hike. 

Thats a public swimming pool right in front of the building there. It looked really nice as we walked by, a kiddie pool, hot tub, and a diving board included. The larger water body is also open for swimming, but not exactly a pool. Apparently nice public pools is common in some of the small towns in southern Germany

Snow for a nice change of pace and color

Tall pines covered in heavy snow

This sign shows the European watershed(?) where one side drains to the Rhein river all the way up to the North Sea, and the other direction drains to the Black Sea. Pretty cool to find in a village hike

New Year's has passed without incidence, amazingly. Germans are pretty crazy about fireworks, and there is very little regard for personal space when launching off explosives. We went to the top of the city, which is actually a historic site to watch the fireworks display at midnight. But I'm still unsure whether there was a professional fireworks display, or if everyone who bought fireworks just waits til midnight to launch their prized explosives. There were rockets going off all around us, people literally lighting rockets at the feet of strangers. No one is safe. Here is a link to a video compilation a classmate made from his experiences on New Years. This is his footage, not mine, but lighting rockets down the tram line, directed at people and businesses... Richard's New Year's video

Also the video clips mixed in with the explosions is another German holiday tradition. It's an old comedy sketch "The 90th Birthday" or "Dinner for One" that for some reason is played on TV every New Years. It's the German equivalent of the claymation Rudolph movie, except it's a 10 minute sketch of a drunk butler. I think the "same procedure as every year" may be pretty appropriate description of drunk Germans on New Years. I'll find out more next year.  Here is a link for the full, original video if you're interested The 90th Birthday