Advent

Christmas is serious business in Germany. The Weihnachtsmarkt opened two weeks ago in Augsburg, and I've been frequenting it almost daily. (I've adjusted to a semi-permanent state of afternoon/evening glühwein tipsiness.) For those of you who have yet to discover the joys of Christmas markets in Germany, allow me to elaborate: basically the market consists of many stands, perhaps 100 total, selling all manner of christmas gifts, alcohol, and FOOD. The aromas emanating from Rathausplatz every day at lunchtime inevitably conquer my weak interior arguments against buying yet another bratwurst, such as: but what about all my money? and, but isn't sausage bad for you? My final argument, but I'm in Germany!, overcomes all my financial- and health-motivated concerns, and I go for the bratwurst. Except it's not just sausage they have for sale. There are sweet and savoury crêpe stands, waffle stands, entire homemade donut stands, roasted almonds and several other variety of nut stands, and glühwein EVERYWHERE. Are your defenses sufficiently weakened yet? They will be once you visit. Add to that the beautiful christmas lights and decorations throughout downtown, and you know you're in the land where Christmas is the real deal.

Furthermore, the Germans reject many of our North American Christmas traditions. My German teacher calmly informed us several weeks ago that the jolly, red-suited Santa Claus of my youth was actually fabricated by Coca-Cola for commercial purposes sometime in the early 20th century. Wonderful. Luckily my illusions weren't entirely shattered by this revelation - I have clear memories of calmly discussing the fact that Santa Claus isn't real with my mom in the downstairs bathroom when I was four years old. Although Santa is slowly worming his way into dominant culture here, my teacher asserted that Nikolaus remains the German Christmas figurehead. He arrives on December 6th (tomorrow!) with his nasty partner, whose name I cannot recall, pronounce, or google, because it simply contains too many consonants. They distribute chocolate and spankings, based on the behaviour of the children, of course. And in days of yore, i.e., up until a few years ago, German children wrote Wunschzettel, or wish lists, for their top gift requests. They would place these lists under a stone on the outside window sill, and the Christkind, i.e., Jesus, would fetch the lists and prepare the gifts. Jesus has long, curly blonde hair and fuzzy little wings here.

In anticipation of the rapidly-approaching Christmas season, I decided to embark on a baking frenzy! I've stocked up on butter, milk, flour, and sugar - what more could a girl want? Since my German class has been put on hold until January 10th due to lack of students, I anticipate having far too much time alone with my kitchen and joy of cooking. Yesterday I headed out to Tengelmann to purchase the necessary ingredients, particularly for gingersnaps. I've been craving them all week. I googled the German word for "molasses" - Melasse, seemed straight-forward enough - and headed out into the cold gray world. I acquired all my ingredients and spent several minutes in each aisle hunting down the molasses. Perhaps they're refrigerated here, or maybe they're with the syrups. Or they could be stored with the baking supplies! Finally, frustrated and ready for some baking, I waylaid an employee and made my request. I was met with a blank stare. "Dicker, brauner Sirup zum Backen?" I tried again tentatively, and she impatiently hustled me over to a syrup section I'd overlooked, containing Glucose syrup and fruit syrup. Lovely. No molasses to be found.

I headed home somewhat disheartened, clutching my dried ginger and pounds of butter. By that time we were almost ready to leave for Tollwood, a big winter festival in Munich, so I didn't have much baking time anyway. This morning I rallied the troops and made some delicious Cheese-chipotle scones. However, I can't help but miss my molasses, North American brown sugar (in Germany it's very granular and chunky), vanilla extract, and my Imperial measuring cups. I even need to translate my joy of cooking! Oh my. But I know I'd feel quite bored without these daily challenges. What did I do at home? What consumed all of this energy? Probably more regular exercise, something I've completely done away with here. Maybe school. Maybe skype. Quite possibly stress.