HA-HO-HE HERTHA BSC!

Patricia, a friend from home, came and visited this past weekend on the second-to-last stop of her tour of Poland, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany (how jealous am I?!). We did lots of typical touristy things, and also enjoyed taking part in some Christmas traditions, like going to the Weihnachtsmarkt at Gendarmenmarkt, but by far the best thing we did was go to THE HERTHA BSC-FC BAYERN MUENCHEN GAME! It totally fell into our laps, and we were so lucky because the game was sold out, even though the stadium holds over 72,400 people. We went through the New Berlin walking tour, and so we had a “guide” (Patricia would have married him on the spot if possible and I assured her that most German guys really are this attractive), plus his friends and some Australian guys on the tour. I’d never been to the Jesse Owens Olympic Stadion (from the 1936 Olympics), so that was neat in itself, but being at the game was awesome! FC Bayern Muenchen is the best team in the league, so we (haha, how quickly I consider myself a Berliner—I even have my own Hertha scarf now) were supposed to get our butts kicked, but the score was just 0-0. I would have liked for there to be a goal, just so that I could see how the rowdies celebrate, but I had enough fun chanting “HA-HO-HE HERTHA BSC!” with all the other fans. I also enjoyed the men behind us—thanks to them, Patricia learned such words as “Nein!,” “Lauf! Lauf! Lauf!,” “Mann!,” and, the most used of all, “Scheisse!”

We started off the weekend with a trip to my favorite German-food restaurant


















We also waited in line for an hour at the Reichstag

And enjoyed the Hertha game!

I took more touristy photos than Patricia, despite living here for four months already!

And of course I had to take another food shot at Cafe November in Prenzlauer Berg. The food was amazing!

Patricia's loot at Aldi. Gotta love Haribo!

I went to see Der Nussknacker last night! I had been looking forward to this since I bought the tickets in November, and the music definitely did not disappoint. The choreography and story were a little different (the girl’s name was Marie, not Clara, and there were no mice, in addition to some funky changes here and there), but the second act made it so worth it. I love the scenes with all the different countries’ dances. And it reminded me a little of my yearly treks to the Boston Pops (and to the Nutcracker one year)—was great to keep the tradition going.

A guy from my freshman dorm was randomly in Berlin for two days, and because my schedule has been so packed, we met at 10:45 last night for a drink. It was nice to see a familiar face and speak English without worrying about the other person understanding all the nuances. And because of his job, he’ll probably be coming back again soon, can’t wait!

Oh yeah, I made a gingerbread house, from REAL gingerbread! That was a lot of fun, but my team did not win the competition. And we (by we I mean I) set our treats on fire and didn’t notice until the other tables started yelling. Oops. Let’s see, other Christmas-y things I have done. I went to the Berlin pro-life Christmas dinner last week, and it was nice to see that the pro-life movement is alive in Berlin! And not everyone is over 70. We met above a Catholic church in PBerg, and incidentally Patricia went to mass here on Sunday, and when I picked her up I was amazed at how packed the church was and how many children were running around. A major magazine here just published a cover article called something like “God is alive in Prenzlauer Berg,” and I could really see that the church there had a vibrant community. Anyway, I also went to the Poznan Boys Choir Christmas concert at the Berliner Dom last week. So good that I bought the CD. It’s amazing when boys have such high voices! I also went to the Humboldt Universitaet Christmas concert because two friends were in it. They were also really good—but it was funny to hear them sing an African-American spiritual. I’d leave it to Kuumba.

These past two weeks I’ve been teaching my students about Christmas in America, which has given me insight into how little many of them know about Christmas in general. Most are Muslim, and most don’t celebrate Christmas the way atheists and Jewish people in America, for example, would. Not even with a token Christmas tree or lights. Germans open presents on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Day, so I’ve been seeing lots of gift bags that say 24.12 on them. A teacher at my school was telling me you can hire “Father Christmas” to come to your house on Christmas Eve and deliver the presents to your kids. Her daughter never caught on that the first few years, Santa had her grandfather’s voice, then the next few years it was always a different person, and then recently he barely could speak German. They told her that the German Santa was sick, so the Finnish Santa stepped in and took his place. I think this tradition should be brought to the U.S.—it’s better than sitting on Santa’s lap, which children here do not do. What I’ve found really interesting is that Germans are really open about saying Merry Christmas. Even my professors at university have said it. Maybe they also did at Harvard, but if I remember correctly, they were much more conscious of not offending anyone and therefore said “Happy Holidays,” if anything at all. But yeah, despite the fact that most of my students do not celebrate Christmas, they and the teachers wish each other a merry Christmas.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I know I’ve forgotten a lot, but I’d like to take a little nap before it’s time to celebrate Christmas with my tandem partner, roommate, and our extended family in our house before we all head off to our respective homes for the holidays. Thursday night I should be back sleeping in my own bed! (Although after less than two cumulative months home since the beginning of college, I don’t know what “my own bed” means anymore . . . )

Oh yeah, how could I forget—I got into Harvard Law last week! And Georgetown. I definitely did not expect the Harvard acceptance, and certainly not this early in the game. I am seriously flabbergasted. My acceptance was almost four years to the day that I got my Harvard College acceptance. How funny. And how truly blessed I continue to be!

Old photo of me and my tandem partner.