"Goin' to the Cathedral, and we're...gonna get candied apples"

This weekend was quite full and very enjoyable!

I'll begin at the beginning (as that is a very good place to start!)

Thursday night was the premier of another show produced by Stage Entertainment (the company which owns Sidonie's school.)  This show was an ice show called Holiday On Ice.  Sidonie got two tickets, so I was supposed to be able to go with her, but I ended up being called in to teach a class.  If I had turned the class down in order to go the the ice show, I would have been turning it down for good (ten weeks of work,) so we decided that I would teach instead of going to the show!

As it turns out, while Sidonie had a good time, she said that I should not be upset that I missed it.  The Show was replete with less than humorous clowns, men dressed as fairies and women dressed as trolls, various, and at times clashing, costumes on the ice together (as one group finished, the other would come on to being their number,) and several un-rehearsed tumbles!  On the bright side, Sidonie said the set was amazing: a huge Saturn shaped sphere with the rings being ice on which the performers skated.  The sphere also opened to reveal stairways up to the upper levels.  There was a woman who skated on stilts while carrying fire, and some amazing lifts and turns!  On the whole, we're both glad we chose our respective activities for Thursday evening.

On Friday evening, we went to a birthday celebration for Afsaneh.  (Remember the Iranian friend who housed us for our first month here?)  Afsaneh turned 50, and she had a huge hoedown!  There was a buffet with various different cultural specialities, a beautiful array of delicious fruit, drinks of all sorts, Persian music and, of course, dancing!  We didn't get to stay for too long because it started late and Sidonie had school the next morning, but we had a great time, and Afsaneh was so happy to have us there!

Saturday, while Sidonie was in class, I went to check out a street where there were supposed to be many different costume manufacturers where I might find part time employment as a stitcher.  I did not find any of those shops, but I did find a HUGE market filled with second hand vendors!  It was like a garage saler's paradise!  While shopping is not really a luxury we are able to afford right now, I had a look around in case there were any of the things that I had to pick up at the Toom Markt later (Toom Markt is our closest thing to Wal-Mart, and has both groceries and household items.)  I found one thing: a beard trimmer (mine died after we got here, and apparently the charger broke on the flight over because it won't recharge!  I've been trimming my goatee with my razor which feels much more like pulling the hair out than cutting it!)  The trimmer had enough charge to come on when I flipped the switch, so I knew it worked.  I asked (in German, of course) how much much it cost.  The owner said 4 Euro, I said how about 2 since it wasn't in mint condition, it needed to be cleaned, and he said he would take 3.  I said it was a deal.  After buying it, I realized that I'd had my first experience bargaining in German!  I feel like I'm a real Hamburger now!  (Hamburger is the term for a resident of Hamburg.)  Woohoo!

After I got home, Sidonie called and asked if I wanted to go together with some of her colleagues to The Dom that night.  Now, Dom is the word for Cathedral (hence my mildly funny, albeit extremely valiant effort at a humorous title for this post.)  We, however, were not planning a Saturday evening trip to Mass, but a trip to the carnival.  The Dom is a huge permanent carnival, or fair, if you will, which is set up on the site of an old cathedral.  The originators of the fair kept the old name for the location, so the fair has come to be known as The Dom.  (There's your bit of Hamburg history for this post!)

We found that The Dom has free admission, and you just pay for the rides/games/food inside!  It was such fun!  We didn't buy anything, but we had a BLAST walking around and taking in all the sights and smells!

The Dom crew: (l-r) Nina's Mom (visiting Nina for a week from southern Germany - very sweet, and only speaks German,) Nina (German,) Sidonie, Morton (Danish,) Marco (German,) Maxine (Swiss)

Never fear, I took lots more pictures to show you! - see below

On Sunday, after church, we went with René and Betty to see some friends from church who were not well.  We were able to talk and pray with them for about an hour.  

When we got home, we made some food (curried green peas with rice) to take over to René and Betty's flat for dinner.  Betty had made some boiled sweet potatoes with coconut cream dressing,  stir-fried cabbage with carrots and onions, some fried plantains, and some fish (for the meat lovers!)  We had quite a feast, and a wonderfully relaxing time of candlelit conversation.  We all agreed that we should do that more often!

Our friends, Betty and René Siegler

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Betty is a hair dresser, so before we left, she and Sidonie scheduled a date for this evening to perm and cut Sidonie's hair - poor thing, it's been two and a half months, far too long, since her last visit to the hair dresser.  She's very excited!  We'll post pictures of her new hair next time!  René and I also scheduled time to get together.  They are moving into a bigger flat about five minutes away, and before moving in, they need to do quite a lot of painting.  I offered to help, as I have quite a bit of painting experience (although I don't think they'll need help painting their ceilings like some of our American friends did! :)  I'm glad I'll be able to help paint especially as we've not really been able to give much in way of a thank you for all the Sieglers have given and done for us since we moved here!  It's great I'll be able to help with what they need a bit too!  Now to find painting clothes - I hope they made it here! :)

So, for the rest of the pictures...

As I was taking this, Nina said: Please, we are not tourists!  I told her that it was fine for her to rib me about taking all these pictures, but not to expect to get copies of any of them! ;)

Sidonie's pimp hat!

The other merchandise at the "pimp hat" store!  I thought it was ghetto enough to merit a picture!

A view down one of the aisles - yes the smoke is cigarrette smoke, although we could also see our breath on the air that night as well!

Yay for Bumber Cars - as it turns out, this was only the first of about 5 such attractions!

This ride is loads of fun - Sid and I rode one like it at Busch Gardens in VA!

The Balloon Man!

I thought these little puppet dolls were very cute!

We took a potty break - yes, they are called toilets, and yes, they cost 50 Euro cents per person!

The Ferris Wheel!

Apparently, this is what you do with losing tickets...?

This was a talking tree at the Haunted House - pretty darn funny!

The Roller Coaster - can you find the cars?

The House of Illusion...

Taking a break from the cold for some hot wassail-like drinks.

Morton explaining that the drink doesn't taste good, but you just drink it because that's what Germans drink when it's cold out!

Our Dane finally found some food from home!

The Candy Man (one of MANY) makes candied nuts - they smelled SO GOOD when they were cooking!

There was a HUGE variety of candied nuts available.

Candy straws of every color and flavor abounded as well.

And the desserts kept going...

...and going...

...and going...

...and going...

There was, of course, good old German Wurst as well!  This particular establishment was apparently the royal home of Wurst!

Marco is VERY excited about his Wurst!

And of course, when you're done, the Wurstbasket!

And last but not least, the Candied Apples you've all been waiting for!

In a final bit of news, I have to tell you two very funny things we've learned here.  The first is a joke René and Betty told us yesterday.  I'll spare you the time translating, and just tell you in English.  A Grandma and Grandpa were keeping their little grandson for the night.  He got to their house and was very excited about all the fun they were going to have together.  After a lovely evening, Grandma said it was bed time.  She told her grandson to head into his room and get ready for bed, and she would be in to tuck him in momentarily.  When she arrived in the grandson's room, she was surprised to find that he had no clothes on.  She said: Why are you naked?  I told you to get dressed for bed.  He replied: I'm wearing my favorite clothes to bed tonight.  She acquiesced and let him go to bed in his birthday suit.  After Grandma herself had gone to bed, Grandpa came in from turning all the lights off and locking up, and climbed into bed next to her.  Surprised at what he saw, he said: Why are you naked?  She replied that she was wearing her favorite clothes to bed that evening.  Grandpa replied that if that was her favorite suit, she'd better take the time to iron it!

The second thing is not a joke at all, but a funny German phrase that Sidonie and I learned recently.  When asking one of her colleagues if there was a German equivalent to the American phrase "That kicked my butt!," her colleague quizzically replied that, no, he knew of no such phrase in German, but there was one about a butt.  Sidonie hesitantly asked what it was, and he said: "My backside is eating my pants!"  This, of course, is what one would say if one's pants had inched up into the familiar and uncomfortable wedgie position! 

So, there are your two doses of German humor for the week!  Have a great one, and I'll post again soon!