Christmas Bells Are Ringing...

Well, as I sit here in my living room on a Saturday morning and the snow flurries waft about outside my balcony window, I am reminded of how blessed I am and how beautiful God's creation is. You know, no matter what difficulties we face or what hard times we have had this year or previous years, the fact still remains that the the true reason we celebrate this wonderful season is a free gift that was sent to us from Heaven, the baby Jesus. I am so thankful that we can celebrate His birth together! I love Christmas time!

Some random pics of our daily sights:

We are about 14 km outside downtown Hamburg, but still within the Großstadt (city at large.)

This is the bus stop where we wait - there is a digital sign that tells us how long the wait is for the next bus, although it is not always accurate!  Notice how many busses come to our stop - that means we don't typically have to wait too long!  Also, the black one at the bottom (619) is the night bus that comes between midnight and 6AM.

The sign telling us where the U3 train is headed (Barmbek) and some of the major stops along the way, as well as about how long we can expect to wait (7 mins - an unusually long wait.)

Our Halt (Stop) on the U3 train.  Notice the no smoking sign?  It's really just there for decoration and has no practical communicative purpose. :)

Here is the subway map of the city.  Notice the Red arrow?  That's Steinfurther Alle (our stop.)  the center of town is where all the train lines converge, and if you can see the light grey oval encircling a portion of the map, that's the line indicating the Hamburger Großstadt.

Here a timetable of the travel for each stop of the line.  It takes, for instance, 18 minutes on the U3 to get to Hauptbahnhof Süd (Central Station South.)

The interior of the train - I'm not sure how people manage to scratch things into the windows as there are security cameras, but there is nearly always something etched into the window pane next to your seat!

Enough of that for now...let's move on

Quite a lot has happened since I last posted, so I'll try to keep this as brief as possible (we all know that I can get a bit lengthy with these posts ;)  

First off, I have begun working on my first show here in Hamburg!  I'm not acting because it's a university production, but I am choreographing (both dance and fight) for the University Players' production of Into The Woods!  I'm very excited about the project, and I have my first rehearsal with the cast tomorrow afternoon!  The director's concept for the show is interesting, and I'm excited to incorporate it into the choreography!  Carol, the director, and also the curriculum coordinator at the school where I teach, has placed the show in a modern time with the woods being the city as represented by a cityscape backdrop and lamp posts around the set!  Should be lots of fun!   The show goes up in January, so we've got quite a bit of rehearsal time still.

In other news, Sunday was pastor appreciation day at church.  We had a guest minister - an African man who spoke "English" and was translated into German.  his accent was SO thick and his Grammar so...creative...that Sidonie and I often had to look at each other for a moment before we could decipher what he was trying to say - let's just say I was thankful not to be translating, into ANY language!  Lili was also interesting on Sunday; she is usually the sullen baby that always looks bored, but she was smiling and laughing up a storm on Sunday!  I got to hold her throughout worship and for most of the sermon (until she got hungry!)  During the worship, I felt her little chest vibrating, and looked down to see if she was crying for some reason, but no, she was singing along!  Every time I would sing, she would sing too - it was SO cute!  She sang so hard that she fell asleep - and suddenly became much heavier!  She woke up when the sound guy accidentally turned a mic up too loud, and then just looked around, reached over and patted Sidonie's arm, tried to pull my goatee hair, and chewed on her little pacifier beads until she decide that she wanted something more substantial to eat.

Sid took a picture of Pastor Appreciation Day.

I was otherwise occupied holding Lili! (She is so cute!)

On Monday night, Sid and I went to the Hamburger Weihnachtsmarkt (Hamburg Christmas Market!)  It was so much fun (and so cold!)  There are various Christmas markets all over town, and these markets are places for vendors of various types of goods (leather, soap, candy, fruit, wood, jewelry, baked goods, and even little Glühwein stands (mulled wine - the German equivalent of our Spiced Cider) to gather and market their products as christmas gifts!  It's quite a lot of fun to just go and walk around looking at all the pretty things (and trying the samples of fruit, of course - in case there might be something that you can't live without, and let me tell you, the dried figs were pretty darn good!)

Hamburg prepares to celebrate the birth of our Lord by lining the main shopping street in the city with sparklingly beautiful white lights!

The sign at the main entrance to the Weihnachtsmarkt.

The Weihnachtsmarkt sign at another one of the entrances.

The Weihnachtsmarkt with the Rathaus (town hall) in the background. (Notice the medium-sized tree?)

The skinny tree :)

The F A T tree - Something to please everyone!

The Nativity - our favorite part of the Weihnachtsmarkt! (My camera battery died just after taking this, so that's all the pictures you get - sorry!)

I also had my work Christmas party this past week.  It was quite fun, but I left before the entertainment program began because by the time we finished eating the three course meal, it was 11PM and I knew that it would take me an hour to get home (it actually took an hour 15!)  Sidonie had been sitting by herself all night as this party was just for employees of the school not their spouses :(  boo!  I'm sure we'll get to go to a Christmas party together, though!  (Never fear, we'll post pictures!)  Here are a few pics of the festivities that night:

The pretty table settings!

Danny - one of the Irish teachers from work - he saw that I was taking a picture and posed!

Carol and Fran (l-r, Irish and British) the office staff at work - Carol is the same Carol who is a theatre artist and is directing Into The Woods.  They decided that they would respond to the desserts (which had just arrived) as a motivation for the picture!

My bosses - the owners of English Language Institute - Birget and Ian (German and British respectively.)

Well, that's all for now!  Toodles :)

P.S. Let us know how things are going where you are (especially if we haven't heard from you yet!)  Hugs from Hamburg :D