The holiday season here was lovely, and despite being Christmas, it was actually fairly different from what I'm used to at home. I had been warned that this time of year is usually one of the hardest for exchange students to deal with, but to my surprise, I didn't feel homesick. I think I got my homesickness largely out of the way at the beginning, when I was bombarded with German and Swiss German and new people and new places and there was a lot of ohgodohgodohgod what have I done running through my head. And that's just how it works - but once I started to get the hang of things, it got a lot better, and things are only getting easier the more I understand the language.
Starting in November and going until Christmas, there were these "Weihnachtsmärkte," Christmas markets set up in many many different places. I think I visited four - one in Basel, one in the Zürich train station, one in the Luzern train station, and one in Einsiedeln. They are all lined with little wooden stands that look like houses, and they sell everything from gingerbread to hand-knit hats and mittens to ornaments to completely non-Christmas-related things. They're a lot of fun.
At the Basel market
On December 5th, the evening before St. Nicholas Day, we went to Küssnacht am Rigi, where a parade called Klausjagen was taking place. Waaay back in the day, it started out as a somewhat chaotic, violent means of chasing out evil spirits. It evolved into a tradition to honor St. Nicholas, and today it is a parade attended by about 20,000 people from all over. There is a set procession of events -
1. Men cracking really, really long whips (my host mom told me to stand back...when they started swinging the whips around, slowly, they actually caught a few people's feet who were still walking to their places along the street)
2. Infuln - beautiful, intricate, very, very old handmade hat type things shaped like bishop hats and made to look like stained glass windows. They have candles on the inside, and some are as big as about seven feet tall. The people carry them on their heads like so:
3. Samichlaus - Santa, flanked by his less friendly Schmutzlis, his helpers who supposedly handle the naughty children.
4. Brass band, playing a traditional song. It was really short and minor and when repeated over and over, it sounded really ominous...I just have one picture of the band, and it's really blurry, so...sorry about that.
5. THE BELL PROCESSION. I don't know how many people were a part of it, but there were a lot. They had enormous bells similar to cowbells wrapped around their waists, and with each step they took the bell would ring and it was kind of this almost overwhelming, rhythmic pounding thing that I can't really explain. It was really cool.
6. After the bells come the horn blowers, and then the parade is finished. They go through a second time, but we didn't stay.
The 24th is the main celebratory day, rather than the 25th. We had ham for dinner, and afterwards, their tradition is to sing Christmas songs. I played piano, Seraina played flute, and Valeria played violin, and we all sang songs. Afterwards, Seraina was designated the "Christchindli," and gave out our presents from under the tree. My host mom had said I could pick which church service I wanted to go to - the 5:00 one, before dinner, or the 11:00 one where Valeria would be singing in the choir. I went to the later one with Seraina, and the acoustics in their church were, as I expected, awesome. :) I love singing in such echoey spaces. But anyway.
Our tree
Tomorrow it will be 2014 already.
2013 has been an incredible year filled with some of the best days and also with some of the hardest days I've had so far. And just these past five months that I've been on exchange have been filled to the brim with new experiences, new faces, new languages, and a new culture.
I got the list of people from home who are getting to do a Rotary exchange next year - congratulations! I'm so excited for you, and you're going to have an incredible year in which you will not, at any point, be able to wrap your mind around what you are doing.
Oh my. So 2013.
The year started off with these shenanigans:
After awhile, I sent in my deposit for college (three guesses where):
We had snow for prom:
I sang with the NHS choirs for the last time.
And before I knew it, this was happening:
And with that I said goodbye to the people I've grown up with, not knowing if or when I would see most of them again, which was not the easiest thing in the world.
THEN.
Two days after my eighteenth birthday, I got on one of these:
with all the essential doodads:
...and I set off on this exchange that I've been wanting to do for years. And in the past five months, I have met so many new people, learned SO much German, (and Swiss German, which I now understand pretty well!) and tried so many unforgettable new things.
I've spent five months with a wonderful host family who I cannot thank enough, and who I will be leaving in less than two weeks. I'll be staying in the same school, but moving to a different village. Although I will miss my first family, I know that I have another wonderful family to look forward to!
Because it's December 31st and I can't not, among my resolutions for the rest of my exchange are:
*Learn as much German as I can
*Continue to push myself and try new things
*Be less hard on myself, because there is no way to do this perfectly, and no exact formula to do it right.It's hard to believe I'm approaching the second half of my exchange year, but I am! I can't wait to see what 2014 brings.
So. Bis zum nächsten Jahr, meine lieben Freunde!
Alles liebe,
Hannah
Your Christmas sounded lovely, Hannah. And what a great look back at the year! I, too, can't wait to see what 2014 brings for you.
ReplyDelete