Thursday, December 01, 2005

Christmas is coming...


Christmas is coming
The geese are getting fat
Please put a penny
In the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny
A ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny
God bless you...


Woo. Am feeling very christmassy and have been for a whole week now. It's amazing what a little snow can do! Yep, last thursday it snowed and snowed and snowed, leaving Fulda covered in a blanket of white. The snow has remained, none of this Britainesque turning to slush after a couple of hours nonsense. The staying power of the white stuff is perhaps a good indication of current Fulda temperatures. It is in fact so cold that I have been forced to buy two pairs of thick woolly tights and a second winter jumper/long cardy thing (yes, Gate & BB, a coolie :-) Tights under jeans, Doc Marten's, winter coat, hat, gloves and scarf are all essential items that must be remembered before leaving the flat. Failure to do so results in acute coldness and prompt numbness to fairly useful body parts, such as fingers, toes, nose, lips, face, etc. etc.

In case the snow wasn't enough to make me feel like I should be singing carols, eating chocolate daily (isn't December excellent?!) and starting to get excited about 'Lucy and Tom's Christmas', salmon on Christmas Eve, stockings, presents, the best meal of the year, family, friends, general festivities and the Queen's Speech (or rather the sigh on everyone's faces when I insist on watching it, he he), the Christmas Markets have opened for business. This means, whenever a spare moment is found, it is to the Weihnachtsmarkt that we head to drink some Glühwein (absolute necessity to fight arctic temperatures) and enjoy the unique atmosphere of a German Christmas Market. Many enjoyable experiences have already been had at a Weihnachtsmarkt. We had an inpromptu international Christmas carol moment last week, where we all sang carols in our languages - english, german, spanish, slovakian, chinese and laughed at each other's attempts to sing along. The faction of Fulda's population who happened to be frequenting the Weihnachtsmarkt at the same time as us crazy ICEUS people were most impressed...
Then, on Sunday we had a whole day dedicated to the great German Weihnachtsmarkt tradition. A day trip to Nuremberg organised by the international office. Unfortunately Glühwein and two parties the night before meant the 9am departure was rather sub-optimal. But as Nuremberg is located only 40mins away from Bamberg, it is a place I have visited many times before and I was extremely excited about returning to the city. We had a tour of the town and then traditional German grub (in the restaurant we went to Mama) and then we hit the Weihnachtsmarkt. Glühwein, Eierlikor, more sausage, roasted chestnuts and lots of German Christmas Market offerings that were clearly made in China. It was a very cool day spent in the very good company of Ragil, Bec, Seda, Chryssa and Heidi amongst others. The snow and adverse weather conditions meant the coach journey back took 3hrs instead of 1.5. When I got back to my apartment, I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone speak (as Mum will confirm). I would like to take this opportunity to thank whatever force made it so that 2 out of my 4 classes on Monday were cancelled :-) Perfect timing.

Anyway, I have got to wrap this blog up. Got less than an hour to eat tea and make myself look beautiful for the party tonight. No rest for the wicked...
Take care one and all xx

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm singing in the rain, I'm singing in the rain! What a glorious feeling, I am procrastinating again.....
It doesn't quite fit, but who cares.

The elephant is asleep or at the Halle 8 party so I should be able to get some work done.

Or he might be out scouting for some apple juice...watch out Lucy, I saw you buy some today.

Great blog, I will have to link it to mine because it is a better randition of what happened at Nürnberg.

Except you missed that bit with the overzealous DSH student abusing the ICEUS students because we were a smaller group and whated to stay together. And he didn't even talk to the group anyway...it was a waste of space in the really cool group, without the man with the inferiourity complex, continuesly holding his umbrella up so people would see him.

Anonymous said...

Ho hum here again, after a heck of a break, having forgotten the blog address. Recently reminded of Bloggers of the World by the fiery red head (her with the itchy feet)who has started hers up in not-so-chilly Chile.
It seems as if all sorts of exciting happenings have come to pass in Fulda since last checking in. Looking forward to the Christmas get-together Lu-o-saurus - back in the UK. Till then take care and keep warm...

Anonymous said...

Dear Lu, can we please have pictures of thermal, long cardie-things and other elegant, cold weather gear? Those of us still in dear, old Blighty need a stout pair of wellies more than anything else, at present!
Oh yes.... and snorkels and flippers!
Keep smiling -- nearly Christmas.
xxx

vy said...

wow, nürnberger weinachtsmarkt. could you please post some more photos? it's indeed a must see, isn't it? hmm. let's see if i can convince the others to go there this weekend. ^^

Lu said...

Hannah is in Chile? I thought she was in Dubai. Oops. Only a few thousand miles out... What's the address of her blog? Feel I've got some reading up to do!
As to photos of winter wardrobe, will see what I can do but in return I want to see photos of extreme wet weather gear :-)
Oh and thanks Ruth for photo of "the accused". Will post it up on the next blog...