Holidays in Germany! Trips to corners of the House of Habsburg!
The temperature is below freezing, the air quality is moderate to poor, and the sun sets before 4 pm. But the Christmas bells are kling-a-linging, the children are sing-a-linging, and it IS the most wonderful time of the year. Just two weeks before my annual existential crisis about the coming of a yet another year, I am happy to bring you another blog update about my time abroad. In this post, I'll be sharing some key differences between holiday celebrations in Germany versus in the U.S., as well as about some exciting times in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Barcelona, Spain. Thanksgiving I learned in school at some point that Thanksgiving was called "Erntedankfest" in German, but I didn't hear that word once because Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Germany. It's just not where the Mayflower landed. Still, I had not one but two Thanksgiving celebrations, or rather "Friendsgivings." The first one was with three other Americans and the cuisine was chicken, ...