12/12

Today we went to the Stuttgart Christmas market.

Because I couldn't find the plastic ziplock bags to put over my feet to keep them from turning into solid blocks of ice, I was, of course, late to make it outside.

Because of this, the last available seat on the bus was with Matt Tingly. I found this ironic, because the last time we took a bus trip, I sat next to him and really enjoyed talking to him, but I question whether he shared the sentiment =P

Still though, we had yet another series of fantastically engaging conversation topics. Tingly is just one of those people that, when you look at him, you know he's gonna have some interesting things to say. And he does. It wasn't a boring 2 hour bus ride to Stuttgart.

When we got there, I started off with Mary and Elizabeth Berkening, the girls from Washington. After 30 minutes or so, we found Steph, Jess and Autumn, and everybody went to get Starbucks. I sorta have an internal argument of logic buying coffee I'll be able to buy every day of my life after Germany, while I'm in Germany.. But I didn't make any arguments, and Starbucks is always enjoyable.

Since Mary and Elizabeth needed to find some presents for family, I went with Autumn, Jess, and Steph. By this time, we were hungry and bought some sausage sandwiches and fries. Then Jess found some of her friends and Steph, Autumn and I headed off for an adventure =)

As you walk through the market, there are wooden stands lining both sides of the street. On the rooves, they're all decorated with pine branches, Christmas trees, and little figurines, some of them mechanical.

I bought some candied almonds for myself and Autumn and Steph got these long gummy stick candy things, It was really cold outside. Our toes were all numb pretty quick, which was nice, but then we found a stand that sold puzzles (like wooden 3 dimentional puzzles, and that sort of thing) and Steph got talking to the guy working there about solving rubik's cubes and he challenged her to solve it. So there Autumn and I were for like 45 minutes doing our little holy goodness our toes are going to fall off it's so cold dances. During the course of that, by the way, I solved one of those puzzles out of boredom. I feel sort of awesome for doing that, not gonna lie, but that's mainly cause in my mind, I like to think it was the hardest puzzle at the booth. In reality, it's possible that it wasn't I guess...

After we were finished watching Steph almost solve the puzzle, we went to go find somewhere to defrost. First, we found a shoe store, but the ladies were suspicious cause we accidentally sat down in the men's section. So we had to be all sly about it and one of us was always up and looking at shoes. I always forget that pretty much everybody there speaks English and can understand me. So when I was looking for shoes and I joked about a pair of boots with little fuzzy balls hanging off of them, I wasn't expecting a grimace from the extremely somber-looking store owner.

We went into the mall across the street afterwards -it was really pretty and had interesting architecture- and Autumn and I went to the bathroom and I swear there must've been eighteen babies being held in the waiting area of that bathroom.

Then we found a little indoor farmer's market. There was a booth right inside with handmade Turkish Delights. I know they're Turkish delights because that's what the witch in the Chronicles of Narnia said they were called when she fed them to the scary-looking kid. Yes I remembered that and wanted to try it since the very first time I saw that movie. And I finally got to :D

So there we were three American girls sitting in front of a fountain eating Turkish delights. Lots of old German couples smiled at us like they thought we were cute. Maybe Stuttgart Germans are friendlier than the ones from Frieds? =P

As we were sitting there, we watched some people talk at a flower shop next to us. The sign had the print of a fern on it. All of a sudden, Steph looks over and says, "Hey that's creative! They used a mascara brush as the insignia on their sign!" When I told her it was a fern, Autumn asked what a fern was. This is a beautiful portrayal of our friendship.

After we ate our Turkish delights, we finished walking through the indoor farmer's market. We passed several meat stands, each of which had one gracefully positioned pig's leg in front of it. As we passed one and were analyzing it, the guy inside said in a heavy accent, "You like our giraffe leg?" We thought he was serious.

Also, I'm developing a strong interest in tropical fruits I've never heard of. I'm not sure why..

We went back outside to the Christmas market and I passed a stand with pretty wooden cupholders and hot pads and stuff and it reminded me of Aunt Donna and Uncle Ron, but was too expensive to buy as a present. Unfortunately, my hands were too afraid of the cold to take a picture of it.

Then I bought some gluwein. It's like spiced hot wine. It's the only drink we're allowed to have during school cause it's a classic German drink. Autumn doesn't like the taste and Steph has agreed not to drink til age 21, so I drank it while they enjoyed some hot apple cider.

I want to bring home some German things to try for my family for Christmas, so I bought some more of the candied almonds that were all over the place at the market and I found a good looking plate of cookies to bring home.

I sat by Tingly again on the way home and the bus driver played the most awful music. It was one of those rides where I got just completely lost in my thoughts and it left me quiet and contemplative. The bus was too hot and we were tired and wet and cold and it just wasn't a whole lot of fun getting back to school, but we made it!

When we got back, my roommates and I worked on packing up the room in preparation for leaving so soon. I'm excited and hopeful as I prepare to go home.


Revelation 21:5
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”