Die Feuerzangenbowle

Tonight the Weihnachtsmarkt started up in Tübingen.  Addy, Almir and I headed down around 6 and started off near Nonnenhaus with a waffle hot off the griddle with powdered sugar sprinkled on it.  So good, and so worth the 50 cents it cost.  Incredibly cheap.  I’ll be eating lots more of those!

We didn’t get to see much of the market itself because we headed right for the Platz vor dem Haagtor to watch the lighting of the Feuerzangenbowle.  Feuerzangenbowle is a warm drink similar to Glühwein.  It’s made with red wine, oranges, spices, rum, and sugar.  The wine is heated in a huge vat with the oranges and spices and the sugar, which is in blocks, is placed in a wire holder above the vat.  It’s then doused in rum and lit on fire, so that it melts into a syrup that mixes with the wine and rum.  I only sipped a little bit of it from Stephanie’s mug because I had already bought a mug of Glühwein to warm up while we waited for the ceremonial lighting.

After the lighting an old film called Die Feuerzangenbowle was shown in the Platz and everyone stayed to watch it.  It’s sort of the German equivalent to It’s a Wonderful Life.  Old black-and-white movie that was made before WWI.  I really liked it, but the others wanted to leave before it was over so we didn’t stay and watch the whole thing.

After that we wandered into the Altstadt to find a bar to have a drink in, wound up running into a ton of other people we knew.  All the bars we popped into were full so we decided to head over to Niko’s WG and just hang out there for a bit.  Now I’m here and getting ready to go to bed.  I need to be up early tomorrow.

Watching that movie tonight was the weirdest feeling.  Just being here in the Christmas market itself was a weird feeling.  I’ve realized that there is a certain amount of temporary citizenship contained in experiencing the holidays and change of the seasons that I’ve had here.  I’ve watched summer fade into fall and fall begin to give way to winter.  I’ve witnessed the Tag der deutschen Einheit (day of German unity), done Thanksiving, Nikolaustag, and now I’m doing Christmas.  What I mean is that there is nothing that makes you feel more at home in a place than to go through all the seasons and celebrate holidays as if they are the same ones you’ve celebrated all your life.

I was watching that movie and thinking about the beauty of this country, about the richness of its culture, about the incredible adventure that it offers to me, and I was just overcome with that familiar feeling of not wanting to ever leave.  It’s such an odd way to feel about a country that isn’t my own.  I feel like a citizen of this country, and yet at the same time I don’t.  I love that feeling because I’m so eager to embrace Germany in every way that I can, to fully immerse in it, to become a temporary German, but at the same time I hate feeling that way because it makes me feel like a traitor to my country.  I don’t ever forget where I’m from and who I am – I will always be an American and wouldn’t have it any other way – but from time to time my nationality becomes hazy.  I am beginning to think that by the end of this year, I will be seriously considering moving back here after graduation. 

The Weihnachtsmarkt was beautiful.  We’re going back again tomorrow night and Sunday night as well.  Since it only runs 3 days, we have to soak it up!

Pics:

Here's the Feuerzangenbowle, getting ready to be lit on fire!  See the stack of sugar that looks like a cone?

The screen

Addy and I

This picture frightens me.  I swear we don't do that on purpose.

The movie!

The section of the market near the Stiftskirche was still up....

We ran into Annette at the market too!  Her hat rocks my socks off.