Germany, Aufweirdersehn... almost

well, its been a great time here at the Marquardts'!! On Monday Anja met me at the Celle Haupbahnhof and we made it back for Mittagessen with the boys and Wolfgang. In the afternoon, which quickly turned to evening, Anja, Rolf and I made our way to check out the Celle Weinachts Markt... no porchases (aside from the mass amount of candy for a particular cousin) and some Eiswein for Christmas Eve... Elke knows what I'm talking about :-)
I feel a bit bad 'sleeping in' in the mornings - but waking up early with everyone only to have not much to do in the morning seems pointless, and sleep is always nice :-)
Tuesday morning I went to 3 classes at the Gymnasium (Middle/High School). I went to an advanced English class (9th graders), a 12th grade History-in-English class (taught by Wolfgang) on the Arab-Israeli conflict and to Georg's english class. I really had a great time, and all were very different, which made it really fun! The girls in Georg's class all screamed my name when I walked in the room... lol... and I think they really enjoyed seeing me again, as much as I did them! We'll see if I get some email coorespondance out of it within the next few days...
In the afternoon we all went to the Braunschweig Christmas Market, driving through the countryside between Celle and Braunschweig we passed the turn off for Volkse and Leiferde, and I prayed that by the slim chance that there was, that I wouldn't run in to any Kolos, and I seem to have made it out safely! I continued the hunt for Christmas Pyramids, and came out empty handed, but I found some other things along the way, which was great! oh, and had some Glühwein... SO good (Mom, you know what you are talking about), and it warmed me right up!! I was beginning to lose feeling in my toes despite the 4 layers covering them...
Today the boys got out of school early (which may be the #1 reason why they secretly love having me around) and we made our way to Bremen for another Christmas Market. We went to this great little restuarant underneath the town hall in the vaults, and Wolfgang took us to see these ridiculously narrow streets, which was really cool to see. EVERYTHING IS SO OLD HERE! but its great! houses built in the 1500s, cobblestones everywhere, mini doors and narrow streets... its great! but then theres the free flying Autobahn to connect it all :-)
The market in Bremen was nice, big... lots of food stalls and carnival rides. The boys won a soccer ball from some game they played, which was a fun treat for them.
Back to the Celle market in the morning to get some last minute things that I saw and was interested in before but didn't buy out of impulse, and then back to England in the evening! Not sure what I'm going to do about luggage space, and shipping... but I#ll figure it all out I guess!
All in all I've really had a great time here! Anja and Wolfgang have both been so great!! and the boys are fun and funny in their I-don't-understand-English-but-am-silly-and-still-a-kid sort of way (as i come to think of it, I dont think ive ever really been with kids for an extended period of time since i was one, and vacation in Hawaii doesnt count because then i only got to hangout of the fun stuff, not for the not so fun stuff)

so, that is Germany in a nutshell! I'm so glad I came back! Even though I have a paper due monday and wednesday and another to finish by friday! its been freezing here, though. and i think england will be a bit better (and by better i ONLY mean warmer, by no means is England actually better than Germany, I've decided). and LA will be heaven! 9 days!!!