Early Christmas Present

I got an early Christmas present today from, of all places, the German bureaucracy. Seems that they had (quite efficiently, as one grows to expect) figured out that am I no longer working, and invited me in to "chat." A good friend here in Potsdam (whose help was hugely valuable) and I met today with the "Foreigner's Office" official. Although she began with the fairly standard facial expression of a bureaucrat confronting anything slightly out of the ordinary, our combined apparent trustworthiness and sincerity won out, and I am free to hang out doing nothing for at least another six months, at which time she'd like to chat again. Works for me, and it's a great feeling to know that I am still legally blessed. (Although, I have to admit that I was kind of hoping for some sort of stamp. No visit to a German official is complete without at least one seal or stamp hitting paper. Oh well.)

So, back to enjoying Weinacht in Germany. I have to say, Deutschland really does Christmas wonderfully. The picture above is from Dresden, but Christmas Markts, decidedly tasteful decorations, and fun traditions abound everywhere. For example: the aforementioned friend hosted a feuerzangenbowle party last weekend. I will try to explain more when I post a few pictures, but basically a feuerzangenbowle (which translates into English, according to another friend who would know, as "Fire Tongs Bowl") is red wine with fruit, into which one adds 108 proof rum (in increasing quantities as the night progresses, it seems) by soaking a large sugar cone which rests horizontally above the wine pot on a special metal holder, and then lighting the sugar so that the rum and sugar melt down into the wine. Yes, it's as cool and potentially dangerous as it sounds.

Unfortunately, my official stampless stamp of reapproval comes a bit too late to realistically make plans to head to the States for Christmas, so I will float around here a bit. Quite happily. If I go to Barcelona, for example, it will officially be a potential tradition.

Just in case I don't get around to it in the next seven days, Merry Christmas to those to whom it applies. I will do a longer note for New Year's Day, my preferred holiday anyway.

Cheers, all.