Christmas in Stadtlohn

As you may know from my last post, I traveled to Germany to spend Christmas with my family.

My mother embellished the entire house with Christmas decoration. There are lamps and candles everywhere which provide a warm and romantic atmosphere. Moreover she placed little snowman-figures and stars everywhere.  The Christmas tree was already standing in the living-room when we arrived. It’s a blue spruce, a type of fir that barely loses any needles. Look at the picture! It’s so beautiful! Some people might find Christmas decoration very corny, but I like it a lot.

My mother also provided for so much good food. I’ve probably already gained a lot of weight, as everything she prepares is very delicious. Since my boyfriend and I are vegan, we had some worries beforehand, because my mother is not experienced in vegan cooking. But actually there was no reason for it. She managed to bake a perfect nut-cake without any animal products. No eggs, no milk, no cream – just a cruelty-free cake. We were so happy about it and it tasted delicious. We also went shopping with her and we bought some vegan products in a wholefood shop. These made cooking quite easy.  We helped preparing lunch every day. The rest of the family also tried some vegan food and – surprise surprise – they really liked it. For Christmas Eve we decided to do Woking. It’s a relatively unknown way to prepare food but it is similar to Raclette. Everybody gets a small wok-pan and puts in whatever food he or she likes. We bought a lot of Asian vegetables, sauces and spices beforehand and the whole family helped chopping it before the big gluttony began. It was so luscious! I wish I could do this every day. It might seem like an unconventional Christmas dinner but my family is very open to different cultures and therefore we were all very satisfied.

The gift giving was of course also very nice. I received some really useful photography equipment and my mother also knitted a scarf and a beanie for me that fit my hair colour. It must have been so much work! My boyfriend gave me Lord of the Dance tickets as gift! OMG I am looking forward to it already, even though it’s in December next year. We all were happy with our gifts.

It is so pleasant to spend some time with my family. Unfortunately it’s quite difficult to visit them as Stadtlohn is more than thousand kilometres away from Graz. Until now we just relaxed and enjoyed every day. We watch movies take walks, and play parlour games, having a lot of fun together. Moreover I already had two photo shoots with my sister Sandra. She did an awesome job each time. The first one was a fairytale-shooting. Unfortunately it was quite cold outside, but we managed to keep her warm with tea, scarfs and a hot-water bottle.

The second shooting was a re-creation of a fashion-photo by F.C. Gundlach. We did it at a huge lake called “Zwirlbrocker Venn” – a beautiful location.

Both shootings were projects for the photography school I visit.

All in all, spending time with my family is the best thing about Christmas. We just see each other once or twice a year, but when we do, we make it worthwhile and we spend the whole time together.

What a Train Journey Reveals about People from Various Regions

I travel to Germany each year around Christmas time to visit my parents in Stadtlohn and I usually go by train. I have often recognized that depending on the region I drive through, the accent and the way people talk to each other changes a lot. As Christmas is coming, today I am travelling to Germany again and this time I will observe this phenomenon for you. Beware! You may find stereotypes and irony in this post. ;)

The voyage starts at 5:45. *Yaaawn*. I hate getting up so early. There are not many people in the train. Only one woman sits nearby, well, actually she is lying nice and cosy – like a real Austrian – with legs on the seats. Her quiet snoring fills the compartment while far away I can hear some Grazers talking in familiar accent. Hmm… I feel at home here, which is strange, as I am still a German citizen. I don’t mind. I will try to get some sleep while I am in this train.

I woke up in Schladming. Guess why! Yeeah right, because our compartment was invaded by drunken skiers. Some hours ago I thought that I was good at understanding Austrian accents but now that I sit here, half-asleep, listening to those guys talking, I think I should take a language course. I try to get some sleep again but it’s in vain. Therefore I decide to listen to their stories about good and bad snow and exciting après-ski parties. At least I think they talked about that.

Unfortunately the skiers left the train after one hour and I directly fell asleep. Now I’m awake again. I don’t know why and I don’t know where we are. Hmm… Are we in Bavaria already? Probably not. Outside everything looks just like it did before and in the train everything sounds like it did before.  I look at my phone and I realize that I was wrong. ‘Welcome to the EU…’ Ok. I guess there is no big difference between Bayern and Austria. I look at my watch. We are arriving in Munich in 20 minutes. I’d better wake my boyfriend and collect our luggage. As I will do a photo shoot with my sister, I have all my equipment with me. So there’s a lot to carry.

The cosy atmosphere of the first train is past. We’re sitting in the ICE to Essen and we’re surrounded by snobbish people in suits. Most of them are probably bankers on the way to Frankfurt, where they earn their money by stealing it from honest, hardworking people. But there are also managers in our compartment. Most of them seem to be obsessed with their job, because they’re talking about it so loudly (of course in perfect High German), that everybody has to listen, whether they want or not. The man behind us, for example, explains how he forecasts the future of a company with the help of brainstorming and mindmaps. He learned this technique in an advanced training. Now I know why Germany goes down the drain.

We have arrived in Frankfurt and now all those managers and bankers are gone. I should become a forecasting manager too! I didn’t even need a mindmap for this prophecy. There are only some backpackers and families left in the compartment. It’s so quiet! Even though it’s raining (not snowing…), Christmas spirit takes a hold of me now. In a few hours I will be home again.

We changed trains in Essen and I am really getting excited now. This little local train is the last one of our journey.  Only one hour until I meet my parents at a little station in a town called Borken. The wagon is stuffed full of people. Considering their Low German accent, the’re all farmers. They are probably on their way home after a shopping-trip in the huuuuuge shopping-city Essen. There is no way to buy a Christmas present when you live in a town north of the Ruhr area. I used to go shopping in Essen too, when I was younger.

A funny farmer talking Low German

I'm finally home! It’s good to see that nothing has changed here and I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with my family. But anyway I already miss my cats so much. A pity that we couldn’t take them with us. After all it is quite difficult to define the term home for me. Is it in Graz? Or is it in Stadtlohn? I’d say it’s in Graz AND in Stadtlohn. I will probably write one more post about my holiday here so stay tuned!

About Tattoos and the Use of English as a Global Language

Last week on Sunday I got my first tattoo by an artist from Malta called ‘Gallo’. He visited the ‘Wildstyle & Tattoo Convention’ in Graz and I was lucky enough to get an appointment with him. He is a very talented and experienced artist who masters a huge variety of styles including watercolor and realistic style, which I really like. When I described my imagination concerning the tattoo, he directly understood what I wanted, thanks to the English language, and he implemented it in a perfect sketch.  Anyways, when I arrived at the convention, I was very nervous because of the pain that I was expecting. After exchanging a few words about the placement of the tattoo, Gallo applied the sketch on my thigh and then started to make it permanent. Fortunately the pain was really not too bad and I had a very interesting conversation with Gallo during the whole session. He talked about his career as a tattoo artist and his life in Malta and I told him about my courses at university and my love for body modifications. I was really happy that we understood each other so well and we were even able to adjust some details of the tattoo during the process. Once again I realized, how important the English language is, because if I wasn’t able to speak it properly, I wouldn’t have this beautiful tattoo by now

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I also really enjoy watching videos about tattoos on Youtube. Naomi King, for instance, is an awesome tattoo artist from Australia and she also does videos on that topic. She often talks about the meanings of her artworks or she even shows how she tattoos herself, which I find really interesting. She is so talented! Look at this:

But she is not the only one. There are many men and women on Youtube, uploading great videos about Tattoos frequently, and many of them speak English in their videos. I have no problems understanding them, which is really pleasant. I remember times, when I was young and started to learn English in school. I began to listen to songs on the radio and I got very frustrated, as I misunderstood the lyrics and they didn’t make any sense to me at all. Fortunately that time is over. English is a global language and today it is very important to have good language skills – both for commercial and for private use.