1. Advent

Happy First Advent everyone!

As the holidays approach everyone here is getting stressed. There are lots of tests to be taken before the Holidays, all the teachers are being evaluated on Dec. 1 and 2 by strangers from a board of eduaction or something like that, for 15 minutes a piece. Because the evaluators only have about 4 hours of time, or something. You can imagine how thrilled the teachers are about that. Then there is also stress because one of the schools in Storkow has to be shut down, there isn't enough money for all three. And it will be one of the elementary schools, and everyone wants to protect their elementary school, which makes sense, because they are all really lovely. So the teachers' lounge is always full about the latest crazy thing that was said at a meeting to discuss all this. It is also really cold in the school buildings, because there is not enough money to heat them at the level we normally would.

Our first chorus performance is on Friday, and there are a lot of words I still need to memorize. Some because we havn't really practiced the songs everybody knows, like all the verses of silent night, because well everyone knows them already! Except for me. And I can't read them since they are hand written and not very well copied, since no one else really needs them written down. Also, apparently, Silent Night is ok to sing because it is not really a church song anymore, but O Come All Ye Faithful is too churchy. A guy has it as a solo, and another lady in the choir only wants it sung in a church, and no where else. because it is too churchy. OK. And one of my students thought that Martin Luther King was British. Right.

Still, it is neat seeing everything get ready for Christmas. The big fir tree close to the market is all lit up, (just like it was when it was East Germany, too, I was told) and just about every room at school has a little table top display, something with candles and pine branches and bells. Yes, the land where every room in a public school gets christmas decorations, and where Baby Jesus brings the christmas presents, can't handle singing O Come All Ye Faithful in a retirement home, because it has to do with church. OK. Friday is also the christmas pageant at the elementary school, and I am going. This weekend there will be a Christmas market in Storkow, and that is the official opening of it. Sunday we went to the Christmas market in Beeskow, where there was the kitchy market on the square, with a ferris wheel and loud music, and then the nicer one inside the church, with ceramic and hand woven hats and candles and soaps. Sunday we're singing in Frankfurt (Oder) at their Christmas market, which should be a little bigger.

That's all for now, I should scoot, but thanks for all the Thanksgiving reports, and I hope this finds you all well (and warm! Only don't bother telling me how warm it is in Atlanta, I don't want to think about it.)