*Guten Rutsch!*

In Germany, people don't say "Happy New Year," they literally say, "Good slide into the new year."

Cool.

*Christmas in Germany*

This week, I have all sorts of posts about Christmas in Germany over here at my other blog. But let me just say that for most Germans, it's not a religious holiday in the least. Frohe Weihnachten!

Also, enjoy this Denglisch poem:

Denglisches Weihnachtsgedicht

When the snow falls wunderbar

And the children happy are,
When the Glatteis on the street,
And we all a Glühwein need,
Then you know, es ist soweit:
She is here, the Weihnachtszeit

Every Parkhaus ist besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
All to Kaufhof, Mediamarkt,
Kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
Shopping hirnverbrannte things
And the Christmasglocke rings.

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits…

Mother in the kitchen bakes
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks
Daddy in the Nebenraum
Schmücks a Riesen-Weihnachtsbaum
He is hanging auf the balls,
Then he from the Leiter falls…

Finally the Kinderlein
To the Zimmer kommen rein
And es sings the family
Schauerlich: “Oh, Chistmastree!”
And the jeder in the house
Is packing die Geschenke aus.

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits…

Mama finds unter the Tanne
Eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne,
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
Everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
All around is Harmonie,
Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachtsgans

And so comes die Feuerwehr
With Tatü, tata daher,
And they bring a long, long Schlauch
And a long, long Leiter auch.
And they schrei - “Wasser marsch!”,
Christmas is - now im - Eimer…

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits…

*Sports Clothes*

When Germans participate in sports, they bring their sports clothes with them, or at least their sports shoes in a bag, instead of wearing them on the way. To me, that's kind of inconvenient, so I get weird looks on my way to and from football, especially when I'm splashed with mud and my shoes are leaving behind caked dirt.

I entered my old post on scarves in Scribbit's December Write-Away Contest.

*Very Casual Dress Pants*

In Germany, dress pants go with running shoes.

*Knock on Wood*

Knocking has different roles in Germany.

-When a professor is done teaching, all the students knock on the desks as appreciation. Yup, that was a huge surprise to me.
-All office doors are closed, even during office hours (seems ridiculous to me), so you have to knock and wait for them to say "come in." (Of course, this is especially complicated if you aren't sure what they've said.) After entering, you close the door behind you. I will never ever get used to the whole office hours thing. They're not there for you, you're there for them, so it doesn't matter what you have on your schedule, if you want them to help you, you'd better show up for the couple of hours they have scheduled. (And yes, this even applies when you're calling from a foreign country. They told me to call back during office hours which were during the middle of my night.)
-Sometimes people will come in to a gathering and instead of greeting everyone individually, will knock on the nearest table or doorjamb and wave at everyone.