EuroLife: Day 45

Today was the big day: the day that Michael and I joined a House Battle. Really it was a "house circle", or a small-group, but ever since my little mishap we've stuck with House Battle. We had a great time. It was at the pastor's house, which we had not known ahead of time, and it was a fairly small group, 8 of us total. There was lots of singing, a Bible study, prayer, and plenty of delicious snacks. (Germans are crazy about gummy candies. I really had no idea about this before we came here. I'm not such a big fan, but they put our measly gummy-bear offerings to shame. More on this in another post.) We had not really met any of the group members before, so it was a great opportunity to meet some new people. All in all, it was really very nice. So nice, in fact, that we stayed for three hours. And now I am very sleepy.

A funny thing happened to me, not on the way to the theater but in the middle of this gathering. I had been listening intently, doing my very best to understand what I could and fairing pretty well. Then my brain quit on me. It simply seized up, and announced that it would no longer be translating German for me, thank you very much. I found myself looking at everyone, happily chatting away, and thinking "Really? This isn't hard work for you? You just understand these noises? You think in this language?" I realize that it sounds ridiculous, but it's exactly how I felt. Michael says he felt something similar when he first came to Germany and heard small children speaking German. You work so hard to be able to get the basics down, and then here are these people for whom the whole process is effortless. It's a bit disorienting, but fascinating. In any event, my brain kicked in again after a while, but it was grumpy.

Today is the 18th anniversary of the tearing-down of the Berlin Wall. This came up in small group. It's really incredible to think that many of the people we know were living in East Germany before reunification. We recently met a man, about our age, who lived in an apartment in a church in those days. Nobody wanted the apartment because the phones were bugged, but his father felt that their family could be a good example of Christianity to those running the surveillance. After reunification, when the records were made public, they were able to read all that was written about them. (The father was right; the records were all positive.) To look at this man and his wife, you would never guess how radically different his life has been from that of Michael or myself.

It's also interesting to note that, despite Jena's many shopping malls, there remains a contingent who oppose capitalism. (I imagine they are a small minority, but it's still interesting.) Today, there was a van in the city-center broadcasting a recording through a tall speaker. Next to the speaker was a sign that said (translated here) "Make Capitalism History." The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure it was sponsored by the Lutheran (State) Church. I'm not sure that all of what was broadcasted was against capitalism, it's possible that a variety of viewpoints were put forth. (Understanding German through a muffled speaker on a windy day is beyond my capabilities.) The sign was clear, though; even I could understand it. There is also a sticker posted on a lamppost on our block. It is a picture of a stick figure standing with a gun to the head of another stick figure. Underneath is the caption "Capitalism." I tried to take a picture of this sticker today but, alas, someone had scratched out the gun. It's been there since we moved in, but of course the day I want to take a picture...Anyway, it's very interesting. It's one thing to oppose globalization, or "big business", but active opposition to capitalism itself is not something I've ever really witnessed before.

And speaking of capitalism, without it we could never have what I am about to show you. I have oft written of the chocolate here in German. It is cheap, delicious, and bountiful. Now I am going to show you exactly what I mean by bountiful. What follows is a series of pictures of the varieties of chocolate bars available in the grocery store.


On the left you will find the available varieties of Ritter's Sport brand chocolate bars.



On the right, Milka brand (the light purple) and several other brands. The chocolate bars fill all but the very bottom shelf, all the way to the far corner in this picture.




And finally, around the corner, plenty of other chocolate bars to choose from.


Now here's the really interesting part. I set-out to take a picture of all of the varieties of chocolate which are available in our grocery store. I immediately realized that this task could not be completed. There are Advent Calenders filled with all manner of fancy chocolates, ranging in price from .50 to 30 Euros. There are chocolate's filled with Marzipan, whole racks filled with boxes of truffles, chocolate covered cakes, cherries, cookies...In short, there are aisles and aisles devoted to chocolate. In the end, I limited myself to chocolate in bar-form, and that's what you see in these pictures. So, score one for capitalism I guess.

Now you see why Michael and I always have chocolate in the house. Even with three years, we have nowhere near enough time to try them all and find a favorite!