Advent in Allgaü

I've got just over a week left in the mountains, but in the meantime some of you may have noticed that it's advent.
Now as most of the British Christmas traditions are imported from Deutschland, the Christmas trimmings are similar, just moreso. All houses have their own set of advent candles and the first one was lit to signal the start of advent, which is a thing here, even warranting presents for the kids. Dec 1st was also the day when Christmas decorations all appeared at once. Christmas decorations are generally more tasteful here, although I have spotted at least one house completely decked out in Christmas lights, including Santa and his reindeers.
Sadly, there is little to indicate the real meaning of advent. Even at church there has been no mention of advent beyond the advent candle. I've not even heard any Christmas songs except a german version of jingle bells. Have a midblog bonus video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsMq6UXXwo

So far not different from England, but then enter St Nikolaus Day...

The 6th of December is St Nikolaus Day and in most of Germany this means St Nick comes and brings the children presents (wahey another excuse for presents!) The present from St Nick that came to Kindergarten was an apple. M carefully carried it home, but then accidentally dropped it down the stairs and proceeded to give the apple a telling off, so cute!
Anyway, in Oberallgaü, this strange bit of Bayern that I currently reside in, takes St Nikolaus Day a little bit further with the Bärbele and Rumpelklausen. Every town/village is slightly different, but here in Altstädten the 4th is Bärbele Tag and the 5th and 6th is for the Rumpelklausen.
The Bärbele are 16+ females who dress up as 'witches' and carry a stick. from ~6pm they gather outside and whack the men below the knees who come across their path. I was initially warned that they were more dangerous than the Rumpelklausen as nothing impeded their running ability, but have since been told that they generally only hit men so I'd have been safe.
Then there's the Rumpelklausen, these are the men who dress up as cows complete with horns and a cowbell, also brandishing sticks. The reasoning behind this strange tradition is to drive out the spirits that arrive with the coming of winter. Or rather it's an evening when the youth of the area are legitimately allowed to be hooligans. It literally has been the only time I've seen groups of youths patrolling the streets after dark!

Bonus Procrastination Bits:

I know papercuts hurt, but when L (7yo) got one he screamed for a good 10 minutes, which was a little excessive. However to add to the trauma, his pain response is to push everyone away, literally in the case of his little brother. So then I had 2 screaming children on either side of me. Luckily L saw the funny side of this and burst into laughter. 2 plasters and a couple of minutes later, peace was restored, until M fell off the sofa....

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One of the girls who I've been helping find a penpal has to do a presentation on England at the end of term. She decided that interviewing me would be a good idea, so we had a fun afternoon putting together a 'interview' film. M and L agree to sit quietly and watch while we film it. 
Take 1: I bring out the inflatable globe to point out where Enland is, M comes running in and grabs it shouting 'It's mine! You're not allowed it!'
Take 2: We manage about half the interview before M starts nattering away in the background
At this point, M and L are persuaded to go and play upstairs, and it only took about 7 more takes until it was finished!

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And if you want a good chuckle, here's your bonus video for getting to the end: http://www.godvine.com/What-a-Choir-of-Silent-Monks-Does-Will-Make-You-Laugh-2484.html

Band and more

Whilst I've been in rural germany, I've been playing with the village wind band. Every village has one, and I've even seen them mentioned in guide books! So, unlike in Guildford where you only really know about the various band/orchestras if you're in the music scene, all I need to say is that I'm playing in the Altstaedten Blaskapelle and everyone knows what I mean (they also normally know someone who also plays in it, or did in the past)

We meet in the fire station (obviously!) squished into a room solely for the band's use. On the walls are loads of certificate and photos from the band's history, which goes back a looong way. In all their concerts they wear traditional bavarian dress (lederhosen for men, dirndl for women) and as I'm allowed to play in the Christmas concert I was starting to wonder where I was going to find a Dirndl. Thankfully I've been told that I can wear the black bottom/white top combo instead. That'll make me stick out like a sore thumb, but everyone knows that I'm the foreigner already so it doesn't really matter!

In the band itself one of the most striking aspects is the wide array of brass instruments. There's the standard trumpet/trombone/french horn/tuba but then there are also loads more inbetween. I sit infront of the Flugelhorn which is a sort of large trumpet with french horn style buttons. The woodwind section is far more restrained consisting of flute/piccolo/clarinet/sax.
Another striking feature is the gender stereotyping being almost perfectly fulfilled. Aside from one female horn player and one male clarinet player, the woodwind section is female and the brass/percussion sections are male.

Another feature of this village institution is the accents. It is by playing in band that I'm learning the Bayerisch way of saying numbers, and I can listen to an entire conversation and not understand a word! I'm getting better and understanding what all the notes are called too. (eg dur = major, b = b flat, as = a flat) Even so, I'm still sometimes left confused during the warm up when they play a well-known nursery rhyme, unfortunately german nursery rhymes differ from english ones!

But all that said and done, music is music and the pieces we play would not sound out of place in SWSCB. We're playing a nice mix, film music, marches, classical and a sandpaper ballet (ok, that last one's a bit wierd) Most of the pieces have english names so I get to advise on how they're pronounced; there was some controversy over the pronunciation of 'Irish Castle'

That's enough about my band, but I have another nugget of interesting linguistics. It is common here for people to say mir (myself) instead of wir (we). I initially thought that M was getting his words mixed up, but then I noticed alot more people doing it too. It's like a reversal of the queen's we!

And now Bonus time:

L was learning a german version of jingle bells by repeatly singing the verses over and over again. At one point he forgot the words, when M chimed in with the correct words to fill the gap. I swear a 3yo is not supposed to have a better memory than a 7yo!

And finally here is a link to a film shown every year on Sylvester (New Year's Eve) in Germany. I have been shown it twice; it is bizarre being educated on English comedy in Germany, but then I suppose I was made to watch Monty Python for the first time in America! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVCA1rp-gfg