Bombs Away!

The table is set and ready for us at Georg and Vincent's place! How cool are they??

The raclette spread.

Georg making his rounds.

Almost everybody has one of these weather stations in the house but this one is extra cool cuz the little guy dresses appropriately for the weather outside and on hot days he wears nothing but a pair of swim trunks!

'Raclette' is originally a French word meaning 'to scrape' and that is exactly what you do with these little hot plates once the food is cooked.

Happy New Year Hannover!

In front of the Hannover Hauptbahnhof.

Mario fortifying.

Helping out the cause.

Rafaela making a wish?

I've never played with colored sparklers before so this was pretty exciting for me.

After stumbling home we sweeten the deal with some more champagne and some Berliners--the Germans swear they're not but they taste just like jelly filled donuts. Vincent bought me a German pastry that looks like a little Chinese guy with a straw hat!

The next morning we resume our daily ritual of an everyday German breakfast: toast or bread, coffee, juice, soft boiled eggs and an assortment of jams and spreads.

Despite the warnings of our elders and even naysayers our own age, Mario and I planned our New Years around heading downtown here in Hannover to scope out the public fireworks scene on the 31st since setting off fireworks is legal here on new years eve. For the two days leading up to our proclaimed program, people joked as well as pantomimed scenarios for us simulating body parts getting blown up, shield wielding to avoid falling debris, and war zone evading Call of Duty style.

My mom always has this saying in Chinese that "You're unafraid of death because you haven't seen your own casket yet," and I suppose it's true to some extent for me. I haven't yet broken any bones in my body, haven't yet had any sort of major surgery or trauma either--knock on wood! The only thing I think that could possibly come close would be when my surfboard's nose hit me on the side of my head in 2004 and I had to get seven stitches next to my ear. That and I had my wisdom teeth pulled when I was fifteen, but that's about it I think. So yeah, I can understand the concern but I have to do it anyway, especially if it's the first time.

With the help of some willing and super cooperative friends of ours, we started off New Years Eve with an amazing meal that helped fortify us for setting off our own sparks later. Like the yearly resuscitation of "It's a Wonderful Life" on television and fruitcake gifting during Christmas for the Americans, the Germans have their own New Year's Eve rituals that are characteristic and much anticipated. The first of these is the breaking out of the raclette oven. This is essentially a tableside broiler that is used communally like a Korean BBQ hotplate by the entire table, usually accommodating up to six people but sometimes eight per oven--I imagine my family gatherings alone would probably start a small electrical fire with the amount of ovens we would need to operate at the same time! A spread of boiled potatoes, assorted veggies, meats, butter, raw eggs, sauces and the appropriately named raclette cheese--a lot like a softer gouda--used for melting over everything is laid out. Then it's a free for all and everybody musters their best creative efforts in making the perfect raclette dish of the evening for themselves. Beers are poured, bread is passed, and shots of some stronger stuff are taken by the more stoic ones in need of a little bit more loosening up in between bouts of broiling food. You usually only stop when you realize your pants are getting extremely uncomfortable.

The second of these yearly traditions is the watching of "Dinner for One." If you have no idea what this is, just look it up on Wikipedia. It is at this very moment the Guinness record holder for most repeated TV program ever and you can start this very German, Swedish, as well as Danish tradition yourself by accessing the video via YouTube. I can still remember coming over for my first German new years in 2007 with my brother, Brian, and we gathered around the Lau's family television with a roomful of people to see this eighteen minute comedy production about an elder woman and her butler serving her a meal that takes place each year at the same time. Needless to say we were pretty impressed with what we saw. With its perfect comic timing, dry British humor and vintage appeal, I can't see why this isn't just as well loved as Monty Python is in the U.S.

Afterward, champagne and fireworks in tow, we bundle up for a fifteen minute walk from our friend's apartment to the main train station in Hannover to stake our claim on the new year's celebrations. We enter in on an enthusiastic display of sounds and sparks in front of the station and after finding a clear area to stand around we proceed to burn a few sticks of lightning ourselves from a six Euro bag of tricks we bought at the local grocery store that included seven small rockets, a bunch of assorted firecrackers, sparklers and little fire devils that spun around on the ground like the Tasmanian animal. It's an awesome feeling to be out and about with the locals taking part in what is essentially a consensual evening of possible danger but with great rewards if survived. We witnessed a larger firework accidentally launched from afar toward a small group of guys gathered around a phone booth not more than ten yards away from us, large green and gold confetti flew around and lit their bewildered faces but none were hurt. Lucky for us the night remained mercifully lighthearted, dismemberment-free, and full of good memories made with friends old and new. We saw everything while wearing our childish hearts on our sleeves and were not denied the unfettered pleasure of pure wonderment, something I am always grateful for.

Thank you to everyone here who have read thus far, we thought of each of you on our escapade into a new land to celebrate an event as old as time itself and wish you all a happy and healthy new year!