On Saturday, Ingrid and Matthias Weiß (a teacher at our school and her husband)took us to a small town called Lauscha for the Lauschaer Kugelmarkt. Lauscha is famous because they make those amazing handblown Christmas balls - the kind you can buy cheap knock-offs of in Wal-mart for fifty cents but really cost 20 Euro each. It was amazing. Every household in the entire village makes their own decorations. They spend all year making them, and then they have only the month of December to sell them at their own market or at one of the many markets around Germany. Obviously, they also ship them around the world.
There was also a glass-blowing factory where you could watch them making the glass balls - and if you felt like spending the money, make your own Christmas balls. We weren't into that - also we had to leave quite quickly because Dave was going to be late getting back to Ilmenau to do his private tutoring with the students for the TU.
Dave also bought this disgusting giant slab of bacon. It comes on a string so you can just hang it up on the wall. It's nasty - although it smells quite good when it is cooking. He says its ridiculously salty so he has to soak it in water for at least fifteen minutes before he cooks it. He has this little jar he's been keeping the bacon grease in (since we can't throw it down the sink) and it is nasty. I am fairly certain our roommates are quite disgusted by this unidentifiable jar of nastiness that is now sitting on our countertop by the stove.
