Family and Four am Flea Markets

Last weekend I visited my host family's extended family, who live about two hours away from Hamburg. I can't exactly remember, but I think the name of the town is Nienburg. It's small, but charming. We first visited the grandparents, who were adorable. Oma gave me a picture of a sunflower she made out of pieces of tissue paper and insisted I eat more butter, and Opa would tell her to let me eat and stop talking so much from his couch in the other room.

There was a celebration in the town that night, the kind that the entire population comes downtown for. There were tons of people in the streets, and lots of food and music. We left early, around 11:30, because we had a very long day the next day. We had to be up at 3:30 (which turned out to be more like 4 - getting up is hard) to set up at a flea market. For the past few years my host mom has sold my host sister's old toys at this flea market, and it turns out to be a really easy way to make a lot of money, since the whole town comes out to shop. I, all by myself, proudly sold 36 euros worth of merchandise, but found out I'm not a great haggler. No great surprise. When I wasn't trying to bargain my way through a sale, I walked around. The flea market was enormous; the cobblestone streets were lined on both sides with tables of toys, books, dishes, food, jewelry, clothes, and all kinds of odds and ends. Oma gave me 10 euros to spend, which mostly went into food while I tried to restrain from buying myself every little thing I found amusing.

This was the flea market near our stand, but still quite early. Later in the day it was crammed with people. The blond woman in the black coat with her back turned on the left is my mom's sister in law, who let me pick out a very nice skirt from her stand and gave me hot tea, which was very welcome in the 2 degrees C weather.

Here is my host mom and I at our stand, circa 7 am. I believe I'm wearing four layers and freezing. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun, especially later in the day when the sun came out.

Wichtige Wörter

• Flohmarkt - flea market
• verkaufen - sell
• Wie viel kostet das? - How much does that cost?