Politische Bedeutung des PPP Austauschprogramms - a brief foray into International Relations

So basically everyone who gets this scholarship also gets assigned a member of the German Parliament (European word for Congress [Bundestag in German]) with whom they meet once or twice for lunch or something and take pictures. I recently got to meet with my Bundestag representative here in Jena, a Herr Bodo Ramelow. He's of specific interest to me above other possible Bundestag dudes because of his party affiliation - he belongs to Die Linke, literally translated The Left, the socialist party here in Germany. He also is looking to ditch the Bundestag and become the minister-president of this state of Germany, Thüringen. We (being myself, Herr Ramelow, and a girl from Virginia getting her Master's here in Deutschland) sat down at a nice restaurant and shared a bit about our experiences in each others' lands, relations between Germany and other countries, and our respective dogs. He invited us to Berlin for a few days to see the Bundestag (it's one of those things you have to see when you're here, the glass dome of the building being probably the most famous image in Berlin other than the Brandenburger Tor) so we'll have to figure out the specifics of all that, and we got a picture in front of a statue in the Marktplatz. Basically I found him to be really cool - a lot more human than some of the politicians I've seen before, and told us some interesting stuff about German politics and local history. (excuse me if my english sucks right now, this keyboard is broken and I've been speaking another language for the past five months)

Also, we've got Christmas coming up, and hoo boy do the Germans love them some Christmas. They set up a huge market for all of December in the town marketplace and orient the entire month's food towards christmasy fare, especially the desserts. Special types of cakes and cookies abound, and making them is half the fun it seems - it's a whole day's work to bake the things. Homesickness is a matter of course this month for all the exchange students - it's not too bad for me right now except for an omnipresent urge to be at the Mall of America, knowing how decked out it must be. I didn't realize how much that place symbolized home to me until I'd been gone for a while.

I hope the holidays back home are running smoothly and without too much craziness - My first Christmas away from my family is going surprisingly well so far. Now I just have to get the whole presents thing sorted out :p