BEING the daughter of the German ambassador to the Philippines, I have never been to my home country in my entire life. It was only during my fifth grade did our whole family leave the entire Philippine shores behind and go back to Germany as my father was then appointed as German deputy foreign minister after being in Manila for 15 years. Thus, it was sort of lost in translation for me although I already knew the language by heart because we spoke German at home at our little enclave inside the embassy compound. However, I sort of being gifted too as I also know how to speak English and Filipino being the two staple tongues in the Philippines.

This year will be my first Christmas in Germany and I’m really looking forward for it. I have known Christmases in the Philippines for so long a time that I love to savor it already in my home country. When the Lufthansa flight that I was in landed at Frankfurt International Airport, I found myself bewildered. I felt that I was in a strange land filled with familiar people. It was a busy airport and I later learned that it is the second busiest airport in the world, next to London’s Heathrow and succeeded by Paris’s Charles de Gaulle International Airport. It was ten times busier than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport back in the Philippines that I knew.

And the terminals were first rated and offered all the amenities that I only saw through DW and the Internet. This time, I savored it for real. The signature shops were awe-inspiring too. At this time of the year, they are starting to decorate the duty-free shops and the nearby hotels with Christmas trees. But there are also Halloween decorations as it is only days away before this celebration will arrive. Sure, Western Halloween has reached Philippine shores but they’re more concentrated on celebrating it the day after which they call as All Saints’ Day, an entirely Catholic concept. There are lots of Catholics here in Germany but I’m not sure if they are as devout as we are in the Philippines.

Next that I’m struck is the difference between the cathedrals here and the cathedrals in Manila. The cathedrals in Manila have this colonial design. It is understandably so, the country being a colony of Spain during the last two centuries or so. But here in Frankfurt, the cathedrals have Gothic designs. I later knew during my first history lesson here that these were conceptualized by the Catholic conquerors of old who wanted to lure the natives to the churches. Thus, they needed to decorate something which represented their culture. And so this tradition has pervaded even in these relatively newer times. And the art thing here is very pervasive. Every where I go, there are painting galleries and photo exhibitions as well as shows of innovative concepts. They are held either in malls or in classically-identifiable places such as museums.