Christmas and Break

My Christmas break was filled with time spent with my host family and my friends, and if you ask me it doesn't really get better than that.

The sheer amount of food consumed around Christmas is massive, but of course it is delicious. It's like a continuous food coma for a week. Don't even get me started on the amount of sweets given around Christmas time, specifically chocolate. Gifts are not given without some form of chocolate, usually in the shape of a Santa Claus.

The main difference between Christmas in the US and in Germany is that in Germany the true day of celebration is on the 24th. My host grandparents came over for dinner, and we then opened presents. We played a game of Monopoly, but it's a long game so we split it up between two days for two hours each. I won the game by clearly having the most money at the end, and I made all my earnings off of smart investments in just two properties. In the process, I made both my host mom and host dad go bankrupt. It's funny, though, because after the first day I was actually second to poorest. It was a really fun game, and the best part were all the "money hungry American capitalist" jokes that were made. Oh, and I'm not being sarcastic, it was super funny and I was totally joining in. 

For some reason, when me and my friends hang out it always seems to revolve around food. For example, we will bake Christmas cookies, or my friend will cook us a delectable Vietnamese dish, or we will take a 30 min train ride to the city of Brandenburg (also the name of the "state" I live in) to eat at this amazing Indian restaurant that they said I had to try. I happened to do all those things with my friends this break, and our next baking conquest is an apple pie. 

Our first snow of the season was last Monday, and the weather forecasters have been predicting snow for weeks now but it just hasn't happened. It's a strange thing, actually, that we just got snow for the first time. So strange in fact, that it made the front page last week that it still hadn't snowed, and it made the front page of the newspaper again when it did finally snow. I, of course, am 100% for a day or two of snow; however, it really can become a burden for people that live where snow is common. I didn't actually have anything planned for that day, so it was perfect that when I looked out my window and saw snow, I knew exactly what I was going to do that day. My host sister called up her friend that also lives in our village, and the three of us went to the hills in our village and went sledding! It was so much fun, but very tiring. I also got three bruises, but whatever.

our backyard

me ~trying~ to sled

at the top of the hightest hill

We have this really good family friend whose daughter lives in Potsdam. Potsdam is the capital city of Brandenburg, is pretty close in distance to Berlin, and takes about a hour to get to. I've been there once before, but this time my host sister and I travelled there on Friday and stayed with her for the night. We did some sightseeing, and I knew that the city is beautiful from before, but wow, it is truly gorgeous. There are an abundance of castles, many old edifices, and just a lot of history in the form of architecture there. Anyways, we only had the afternoon so we visited the Sanssouci Palace, which was a former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. While walking around the city we keep talking about food, and our friend mentioned that she had always wanted to try tacos because she sees them in movies all the time. We decided right then and there that we were having tacos for dinner. I was the one in charge of cooking everything, but tacos are not even that difficult. We found seasoning, tortillas, and taco shells in a big grocery store, which I surprised me. We found guacamole sauce as well, but I found it gross. It really just wasn't the same. The tacos were a success and I plan on cooking them again for my host family and friends. The whole point of this adventure to Potsdam was to go to this student run Karaoke night at the university that our friend is apart of. And here's the thing with karaoke, I love it. There were some really great singers and some not really great singers, but no one cared at all. Whenever someone went up to the mic to sing their song, it was their time to shine. Everyone was really nice, and we had a really fun time! I really hope we can go again.

our friend we stayed with

the palace garden

I was so intrigued by these ducks because when they extend their necks, they look like chickens. I also find them very pretty so I took a photo. 

The thing on the left is ice, but the entire time I thought it was a stone thing for the ducks in the pond...

Sanssouci Palace

Our delcious tacos! Complete with taco shells, torillas, ground beef, peppers, onions, tomatos, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole.

I would like to conclude this post by saying I will be posting with less frequency. While I enjoy writing this blog and sharing my adventure with you, it is also time consuming. The hardest part; however, is coming up with something weekly to write a whole post on considering I'm at school 5 days a week. On the weekends when I'm hanging out with my friends, my host family, or just chilling by myself, it usually isn't interesting enough for you to want to read a blog post about it. With all said, if you have something specific you want to know about living in Germany or about my experiences here, let me know and I will gladly write about it! 

As of now, I'm aiming for three times per month instead of four. 

Shannon