Cristmas on Schwäbische Straße 3

Well, for christmas I ended up staying for a week and a half with my former hostfamily in Berlin where i lived six years ago as an exchange student. I must say, it was a really wonderful time, the best christmas I could have wished for over here in Germany. It felt as if nothing has changed and i had been living there ever since, although the girls and johannes and jonas have all grown up a great deal! We went to the christmas markets there and heard this fantastic brass choir with guys dressed in really awkward santa suits. We took several walks with Donna in the forest. It was really beautiful, we even got SNOW and a lot of it for Berlin! I have to admit, i do miss some of the snow, it just adds to the christmas atmosphere. for christmas we went to omas and visited the whole family for coffee and tea and cake (Stephan was there with his wife, Jonas, Biggi, Astrid, Bernhard, Johannes, Cora, Ronja, Lara, Anna, Oma, Opa, myself, and Benni). We got a chance to catch up on things, jonas is rediculously tall and posh now, really into golf for some strange reason. After that some of us went to church where i was the last time i was here for christmas, the whole event was the same as six years ago. After church, where the pastor gave a wonderful speech, came the gathering at our place in Schöneberg. Santa visits on christmas eve in Germany. In order to start the evening and open gifts everyone has to tell a story, sing, play or something. Bernhard played Guitar and I sang with him, we did a really cool acoustic version of J. Crockers You Are So Beautiful, we sang it twice actually! Then we had fondue as usual, which was great, and the whole meal that way lasts a bit longer than a regular meal precooked. Lara and I had a bit too much wine, but it was fun anyway, reminded me of the times when she came and stayed with us and Larissa for six weeks. (ps i read three HUGE books in german from this series by Trudi Canavan called the Black Magician trilogy, so good!'). For New Years i was supposed to go out with Milli and Sven, but that evening i had planned to have dinner with my hostfamily and then go out, the traditional Raklette dinner, where you fill these pans with meat and veggies and cheese and put them under this roasting thing and put the meat on top to cook and then mix em. Lara and her friends and anna came late, so we started late and i didnt leave the apartment till about 920pm, which i thought was early enough to still go outand have a great time right? well unfortunately i left my cell phone in my coat pocket while eating, and milli had written, assumed i was ditching them, and then was already underway on the subway to some party with sven because they had finished pregaming and were going far away to eastern berlin, which i didnt know we were going to do, so they left without me and we got in this huge fight because there were miscommunications and misunderstandings. But she forgave me and everything which is great, because she is great, and i dont want to lose her friendship. love ya milli! Thats the thing, my first year here everyong accepted the fact that there were going to be a ton of misunderstandings, which there were. now that i speak fairly good german with agood accent, people just automatically assume that there are no misunderstandings, that i dont have any problem expressing myself or saying things clearly and properly, which is not the case! i still have problems writing in German, particularly a quick text message or something, and there are still some words i dotn understand or dont know how to say myself. this creates some problems. plus, germans dont like people who arent permanently attached to their cell. as many of you all know, i hate cell phones, and i rarely have mine with me or answer it. i just need to fix this problem somehow, but its frustrating slightly. Either way, i ended up getting five min too late to the train station and they left, so i went back home, and went out with Cora and her boyfriend Girum. We went to this really cool but rather dead crowd club near the river, it was in a boathouse!, watched the fireworks from the riverside (which was great, the whole city was one big firework.) im not the biggest fan of berlin on Silvester (new years)...why doooo they call it Silvester...ill never know. Berlin is just so dangerous with all these 13, 14 year old drunk groups of kids walking around throwing knallas and firecrackers and TNT everywhich way. I was walking down the steps to the train and didnt realized that seconds before this group of kids threw an explosive in the garbage can i was standing next to at the time it exploded! gah! nearly crapped myself. Every year houses catch on fire. oh well. At least this year, unlike the year when i was here, the Rednecks werent headling the biggest new years party in Germany haha! It was sad to say goodbye to my family there, i really do miss them! But...i had to make my way to Prague.

Certainly, Definitely, Absolutely
Shim