Weihnachten, Sylvester, Skifahren

Frohe Weihnachten und Sylvester!

Merry Christmas and New Years!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is off to a great 2016! The holidays here were special and I enjoyed every minute of them. There's something about German Christmas'-I'm not sure what it is-but they have a completely different feeling from American ones, even though my family's Christmas' are heavily influenced by German and Swedish traditions.

Berlin Bitches with Santa 

First off, Christmas here is not a one day deal. It's stretched out into several days with the main festivities taking place on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) and going usually until the 27th. This year, our festivities lasted a little longer than that. We kicked off the celebrations with my host grandpa's 70th birthday party on the 23rd. For being that age, his friends sure know how to party. They danced and performed skits throughout the night. We celebrated at a "Kneipe", a local, very German pub. It was all decked out with Christmas decorations and iconic pictures of Berlin. 

Now onto the holiday festivities...

Putting the star on our Tanne

Selfie with  the host family while
Skyping my fam

Making Spaetzle-
a Christmas tradition of
my family and blending
it with theirs

Here's the truth: in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, I was concerned that I was going to be homesick. This is my second time spending Christmas in Germany, and knowing how family-oriented the holidays are here. Thankfully, my fears did not turn into reality and I felt like a part of the family during the festivities. The entire extended family of my host fam came over for Christmas, ranging from grandparents, uncles and aunts to cousins. It was a full house. Every one of them was nice and really interesting to talk to. They really wanted to meet my family and wish them a Merry Christmas, so we hooked Skype up to our TV and all of them skyped all of my family (put my mom's  German to the test). It was a really special moment. The icing on the cake to me feeling completely at home this Christmas was blending traditions. At home, my family has spends has a three important meals- a traditional German and Swedish meal and of course, benjets for breakfast. For our German meal, we usually make Spaetzle which I mentioned to my host fam, and loved the tradition so they decided to include it in our grand assortments of food...and it tasted great!

Now onto New Years and our ski trip to AUSTRIA!

KLEINARL, AUSTRIA

Hiking on a run

One of the first things my host family and I bonded over was skiing. It's been something we've been talking about non-stop for the past couple of weeks. Fortunately, they were able to squeeze me into their Christmas trip and so the day after Christmas, we made the 10 hour drive to Kleinarl, Austria for a ski trip. Only problem was there was barely any snow! Colorado took it all from us! The Alps have gotten barely any snow this year so about 90% of the snow was skied on was artificial. In the 15 years I've been skiing, I've never seen something quite like this. There was only enough snow to cover a few runs. The rest of the mountain looked liked it would in the spring. We made the most of it and enjoyed the sunny weather and blue skies, and went even back and forth between hiking and skiing one the mountain. I can't complain. We were in the Alps and it was gorgeous. Plus, it was a full week of "germaning" and bonding with my host family, and by the end of the week, I felt like a part of the family. Plus, as my host family noticed, I could finally make jokes (that weren't painfully awkward) in German! That may seem like a really stupid thing to notice, but if you've ever tried learning another language, you know what I'm talking about. Your personality becomes toned down, but I've finally pulled out of that phase. I'm content.

Host bro Arved and I on different parts of the mountain...

Soaking up the sun while eating Gampfknoedls
and drinking "Skiwasser"

New Years (Sylvester) was a BLAST! We spent it at our resort in Austria and it was wild. We first went to a really nice New Years banquet, then to a cocktail party then to a club at our hotel and brought in the New Year there. The great part about where we stayed was it was designed to meet other people staying at the resort, and so I was lucky to find some people my age to party with. It took a while to find them, but we all found each other on New Years and had a good time...It was a lot of dancing and fireworks...fireworks everywhere you looked in the sky. It would never fly in the U.S. but that's what made it so fun! Good times...

Don't be fooled: This is all artificial snow.

The holidays are over and it's surreal that I've been in Germany for 6 months now, but that also means there's only 6 left! It's bitter sweet. The next couple of months are going to be intense. I have a friend coming to visit me from the U.S., going to Italy, have mid-year seminar with my program, another ski trip, and I'll be ending my first internship. But with ending that one, I'm excited to announce that my next internship will be be at Commerzbank (a bank)! I will be working (completely in German=AHHHHHH) in international business and finance AND have the opportunity to visit and consult the different Embassies in Berlin. It's going to challenge me in so many, unique ways but will also open the door to a some incredible opportunities down the road. I'll share more information with you once I hear more! :)

Viele Grüße und Liebe!

Deine, Kirsten

This pic was too cute not to include...Austin+the some of the gang at Schnitzel Tag!