christmas!!

 me being super helpful while decorating the tree. i tried to get into it, i really did, but its so much less special when the ornaments arent half things that nora and i made in elementary school and half weird things like sparkly cows and canoeing santas and all things that hold a lot of memories...

 but our tree looked super pretty anyway julia did a good job and alex's battery operated candles were really cool.

 we open presents on christmas eve, my present was earrings and a trip to the camel farm which was PERFECT and not shown is me freaking out because i was so happy.

 but here's me thanking julia

 julia and alex reading the card i wrote them they said the german was really good and now the card, which is a stick figure drawing of our family, is sitting in a pretty frame on the tv counter :)

 alex opening his present from me

 i think he really liked it because he brought it to the christmas party and showed it off to his family :)

 julia with the rings i gave her

 me and alex's father looking at their cute christmas tree on christmas day

 christmas at alex's parents apartment

 alex's family

<3

Christmas Cooking

I had some friends from school over and cooked enchiladas, tacos, and strawberry margaritas (and Alex made guacamole because he is a bomb guacamole maker) and we had a spanish lunch.

Later in the break Rachel from North Dakota stayed with us for a couple days and Rachel and I cooked chocolate chip cookies and whoopie pies and then helped Julia make some German cookies.

Here's pictures

 margarita makin'

 tacossss

 wow there are so many pictures of my back as i do kitchen related things

 yum

 rachel and julia do productive things while i whip my hair back n forth a la willow smith

rachel is a model and i am completely oblivious to the world because wow phone
                                     
 me and rachel watched love actually aka the best christmas film and i had to include this because our faces are so priceless

and then we ate cookies

Iceskating

Before Christmas break, Julia planned a surprise for me and James, and wouldn't tell us what it was until we got there. It ended up being this incredibly cool outdoor ice skating rink, in this old mining building with music and cool lights and it was really really awesome. It was the third time iceskating and I had so much fun. I figured out how to do little twirly things without falling over and I felt like a princess ballerina. James is actually bomb at iceskating because he comes from New York where it actually snows and he found a bunch of pro German iceskaters and they taught him to do tricks and it was legit.

Christmas Markets

Prepare yourself for all the holiday posts that I should have posted a long time ago...
(Sorry guys I'm so horrible at this whole blog thing I know I know)

First of all, Weihnachtsmarkts!! Aka Christmas markets. Every German town has one, for pretty much the whole month of December, and you can get a bajillion different things to eat, sausage on a stick, apples with marzipan, candy apples, candy, nuts, candied nuts, asian food, crepes, fish, cheese, anything. You can buy all sorts of handmade/artisanal things like jewelry, candles, scarves, hats, slippers, etc. Often they have carousels or other kiddie rides and sometimes they have outdoor iceskating rinks. And then of course they have stands where you can buy Gluhwein (hot wine cider stuff?) which is the traditional Christmas drink and hot chocolate and also eggnog which does not taste the same because the Germans don't put nutmeg in it and they never serve it alcohol-free...

I think in December we went to a weihnachtsmarkt nearly every weekend. With Julia and Alex and Ilaria and Alex's sister Ingrid and her boyfriend Frank we went to Essen and rode the ferris wheel and ate these really delicious Argentinean potato things made by actual Argentineans. There were a few different weihnachtsmarkts in Köln and I went a few times with friends and once with Julia and Jamie. And Julia and Alex took me to the one in Dusseldorf also.

Hold on for pictures...

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes,  I know, Thanksgiving was actually two days ago, but some of us aren't so lucky to have the week off of school, so I'm celebrating today. 

Last Monday, in the thanksgiving spirit, I cooked a pumpkin pie for my language class and gave a short presentation on the holiday. Everyone thought the idea of pumpkin pie was incredibly weird and they were surprised when they found it delicious. (Nora, thanks for that crust recipe everyone thinks I'm like this incredible baker but really I just have the gosh darndest greatest crust). Fun comments that I got were "Wait, was Pocahontas part of thanksgiving?" "I thought people dressed up on thanksgiving? What about the candy?" and my personal favorite, "How can thanksgiving have been founded in the 1600's, if America has only existed for like a hundred years?"

Today, we invited Alex's parents, Gisela and August, over for thanksgiving dinner, and since yesterday afternoon I've been slaving over a hot stove, except not really, because I actually ended up having a lot of fun. Yesterday I made Aunt Jenny's famous cranberry sauce and I baked a pumpkin pie (and I cooked up some pumpkin seeds and let me tell you it's amazing how fast those disappear around here). Today I made green bean casserole, stuffing, and mashed potatoes while Alex cooked a turkey and Julia decorated the apartment for Christmas. I spent most of the day cooking and it was actually incredibly cathartic and I feel as if a baked all my problems away. I gotta say, it's beautiful, our thanksgivings at home, when everybody makes a little bit of the meal and it's shared with all your loved ones, but there is also something really wonderful about cooking the entire meal by yourself for the people you care about to appreciate. I dunno, it's all nice. I love thanksgiving. 

Things I'm especially thankful for today:

• That I've always been surrounded by family on thanksgiving, usually my real family, but two years ago my exchange student family while in Patagonia and this year my wonderful german family. Family is a beautiful thing. 
• That I've always had dads/uncles around to cook the turkey because wow 'honey can you please answer the door for me, I've got my hand up a turkey' is something I would like to never say ever. 
• Yeah that's all I got

more things that happened

First of all, just so everyone is aware, cough cough, the reason I cannot update this more often is because currently I'm in langauage class during the week, and so weekdays, my life consists of school until four or five, a few minutes to relax do my language class homework at home before I leave for language class at five thirty, and then not home until around nine thirty at which point I scarf down some dinner and go to sleep. Which leaves me with only the weekends for doing everything else.

What I have done since last time: gone bowling with James and his host brother and lost horribly (just like old times!). Climbed the top of the Kölner Dom. Went to the Köln Zoo. Oh! Went to the Chocolate Factory in Köln on the day of the 20th anniversary which meant literally A BAJILLION free samples and I found out that yes too much chocolate is actually possible. I spent halloween with friends from school and there were no costumes and no candy but I had fun anyway. And the day after halloween Julia and I carved a pumpkin together, so there was that. Let's see, last Saturday I went shopping with James and Anna and their host siblings in The Big Mall in Leverkusen. The next day Julia and I went to Monheim to check out the St. Martin's festivities, and then we met Alex's sister and parents for coffee and kuchen and then we thought about going to some other fairs but it was raining incredibly so we just went home. St. Martin's is a kid's holiday where kids go out with lanterns sort of like halloween I guess and I'm not sure exactly what they do but Monday it took me forever to get to language camp on the bus because there was an endless parade of little kids with lanterns crossing the streets. Thursday night I left sprachkurs, sorry, language camp, early, and took the bus to Benrath to go iceskating with James and his host brothers. Okay, actually, I tried to take the train but for some reason all the trains for like the next four hours had been cancelled so I made friends with some nice guys from the Congo who showed me a bus that would take me there. Ice skating, I found is not really like rollerskating so much and more like rollerblading, which I cannot do, and I'm sure I looked pretty silly but I feel like for it being my second time ever I was pretty decent. The five of us made friends with this hilarious seven year old girl named Tiffany who asked me a question that I didn't understand, to which I answered "sorry, I'm a foreigner, I cant understand you" and her reply was "No, you aren't a foreigner, you speak German, don't lie to me!" Then she proceeded to 'arrest' me by dragging me around in circles while she tried to get her five year old brother, who was probably the best iceskater out of all of us, to try and catch everyone else, and it was literally the most cutest, entertaining thing of my life. Friday, I went out with school friends, and yesterday, me and James and Anna from Wisconsin went with Lina and Anna and Isabel from Germany to see Fack Ju Goethe at the movie theatre in Leverkusen, and the movie was really funny and sweet and some of the jokes went over my head but otherwise I understood the whole thing and it was incredibly exciting. This morning I made banana chocolate chip pancakes and eggs and bacon for breakfast with Julia's help (you would not believe how much bacon my parents can eat, they make me look un-american ahah :) ) and now Julia and I are going for a walk I think, and pictures will be up later today. I love you all, keep on keeping on.

  james and mark in the kölner dom tower. so manyyyy steps

 jamie is scared of heights.

 pretttyyy, pretty pretty

 the bells

 chocolate peacock

 chocolate fountain

 making chocolate

 me and julia's pumpkin

 ice skating with tiffany and tamino

 pictures from our walk at schlosspark (castlepark) benrath

also i have a million bajillion pictures of super cute zoo animals and if you want to see them let me know