Holiday re-cap

So it's my second Christmas here in Europe...it's funny how the holidays don't REALLY seem like the holidays when you're away from your family. And it's sort of strange...I don't think I heard "Jingle Bells," "Silent Night" or "The Twelve Days of Christmas" the entire month, for better or for worse, though I generally have no problem with holiday music. Despite the fact that the city's ex-pat community empties out during the month of December, I think we made the most of it.

Christmas Eve was spent with Kelly and Mellisa, as well as Kelly's dad who was visiting from the U.S.A. Mel and I both battled headcolds to enjoy dinner at Red Hot & Blues. On Christmas Day, I went to a dinner party hosted by my friends Jenn (who's American) and her flatmate Farrah (who's British), dragging my new roommate Scott along as well. (Funny how I seem to know a Jennifer in every city, huh?) Farrah's pals Jakub and Martina dropped by to join the festivities as well.

Anyway, Jenn tried her hand at lasagna, albeit with a Czech twist (cottage cheese and klobasa). It was interesting. True to form, I prepped spinach-artichoke dip (shocked that I could find all of the ingredients in the shops here) and Farrah's friend Jake prepped some svarak and desserts. And how many Christmas celebrations an say that they end with a dance party, courtesy of Justin Timberlake and Pink?

So that's Christmas in a nutshell...New Year's Eve was great! Kelly, Melissa and
I went up to Berlin and it was fantastic! You know it's a great city when I decide to visit twice in one year. Since we had limited time, we took a free walking tour the first day we were there. We had a great Bulgarian-Jewish tour guide named Nicholai who was really passionate about German/WWII/Communist era history and gave us tons of interesting tidbits, as well as taking us to some off-the-beaten-path places (the EXACT locale where Adolf Hitler committed suicide, which is now a parking lot, for example).

On New Year's Eve, there was an ENORMOUS street carnival in Tiergarten with a fireworks display, plenty of food, dancing, spiced wine and beer (naturally) everywhere, so we hit that on New Year's Eve and stayed out until 4 a.m.! Those Germans know how to throw a party, that's for sure! The only thing I would've changed was the hostel situtation...the three of us were packed into a room with 15 guys and one girl from Denmark who were loud, obnoxious and a little indiscreet when it came to P.D.A. By the end of the weekend the room smelled like a locker room. But hey, we were only really there to sleep, so in the long run, it wasn't so bad.

So 2007 will certainly bring changes...the outcome of which remains undeterminable at the moment. I hesitate putting anything into writing that's still uncertain...