Hi everybody :)

Another big thing to talk about now is Christmas. Obviously everybody knows when it was, but there was a little difference to Christmas in Germany. That one thing is that Christmas is on the 25th here and not on the 24th as it is in Germany. So what you do here on the 24th, Christmas Eve, is you're preparing the food for the next day and you basically do nothing. Before you go to bed you're allowed to open one present. I got a little teddy bear with a Canada sweater on. It is so cute. Oh and another important thing is that you hang your stocking, normally over the fireplace, but because we don't have one we just put them on the couch. Then you go to bed and wait for Santa Claus. When you wake up the next morning you go in the living room and open your stocking and the presents under the tree, which are under the tree a week before Christmas already. You do all that in pyjamas and then have a little breakfast that is more chocolate than anything else. 

When you opened your presents you get ready for the day and prepare the food. Now I'm telling you what my family did on Christmas day, because I think that is different in every family. We were preparing the food, Annika (a German friend that spent Christmas with me, because my host sister is gone for the holidays and her host family is gone too) were cutting and peeling the vegetables and doing to turkey. After that we waited for the other people to arrive. We were 10 people in the house, my host parents, my host brother, Annika, M&K (Swiss friends of my host parents) and M&C, my host mum's sister and her husband, their son and me. We had a lot of fun and when they arrived we ate a little bit of cake and got more presents. Then we had bacon wrapped scallops, they weren't that good but not that bad, they taste different. We talked and laughed a lot and before we ate we opened crackers, in them is a joke, a little present and a little paper hat. Everybody wore the hats and most of the jokes were quite funny. Then we had the traditional Christmas dinner, turkey, potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts and some other vegetables and of course gravy and cranberry sauce. It was really good, but I was so full after all that! Then everybody sat back on the couch and we were talking, looking at pictures and just having fun. Around 10pm everybody left and we had to clean the kitchen and the table. It took us a while, but then we were finally done. It was an awesome day and for letting the day having a nice ending, my host family, Annika and me were watching a movie "Love actually". That was a very nice end for this awesome day and we were going to bed around 1:30am. 

I really like Canadian Christmas but Germany is still my home and I missed our traditions a lot. But you know what I'm gonna do? I really want to have a stocking next year in Germany too, that is really cool!

On December 26th is Boxing Day in Canada and the stores have incredible sales the week of the Boxing Day. Everything is on sale and a lot of families already buy their Christmas stuff for next year and the stores are unbelievable full! But they have really good deals.

This week we're not doing anything special and then it's 2013 soon! I can't believe how fast this year went by! There were so many cool things happening and I made so many memories! Thank you to everybody that helped me living my dream and who were an important part of it! I love you all I hope you're having a good New Year's Eve and a happy new year 2013! Thanks to everybody that is reading my blog and I would be really happy to get more comments on it!! I'm always happy to answer questions too, so don't hesitate to ask and please write more comments next year :D I think I'm gonna write in 2013 the next time so happy new year to everybody and thanks again! 

I love you all! Merry Christmas and a happy new year! <3

Julia 

Hey guys :)

I have some new things to tell you about again :) There was a formal Christmas dance on Thursday so I went to my Mexican friends house (she is awesome :D) and we were dressing up. You can see a picture here. The dance was so so much fun and we were all dancing like crazy. The funniest part was when the Korean boy was dancing to Gangnam style :D I can't wait until the next dance. On Saturday I was at a basketball tournament at school and our team actually sucks but they won the last game! That was high school spirit! :) Then we went to a Christmas cantata (concert) at a church, my friend and me did, and it was really nice. The church was really modern and they made videos for each song with the lyrics and put them on the wall with an overhead. That was different but cool! Today I was watching a hockey game of our school team again vs Middleton and we won 9:3. It was a lot of fun! :D

That's probably it but now you got a little update :)

Julia

Hello!

Happy 12/12/12! I wanted to write an entry today, because this will be the last day for 89 years that we can do this! :D And I'm here for a 101 days today and I have 201 days until I'm seeing my mum again. So 1/3 is over and it feels like the time goes by too fast! On Friday I went curling with a friend and we had so much fun! It's not too difficult and it's so much fun to slide on the ice. Sunday we had an International Supper in Weymouth at the SMBA and the food was really good! I made Vanillekipferl, because they are traditional German Christmas cookies and everybody told me they were really good! We had so much food and we were so full after we ate everything, we had Italian Lasagna and Tiramisu, Thai noodles, Mexican chili, Turkish bread with meat, German cookies, Chinese and Japanese candy, Brasilian candy and much more. It was so delicious! 

Then the winter carnival at my high school started at the beginning of the month, too, which means that we can wear clothes of a different theme every day. For example there is Santa Hat Day, Elf Day, Pyjama Day, Twin Day, Ugly Sweater day, Jersey Day, Formal Day, Wool Sock Day and a lot more. 

My Christmas parcel from Germany arrived today and I'm so happy to get all this! The parcel is awesome and thanks for everything that is in it! I'm so so happy! :D 

Only 13 days until Christmas, I'm really excited! 

Talk to you then guys! :D

Julia <3

Hey everybody! :D

I think it's time to write something new and updated. Today is, as everybody knows, Saint Nikolaus Day in Germany and I just introduced it to Canada! We put our boots out yesterday evening and today we got all kinds of candy in them. I love it! And I got something from Germany too so thank you so much for that! 

I'm already 3 months in Canada now, that means almost 1/3 of my time is over. It flies so fast and I try to enjoy every bit of it! I still love it here and I'm so excited for Christmas and New Year's. I'm still waiting for snow and I hope that we're going to have a White Christmas, but nothing's sure yet. I love listening to all the Christmas music, bake stuff and just feel "christmassy". My host mum and me went to the Christmas market in Annapolis Royal, too, to sell some soap. We sold a lot and it was so much fun. I met a lot of people there and it was just so much fun selling that and talking to people. We had a great day! :D

There will be some more Christmas events we will attend and on November 30th we were in Digby to see the Christmas tree lighting by Santa Claus. It was cool and we saw some fireworks although it was so cold that day (about -11°C in the evening!), but now it's warm again. We're having an international dinner on Sunday and I'm going curling with a friend tomorrow. Sounds like a fun weekend. I think that's all I can talk about now, soon there'll be Christmas holidays and I can't wait to have a few weeks off from school!

Talk to you later!

Julia <3