The Christmas Eve of Christmas Eve

First of all, I'm really sorry! I've been so busy this week and on Sunday I had to finish this massive English project... But I will tell all now.

So Monday and Tuesday last week were really quite unspectacular. Except I found out that Alex had to have an operation. Luckily all went well! But that comes later.

Then Wednesday I had dance class like always and it was the last one of the beginner course and the second to last one of the year. We learnt the basic step of disco fox and practised heaps of others and also did this turn-y thing that looked really complicated but actually wasn't too bad for the tango.

Then Thursday was really sad because it was like a little leaving party in Vienna for Flore... :'( She's already back in Belgium and will be there for 10 days before flying to Ireland for 5 months. The time has gone so fast! I can't believe it's nearly Christmas, it's so crazy. Even though we didn't do that much it was still cool to hang out and plus we went to the Rathaus Christkindlmarkt which was awesome! There are these Christmas markets all over Vienna and it was my first one and it was really cool. And on Friday I went to the one at Schönbrun with Chrissi and Flo. It was nice as well, but apparently it's more for "cultural tourists" so it wasn't as big or impressive as the one at the Rathaus.

Then on Saturday was Kekse backen Tag with AFS! First of all I went to Constanze's English lesson and enthralled them with a sort of presentation on NZ. But seriously, they all seemed to be really interested and everyone here finds it so weird that Christmas is hot in NZ! I find it weird that it's cold here... I actually can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas... It shouldn't be this cold! Plus there's way too much school... I should've had a month free but I don't even get a day before! Now that is weird. But anyways, the biscuit baking was cool and it was so relaxed and nice to just hang out the whole day. Then that night we went out punschen (read earlier... drinking punch, but it's warm and not like the gross party kind but actually nice) in Baden and we were meant to stay like 3 hours, or that was the plan, but it was so cold that everyone only stayed like an hour and a half and by then Anna and I were frozen. And she was even wearing my gloves as well. Bit of a Tauranga softie...

Saturday night she stayed the night at mine and then on Sunday we just hung out around the house, slept and such. Quite a restful weekend really.

Then on Monday we had the Stammtisch again. There were quite a few people there this time and it was really fun to see all the people that you don't see very often and for everyone to just hang out and chat.

Then Tuesday... First of all, I made Christmas mince pies, from scratch, without a food processor, the mince and the dough and they taste REALLY GOOD! Whooo! I was quite proud of myself because I thought that they would possibly by horrible or at least different... But in reality not so different from Nana's! (Although, of course, not as good Nana. :D) Then I played Monopoly with Constanze and I felt really bad because I totally bankrupt her. Even though I didn't buy any of her properties, I've just got a head for business... Well. Kind of.

Then last night I went shopping in Vienna afterschool for a few last-minute Christmas presents and managed to get everything (I hope...) so I'm all set for tomorrow! And then I had dance class and it was the first week of the new course (bronze)... Originally there must've been at least 30 of us and space was always really tight. Now... There were 7 boys who were actually taking the class and 3 who were kinda like assistants, (that was really embarrassing, I just had to look up how to spell that...) and they dance when there aren't enough guys. And there were 12 girls. Quite a dramatic reduction really! Evidently lots of people don't actually like it, they just go and do the beginner course because everyone else does... But seriously, it's such an awesome idea I don't see why not!

Then today I just had school and I still have P.E. this afternoon... Then I'm free, yay! Btw, the reason that this post is called the Christmas Eve of Christmas Eve is because here they celebrate Christmas at night on the 24th. Which is actually quite convenient because you guys will all be celebrating at the same time that I am! But it is interesting, and also that you have to wait the whole day for presents... Not sure if I'm going to like that... But yeah, today is technically the Christmas Eve of Christmas Eve!

So I shall update you all on the going-ons here after Christmas and hopefully give a detailed Christmas post on Sunday. Ciao for now!