International Christmas and long awaited visit for New Year's Eve

A belated Merry Christmas and a happy New Year,

Exactly one month has passed since my last entry, but it feels like a year (I'll stop now). After the first half of the semester and a few more lectures, I finally got my long awaited break. But there's a lot planned, Secret Santa, an international Christmas Eve, and a special visitor for New Year's Eve.

But first, let's talk about what happened in December after my last entry... not much to be honest, but it wasn't boring either. It's just that I've fully embraced my routine. Bouldering twice a week, lectures from Monday to Wednesday, meeting friends, doing laundry, eating, and all the other things you do during the week. The most exciting thing that happened was that I went to a Milky Chance concert (a German band with English lyrics). The concert was really cool and I had a lot of fun with a friend from university. However, December itself was not very eventful in general.

But now things are finally getting more interesting, Secret Santa. It was more or less advertised as a "Secret Santa with junk gifts", but I wanted to give something special. So I found an original Mexican shot glass for tequila in an antique bookstore and wrote a short letter about the little man hanging on the glass (it makes sense if you look at the picture). To be honest and patting myself on the back a bit... my gift was one of the best. It was a very funny and joyful evening in general. I myself received a nice candle, which was very fitting since I was planning to buy a candle anyway and they are damn expensive. Throughout the evening, I received so many compliments, I couldn't handle it: for the gift, my outfit (a black shirt with a white sheet attached depicting a Christmas tree and the words 'Christmas sweater'), and my drink (gin, sparkling water, and cheap lime syrup). My ego was in heaven. I had to look in the mirror afterwards to come back down to earth. So it was a thoroughly successful evening.

After Secret Santa came Christmas Eve and the Christmas holidays. For Christmas Eve, we planned that everyone would make something traditional from their home country, so I cooked a typical German Christmas dish: potato salad. With other dishes like summer rolls, a sweet wheat porridge from Ukraine, and sweet pastries from Lithuania, it was a damn strange but delicious combination. Plus homemade mulled wine, so we were well taken care of in terms of food and drink. We played games and talked throughout the evening. It was a bit strange not being with family, but it was still a nice experience, even though my mood was somewhat dampened by a strange person at the party... well, the Christmas holidays were nicer. On the first day, we went back to my friend's place where we celebrated Christmas Eve for leftovers. I showed up at 2 o'clock and the first Christmas movie was put on (The Polar Express). Throughout the day, we watched two more movies while eating leftovers from the day before. That's how I imagine perfect Christmas holidays. All in all, the Christmas season was incredibly beautiful, but I still missed all my friends and family in Germany. Let's see how the next Christmases (or something like that) will be.

Now let's move on to my personal highlight of the past two weeks: first Clara, Johnny, and Charly (on December 27th) and then Konstantin and Leoni (on December 30th) came to visit me. For those who don't know, Clara is my girlfriend, Johnny and Charly are my roommates in Leipzig and friends since fifth grade, and Konsti and Leoni are my two best friends in Germany, so they are really important visitors. I have planned the routes and places I wanted to show them in the past few months, and I think I showed Zagreb from its most beautiful side. Lots of attractions, pubs, mulled wine, museums, and the mountain including the castle (which was unfortunately closed due to construction work). So the whole program. On New Year's Eve, we celebrated at Julie's apartment. Julie is basically my best friend here in Zagreb, we always go bouldering together and do a lot of things in general. Then we met some of my other friends before midnight and hurried back to Julie's apartment. We didn't quite make it, so our New Year's Eve took place in front of her apartment building... quite fitting, I would say, and very nice. On January 2nd, the others went home and now I'm alone again, or rather without my friends from Germany. But I will still do a lot of things with my friends here in Zagreb.

Small interesting information: from January 1st, Croatia also has the Euro as its currency, which is why you get shiny coins everywhere, which have a really nice design (e.g. Nikola Tesla on the 10, 20, 50 cent coins and a Kuna (similar to a marten) on the 1 euro coin). Some would say it's exciting to be part of a currency change, but in the end it's not that special.

One more month and then I'll be back in Germany. Let's see how many entries will be made during this time. Probably one for my final exams and one as a summary of everything, but I'm not sure yet.

First of all, a happy new year to all of you and may all your wishes come true.

Your Christmas-y William