christmas and goodbyes.

christmas in austria is really different from home. first, its celebrated on the 24th. all the present opening and all that is during the evening. everyone goes to church on this day. there are two services you can go to. one at 3 (typically for children) and one at midnight. my family went at 3 because teresa was singing in the choir. plus no one really wants to go to church at midnight..
then after church we went home and we sat at the table and prayed for a while. then we went around the house and blessed all the rooms. my host dad carried this thing around that had a piece of coal that was burning in it and it gave off the weirdest smell. and then regina and i were holding these leaf like things that we dipped into water that johanna was carrying and we would shake them in every room. we did this in EVERY room. so that includes the garage. then the bell rang from the living room (where no one was allowed in until the bell rang) and we all went in. then we saw the tree for the first time with the presents underneath. then we sang a song and FINALLY sat down for dinner. i guess on this day your not supposed to eat anything until dinner. but we had a soup for lunch :)
but that didnt fill me up nearly enough. so at dinner i ate soo much! we had a ton of food. and everyone ate and ate and ate until everything was gone. i had a serious food baby after. i ate so much that my stomach hurt. when i said this my host mom made a little joke. riley you have had a stomach ache all day! first from not eating enough then from eating too much! that was so true. but the dinner was well worth the wait. so then after we cleaned everything up we sat down and opened our presents. i got some really nice things from my parents, two really cool shirts that johanna printed herself, some jewelry, and last but far from least a waffle maker and nutella. so i think its safe to say that this christmas was a good one :) i will definitely miss all the christmas cookies. they are really delicious.
Then on the 25th there was a christmas party for everyone in st.valentin. it was really fun! there was a good band and lots of dancing. This break has been so nice so far. lots of relaxing. although not as much relazing as my real family! who are currently lounging on the sunny beaches of hawaii. im so jealous. we were going to go to venice for a week but our plans got cancelled. so we stayed here :( oh well. my host mom said we could try to go again later. so i look forward to that! and the dates for my classes trip to ireland were set! i will be in dublin from the 8th of march until the 14th! im sooooo excited! its going to be so much fun.
lets see.. other news...
OH! sam is goooone :( she is now back in australia. i will miss her dearly but i know that we will be seeing each other in the future:)
well new years is soon! here they call it silvester. im looking forward to the new year. im betting it will be a good one :)
other than that im still just playing basketball.. i look forward to hearing about how the teams do back home. good luck south!!!


this is my class (minus clemens and rene) on sams last day. we will miss you!