A 15 Above Winter Wonderland

This is an update I wrote a while ago, but never got around to posting, sorry but here it is.
Hey cookies, sorry I took so long to update. I have been taking a bit of a communication sabbatical while I got over a rough bit of homesickness, but now that it’s eased up a little bit, I’m backing and working to answer my bazillion backlogged e-mails, so hopefully you’ll be getting those too.
Well, in one week it’ll be December, and I wasn’t wearing my coat outside today. It has been sunny and warm for about a week now, which is a little bit strange compared to the snow I’ve grown so accustomed too. With the coming of winter, also comes the beginning of an awesome tradition here on Austria, the Christmas markets. These open anytime from mid November to December and are night markets selling ornaments, gifts, and special seasonal drinks and foods. I was able to go to one in Vienna only last week with my host sister and her Grandparents. It was so amazing. There were lights (and people) everywhere! It was all so Christmassy that I was bouncing off the walls! If you don’t know this about me, I LOVE Christmas, and get really excited in this season! I got a little snow globe (cause I REALLY want some snow!!!!) and some lieberkuchen (their version of gingerbread) and, of course, and little bag of freshly roasted maroni (chestnuts!). Then it was time to check out what makes the markets so famous, the punch. Now, every second stand was selling warm drinks: hot wine, and punch. Punch is some bizarre mixture of fruit juice and rum, but before you panic, Tim and Wayne and Sally, I was a good girl had a cup of good, wholesome, kinderpunch (the little kids version, ergo, not rum.) And it was good. I did try one sip of the actual punch from my host sister, and it was actually a little bit too strong for me. But it was fun anyway.
On that same weekend I also went to the Sissy museum in Vienna. That was fun, but we went in the wrong door and ended up spending an hour and a half looking at the imperial silverware collection first, which was pretty boring. I learnt a lot in the Sissy part of the museum though. Turns out the romanticized “Sissy,” we all know and love actually has very little to do with the actual person! The actual Elisabeth was actually severely depressed and payed little regard to her two older children and husband. I actually feel very sorry for the Emperor Franz Joseph (Sissy’s husband), he was a good guy, but his life kinda sucked. What I find really interesting though, is that, even here, so many people continue to remember a made up person rather than a real one, and nobody is ever going to convince them otherwise.
Other than that I haven’t really done anything of real interest. School, life, not really that exciting. I am finally in some real classes full time, but I’m still not really doing very much in them. I am also starting to work as a “language assistant,” in a few of my English groups. Our school also got an actual language assistant, who comes in every Friday. His name is Nick, he comes from Florida, and overall he seems like a nice enough guy, but I think everyone thinks that we’re gonna get in a fight or something, cause they pulled me out of all English classes on Friday, weird, but whatever.
I change host families this Sunday, which I am really nervous about. Due to some complications my second host family can’t take me till February, so I have to go and live with my counsellor for two months, which should be interesting.
I hope everything is going well over there, and I’ll write again soon.
Jealous of your snow
Ellyn