holidays

So my birthday came and went. I'm officially legal to drink in the States woopiee.... not so exciting but it will be nice when i get back to be able to go to bars with friends instead of just sitting at home if a group goes out. My birthday was very pleasant. I had a relaxing actual birthday, went out for drinks after my german class with one of my classmates, but nothing crazy. The weekend after I headed up to germany to visit my friend studying there. That was a lot of fun since he is there with a program of about 50 other american kids so I got to talk to a lot of people in english wiipiee....
December wasn't too thrilling in general. We haven't had much snow as of lately and there have been some very warm days earlier in the month, but the last 2 weeks have been quite chilly with everything frozen just no snow. Christmas was very enjoyable. Susannes brother and his partner came down for a few days and they were very nice interesting people (they also both spoke very good english). Most of the celebrating they do on christmas eve, so we went on a nice long walk and watched the sun set over the Alps while drinking gluwein (the hot spiced wine). Then we went back and had a bonfire and ate super tasty fondue and opened presents and then just sat around and talked for a long time. Christmas day I slept in and just relaxed most of the day which was very nice for me.
On the 26th I headed to an organic farm for 2 nights and 3 days. It was quite the experience. There are usually 3 guys that live at this farm, but 2 were on holiday so it was just one, luckily he spoke english. It was in the middle of nowhere which was beautiful. A very hilly area with lots of trees. The house was very cool and old, parts of it built in the 1700s. It was heated by wood so it was very cold, in my opinion. I ended up wearing all the clothes I brought with me the whole time (including 3 pairs of socks). They had 11 cows, lot of sheep, 2 pigs, 9 goats, and lots of cats. I got to milk the cows, scoop shit out of the barn, chop firewood, make butter yogurt and cheese, clean, and cook. I was busy most of the day from 7:30 am until about 7:30 pm. I am still sore from all the physical work but I learned a lot and really enjoyed being a part of a self sustainable group.
Tomorrow my friend from germany will come with his brother for new years. We are going to go to Zurich since they have a large party and it is the biggest city in switzerland. The only problem is we will have to party until 5:30 in the morning until we can catch a train back to bern, so it will be a longgg night.
I am still quite happy to be here and enjoying myself. I look forward to spring when I can go play in the mountains some more, although I could now but I am not so interested in skiing or snowboarding and I dont have tons of cash to spend on such endeavors. Thank you everyone that has been thinking of me and sending emails and letters and the christmas presents. I really appreciate it all and you are making my year away much easier to handle.