Christmas time in Klagenfurt, I live in a postcard...

X-Mas card 2012

Hey Friends and Family!

It's mid-December and Klagenfurt is covered in snow... It's hovering at a balmy -10 C (14 F) during the daytime, and nights drop to around -20. Yikes! I am never ready for this. But more than any year before I've been able to enjoy the outdoors a little more this winter, and I can really understand why some people just love the snow!

Hike up the "Goat Slope" with the Breithubers and Hank

I mean let's not get ahead of ourselves... I don't know if I can really say that I love the snow, or the conditions that cause snow in the first place. In fact, I can say with utter certainty that I HATE when my fingers freeze into cement, making it impossible to quickly grab my keys out of my pocket or fasten the snap that keeps my hood attached to my jacket. I HATE THAT. Really annoying. Stupid freezingness.

But I do love how I practically live in some kingdom out of The Lord of the Rings. Some mornings, when the ground and trees and houses and streets are already covered in snow, a bright white fog sits on top of Klagenfurt, like a cloud has just taken over the place. I need to rememebr to bring my camera with me on my way to school tomorrow. It's really like driving through a cloud LOTR kingdom! So yes, the snow is beautiful.

Another awesome thing about the snow is that Hank, the center of my universe nowadays, absolutely loves it. Can't get enough of it! And he thoroughly cracks me up everytime we go outside to play and he does a mad puppy run through the fresh snow. Love it.

Hank doing what he does best: being cute!

Anyway, besides the stark changes in weather since my last post, everything here is chugging along rather nicely! I did get to take a nice trip to Munich for Oktoberfest before the school year started, which turned out to be a great hangout with Dresden and Klagenfurt friends alike. I got to wear Marco's lederhosen, which were surprisingly comfy. Who knew?

We made it!

Germany is great for pretzes bigger than your head

Dirndls

Tesha and I

Tanya and I

In other news, I'm back in the rhythm of school life (procrastinating from studying for a final in Cultural Skills at the moment), and really enjoying it (besides the final parts). I have 20-some-odd classmates from around the world, and it's turned out to be a really fun group of people. We're off for three weeks over Christmas, which will also be nice, because despite the fact that I'm back in the rhythm, I do still miss sleeping in 'til past 6am!

Volleyball is going well, and my team is currently in third place in the Austrian league. We were on a roll at the start, then hit a few bumps in the road, but are hoping to get back on track on Saturday at home against Graz. Besides wins and losses, it's also a great group of girls to be around, and I'm happy I decided to play with them this year. Gotta love the Wildcats!

If there was a prettyness championship, we would obviously win

Back to the center of my universe, Hank (otherwise known as Hanky-poo, Hanker the Wanker, Hanky Panky or Bürli) is doing great! We marked his 6 month birthday on 12/12/12, and I can't believe how much he's grown. Obviously, he's awesome, and I really can't remember what I did with all of my time before he was a part of my life. Dogs rule!

On a last note, while I'm used to celebrating the holidays away from my family nowadays (this will be my fourth year away from home at Christmas) I do get a weird sense of homesickness around this time. It's probably because all of my awesome family (parents and siblings and cousins and friends) get to hang out with each other and take pictures and send them to me to make me jealous share the fun...

But despite the fact that I wish I had a wormhole that could deposit me anywhere in the world for an hour of hangout and then send me straight back to Austria (free, of course, no one has $2,000 to spend on a wormhole trip!), I am really looking forward to celebrating the holidays with the Austrian family over here. Marco's family, as always, has been taking care of me as if I'm really one of their own, and that'll continue throughout the holiday season. So yay for celebrating Christmas on the 24th (that's the way they do it here) and eating fondue instead of honey-baked ham. Still delicous, and one day early! Yay!

I hope that all of you have some awesome Christmas plans of your own, and that you get to spend it with someone who makes you feel as loved as Hank does when he climbs up to lick my face in the morning (OK.. too far? I know, I'm going crazy, I think I like my dog too much. But wait... there is no such thing as liking your dog too much! Nevermind, I take it all back!)

Love,

Anna

PS: Sara, thanks for the reminder! It was time....

PPS: Sorry for the horrible picture layout. Blogger changed something, and now I can't really choose where the pictures go. Soooo hey, willy nilly pictures everywhere!! YAAAY