Casino Party

Last weekend my Max and Nicole's friend Marianna had her birthday party. The theme of her party was Casino, so it was a casino party! She and her husband really organized the whole party great, there was music, food and drinks, great decoration and there were 5 different casino games, that could be played, and we were even playing with chips (obviously we weren't playing for real money). I never played any of these games before, and the one I played first was Black Jack. I had no idea how to play it, but luckily there were people who could explain me everything. After a while I understood it, and it was really a lot of fun!  I played it a while, then I wanted to stop and check out something new. There were a lot of people, so there was also the opportunity to talk a lot, and afterwards I played Roulette. This game was much easier to understand, and also a lot of fun, but I got bored of it a little faster. In the end though I was playing a long time, and I really enjoyed it!

Spending time in Canada

The other days, we spent in Canada, we did many nice things. For example we had christmas on the 26th (that was the only day, all family members could get together). To me it was really fun, to have Nicole's whole family over, and we were having diner, and unwrapping the presents. Even though it wasn't my family, I spent christmas with, I spent it with some great people!
We also got to meet some of Nicole's cousins. One of them had a very cute little daughter, we went to lunch to one of the cousin's houses and we went to the cinema with two others, who were both around my age, which was really fun too.
Max and I went to Dungeon Castle. This used to be the home of a rich family, and we had a tour, in which we could look through the rooms, and the guide explained the history. The castle was really nice, and the tour was really interesting, and the tour reminded me a little bit to school trips we did in Germany.
One day Nicole's parents, Nicole, her nice and me went to a market, with a library over it. I did enjoy all the walking around and looking around and talking. Nicole, her sister Noelle, Chloe and me also were supposed to go shopping one day, but for any reason most of the stores were closed on Mondays, so we looked in every store, that was open, and went to a restaurant for lunch.
I had a lot of fun, and really a good time, even though it was really cold, but at least I got my white Christmas!

Niagara Falls

On Christmas, the 25th, I got to meet Nicole Sister and her family. She and her husband have very cute daughter, Chloe and a Rottweiler, what I was excited about. We had breakfast and opened the stockings (of course I forgot my stocking gifts, so I had to give them later). Afterwards we went sliding with Chloe and had a amazing hot chocolate afterwards.
When we left, we drove to the Niagara Falls. Coming close to them, I already could feel sprinkles form the falls. They looked really amazing, but because of these sprinkles it also was very cold. The water was frozen on my hair and jacket. I enjoyed the view though, and then we left, to buy another Hard Rock Cafe souvenir :)
The evening we spent with diner (Nicole's dads made some great eggnog!) and watching movies!

Canada/Toronto

For christmas break we drove up to Canada, to visit Nicole's family. We lived in her parent's house, which was about 30 minutes away from Toronto and right at lake Ontario.
We spent the first two days with living in and preparing and wrapping Christmas presents. The third day, which was the 24th, so "Christmas" for me, we went to see Toronto. It is a very nice city, but it was so cold. We went to markets and which were all inside, and it makes sense, that there is this area, in which stores and things like that are underground. There also was this gorgeous, "Flatration Building", in a great color and a nice shape, which was really beautiful. For lunch we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, and I was very happy I got another T-Shirt from it. There also is a very nice mall, and we got to see some more Christmas windows of a store, that I really enjoyed. Next to it was the Nathan Phillips Square with an ice skating range. In the end, Max and I went up the CN Tower. There was a very nice view over the whole City and lake Ontario. There also was this glass floor, on which you could stay and see how deep it is under you, which was pretty scary, and even though I tried, I couldn't really go on it. Nicole was waiting for us downstairs. We drove to the parent's house and had diner there. Definitely a Christmas Eve I've never had before!

Richmond christmas lights

The Saturday before Christmas break we drove down to Richmond to see all the crazy decoration of the houses (we really looked at much decoration now ;) ) and to meet my friend Leonie, who is also an exchange student I met at the preparation weekend of my program international experience back in Germany.
We picked Leonie up and went for brunch, and walked around Richmond afterwards. We even went into a store with pretty German decoration, which was really fun, because we saw things I haven't seen here in the US, but know from Germany. And there also was a Döner place!
As soon as it got dark, we got in the car and drove to the first house on our list. These were two houses, and it was really crazy! Both had almost everything you can imagine in the front yard: santa clauses, dogs, penguins, elfs and so much more, that the whole front yards were full! Even the trees had light on them, which were so high, that we wondered how they came up there! I honestly do not want to know, how much all of that costs!
The next house we saw was one, that's lights were moving to the music of a radio station. It were so many light too, and we drove through another one, which also moved to music.
The next house was also incredible, it kind of looked like a gingerbread house, and had just like the first house so much stuff standing around, that it was almost too much to look at! They even had a guest book, free candy cane and dog treats, and a Santa! It was so much fun too!
The next house we saw was a small house my itself, but of course also stuffed with everything that was a light and had something to do with christmas!
We went to that Döner for diner, which was okay, but not as good as the ones in Germany. At least we know that there is such a place in the US, which is good, because I haven't seen such a place here before.
The last thing we saw was a whole street, with almost all houses decorated. It was unbelievable, because they all looked amazing! In the end there was one more house, that had lights moving to the music in the radio. That was a really good house too, especially combined with the whole street, which was so bright!
In the end we dropped my friend off and drove home. It was really a fun experience!