Christmas was very harmonic...

…but unfortunately holidays are already over again, although I want to tell you something about it.
Every year the Christmas time for me is calm and contemplative. I was a little bit afraid this year to experience something different because it was the first year without my parents and friends.
But when I look back to December I can say it was a wonderful month.
December started with surprising news. Linda and I moved to a three-bedroom-flat.
It was really quick. We were told to pack our things one evening and the next morning we stood in our new flat. And I like it so much. It is very comfortable and also just renovated. We both have our own room now and the kitchen is big enough to spend there also some time.
After packing out all the stuff and making ourselves feel comfortable we decorated the living room with Christmas stuff.
So we had a very nice time and many meetings with friends in our new flat. Also preparing presents for Germany or creating a Christmas agenda worked very well together with Linda.
Finally Christmas arrived and we went to Vilnius to visit other volunteers there. On the 23rd Ex-EVS who live in Vilnius invited us for a traditional Lithuanian Christmas eve dinner. This was really interesting and also the atmosphere was familial and peaceful which I really enjoyed. We experienced a dinner with 12 dishes and no meet or other products from animals. Some of the food was strange to me, for example a semi-fluid juice. Also new for me were some magical traditions like looking to next year’s future or your life’s way. What I liked most were stuff like passing a piece of bread through and wishing each other something by breaking it. Or everyone had to thank for things he/she could do or see during the last year while he/she hold a candle.
The group of Ex-volunteers explained everything to us. They were really nice and hospitable.
The next day was Christmas eve and we got up early to prepare the flat for the celebration. All in all we were 22 people, volunteers from many countries of Europe and also two families of volunteers who visited their children for Christmas. Everyone cooked something which is typical for his or her Christmas, so we had a huge variety of food and also traditions. The flat was really crowded but we all together experienced a harmonic Christmas feeling. I also went to church because I usually go there with my family for Christmas. I understood almost nothing but still the atmosphere was Christmas like and I gloried it.
On the 25th Linda, Eduardo and I went to an aqua park in Vilnius. It was very funny and also relaxing.
The rest of Christmas was relaxed. Linda and me invited Eduardo for dinner on the 26th and we noticed that our cooking skills improve here quite a lot. Eduardo also told us that in Portugal the 26th is no Christmas anymore but although he liked the Dinner.
All in all I can say Christmas this year was different than at home and I also thought of my family a lot but it was a nice celebration and I am happy about my decision to stay here and experience another kind of Christmas in Lithuania.

What I also liked a lot in December was a trip to Riga together with Linda. We stayed for three days in a hostel where people were very friendly. In this hostel we met girls from Australia, Korea and many other places all over the world. Riga is a very beautiful city. We went to many touristy places like the freedom monument, the Riga cathedral or the huge market halls.
A surprise for me was that there are so many Russian people living in Riga, about 40%.
What I liked most in Riga were the two Christmas markets there. I really enjoyed this because we do not have Christmas markets in Siauliai.

On the 3rd of January a new volunteer from Italy arrived to Siauliai, a 19 year old girl called Martina. She is living in our flat and I am very happy because she is really nice. I think we will have a great time all together during the next months.

At work we are starting to work on our own radio shows about a topic we are interested in. I will do shows about dancing because it is my hobby and I like to talk about it.

In the end I want to tell you that I suddenly noticed that almost half of my time in Lithuania is already over but I feel really settled in right now. I feel that time is running and I have to take care of all the things I want to do here otherwise I will maybe miss something.