Last night we celebrated our annual JV I-Team (international team) Christmas party. The night was full of laughter, good food, and good conversation. I came prepared bearing gifts of cheese, artichokes, and a green bean and asparagus dish to contribute to the meal. I think I had much more success with this particular dish than I did with my green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. When you don't have all the same ingredients out here like in the States, you have to get a little creative. This can sometimes equal great success or a humbling disaster. This Christmas was a graceful success.

We also played a few games together over the course of the evening. If any of you are familiar with "The Whisper Challenge" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, then you will know we had many laughs. In one sentence...you have to try and guess what your partner is saying to you while wearing a pair of headphones with loud music playing and not being able to hear anything else. I think you understand the challenge. Well, just add in the factor of trying to play the game in multiple languages and you will really start laughing :)

And what is a Christmas party without a white elephant gift?! This was certainly fun. Before coming to the party I picked up a few gifts for my roommate Kuba and I to contribute. There is an amazing "bazar" right by our flat. Every time I go there, I feel like I get to time travel a little bit (I will have to blog about that some other time). To give you an idea, I purchased an old Polish bible from 1929 and a old film camera for around close to just $3.

At the end of the night, I left with some floorball balls and some girly jewelry that I probably wont use. Prior to what I ended up leaving with, I had a set of jams stolen from me, and then a pair of snowboarding boots. Exciting times!

Heads ups!

Tomáš loving his thrift shop attire.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!