The holiday season has come and gone, but the memories our outbounds have made over the past month remain. Christmas is consistently one of the hardest times of the year for exchange students. Though they're spending time with their host families and participating in the culture of their new country, they can't help but think about what's going on at home.

However, some of the greatest memories come from the holiday season. This year, Joel Dzuba tells of his experience with the German tradition of lighting Christmas trees with real candles. "It strikes me as dangerous and really really awe inspiring," he states, recalling his brush with danger as he accidentally walked too close one day. 

In the Netherlands, Andrew Russo remembers the holiday fundraisers sponsered by the largest radio station, in which three of the station's DJs are locked in a glass house for a week, taking requests and living on a liquid diet. 

Jayne Kitchen was surprised to find that in France, a traditional Christmas dinner consists of seafood, while in Denmark, Emily Hall had a slight misunderstanding with her host family in regards to a traditional song about a spider. 

In Finland, Jocelyn Cross was met with a "spectacular sight" - the only time of year fireworks are really a thing. She took in the sight from the top of a hill with her host family, from which she was able to see the entire city and all of the individual shows. 

I went to Andorra for a five day skiing trip that was fun in the mountains.  It was a great chance to meet Spanish kids and hang out with them.  It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life.  Plus I got to ski in some great mountains. Christmas came and for that we went to the Grandparents house.  It was a huge dinner with the whole family and we exchanged presents and Santa came.  It was nice to meet the whole family and we sang and ate plenty.  It was a different type of Christmas but one that I enjoyed very much.  We also got to set off fireworks as well which was great and plus its legal here unlike New York.  For New Year's nothing special really just watched the ball drop with my family and had dinner with some others of the family.  Of course the twelve seconds before Midnight you must eat twelve grapes for good luck so that was a new custom I had never done before.  I was able to do it so it means I will have good luck for the rest of the year.  I have been blessed to be able to visit such great places.

The language is coming.  Though I must keep working at it.  I understand pretty much everything but need to continue to work on speaking it.  My host family is great and helpful through all of this.  This will mark 4.5 months with them now.   Everything else is going well and on January 6th we celebrate three kings day which is when they give presents to each other here.  Its more than just a religious holiday here it is quite commercial as well.  I hope all is going well there and that you had a great christmas.