Celebrating New Year in Europe Christmas Day was passed and I was ready excited about New Year! In contrast with my Christmas Day experience, this time was going to be my second time celebrating New Year in Europe. My girlfriend and I was planning to visit some friend of us in Germany, Actually, they are friends of my girlfriend. I met them in Mexico, including my girlfriend. We were flatmates by pure coincidence and we created a really beautiful friendship while we were living in Mexico. All was already set up, we were going to arrive at Wuppertal, that because it was the centrical point to all. We left our place on 30 December in order to avoid the potencial traffic jam could have happened. We needed around 5 hours driving to arrive but the time just passed really quickly. When we finally were inside of our friend's house, we celebrated the Birthday of my girlfriend. Yes, she was born on 30 December. We took some drinks and eat some sandwiches that were kindly prepared by the owner of the house. It was a really cozy small party, we were just 5 people, we talking mainly about my experience of living in Europe. Also at that moment we had to make up our minds about where we were going to celebrate New Year. There were two options, to stay in home and celebrate there or to go to another places, friend of the owner of the house. The problem with the second options was that, except for the owner of the house, we were going to meet new people and the plan was to have a small party just for us. So at the end, we decided to stay in home and celebrate there. I eat around 9:00pm and afterwards we saw a very popular tv program that is transmitted every year just before New Year. Then we went outside to see the fireworks for a while and after we returned to home to make the Mexican party! :) We danced, some latin songs like Salsa, Bachata, Cumbia, etc. I't was an awesome moment, It reminded me the old time in Mexico with them. It's was not the super crazy party, but it was just what I wanted. Spent time with my girlfriend and our friends.

My first Christmas in Europe I was so exited about Christmas because the last two months before I had a very busy days. Many thing to study and to catch up. The first week I was with my lovely girlfriend, she had to work, so I stayed in home, studying very hard and nothing else. (well I also took showers and ate). That week passed too fast, I just had enough time to finish to read half material of one of my six courses. By the way, maybe you are wondering why I had to studying during the Christmas break. No, it's not because I'm a super nerd student, that's because I had the exams before new year (to be precise it started January 11), and as I mentioned in previous notebooks, I was overwhelming with all new information to learn and, of course, I didn't want to fail any course in my first semester of my Master, so I really had to get down to work, applying myself in that vacation period. Christmas was around the corner, I needed to be ready to be in my first European Christmas night. My family doesn't use to give present in Christmas, but I seemed that that "tradition" was quiet important in my girlfriend's family. So, after thinking how could be the best "solution" to this "issue". I came up with the idea to combine the budget with my girlfriend and but something together for each member of the family. (just to take advantage of the background that my girlfriend already has of her family). Finally, the long-awaited night arrived, the dinner was so cozy, with closed relatives. I ate deer with mashed potato and salad. It was my first time I'd tasted deer. it was very jummy! The only strange was that everything finished too early. I mean, I didn't expect a Mexican style party, but at least something reasonable. By 8:30 pm all people was leaving, my girlfriend and I stayed in the house where the dinner was (her grandparents' house). The next day, December 25, we went to her aunt's house. Normally in Mexico we used that they to stay in home, sometimes we make also a small meal with the rest of food of the day before, but here was a little different. It's was amazing how much I ate that day; from a "simple" tomato soup to a very elaborate roasted meat, many desserts (cookies, ice-cream, small pastries), all made by the aunt herself! Believe me, I ate from 12:00 pm to 10:00 pm continuously and I regretted of nothing. Unfortunately, all good things must come to end and I had to come back to studying for a couple of days more until new year :)

My first months in Belgium I've already been living in Belgium for 6 months. Trying to finish my master degree. At the beginning I was really exited about this new adventure, actually I was hanged out with new international people, most of them latinos (it's not possible to don't have latinos friends when you are one of them). I went to parties and I practice just a little bit of my english there. I know, it's not the best place to practice speaking skills because of the loud music, but I did my best. What does happen with the university classes? In the very start, the lectures were good and quiet easy, I'd say (or in this case I'd write). Then, suddenly, the level of all my classes speeded up. By the end of the first month, I was full with new projects, new information to learn and many things to catch up. I was overwhelming with many things to do and I didn't know how to tackle that situation. So I started to quit parties, social events and I focussed in the material and studying every single day, even weekends. I must confess that I'm not a person that can focus for one thing for a very long time, so maybe that was one of the reasons I was having issues with my master. Also, as I mentioned in a previous notebook, I don't feel confortable, confidente with my level of english, and that was struggle me. Additionally, I was trying to give time to my girlfriend the weekends. She supported me and I was really have to be with her. I can recharge my energy and continue with that overload of work. So the weeks advanced and the information never stopped. A lot of new topics to learn, the most difficult one was something called "Modelling of Complex Systems". I've never been involved in that topic and the Professor assumed that everyone had previous knowledge in something called "First Order Logic". Obviously, I was quiet lost even with the definition of that topic. Another course that was really hard was something called "Declarative Languages". I had a two graded exercises sessions of that I epically failed both. I was very upset myself. Don't misunderstand me, I was quiet happy to be in another country learning new things, most of them were super interesting for me, but I never expected the work involved in this experience. In the next notebook I'd like to write something about the winter holidays and the feared examination period. If you have any comment/suggestion/complain please leave a comment. If you want to practice your Spanish please feel free to contact me.

New in italki Hi community! I was wondering if i could find a platform to practice my writing and speaking english skills and, by coincidence, I found italki and it seems a great platform to practice just that skills. I would like to write a notebook continuously in order to practice and, hopefully, with your help improve my global english. Now I'm living in Belgium, trying to get my master degree. I'm in the second semester I'm enjoying the new people that I met so far, however, to be honest, I don't feel really confortable because of my english. I know, it's sounds stupid, I'm studying a master degree in english and I feel worry about my foreign language skills. I didn't realised the huge gap that I have until I started to study here. I've never been a confidente person of my level of english, but I saw a good opportunity to make a master degree in english, believing that could help me with my problem. Quickly I realised that I'm still ashamed to talk in english. I can do it but it's not fluent as I want. The same happens with my writing skill, I have to spend a lot of time to write something coherent in english. I'm not sure if that is something in my mind, but, in order to "delete" that problem, I have to practice more and more. And this is why I'm here. I'm also trying to get more confidence about my speaking skill here. As I already mentioned, it sounds stupid but I think this platform could help me to improve. You know, everyone who is in the same master degree has a perfect english and I would like to have the same level. If you want to talk with my and practice your Spanish language, please feel free to contact me :D. I'm really glad to help you. I'll keep you posted with new experience here en Belgium and how my first semester was (by the way it was a disaster) in the next post.