Latvian Hockey and an Old Lady's Life Story

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I've been meaning to post for awhile, but I either am too busy or get sidetracked.
So, two weeks ago I switched host families. With the Rotary Youth Exchange program you will live with three families during your exchange. You'll spend about three months with each family. I'm now with my second one. It was hard to leave my first host family. I had been there since the beginning, but it is nice to have something new. This family has three kids all younger than me. There is a girl, Ana, who just turned one yesterday. There are two boys, Lukas who is 4 and Valteeris who is 9. I've never exactly had younger siblings. I do have a 13-year-old brother, Scout, but we get along fairly well and he's not high-maintenance. Here, there's always something going on. My host parents are extremely nice and welcoming. My host grandma is also around a lot, helping take care of the younger kids. She barely knows English so I get to practice my Lithuanian. It's actually not too bad! I can understand a lot more than I thought, and I can say what I need to. It's great! Also, the past two weekends and this weekend, my host dad's friend has been staying with us. My host mom is having seminars with her work and he is part of it. Here's the thing though: My host dad is actually Latvian, but he knows Lithuanian. His friend is also Latvian, but he doesn't know Lithuanian. So they will speak in Latvian. When he talks to my host mom or host grandma, they will speak in Russian, and when people talk to me, they speak in English. It can get pretty confusing, but it's really fun too.
That brings me to Latvian hockey. Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in many European countries, but not Lithuania and Latvia. In Lithuania, it's basketball; in Latvia, it's hockey. On my first weekend with this family, I got to watch a Latvian hockey game online. The Latvian team is part of the KHL, the Russian hockey league. I got my hockey fix! While it wasn't enough to make up for watching the Red Wings at least once a week, it was nice to watch good hockey.
Since I switched houses, I now have to take a different bus to get home from school. It's a long ride, so most of the time I will take my old bus and walk a little farther. When I did ride the long bus one day, an old lady sat next to me and started talking to me. I did say I can speak some Lithuanian, I didn't really know what she was talking about. I picked up a few things, she's lived in Kaunas for eight years, something wasn't working for 15 days, and she likes chocolate. This lasted about ten minutes. During that, I just smiled, nodded, and made sounds of agreement. I was determined to not let her know I was foreign, and it worked! To quote a famous penguin, "Just smile and wave...". That's what I did, and it worked!
We're getting really close to Christmas now. And yes, they do celebrate it here. It is a Roman Catholic country. We have a Christmas tree at my house, all you hear is Christmas music, the malls are packed with people buying gifts, and each kid has a Christmas concert with their school. I went to both of my host brothers' concerts yesterday. It was definitely better than the St. Mary's concerts. Each class just had their own concert. Lukas' class just sang songs and was visited by Santa. They were dressed up in costumes too. He was Eyore! Very cute. Valteeris' concert was a play of an old Russian fairy tale. So in a nutshell, at each concert, the kids performed then they got to eat cookies, cake, and pizza. Pretty normal. Santa visited each kids' concerts too. In Lukas' class, each boy got a Lego race car and each girl got a mixer. Yeah, a mixer. The thing that has two whisks and is used to make brownies or cake, in the kitchen. How very stereotypical! Come on, at least go with a Barbie or something. I just found that a little funny.
Well, to wrap up before this gets too long, I'm excellent. It's snowing, the holidays are very close, and I'm just doing well overall. I would like to take this moment, while I have your attention, to say something though. I may have talked to you about where I'm going to school next year. Please disregard anything I've said. I have NO idea where I'm going. There are pro's and con's of wherever I choose and I'm going to wait until the summer to make my decision. Also, if I start to get bothered or influenced by people, I'll go to an all-girls boarding school in Idaho where we only learn about things that have to do with potatoes! Well, maybe not, but you get the idea.
-I'm Elsa Finch and I approve this message.-