Nearly xmas

I realise it has been a long time since I last posted anything, but I really have been very busy... I have been trying to get some work done, as I am trying to finish a first draft of a paper before mid-January. Sofar, the paper consists of 0 pages, so there is still some work to be done...
However, there are also other things I have indeed been busy with. Marieke and Margo, Fedors friends from Nijmegen, were here to visit last weekend. It was obviously great to see them again after such a long time and we spent some lovely evenings and days together...

Drinking beer at La Fontanella is always one of those fun things to be done with visiting friends, isn't it?
Also, obviously Xmas is coming up, which always involves a lot of time-consuming things. Shopping for presents is one of them, deciding what to eat and doing groceries is another (I have been to 3 different supermarkets for that: terrible...): We will be having 2 very nice xmas dinners on Monday and Tuesday. Monday will be a romantic dinner-for-two while Tuesday will be dinner-for-four with Fedor's Mother and her boyfriend. And of course, as part of the Xmas-thing coming up, I have been going to some xmas-celebrations recently. In fact, a total of 4 Xmas celebrations of some kind. First, there was the xmas-student-representatives dinner early last week, followed by a xmas dinner and going out with one of Fedor's jobs. On Tuesday there was a big Xmas-lunch at Uni hosted by the Institute of Political Economics. Finally, on Thursday, there were Xmas-drinks with the entire PhD in Economics to have the opportunity to wish everyone good holidays. All in all, these were some busy, but pleasant days...
I have also had some really great news! I have now got 2 jobs! One is Research Assistant to one of the new Assistant Professors, for a project on terrorism. Very interesting, actually. And I will be able to earn some cash that way! The other job, which I have just managed to get, is Tutor for an undergraduate course in Comparitive Political Economics. Basically, this can be summarised with GOOD MONEY... The wage rate for tutors is excellent, to put it mildly...
Alright, I think I can now start with starting to cook the first dishes for Xmas.
Merry XMAS everyone!!!
Ciao,
OJ