Školica Christmas meetup 2014

The Školica team organises regular meetups for staff and students at the end of each semester. The biggest and the most cheerful among them is usually the one held before Christmas. It would't be wrong to say that Christmas Meetup at Zum Blaustern restaurant has become a part of Školica's tradition!

This year's Christmas meetup was attended by over 30 people – teachers, students and their guests – and took place on Sveti Nikola (Saint Nicholas' Day), traditionally a family holiday in Bavaria and also an important day in the Croatian Christmas calendar. We hope that all of our students were well-behaved and polite throughout the last year and that St. Nick filled their boots with sweets, not with sticks!

Croatian food and Christmas songs

Zum Blaustern served up delicious Balkan cuisine, typically heavy in meat and in large portions – Zum Blaustern didn't betray this tradition in any sense

After we finished the battle with our tasty meals (mostly ćevapčići and pljeskavice), enjoying the sound of Croatian Christmas songs, we began with the "formal" part of the evening:

• All of our guests were given a sheet with a couple of exercises whose aim was to learn some new Christmas-related words in Croatian.
• Croatian Christmas song of the year 2014:
  Our guests were provided with the lyrics and were invited to sing along with their professors.
• As a special gift, we prepared a copy of Božićna kuharica for everyone: an improvised cookbook comprising a few recipes for some traditional Croatian Christmas meals. Bon appétit! (And we expect our students to bring some freshly baked orehnjača or fritule on the following classes! )

Special thanks to the waiters ....

The waiters not only helped our students with learning the above-mentioned Christmas words in Croatian, but also prepared a surprise for everyone: a glass of rakija, strong fruit brandy popular in the whole of the Balkans ... no traditional meal is complete without a toast with a glass of a good domestic šljivovica (rakija made from plums; šljiva = plum) or lozovača (rakija made from grapes; loza = grape vine)!

Thanks to everyone for taking part!

A big thanks to all of our students and their guests for attending this meetup and making the evening so special. A special thanks to Otto and Petra, the wonderful elderly couple that hasn't missed a single meeting since we started organising them!

Merry Christmas and hope to see you all again very soon!