Christmas...

So... wow. I really haven't posted in here in a while... Well here it is now. It has been roughly four months since I came here. On one hand, I think back to August and it seems like a ridiculously long time ago and all the things I've done, and all the ways that I've grown in four months is rather impressive to think back on. However, on the other hand I'm not entirely sure where the time keeps going. There is only 6 months left of this amazing experience and then it's over and I will be left with the memories of what once was the most amazing year of my entire life. Depressing much?

Anyways... I'm on Christmas break now. My friend Samantha and I are currently sharing my room and I will be moving to her house in Budapest on January 19th. This is both a good and an unfortunate thing. On one hand, I will be living in the city so I can hang out with my friends, pick up a few extracurricular activities during the week, and of course possibly the best part, I won't have to wake up at 5:30 every morning. I'm very excited about that. However, I am going to miss the Rostas Family a lot. Like, tremendously. Mostly because they remind me of my own family in the random bursts of singing and dancing, lots of children, and just the overall feeling of home here... but this experience is all about change right? Right.

So yeah, Christmas break so far has been fun. Sam and I spent a few days at my host grandmothers flat in Budapest hanging out with friends, Christmas shopping, Rotary gatherings, etc. Budapest in December isn't what I would have expected it to be during the holidays but that is probably due to some outside factor that I'm simply too ignorant to realize. (Hungarian Christmas isn't really commercialized like it is back home which in a way I kind of like.) That and the fact that I'm not in Ukiah going through all of the traditional Christmas "isms"

***Warning Tangent Ahead*** Like going to Missy's Ranch in Hopland for a tree, helping carry firewood to the shed, freezing inside the house while watching Kyle try to start a fire in the fireplace, the smell of Teran cookies in the oven, random friends hanging around the kitchen waiting for said cookies, (well actually that happens year-round), going to San Francisco for Christmas shopping, studying at Starbucks for finals, hiding in a blanket reading, listening to Bing Crosby sing Christmas carols in the Loudre Room, the MTA's Christmas Trolley, and then of course Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, new Christmas pajamas, Empanaditas de Navidad, Christmas morning, seeing family, eating candy canes, looking through the Fence of that one park near Highway 17 near Los Gatos saying that one year we're going to go in and look at all the amazing light designs, Day After Christmas Gift Card shopping with my sisters, etc. You get the idea.
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Sorry, back to my point. Because none of these things happened this year it simply doesn't feel like Christmas. There are paper jack-o-lanterns hanging from the ceiling and it is tradition not to get your tree until Christmas Eve. (Which is tomorrow yay) Also on Christmas Eve, the children go out for a walk with their Grandparents and Jesus comes to bring presents and put up the tree. How you tell your kid that like Santa Claus, Jesus doesn't exist? There has been snow, (as many of you have probably seen/heard about on the news) but I've never had snow on Christmas therefore, I don't associate it with Christmas or even New Years really. Maybe Ski Week in February. Maybe. The snow has been interesting though. I've gotten relatively used to walking around in below freezing temperatures and wearing gloves whenever I go outside. Probably the best part of this holiday season has been experiencing different Hungarian traditions and being a part of them. I am happy to say that I have more chocolate than I really know what to do with and traditional Hungarian Christmas food is amazing. On Tuesday night Sam and I were invited to a Rotarian's house to help make a Hungarian dinner with our Youth Exchange Officer Szilvia, Kristof (a rebound who exchanged in Michigan), a Rotaract member who I recognized from my presentation, and the host's two sons (I'm terrible with names). It was a lovely evening with good food, good friends, and overall a lovely atmosphere.

So yeah, as this break continues I'm sure I'll have more to write and hopefully more frequently. Not that things haven't been interesting in the past few weeks, it just takes a lot of effort to compile it all into something worth reading.

Hope You're Having a Lovely Winter Season where ever you are.

Feliz Navidad, Boldog Karácsonyt, Merry Christmas.

♥