This year has marked the very first year that I spent away from my family for all major holidays. I believe will happen more in the future as well but the first time is always the most shocking. Start off Korea does not celebrate Christmas to the extent that America does it is mostly a couple's holiday where you go out to a nice dinner or maybe an activity not really in exchanging of gifts or a time for family gathering like back home. Well, I called my family for Christmas Eve Christmas Day, and the day after it felt like I was peering into a new world. since the timing does not line up exactly and the holiday spirit is just not the same here it feels like I wasn't even on a holiday at all. I did lose spend the time with my good friends on Christmas Eve and Christmas day had some really delicious food I'll be at nothing at all like what I have at home and had someone wholesome activities. I play the card game for the first time for a while and I always do that at home with my family to become the Uno master of the family. This year I played a mouse with some friends a game that I had never heard of but is extremely fun it is similar to Uno except you do not know the rules so when you play you slowly have to grab the rules and every time you when you make a new rule like the eighth card is reverse and if you lay a 7 you have to say have a good day. I never went to a Board Game Cafe in Korea and now I found out they're really fun. On Christmas Day I tried to go ice skating but when we got to the ice skating rink and finally found our way inside the building it turned out to be extremely expensive so we thought we'd pass and just go and eat some dinner. it was still a fun experience and dinner was absolutely amazing German food. since I've had a very tight budget as of recently during the holidays I let myself eat and go out for a few extra things than usual. just my Christmas Day dinner was almost double my daily budget. We also had a cold front in Korea where it was about -12 degrees Celsius and since many things, I want to do outside had to bundle up as long as I could but my eyelashes were frozen.
I was able to talk to my extended family for the first time since now I have a Korean phone number and cannot talk to anyone except for my parents who use a Korean app to text me. It is strange to not be surrounded by my family during this time of year, where usually I'm on break and go to my grandparent's and cousins' houses all the time to make the most of the short winter break. Here in Korea, I have two and a half months of time but I need to figure out what to do with it. I'm taking a Korean class right now that is 3 hours every day and then over the weekends I'm going on little day trips and hanging out with my friends so I stay quite busy here. I really miss giving Buddy warm cuddles during the cold nights and I miss having a roommate because I have an empty dorm and it's quite silent during the day.
Holidays in a new country are eye-opening having to adapt and keep me busy to make sure I don't get sad and lonely. I think this time is where I might make the most Improvement on myself cuz of my class and my time to reflect on my last semester but I cannot wait for it to get warm again and for Kimberly to come back!!!