Freaking America.
Freaking winter break.
Freaking everyone else having either left or been left behind. So to speak.
I'm restless and have no idea what I want to do to combat that. Usually this is not the case. Well... at this exact moment I'd like to bust down the door of the people living above me and smash the gears out of the sewing machine being used with the object currently nearest me. Which is a hair tie or a cardigan. Needless to say it would be a very slow and awkward smashing.
Who sews at 02.30?
The holidays went better than I had expected (apologies to the family for my doubts), but the after parts were strange. It was odd driving my dad to the airport to see him off to Latvia. Usually it's me seeing him off back to the States. Same with my best friend. But I'm more okay with it than I was a week and a half ago.
Though New Year's Eve left me bitter. The experience of partying/visiting with friends and family at home in Riga and then rushing to the square by the Freedom Monument at 10 to 00.00 for the countdown is indescribable. Champagne bottles being passed around, emptied or kicked across asphalt. My middle-aged relative saying she hadn't taken a drink directly from a bottle since her college days, then stifling her laughter with a swig of bubbly. Mandarin oranges being shoved into your pockets by strangers. People dressed as chickens or call girls. It's like Halloween+Christmas+Easter+Independence Day. Then the fireworks. Oh, the fireworks. The fireworks well before midnight, shot off by Russians eager to get the party started. Then the city-sponsored fireworks. Then more Russian fireworks.
Then mulled wine, then sledding on plywood slabs by the Dom Church. Then throwing snow. Then chasing after some random golden retriever. I don't think I'm exaggerating or selling New Year's Eves to come short when I say the 2009-2010 exchange was the absolute tops. Man. I don't even want to try to beat it.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Homecoming Benefits
Despite my initial worries about being back for a winter break period for the first time in three years, it appears things won't be as dire as initially expected.
I had forgotten that my room at my father's house is a veritable treasure trove of SimCity CD-ROMs, phrase books in several languages, a Rubik's Snake and lava lamps. If these post-finals swollen throat glands turn into something serious, at least I know I'll be able to entertain myself until it blows over.
I'll also work on my lock-picking skills. No joke. Watch me.
I had forgotten that my room at my father's house is a veritable treasure trove of SimCity CD-ROMs, phrase books in several languages, a Rubik's Snake and lava lamps. If these post-finals swollen throat glands turn into something serious, at least I know I'll be able to entertain myself until it blows over.
I'll also work on my lock-picking skills. No joke. Watch me.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Finals, Holidays
Testing an application I just got for the iPod Touch that will render my MacBook useless in one more capacity. Sorry, MB.
I got to talk to my best friend for a while via Skype today. She told me how the annual Christmas party among friends went, down to the tiniest detail, per my request. Masochistic on my part, I know. I wish they had videotaped it so I could on some level pretend I had been there with them. I'm going to come right out and say it now: I'm afraid of what this year's holiday season will be like. I haven't been in the States for Christmas in three years.
It will be strange not going to the habitual Christmas Eve mass in Riga, pressed tightly into pews between complete strangers because you're all trying to keep warm. It will be strange not walking through the month-long Christmas market in Old Town, laughing at the boar, moose, duck, horse meat sold in tins by that one weird guy. It will be strange not spending Christmas Eve with my cousin and her family, trying my best not to be involved in any bloodshed while roughhousing with their four kids. Strange not waking up at 4 AM Christmas morning to call family back in the States to wish them a happy Christmas while trying not to fall asleep again...
I feel like I should be excited, not complaining. If I even am complaining? But this major of a shift in activity and setting after an extended period of time is just plain unsettling.
I miss my friends. I miss being in Latvia. I miss Latvia in general. This could all just be a side-effect of the end of the school semester, but wow, does this ever suck.
I got to talk to my best friend for a while via Skype today. She told me how the annual Christmas party among friends went, down to the tiniest detail, per my request. Masochistic on my part, I know. I wish they had videotaped it so I could on some level pretend I had been there with them. I'm going to come right out and say it now: I'm afraid of what this year's holiday season will be like. I haven't been in the States for Christmas in three years.
It will be strange not going to the habitual Christmas Eve mass in Riga, pressed tightly into pews between complete strangers because you're all trying to keep warm. It will be strange not walking through the month-long Christmas market in Old Town, laughing at the boar, moose, duck, horse meat sold in tins by that one weird guy. It will be strange not spending Christmas Eve with my cousin and her family, trying my best not to be involved in any bloodshed while roughhousing with their four kids. Strange not waking up at 4 AM Christmas morning to call family back in the States to wish them a happy Christmas while trying not to fall asleep again...
I feel like I should be excited, not complaining. If I even am complaining? But this major of a shift in activity and setting after an extended period of time is just plain unsettling.
I miss my friends. I miss being in Latvia. I miss Latvia in general. This could all just be a side-effect of the end of the school semester, but wow, does this ever suck.
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