Hey everyone! I know I haven't posted for over a million years now, so sorry about that! It happens to be Christmas Eve right now, so I decided I should probably post something in holiday spirit. Now, that being said it's felt like christmas time here since the beginning of November! Since they don't have Thanksgiving in Brasil, all of the shops and houses start getting ready for Christmas almost a month earlier than in the US. The bridges that cross the river here in Itabuna are all lit up and festive, the mall has a silly little nativity scene, and all of the buildings have strings of lights lining the windows. Happy Holidays!
Christmas here is a bit different than in the States. For starters, it's summer now! Even thinking about it now, the concept of having christmas in the summer when it's 90 degrees and sunny out is pretty weird. We certainly aren't expecting a white Christmas now are we? The christmas trees here are all fake, which makes me a little sad, but I understand the shortage of evergreens here in the tropics. I personally have noticed that christmas here seems to be much more centered around family. In general, families are bigger here and live close together than back home. At christmas whole extended families get together to celebrate! I'm not talking about your parents and grandparents, I'm talking about uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, cousins of cousins, the WHOLE family. My host sister told me that sometimes it can be upwards of 100 people! Yea!
Of course in all of the crazy preparation and fun, it's hard not to think of everyone back home. It's really normal for exchange students to feel homesick around the holidays, and being here right now is new and exciting, but it also makes me think about my family and our traditions back at home. I see the fake christmas trees and I miss going to the tree farm every year with my dad to find "the perfect tree" and bringing it home to decorate. I miss decorating snowflake-shaped gingersnap cookies with my family and best friend Anya, and I miss getting up extra early on christmas morning to bake pillsbury orange rolls for breakfast. Most of all I just miss seeing my family and friends for the holidays.
All that aside though, I have a wonderful family here and a cute little tree and a whole lot of holiday spirit! Tomorrow is Christmas, and I couldn't be more excited to be exactly where I am, with people I love and new traditions to take in. Merry Christmas, and to my daddy "Cherry Mishmash!" Happy holidays everyone! Feliz Natal!
*Merry Christmas is feliz natal, as you probably already guessed from the name of this post haha!
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