I never thought I would be spending my Christmas in the States, but because Uncle Sam left a week before Christmas, I was able to stay with the family and spend the holiday in North West Indiana. Christmas was truly his holiday because he was such a giving person and because he put on some great Christmas parties!
I was able to use my dad’s truck for a few days and head down to Champaign to see my Champaign Family for the holidays. That was amazing and it reminded us all that even tho I seem far away now, I am literally only a 1000$-30hr travel day away. That’s a lot, but it is comforting! I did some Christmas shopping for Turkey and couldn’t help but spend all the money I had with me! When I realized I was coming back to the States, I took the opportunity to write a list of things I would like to bring back and worked hard to check off every item. I am proud to say that most of the things are for my friends here in Turkey, not for myself… but the bloody rare steak and bacon were just for me! J
I bought about 10 different Frisbees so I can teach the students at Bozok U how to play ultimate Frisbee! I figure that could be some winter exercise since there is an indoor soccer field on campus (of all things for this little campus to have). I also got desktop calendars for each of my language classes that teach a word/phrase of the day! I can think of a lot of fun ways to use those in my classrooms. I brought back little gifts for people in my guesthouse and even brought back some Zatarains Red Beans and Rice and Jambalaya mix! Is gonna be a N’awlins winter up in here!
I was able to take my skates with me!!! I got them sharpened along with my cousin and good friend, Cindy. She is the one who got me in to skating a while back before I even knew what I was doing. I went to one of her skating lessons and put on some rentals and was doing silly jumps without regard to my safety or anything! Years later I bought my own skates and that’s how I am where I am today. She hadn’t skated in a while, but knew exactly what she was doing when she touched the ice. I hope she picks it back up and maybe meets me for the Fabulous Cup in Germany next Spring (hint hint –I know she reads this) ;)
I was also fortunate to be around an Apple store up by the skate shop. My new computer had crashed a few weeks before in Turkey and I was so afraid I had lost everything, including my translation project and alllll materials I had developed in Turkey so far. The guy at the mac store figured out it was a memory stick that had gone all haywire and destroyed everything in my harddrive. I was really disappointed (that doesn’t quite do my emotion justice) after he told me it was lost forever!!! I grudgingly opened up my MacBookPro that night to start all over… put in my name, my address, where and how I would be using the computer… you know. Then it thought for a minute and booted up to my old desktop! WHAT!?!? Christmas miracle!!! So I immediately put my stuff on a flash drive and my aunt got me an external hard drive for Christmas! So nice and such a relief.
The actual Christmas Day was really nice. We still had it at my Uncle Sam’s place, which was a tough decision because we were all in such a sad mood a week before and I think we didn’t know if it were ok to have such a fun time so soon again. But, we did. I got to visit with a bunch of people and spend time eating a LOT of great American food- and was reminded why we look and feel so big around the holidays! I had eggnog and played in the frigid snow! It was a great time, but I was really ready to get back to Yozgat. I have a big task ahead of me and have never been more excited to tackle it. The 32 hr trip home yesterday was hard and I slept about 12 hrs once I hit the pillow this morning at 8am, but I am ready to dive in! Well, maybe one more trip for New Years, but then I am all yours Bozok University!
I hope you enjoyed these stories and I hope you had a great Holiday! Do yourselves a favor and do things for yourself this year and do things that you wouldn’t normally do! Try to get out of your stuck routines and boring lives ;) Move to Turkey!
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