Christmas!

The long awaited Christmas blog has arrived! I apologise for the fact that it has taken so long for me to sit down and write this but the student life got in the way and then once I actually had more time on my hands where I could sit and write I realised that I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. :O I know, I do hope the shock of me being wordless didn't hit you too hard. The thing is for me Christmas has always followed such a particular pattern that while on the surface it may seem to be about what I do when I think about it, it is really more about what it all means to me. So I could post a nice factual list about what I did over the holidays but that isn't what I want this blog to be, it should be more reflective than that, or I could post about my emotional response to the season and the adventures it held. Those of you who know me well though will know that for me that isn't as simple at it sounds, me putting my emotions out there, or onto the page. The rest of this blog then, which I promise will talk about Christmas, may not be amazingly informative about what I did exactly in the three weeks I had off for Christmas, and it may not give you a full insight into how I felt about everything, it will be the best I can describe in words though, a mix of both aspects I suspect, so I hope you enjoy it.

As, I mentioned previously I had three weeks off for Christmas, and while I know some exchange students who went home for the holidays, that wasn't an option financially for me. However, I'm incredible lucky to have an Uncle and cousins in Florida who it was financially viable to get to , thanks to the family for all the help there, and were more than happy to welcome me in for the three weeks. This was a big thing for me as one of the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas is family. My entire Christmas is normally centred around family events and has been since before I can remember, so the fact that I could spend the season with family, even if it wasn't the family I normally spent it with, was hugely important to me.
Before I went I was extremely excited, and since I am extremely grateful, to get to spend three weeks with these family members as I don't get to see them often and not normally that long either. Also since I last saw them one of my cousins had gotten married and another had had a baby. Getting to meet baby Mason was so special, he was adorable. Most of my time pre-Christmas was spent just spending time with my family, going into the office with my uncle where one of my cousins and her husband also work and staying at my Uncles and getting to spend my evenings hanging out with another of my cousins playing on the wii and the like relaxing after a busy term.
I also did one of my traditional Christmas activities: Gingerbread men baking. Normally me and my sister spend the week leading up to Christmas baking up a storm. This year, being on different continents wasn't enough to stop us from baking, we just had to do all the work ourselves for once. It was an odd experience, cooking them in a different Kitchen, with different equipment and without my sister but it was still fun and just the smell of them baking put me firmly in a Christmasy mood. Christmas eve was spent between a couple of my uncles family friends all of whom were so very welcoming to someone they hadn't met before or had only met just over a week ago. It was a lovely day, and although different to home still gave me many of the feelings I'm used to getting at Christmas.
Christmas morning, my uncle was hosting an english breakfast at his home, it was attended by one cousin and her husband and the parents of one of my other cousins husbands (make sense?). Along with the fry up was the traditional (nice to see something survived the journey across the pond) Champagne cocktails. I then skyped my family back home which was lovely to speak to them and share the Christmas spirit even if it was via a wifi connection. After this we went to my cousins for Christmas dinner. This was probably the oddest part of the holidays. So different to what I'm used to. There were so many people for one, I think it was about 25, double what I normally spend it with. This meant that the dinner was done differently too. I'm used to pretty much one person cooking the entire main course. Rather, this year what I experienced was each person being allocated something to bring. It was a really wonderful way of doing it and it was so nice to see everyone contributing to the meal. Another difference was the actually food. No turkey, instead it was a rib roast, no pig in blankets, but there was mac n cheese and a salad, neither of which I would have ever have imagined as being part of a Christmas dinner. It was also interesting that while everyone had come together to cook, the eating of the food was quite separate (with 25 people it kind of had to be I suppose) everyone was split between 3 or 4 rooms, I'm used to everyone around one table so it was a weird feeling eating with a tableful of people but knowing there were others on the couches ect...  There were many other differences to the day, the point at which gifts were exchange and the lack of certain Christmas specials. But something that prevailed was the sense of the day as a time to come together with people you love and celebrate life and joy. I was so worried that I would lose these aspect being away from what I was used to, and while I did miss home a lot and the traditions it holds, it was a great experience to be a part of another part of my families traditions and realise that the most important aspects are separable from the actions.
While, in the U.S boxing day doesn't exist it was still an important day of the holidays for me. Why you ask? Well it was the day my sister was flying from England to spend time with me and the U.S based family. Largely the rest of my holidays was spent again just spending time with the family, sister included now. Doing regular things one would do while on holiday, relaxing with the occasional day trip included. For example one day we did Island of Adventures. I'm not going to go into detail here as it really was for me all about the quality time I was getting to spend with everyone.
Another very excitable and notable thing did happen post Christmas though, and that was a visit from two of my exchange family who had spent Christmas in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. They got the bus to come for a two day visit in which we went to seaworld and welcomed in the new year at a house party (well more like garden kitchen party) where we played the wii, ate some amazing food and watched the ball drop live at midnight. With the starting of a new year though the holidays we coming to an end and on the first they left back to continue their post exchange adventures and I spent the day with my family enjoying being with them and relaxing before on the 2nd I myself got on a plane and came back to Uni to start my second semester, holidays over.
This blog is longer than I thought it might be when I first started to write it and yet there are things I left out and perhaps could/should have talked about. But it think that I have managed to capture enough of the time that in the future when I look back at this post it will remind me of all the other wonderful things that I got to be a part of this Christmas. While this might be late I hope each of your Christmases was spent with those you love, family or friends and that you felt joy and cheer that warmed you from the inside out. I know I did and for that I will always be be grateful!

The student life triangle

Technically Christmas should be my next blog post but I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now and I want to give the Christmas post the time it deserves so that will be done when I'm not so busy. Which leads me to the point of this post, the fact that there have been so few posts this semester is that I've been incredibly busy. But not busy the way I was last semester.

Most students out there probably know what I'm referring to in the title but for those of you who are reading this who don't it is the idea that any students life is made up of three components and at any given time it is only possible to do 2 of them to a satisfactory standard. The 3 components are sleep, social life and studying (don't read into the order it's alphabetical :P ). So, if you get a good amount of sleep and have a social life you'll school work takes a dive, or if you spend time on your school work and social life then you get no sleep ect... which way you tend to lean will depend on the student.
I mostly like to make sure my school work stays at a certain level and thus often lose sleep or a social life depending upon what's happening in life. More often that not it is the sleep that goes first and that was the case for last semester. I did a lot of socialising and kept up with my work. Which made for interesting blog posts (or at least I hope). This semester though I had to re-evaluate my triangle. A lot of my friends had left, and I could choose to 'replace' them and keep up the social side with the studying or continue mainly with those that remained and get more sleep. I took one look at my syllabuses for classes this semester and choose that it was going to have to be my social life that went down the drain for the semester. For some reason, despite taking the same number of classes this semester as last I have ended up with twice the amount of work, and while last semester I could cope with getting less sleep than was probably good for me, this semester I just knew if I was going to survive and get the kind of grades I wanted then it would be best to say goodbye to the social life. Which means I have done very little which has been exciting enough to warrant a blog post. There have been a couple of outings between the studying and sleep and I'm sure eventually (when procrastinating something else) I will get around to a blog post on those but until then if you need to find me I'm on the line of the triangle between studying and sleeping :D .

 

Goodbyes!

The title for this is a bit misleading, as it may make you think that my time in Canada was done. This was not the case, but it was the end of the experience for many of my fellow study abroad friends and thus on top of exam stress and Christmas excitement we had the dreaded goodbyes.

I've been putting off writing this blog for a while because it has the potential to get very emotional very quickly and while this blog is here to document my experience, the ups and the downs, I seriously doubt I will accurately be able to put into words what I was thinking or feeling when I had to say goodbye to people that had become like family to me.

In a strange turn of events, despite being one of the few staying at York for the year I was actually the first to leave for the Christmas break. So, on the 10th of December I said my goodbyes and headed to Florida for Christmas.

This set of goodbyes was vastly different to those I said before leaving in England. Mostly because the majority of these people live in Australia and so it's not a cause of see you later (much later) as it was with friends and family previously. No this time it was a goodbye for who knows how long. We all have talked about visiting each others respective countries but who knows when we will be able to afford such things. Flying around the world isn't cheap and we are all students with little to no disposable cash. (Having said that 2016 baby! :P , inside joke I apologise if you don't get it ask me and I might try to explain :) )

Obviously goodbye is relative, I haven't just forgotten these people who made such an impact on my life and changed it so much for the better. In this modern era I've been able to keep up with them on facebook and using skype but it has been a weird experience being back here at York without the people who were so much a part of last semesters experience, it was almost like I didn't really say goodbye fully until I was back. Then it was the small things that made it hit home, Lauren's white board having been wiped clean, no more noddle Tuesday (Monique and I always met for lunch on Tuesdays and always had noddles).

I realise so far I've said very little about the actual goodbyes but that is because part of me is avoiding thinking about it too much as it was such a moment that it is hard to do justice to. There we many hugs, lots of kind words and a few tears here and there (mostly we held it together though). Monique came with me to the airport something for which I will be eternally grateful and as I prepared to walk through security knowing I wouldn't see this girl who I had become so close to I felt so grateful for all the wonderful people that have been brought into my life during my time here in Canada and so sad that it was time for all of us to continue on our own wanderings again.
Lastly, awhile before the goodbyes when we were all just starting to think about them a song came on itunes while me and Monique were hanging out that has since become 'our song' (there are a few of these that mark different aspects of the experience here in Canada), that describes eloquently what it was like. So if you want to get more of a feel for how we were feeling go listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3rjS_vSM4

Oh Christmas Tree!

It was quickly approaching that wonderful time of year, Christmas, and yet despite the cheer this thought was bringing to our otherwise stressful lives (assessments were happening and/or approaching) it felt like something was missing in our lives. After a small amount of contemplation, the realisation hit that we hadn't got a tree and we hadn't decorated a tree. This may, when you think about it seem like a small inconsequential habit that we carry out yearly but actually we found in its absence it meant a lot more to all of us (I use us to indicate my exchange family: to see exchange family see previous posts).

For me the Christmas tree is a family event. Dad goes to get the tree, Kat and I then proceed to put it into our base and try to get it upright with input from both parents. Then Kat and I proceed to put lights and some of the decorations, that mum has previously organised, onto the tree. I then decide it looks lovely and minimal (basically I get bored :P) and then Mum and Kat continue to add the rest of the decorations while I direct from afar, finally we all gather to put the Angel on top.

Back to this year (well last now), Monique between classes, revision and generally having fun went to the superstore and got us a tree and decorations. After much hacking with various tools later it was standing 'reasonably' straight in its base. It stayed like this for a while until people had finished class and could gather in Monique's room for the great decorating. It was at this point Monique and I almost had our first argument. We were casually discussing the tree and what would go on top. Monique thought Santa should be on top of the tree. I on the other hand am used to an Angel but was also willing to have a star atop the tree. There was an intense moment, time might have stopped I'm not sure, where we just stared at one another, trying to gage if the other would fold. The moment passed and we came up with a compromise, Santa would hold a star, and we congratulated ourselves on embracing part of the spirit of Christmas: give and take, we forgot though that other people might have opinions.

A while later we all gathered to decorate the tree and the 'what's going on top of the tree issue' returned. Other people also were used to an Angel and wanted to see and Angel and I had to agree it would be odd to have to Angel, and the Santa people wanted a Santa, and the Star people a star. So, a new compromise needed to be reached, and it was. We had one of each. The top of our tree was very full.

We then proceeded to get all the baubles ready, except that the pack we had gotten didn't have any hook in it so we improvised by using my small elastic hair bands. Once they were all prepared we were just about to start putting them on the tree when I came up with an idea. The idea:  to write on one bauble each a word/ a couple of words about what Christmas means to us and then to put our name on the other side . Everyone agreed this was a good idea so the silver sharpie was passed around. My word was Love.  We the put these 'special' baubles on the tree first, then attacked the tree with the rest of them until there were none left. A few minor adjustments, to even it up, later and our tree was complete and our Christmas sprit back on track.     

(I going to add photos of the tree but I'm still waiting for them to be sent to me, I will add them when I have them)

Downtown Adventure!

Not so long ago. A few weeks before classes broke up for Christmas many of us exchange students realised we seemed to have done everything  except go into Downtown Toronto and explore. Thus we started planning a weekend adventure The Saturday was going to consisted of free things, except for a meal in little Italy. The Sunday would then be full of the thing which cost money and that way people could pick and choose what they wanted to do depending on their budget. I decided to go in for the Saturday but then use Sunday to study (I had a lot of exams and essay's to do plus I can do the costly stuff over the next few months). On the predetermined Saturday we: Tanya (our lovely guide, the only one who had previously explored), Monique, Jesse, Lauren, Andrew, Andrew, Preeti, Angel and I (if someone has been forgotten I apologise).  We started by going to look at Casa Loma. A Castle in Toronto. Built in the early 1900's (?) absolutely stunning on the outside. We didn't go inside because it was extortionate but we got many a photo of the outside.  Next we headed to St Lawrence market where we held a competition splitting of into pairs to see who could find and take a picture of the weirdest thing which was a lot of fun. We also picked up a couple of souvenirs and Christmas presents while there. After this we headed to the distillery district, which is the old part of town, and to our surprise (shows how much research we had done) there was a Christmas market on. So we wondered that for a while. Next we headed over to Kensington Market where Monique found the amazing mighty ducks ice hockey jersey and I picked up my secret Santa present for the secret Santa we had set up with residence friends.  At this point there were only two things left on the day's to do list; eat in Little Italy and visit the Bay Christmas videos.  Everyone was hungry so off we went to Little Italy and found a cafe/bar type place to eat at. Then right into the heart of downtown to the Bay videos, which were pretty cool and a sweet classic story. By this time we were all exhausted so we headed back to campus to rest up for the next day, for some ready to head out for more exploring and for the rest so as to get a lot of study done.   

Cavalcade of Lights

Straight after getting our Christmas photo taken we all headed into downtown for another Toronto Christmas must. The Cavalcade of Lights. This is a huge evening for the city, held in Nathan Phillips square they set up stage for live music acts and then there is a fantastic fireworks display (video of which can be found on my facebook). Also they have an outdoor skating rink for which you can either just bring your own skates and hope on and off, or you hire skates at $10 for 2 hours. Which is what Monique, Andrew and I did while listening to the music and watching the fireworks. It took a while to get into the skating since I haven't done it for a couple of years but it was a laugh.  The best bit though had to be right at the beginning when I was still not quite into the skating so looking quite ridiculous all dressed up from the photo barely making it round the rink, when this young girl skated pass me and said "you're pretty". I had a huge smile plastered on my face after that, even when I kept almost falling over. I would recommend the Cavalcade of Lights to anyone in the vicinity at the right time, especially a Brit who may have been upset about the lack of fireworks on Nov 5th.  

Say Rudolph!

One of the things that has been really great about my time so far in Canada has been the people who I've been sharing the experience with. My main group of friends is comprised mainly of exchange students with the odd Canadian thrown in. Living in residence means you all get really close really quickly because you're eating, sleeping (in the same building) and studying together pretty much constantly. Thus, at some point in the semester, we all stopped seeing ourselves as just friends and started viewing ourselves as more of a family, a dysfunctional messed up family but a family nonetheless. This meant that with Christmas fast approaching, and my fellow exchange students time in Canada coming to an end (they are all semester students) we wanted to  get something to remember our little family by and at the same time celebrate Christmas. Thus the idea to have the family Christmas photo was born. We planned ahead to make sure we were all free, and then found a mall close to us that was doing Christmas Santa Photos at that time. On the day we spent the afternoon getting ready, putting our Sunday best on so to speak and then headed to Yorkdale on mass. We queued up behind the young children 'patiently' (some more than others) waiting our turn. Then it was our turn and the elves organised us around Santa and then we had our photos taken, we got several done as we were just sharing the cost of one CD that we could pass around and download the pictures from. Here are a couple:

From the back left to right: Andrew, Andrew, Jessie,
                                                         Me,                            Monique,
                                                          Melinda, Lauren, Santa, Tanya