Text from my sister this morning: Hi sissy! Jake and I are on a ferry, going
to take a bus to Logan airport and sleep over there. Our flight leaves at 6 am tomorrow morning.
Wait, what?! You’re leaving for Michigan.. already?? This is when the wake-up call came through and I actually had to pause, take a step back, and really think about what day it was. Not one bone in my body could ever imagine
that it is actually the 19th of December and Christmas is a mere six
days away.
Coming into this, I knew that I would be missing the
holidays. It was something I had to do
if I wanted to take this opportunity to teach in Thailand. I felt prepared to miss the holidays when I
left, even though I knew it was probably killing my mom and dad to know that I
wouldn’t be there on Christmas morning to open up presents and scarf down a
breakfast made for kings. My sister and
Jake have decided to go to Michigan for Christmas, so that’s unfortunately a
double whammy for mom and dad this year.
I’m banking on my extended family to get them through (load up my mom
with mimosas and white zin!).
Thanksgiving came and went and I survived the holiday with
the help of my new friends. I wasn’t very homesick for Thanksgiving and I’m
glad for that, because I didn’t want to be homesick when I had only been here
for one measly month. There is a lot
more time for that and I didn’t want Thanksgiving to be the breaking point.
After I received my first card from Em, I was so happy. At the same time, it was my first feeling of Wow, this is the person I used to spend
every moment with outside of work and now we are writing letters to one
another. It is a strange
realization. Those closest to me are now
very distant, and it is not always easy to plan a Skype session, although I
feel fortunate for iMessaging and whatsapp, which allows me to text when I have
wifi without getting charged for it.
When one card came, others slowly began arriving here and
there. I get my mail delivered to school
to ensure that it actually gets to me safely.
Each time the secretary finds me, my eyes light up and I get a humungous
smile on my face. My students crowd
around my desk to see what I get and I always show off my letters and postcards
to them.
Last Friday, I had a field trip so I wasn’t at school (Let
me add, the most horribly exhausting and sweaty field trip of my life. It was
Friday the 13th, jokes on me!).
When I got home, I had a message from Brittany saying that she had a
letter AND a package for me. She knew that since it was Friday, I would have
had to wait in anticipation if it just sat at school all weekend, so she was a
very good person and took it home for me.
I was so much more excited for this package than I ever thought I would
be, I think mainly because this was quite a large surprise, and I had no idea
that anything was coming for me or who it would be from. So, Brittany and Emily brought me my package
and they were just as excited for me to open it and to find out what was inside. If I only could have had a picture taken of
us sitting on my bed smiling and staring at this enormous package, frantic
about what the contents would be. As
soon as I saw the handwriting on the box, I knew immediately that it was from
my parents. Leave it to my mom to send
me some cheering up on a day that had just stressed me out to the max. Funny how things work that way!
As I fumbled to rip the tape off of the box I heard a bit of
jingling, like Santa himself was in the box.
Of course my mom sent me Christmas decorations! It wouldn’t be a
Christmas living away from home if I didn’t get these from my mom. I should have known! Tinsel, door/window hangings, and Santa
hats! I have zero decorations in my
classroom and I have zero decorations in my house, so this was an amazing
surprise. I think I will be decking out
my classroom in these gifts so that I can share my Christmas cheer with my
students! The decorations will be
appreciated much more in my classroom, where all of my students and parents can
see them, as opposed to being hung in my bedroom to be seen only by me.
When I was finished oogling over the Christmas decorations,
I went back at the box to see what else was inside. All that I saw was a layer of wrapping paper
with a piece of paper on top that read, Don’t
open till Christmas J. Santa Clause came a bit early and it will
take all that I have to wait another week until Christmas to open this, but it
will be well worth it I’m sure. My
parents are extremely thoughtful and I am very thankful that I will have
something to open on Christmas. As much
as I know that giving is better than receiving, receiving will be especially
rewarding this year for me, just to make it feel like I am not totally skipping
the holiday.
What will make or break the Christmas feeling for me on the
25th is what it feels like to be working on the most wonderful
holiday. Christmas is only an observance
in Thailand, not a national holiday, so my coworkers and I will have a regular
day at work. I am not sure I have come to
terms with this yet. Even though I have
had many Christmases where my dad was working, and it happens to many people,
it just doesn’t seem fair! In my 25
years, I have always had school or work off, and had plenty of time to spend
with my family, but this Christmas will be the weirdest yet. I have high hopes that my friends and I will
make it a holiday worth celebrating, and why wouldn’t we since we will all be trying to make the best out of what we have to work with. I plan on doing Christmas activities with my
students all week long. They may have to
be math, science, or English related, but I am determined to dedicate next week
to Christmas and I think my students will be on the same page. We also have a Christmas Show on the 23rd, which should be absolute mayhem, and a classroom New Year's party on the 27th. Let's hope these events help me feel like I am not skipping Christmas.
Silver lining: Amelia, Brittany, Emily, and I will be headed
to Koh Tao to do our open water scuba diving certification course on the 27th
and we get time off for New Year’s, so at least we get a long 5 day weekend. It still would be better to have Christmas
off, but I’ll take a trip to a beautiful island as a late Christmas present to
myself! Check out where we will be diving and staying at http://www.simplelifedivers.com/!
We skip Christmas,
save the money, and go splash in the Caribbean for ten days.
-Skipping
Christmas, by John Grisham
Merry Christmas Laura and a very Happy ~ Healthy New Year enjoy ♥
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