Subject to Change

Today is the second day after Christmas day and the fifth day of my vacation. I am currently in Allentown, PA at my best friend’s sister’s house. It is a REALLY nice house – with a jacuzzi and everything, hello!  I had my first Christmas american style and I have to say it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great either because I wasn’t with my mom and the rest of my family. 😦

There’s a couple of differences between American Christmas and Colombian Christmas. First of all, we don’t usually buy presents for EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the family. In Colombia, or at least in my city, children are the ones who get presents, not adults. If there are presents, we open them at midnight and not on the 25th. And third, it is not Santa Claus who brings presents; for us it is Baby Jesus who does it. We spent Christmas at my friend’s aunt’s house and there was a lot of people there, mostly Colombians, so it felt a lot like home. Except for the fact that everything was covered in snow and I was almost freezing to death.  The next morning, we opened presents by the Christmas tree, sipping hot chocolate and eating doughnuts. I got three different presents: a pair of pajamas, a scrapbooking kit and cute basket full of beauty products. The rest of the day I did nothing but hang out in PJ’s, eat Christmas dinner leftovers and watch movies all day. I didn’t shower until 8 PM that day. Yesterday, we went out to a small town near Allentown and went shopping, which I can say is the hobby of most Americans. I got a nice jacket with a hoodie from Aeropostale. It was my Xmas present to myself! Then there was a little impromptu party in honor to some relatives who arrived from Texas. Again, I met a bunch of cousins and uncles of my friend and had to introduce myself like a million times.

Right now, I am sitting on a couch in my pajamas still and eating chocolate chip cookies. Everyone is either watching TV, playing video games or playing with their laptops. We still haven’t decided what we’re doing today. But since it’s sunny out and it will snow tomorrow, we are thinking of going out and enjoying the beautiful day. I am a bit bummed because no one wants to go to NYC with me. But as everything in my life, that is also subject to change.