Christmas is fast approaching. In fact it kind of crept on me! It's strange being in another country for such a special holiday. I can feel that it's Christmas and I can see all the excitement in the people around me and the holiday cheer but it just isn't the same. I don't have that unmistakable 'christmas feeling' I always get when I'm at home and so I could hardly believe that it was the 22 today when I looked at my calendar! It's almost like you have to work to get yourself excited for the holidays here because you don't have all those normal things that que you off. Like the pulling out of the christmas decorations or the craziness of school leading up to the holidays, or the madness of getting all of your shopping done. Here school is never crazy for me (its quite the opposite in fact), the decorations are out but they don't have any deeper meaning to me, and I had to buy some presents and things but I have so much time on my hands that I was finished my shopping way back in November.
As fast as Christmas crept up on me, so did the holiday blues. It was crazy, they just hit me like a wall one day. I was so happy for the longest time and things were going really well. It didn't feel like anything could bring me down but down I have come. I have been ridiculously homesick the past few days. It is a different kind of homesick this time though. I just genuinely miss my family and friends and everyone really. I wish I could teleport myself home for a day or two and then come right back to Slovakia. Actually that's a lie, at the moment Im not even sure I want to come back to Slovakia, but I'm sure those feelings will pass. I mean you could ask me in a couple of hours and I'm sure my answer would be totally different.I think most of the difficulties come from everyone being so busy with the holidays coming so as the exchange student I've kind of been neglected the past couple of weeks by my friends and family and then on top of that all my activities ended so I have absolutely nothing to do except sit at home and mope. And let me tell you that is NOT what you should do when you are homesick! I've been working really hard at digging myself out of this rut though and it's working I think. On sunday I baked a gazillion cookies and wrapped them up in little packages to give out to my friends. It was super nice and it got me in the christmas spirit. I had so much time I even hand made little tags to put on all of them. Sad I know. haha but I loved it.
Today I went to the tea room with my friends from school (it was the last day today!!) and that was fantastic! It was super super super nice!
I've been having some difficulty with friends here. I really don't understand the Slovak people sometimes. There'll be one time when we all go out and I really feel like they are my friends and I have a really good time and then the next day it will be like we are back to square one again. They don't really talk to me and it's like we never went out. I don't get it. For one they aren't very good at showing emotions period. I realized this the other day within my host family. My host parents were talking to their daughter who is on exchange to Brasil via skype and you should have seen the looks on their faces! They were so happy! And then it hit me. I've never seen them like that. They just go about their day to day duties and work and work and work. There is very little expression and they rarely offer up anything of themselves. So that makes it rather difficult to get into their circle of trust. At this point I'm past the shy stage thank goodness! People actually talk to me now and express some interest in what I do, so all I can do is hope that they will come around eventually. I'm sure they will.
Okay and one random story for you before I head out to a christmas party with the english school. I got up the nerve to go into one of the gazillion cheap china shops here and man was it crazy. When i say a gazillion I really mean a gazillion. They are on every corner and everyone seems to shop there. I still can't bring myself to do it. They are basically these giant warehouses full of rip offs and cheasy everything. But boy oh boy is it cheap! You can buy a pair of fake leather boots for 15 euoros ($20) and clothing for 5 or 10 euros a piece. But it was really funny because having never entered one before I was expecting the shop to be this tiny little thing because that's what it looks like from the outside. BUT once you are inside you see it's enormous and contains piles and piles of crap. You can pretty much buy anything under the sun there, really! Now I understand why lots of people have to shop there though. It's really quite sad because all the clothing and everything seems to be the same price as in Canada for the most part but the wages the slovaks earn is so much smaller! So for them what I think is a decent price, is really expensive for them. I'm sure it has something to do with the switching of economic structures as well as the change from the slovak crowns to the Euro this past January. I ask and the answer always gets really complicated really fast so I think Ill have to do some reading on it before I can begin to understand it all.

Okay so I gotta run! I think it should be a nice evening! and tomorrow I have a christmas dinner with the fam so that will be nice too!