I got up, and fed the cat, Zoshia, who I have been baby-sitting for the last week for my neighbor. Next I cooked myself some breakfast while watching the Christmas classis; Battle Royal! Ok, maybe it is not a Christmas classic, but hey, on my Christmas I make the rules! For those of you who have never seen the movie, it is a Japanese film about a time when the youth loose all respect for adults and the government until the older generations enact in law Battle Royal to make an example of bad behaved classes. The legislative act chooses 1 class each year, drugs them, puts them on a deserted island with weapons for three days for an all out blood bath. Each class member is equipped with an electrical collar so that they can be monitored throughout the battles and if by chance there is more than one person left on the last day, all of the triggers on the collars detonate. The result being no winner. It makes for a great movie and I was happy with my choice. I plan to watch a real Christmas movie later on tonight- probably “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Opening my present.
After breakfast and a movie, I showered and cleaned the house to the Weezer Christmas album since it is the only Christmas music I have. To tell you the truth, Rivers and the rest of the guys in Weezer make a good holiday CD- very tasteful.
To quote my father, Vince, “You know Patrick, it probably won’t be your favorite Christmas, but you sure will remember it forever.” He is right. You know, I have been in the zone for the last few months that the holidays have been going bye quick and easy which makes it easier when I think ofhow much I would like to be with my friends and family especially now.
On my way to school
A typical Christmas season involves a slow and snowing drive down Interstate 89 and 93 to Falmouth where I am met with all of the Christmas foods you can think of from my mother and grandmother. My grandfather’s snow blower always shuts its self down after two passes in his driveway, and after we shovel our driveway, its across the street to the Twohig’s to help finish the job. I think he has got it sorted out this year though, at least I hope so for my Dad’s sake. Christmas eve Eggy and I go see a movie at the theater, but I can never remember which movie we see, since it is not the movie, which is important, but the company.
The next day my Mom, Dad, Riptide and I open our presents and as my Dad cooks his famous breakfast Riptide goes to town on the wrapping paper- earning his name for sure. Then it’s off to the Twohigs to meet up with the rest of the family, and the celebration becomes funnier and funnier with each coming year- last year we even sang as a family, it was probably one of the lamest and coolest things we have done all together. We literally sang all 12 days of Christmas in a line- can’t beat it. And I cannot forget my father famous retelling of “Twas the night before Christmass…”- A fan favorite! Many of the same things happen but the repetitional feeling of the same jokes, stories, movies, and sometimes presents is something I really wish I had this Christmas.
Not a bad walk to school huh?
I did get to do some of the things I usually do though- the movies. I also have a small Christmas tree as displayed in the pictures, company- the cat, and I even had a present to unwrap underneath the tree. My counterpart Valentina gave me a gift all wrapped up last night after her family had me over for dinner. One thing Ukrainians have a knack for is filling you up to the lid. One of the first words I learned when I got to Ukraine was “Eat eat!” “cushait cushiat!” and this was no exception last night. They even get you when you aren’t eating at their house. I have hardly gotten a chance to show off my food buying skills at the bazaar because of the constant bombardment of jarred Ukrainian cuisines.
Since I have such wonderful family at home too, the night before I left for DC my mom gave me a stack of envelopes that were cards written to me in advance- so far I have opened a bunch, “Open after you get to your host family,” “First Day in Ukraine,” “Halloween,” 2 labeled “Thanksgiving,” and now I have opened my 2 Christmas cards- one in particular that I enjoyed from Maureen and Leigh. When I first looked at it I had thought that Leigh had signed with her left hand, it turns out it was a left over card from many years ago- a message from the past! So a special thank you to all of you who have written the cards for me they are awesome- Grandma and Granddad, Liz, Sue, Maureen, Parents etc. My host brother called me a few nights ago and reminded me not to forget to open them and let him know what they say. The gift that keeps on giving!
In other interesting news, school has been great. I was worried that since I had had such a great training school my new one couldn’t possibly meet the same standards- I don’t know what they are feeding these kids here, but they are so polite and nice, always saying hello, and asking questions. There must be something in the хлиб. I have taught a few classes and I am gettign ready for next years schedual and clubs. This weekend will be the Olympiads comeptition where students from diferent schools compete in diferent subjects- I will attend the English competitions tomorrow morning and root on my pupils.
Well that’s about that. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.