What Holiday?

It was about this time last year when I stopped posting to my blog for almost a month and I’m determined to not let that happen again this year. The reason being that as the days get shorter and colder everything kind of becomes depressing and dark and there really isn’t anything to do except running to and from school, which can become monotonous and so there isn’t much to write about. Along with that, aside from the cold weather and the Thanksgiving dinner that was filled with Christmas carols I am really having trouble thinking of it as Christmas season. It’s amazing the effect it can have on your way of thinking when you don’t see Christmas lights and decorations everywhere you go. Christmas has a way of easing you into winter and cold weather in a way that makes you feel more comfortable and happy about it. Unfortunately for me it feels like Christmas already passed and I missed it. I tried to bring in a little Christmas cheer by watching some Christmas movies and playing Christmas music. I even played the Jackson 5 Christmas collection while my 11^th grade students took a test but to no avail. It seems to have the same effect as listening to Christmas music in July. You can feel the Christmas cheer while the music plays but it feels artificial and wears off quickly after the songs are over.

The main reason I care about holding onto to Christmas so badly is that for one it adds a level of familiarity to my daily life and also because I’ve always had a much higher tolerance for cold weather during the holiday season when almost all the movies and music has cold weather as a theme. In my way of thinking cold weather works almost as a Christmas decoration in how it makes Christmas feel more like Christmas when there is snow on the ground and you can see your breath as you go shopping. But if you take away Christmas, winter soon becomes the biggest hassle of the year. If I had my way Spring would start working its magic right after New Years, and the whole short cold days and long colder nights would quickly give way to beaches, barbeques, and driving with the windows down. (Couldn’t think of another appropriate ‘b’ word to continue the alliteration L.)

Well anyway, enough of that. I have two weeks of school left, one of lessons and one of semester tests, and then I’ll be coasting my way through winter vacation. It’s hard to believe I’m already approaching the halfway point to the school year. Won’t be long now before the school year is over and I’m left trying to throw two years of my Moldovan life into a suitcase to take back to America. But who am I kidding. That’s still a lifetime a way. Better to focus on the now. I’ve still got a lot of work ahead of me.