Two or three weeks since I've posted huh? It's been a crazy month!! Brother came to visit, had to take tests and study like a madman (or madwoman in this matter), and had to fit in a few breaks here and there to spend quality time with family.
Merry Christmas everybody!! Happy birthday Jesus :) Navidad, navidad, hoy es navidad~
I hope everybody had safe holidays and were able to spend time with their loved ones, but let's not forget the true meaning of Christmas. I'll get to that later.
First off!! On Christmas Eve, I was able to spend time with my few friends here. We all gathered at somebody's house, talked for hours, listened to music, laughed, and ate and ate and ate. At 11:45 PM, we went out and walked along a path or street or road or something called the Rambla that ran alongside the beach. As we walked, families and other people were setting off fireworks ALL OVER THE PLACE.
When I say "ALL OVER THE PLACE," I mean literally EVERYWHERE. On the streets, on the beach, on the side walk, from apartment balconies. Everything was just going boom! Boom! Boom!! It was pretty cool to see everybody staring up at the sky and taking in the wonderful, cool night. I was even able to see several stars in the night sky!! The city was silent except for the bursts of fireworks and there were barely any cars driving around since everybody was out partying.
As I walked along the Rambla with my friends, I was able to be thankful about spending quality time with them. After spending days and weeks of studying and taking finals, I was able to take a breath of fresh air and fill my lungs with laughter. We walked along the beach for pretty much two hours and the weather was wonderful with clear skies and a cool breeze.
Everybody around us had music playing and were all laughing. The atmosphere was filled with good vibes and Christmas cheer (even though it wasn't cold like it is in the Northern hemisphere). We, too, got the feeling of jolliness and were talking and laughing the whole night. It was strange celebrating Christmas in hot weather since we're used to it being freezing in December, but hey, changes are exciting :)
One time, this person decided to throw some kind of popping firework or something that was like a mine at us. AT us. It popped when it hit the floor and these people decided to chuck it at US. Thanks random dudes I don't know. Anyway, the poppy thing didn't hit us (thankfully) and none of us got hurt (double thankfully), but our ears felt like they would burst. It scared the poop out of me (not literally).
I really wanted to play with some sparklers... But maybe for New Year's Eve!! I hope everybody was able to stay safe and didn't catch a cold (those of you in the Northern hemisphere). Please don't forget about the true meaning of Christmas. It's not always and ONLY about gift exchanging and partying all night, it's about the gift of the Son of God. He came to earth for US and we should be able to be thankful and happy about that. Because I sure am :)
It's called CHRISTmas for a reason!! It was when Jesus Christ was born by Mary, who was a virgin, in a manger. Imagine how cold it must have been!! Praise God who sent His one and only Son to the earth to give us salvation and to let us have eternal life :)
Sorry it's blurry, it was dark!
Compliments to my friend's photography skills.
So today was Christmas and we spent our morning at church. We sang Christmas carols and heard the sermon about the birth of Jesus and how Joseph took Mary in after seeing a vision sent by God. Our family sang O Holy Night and it was great to be singing as a family again. My brother strumming away on the guitar while my parents and I sang. All the families in the church participated and it was wonderful to see people singing about the birth of Christ.
Afterwards, there was an "asado" or a Uruguayan "barbecue". Too bad we couldn't stay long but we did get to taste some of the meat!! Then, we went home, rested for a while, and went off to eat a Christmas dinner.
With three other families, we ate and talked. The kids (yes, including me and my brother) played Apples to Apples after dessert and I laughed so much. I laughed a lot the past few days, which was more than the amount of laughter from the past month. Telling jokes and getting to know one another was great and I was glad God was working in great ways to help our family get more and more comfortable in the country that we had been led to.
I stuffed myself with two whole plates of food and another plate of dessert (which included rice crispies snowmen), and I ended up getting a food coma. I was so tired!! Last night, I slept at 2:30 AM after walking around for two hours seeing the fireworks, and then I woke up early today to practice for the carolling in church. Then, we went to church, came home for an hour or two, and then went to the Christmas dinner.
I was EXHAUSTED. But it was a good kind of fatigue as I was surrounded by good vibes and laughter as we played Apples to Apples. I won (for the first time!!) and I got to choose a person to dance or play Just Dance 2015 (muahaha). I eventually joined because I couldn't resist passing this amazing opportunity of dancing to the Tetris song. Pretty cool.
Anyways, I hope everybody had a merry merry Christmas and I hope everybody gets to end the year of 2014 with good feelings :)
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