Sunday, December 22, 2013

First Christmas Away From Home

          This year is the first Christmas that I have ever been apart from my family. As the dorm where I am living has emptied out and people have been going home, it has been really hard. I let myself think of all I will be missing and allowed myself to become extremely homesick. Thursday and Friday were spent overeating white chocolate and feeling sorry for myself. However, you do not need to worry too much. Friday night I skyped my good friend Lisle. We have been reading The Bridge on the Drina, a nobel prize winning book by Ivo Andric which takes place in Bosnia. Friday was our second out of three book discussions on it. It is a really good book and Lisle and I have had wonderful discussion on it! It feels so good to be doing something a little more academic and of course, skyping with a good friend can always cheer me up.
         The other thing that cheered me up was more planning for my upcoming trip. Even as I want to be home for Christmas, I am probably more excited for what is actually going to happen. My cousin Cara is flying into Zagreb on Tuesday! Cara is a year older than me and we have always been close. But I still cannot believe that she is actually missing Christmas at home to come be with me! And we have an epic adventure planned! First, once she arrives in Zagreb (I am taking a bus there on Tuesday morning), we will travel by bus together down to Split. We will then spend 3 days exploring Split and neighboring towns and islands. My friend Miriam from Sarajevo will also be joining us a couple of days. Then, we will head back to Zagreb for two days. On the 30th, we will take a bus to Vienna, Austria where we will spend New Years. On New Years Ever, we will be running a 5.4 km race, then enjoying the New Years Eve Walk which includes a huge market and waltzing! On January 2, we will head over to Budapest, hungary for the last leg of journey. Cara will then fly home from Budapest on January 5 and I will head back to Osijek.
          So really, not a bad way to spend Christmas at all. And yesterday turned out to be a nice quiet day here in Osijek. I went for a long jog, then had a delicious lunch spent talking to my friend Debora, a long walk in the sunshine to two grocery stores to get snacks for my upcoming trip and a stroll by the Drava, and then an almost three hour skype call with my friend Amy and a two hour skype call with my mom. Both of which felt like I was just hanging out and not so far away. Today, I slept in and have plans of packing and cleaning and going the the church's Christmas program. And then it is only one more day before my next adventure begins!

1 comment:

  1. Merry Christmas! I'm excited for you and your adventuring (and hopefully by the time you've done all that you'll be ready to go back home to Osijek...).

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