Christmas house

I've been counting down the days until I get home for Christmas for multiple reasons. Here are a few.

Wrapping Presents by the fire

Homemade gingerbread and peppermint hot chocolate for breakfast.

The extra ingredient to everything. 

Perfect mixture of belgian chocolate and ghiradelli chocolate chips

Grandma's favorite homemade peppermint bark.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters from Walmart

Cookies!

Dinner parties with family and friends

Grandma's House

Cooking with everyone

Curling up by the fire

Matching pajamas (all the cousins had them, bummed I didn't get a picture of all of us).

Sitting down to eat with 19 family members in the living room.

Christmas Eve Fish Feast and Grandma

My best friends!!

I'll be home for Christmas

Arrived home last night around 11:00! Whole family waiting at the airport, and I can't lie, I teared up a bit upon seeing them. I couldn't be happier to be back in the coziness of my house and smack dab in the middle of my family's everyday routine. Woke up at five thirty this morning because of jet lag, and was pleasantly surprised to see both of my brothers up. Had a 6:00 catch up sesh with them before Liam went off to take a midterm at 8 this morning. He got into college early decision, so even though the results of this don't matter, he still didn't sleep so he could study. That's dedication. Dante, coming off finals week at Vanderbilt, didn't sleep last night period because he slept for a full 16 hours upon his return home and now can't sleep at all. Glad to know we're all going to be off in our sleeping schedules this week.

This past weekend Russell and I spent exploring the little town of Oxford. It is beautiful at Christmastime, and is a city rich with history and tradition. Our hosts, family friends the Rothwells, could not have been more welcoming and generous, providing us with copious amounts of delicious food, showing us around the town and the colleges with which they had associations, and providing us with an ad interim family with whom to spend the pre-holiday season. We enjoyed ourselves SO MUCH in Oxford. Russell coming off stressful finals in Spain and me coming off of 5 weeks of living out of a suitcase, switching cities every other day, whirlwind sightseeing, we were both exhausted. Oxford providing us with the perfect restful weekend to enjoy our last few days of our study abroad experience. 

The University of Oxford is so different from any university I have ever come in contact with. The Oxford system seems like one of the most unique and inspiring ways to learn. There are 38 colleges within the university, and you apply to one of these instead of the university itself. The "classes" are tutorials, with one or two students and a professor, with whom you meet once or twice a week. Its very reading and writing intensive, but the students are only in school for 24 weeks a year, less than half the year! 

We spent so much time wandering through colleges, looking at the gargoyles, sitting in pubs enjoying local beer and food, and looking at some of the most unique museum exhibits I've ever seen. I don't have pictures because of my lack of camera, but when I steal Russell's from his iphone I'll definitely do a longer post on Oxford. It was definitely one of my favorite stops on my 5 week long adventure. 

As for now, I'm so happy spending time with my family, catching up on sleep, lounging on the couch for the first time in a long time, listening to christmas carols, drinking peppermint hot chocolate, wrapping the overwhelming amount of christmas presents I brought home for the family from abroad, and enjoying being back on American soil.

I've been all around the world, literally, in the past 5 months (well, two continents) and I've loved every place I've been. But there is no place in the world like Boston, Massachusetts and home sweet home. I've never been so happy to be home.

bad news bears

I'm currently in Prague visiting Marya, one of my best friends from high school. Prague is beautiful; stunning architecture and a weird fusion between eastern and western European culture.
Yesterday, we were wandering around the most crowded Christmas market I've been to (Budapest, Hungary, and Krakow, Poland crowds haven't even measured up, Cologne, Germany was close though). I had just taken my camera out to take a picture of the big, beautiful Christmas tree that lights up Old Town square, and I temporarily put my camera in my coat pocket. (If I'm continuously taking pictures, I'll keep my camera either clipped to my bag or in my pocket. If not, its tucked away in my purse.) Two minutes later, I went to grab my camera again to take another Christmas market picture, and it was gone. Some enterprising Czechs really took advantage of the teeming Christmas market tourists.
With that camera, I lost every single picture I've taken since I left Spain. I left my laptop there, so I've had no way to upload my pictures. Losing the camera is one thing, but its replaceable. But losing those pictures are not. The ones I'm most upset about are Assisi, Italy, and the Auschwitz and Birkeneau, and Budapest. I was super excited about showing you all where I had been, and teaching you what I had learned through this blog. For me when I'm reading a blog post, the pictures make the post.
I had a lot of fun with that camera. I've learned how to take real pictures of art, architecture, food, and people over the past few weeks, simply because I've never been exposed to so many new things and places in such a short amount of time. The good news is that I won't lose what I've learned.
My plans for a Europe scrapbook, a Christmas card with a collage of all the most Christmasy scenes in every country I've been to, and blog posts about each country are now going to be foregone, however. I'm a little bit heart broken, especially because without the money to spend on souveniers, those pictures were going to be what I brought back.
You live and you learn, I guess, and I should've known better to hide that camera away. I've been lucky so far that this is the worst thing that has happened to me. And I'm hoping and praying that whoever took that camera is using it to provide his or her family with the best Christmas they've ever had.
I hope everyone back home is having an amazing Christmas season, and I literally CANNOT wait for two weeks from today, when I'll be sleeping in my OWN BED for the first time in over 5 months. I miss you all so much!
Next stop on this adventure? Paris!