I know how long it's been since I last blogged- my apologies. Honestly, it is a job to stay connected to everything and everyone back home and it sometimes takes away from my time here (which I don't want!). But I will try to keep it up -I promise!

My life has been anything but ordinary over the past month....celebrating Christmas and New Year's in a country that doesn't really celebrate them in a "normal" way is challenging and exciting! But we did have an incredible holiday season- Christmas Day was filled with presents from families and friends and more sweet foods than anyone should or could possibly eat. The six of us spent the day together, having Christmas brunch in the morning, opening presents from each other and family back home, laying around watching movies, working out at the gym together, cooking a Christmas dinner feast, and just enjoying the down time together. We all spent a significant amount of time on the computer/phone talking and video chatting with our families. I was placed in the same place on the couch to open presents with the family, and later video chatted with my extended family who placed me on a podium at the dinner table so I could look on and attend Christmas dinner. As sad as it was to miss Christmas with my family, I did enjoy breaking with tradition and doing whatever I wanted on Christmas eve and day. I loved the low key, no stress, stay in your sweatpants type of holiday! Why can't it be like this in America every year? The day after Christmas, a bunch of us went into the city to go ice skating at this tiny ice skating rink in a big mall. It sounds random I know. It was pretty fun- although I forgot how hard and painful ice skating was!

We spent New Year's Eve in the city where we stayed in this incredible hotel for the night. It is just a haven for us over here. You forget what it's like to travel and stay in a nice hotel instead of one infested with roaches or one where your shower and toilet are one in the same. We went to eat dinner together, made some holiday beverages (what's a new year's eve without some champagne?) and ventured out to the "times square" of the city and waited to ring in the new year. There was a huge crowd of people of course, and we were all being pushed back by this line of police, who we tried to push through and almost started a riot. The tradition here on the stroke of midnight on new year's eve is to release balloons into the air- not scream and sing and make crazy commotion. We did not join with the culture- we kept to our American tradition and caused a scene and a billion camera flashes to go off. After this, we went back to our hotel to crash a formal new year's eve affair in the hotel bar. We took over on the dance floor, made them play our ipods, and put on a show for all the people with our crazy dance moves. It was amazing.

Class has been out for the winter holiday since the first week of January. So we've been doing some traveling and activities outside our home. In a few days we'll be leaving to go to some meetings for a few weeks, followed by some vacation time in Cambodia and Vietnam. There are some incredible opportunities here to travel to countries that would normally be too hard to get to or too expensive to travel to. But being close makes for easy and cheap travel- and since we're a bunch of youngsters, we can stay in hostels and spend the night in airports and such. I will definitely have stores to tell when I return, so I'll be sure to fill you in! I'll be away from my computer for a month, so I will definitely not be able to post for a while! So happy February to all!

I have one funny story, and one sad story to share. Two interesting cultural incidences. Funny first...So last night, we were hanging out with some Asian friends, and asked them, "What do people put on their Christmas trees?" A lot of them were throwing out answers, but one of the guys leaned over to my friend Owens' and said, "There are four things that go on a Christmas tree: ornaments, presents, apples and cheese." I don't think I need to comment any more on this. I almost fell out of my chair when Owens told me what he had heard. Apples? Yes that's hilarious, but cheese? They don't even eat cheese here- how is it even on their mind?

The sad story was that I was going to get a milk tea this morning and as I'm buying one, this cop car pulls up on the street and out jumps a guy in handcuffs being escorted by the policemen. Just so you know- it is extremely rare to see cops here, and especially to see someone in handcuffs! So this was totally catching me off guard. Everyone on the street gathered around as the policemen made this man in handcuffs stand in front of an internet bar with his handcuffed hands pointing to the name of the place, while they photographed him. I asked the lady what he had done/what was going on, and she obviously replied in a language I still don't understand clearly but from what I gathered, he had stolen something from this place. Like he didn't pay for his internet hours or something. Anyways, it was intense- the criminal was being shamed in the middle of the street! That punishment is cruel- I'd rather go straight to jail than have to do that. I thought this was pretty interesting, so I wanted to share.

The commercialism of Christmas has reached the far east, so no worries, there are lights up in random places here and many fake Christmas trees all around. Things have been a little difficult over the past few weeks, trying to persevere through the winter and the holidays. I'm going gift shopping for my friends tomorrow, to buy stocking stuffers and some Secret Santa gifts- so not every tradition is lost when you live out of the country! I'm hoping that will cheer me up, and also spending some time listening and reflecting on the songs we listen to for Christmas every year- my favorite being O Holy Night. I hope everyone at home is resting and reflecting on our incredible holiday we are celebrating right now!

This afternoon, one of our friends from India invited us to come cook with him in his dormitory, along with a lot of other people from other countries . We told him we'd come, bringing American food to cook with them, but ended up bringing a plate full of sweets from a Christmas party we had the night before...I guess a plate full of really sweet food is probably as American as it gets. So we got there and this sweet man handed us a bag, a grocery sack full of mutton and some carrots, and a bag full of unmarked spices and told us to make something American of it. So Lynds, Erin and I traveled up a few floors to the weirdest kitchen ever and scrounged around for some kind of remotely clean pan to cook with. We cut some vegetables on the counter with some knife we found in someone's room, and just started throwing stuff in this skillet. The situation was just so unclean and random, yet hilarious. I was gagging from the smell of mutton rising in the smoke off the skillet. We used a large butcher knife to saute the foods, because no spoon was around. We washed the pan out with laundry detergent before we cooked with it. It was just one of those situations where you step back and just laugh at how you found yourself doing what you're doing at that moment. I loved it.

We got back today from a weekend of hanging out with friends for Christmas time. Our Christmas party last night was incredible- the food was better than Thanksgiving- we had Rotel cheese dip, soups, homemade beer bread with homemade honey butter, eggnog from scratch, and 12 different homemade desserts. We got to sing Christmas carols together and just enjoy the night with games and taking a million pictures by the Christmas tree. This weekend was so encouraging to have family around me, celebrating and anticipating the greatest holiday we celebrate!

There are three firsts for me that occurred this Thanksgiving: it was my first Thanksgiving to be away from my family, my first Thanksgiving to be out of the country, and my first Thanksgiving to plan and cook all the food for the Thanksgiving feast! Our Thanksgiving here was different, but good. Our house was filled with fall-scented candles burning and our table was decorated perfectly for the holiday. We cooked all the same dishes for Thanksgiving- green bean casserole, dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, etc. The biggest difference was the turkey- or the absence of the turkey. We had the opportunity to cook one ourselves but we only have one oven with ten other dishes to cook and a kitchen the size of a small bathroom. So we opted for chicken breasts which were great. Thanksgiving day we relaxed all morning and cooked and enjoyed the day. After eating, we all rolled over to the den and watched movies for the rest of the night. It was a great holiday. I do miss spending Thanksgiving with my real family, but spending it with my family here was the perfect alternative. It's hard to be thankful for what you have right before your eyes, so I'm thankful this year for not having what I've always had- comforts, family, traditions. I can now be truly thankful for those things.

We all know that as soon as Thanksgiving ends, the Christmas season begins. This means decorating our home, having parties, and baking Christmas goodies! I'm looking forward to this month! I'm a little sad sometimes to be away from the American celebration of Christmas, but incredibly thankful to finally step back from culture and celebrate why we started celebrating this holiday in the first place.

Things constantly break here- specifically, our dryer. It lives on our back porch, right outside my bedroom window, and has dried its last shirt this week. But we have another "broken" dryer that has been sitting on our porch for years I think. So now this broken dryer sits on top of the old one and every time we put clothes in it, we have to take about 3-4 strips of this heavy duty foam tape and tape it shut. It works so I'm not complaining- it's just funny. I feel like this is something freshman college guys would do.

In a room that I was in today for a few hours, out of nowhere, sparks started flying and booming sounds started resonating from the wall behind me. Just your usual electrical short on a rainy day. It continued for over an hour. Every red spark and boom forced me out of my seat and into my friend's lap. The Americans were the only ones moved by this extremely dangerous electrical hazard. Just more evidence of this country's low priority for safety.

Oh and as I type this, my glasses are taped together with white tape above the nose. They just snapped on me tonight. I'm so thankful that this country loves glasses and they are readily available in our city! Looks like I'm going spectacle shopping tomorrow.

It was ridiculously cold today. What makes this weather so unbearable is the moisture in the air. It's like every piece of clothing you put on and take off is wet, and cold, so pretty much it feels like you're wearing an ice pack most of the time. And there is no central heating in this country- only heating/cooling machines in some rooms of a house, depending on what you can afford. So we have heaters in our bedrooms and den, but they are turned off when we leave the room/house. Oh and our walls, ceiling and floors are made of cement and tile. So it just traps the cold. Ugh! I'm beginning to rethink my desire to live in a cold city in America one day. This year here will either break me or make me ready for it. We'll see.

Another thing about the culture- people just head for the hills when it gets the slightest bit cold or the slightest bit hot. More so in the cold than the hot. I went walking to the store today around 3 pm- there was not a soul on the street. Our normally bustling street was empty. Life shuts down here in the winter, and apparently it only gets worse. And it's the same for my roommates and I- instead of going to the gym today, we worked out to a 1990 Paula Abdul dance workout in our den. And the winter is the rainy season for this part of the country- so it rains nearly every day. It just keeps getting worse....if you're reading this and you live in America- please go outside today and just stand there for a minimum of one minute and just be silent and be thankful for what you have. I'd appreciate that!

Last weekend I ran my second half- marathon in a year! I have to say the first one in New Orleans last year was almost like a fun run compared to this one in Asia. I was so glad to be finished with training- I've loved being forced to run and stay healthy, but the burden of having to run 10 miles on a rainy Sunday night at 8 pm is not so fun. I traveled with my roommate and some other girls from around the country to a beautiful city that is near the coast. This city was incredible- it is known for its large lake which is supposed to be the most beautiful lake in the country. There were huge oak trees lining the streets and they hung over and covered the road surrounding the lake. There were so many Western-ish restaurants, cafes, and shopping - which we didn't get to experience a lot of, but it was enough to give me the fix I needed! Our run was on Sunday morning, so all day Saturday we walked around the lake, rented bicycles, toured the city, and took a boat/canoe ride out on the lake. That night, we sat on the rooftop of this nice restaurant which had gorgeous lanterns and lights everywhere and you could actually see the stars out- so exciting because I have seen maybe three stars since I've been here- our city is a smog hole. It made me miss American life, fine dining, enjoying a dinner and sitting around a table with a nice atmosphere and having good conversation. I cherish these few and far between blessings.

So Sunday morning we traveled down to this giant stadium ( not sure what goes on there still, but it was huge) and started preparing to run. I have never seen this many people in one place before. There had to be about 5,000-6,000 people there ready to run. Our race was a combination of a family run, a couple's run, a 10K, a half-marathon, and a marathon. My first half-marathon maybe had 400 runners. I was overwhelmed to say the least. As soon as the race began, people put their elbows out and started plowing through. There were no rules to this race. And no dress code either- Asian people do not usually run in running gear, unless they are pretty serious. Some ran in Converse sneakers, some in blue jeans, some in sweaters. I actually saw this guy limping across the finish line after running the half-marathon- he had Converse on- I think that will destroy his body permanently.

The run was a beautiful run, and it was a beautiful day - sunny and probably 75 degrees. But it started to rain, pretty heavily, for about 20 minutes in the middle of the run. Regardless, Lyndsey ( my roommate ) and I ran the whole thing without stopping- and made it in good time.

Since last weekend, I have not run one time. Maybe because I'm tired of running- or maybe because the weather has abruptly become winter this week. Our race was just in time before the cold weather hit! The temperature right now is colder than Alabama was at any point last winter. I'm realizing I didn't pack warm enough clothes, so I'm thinking of going shopping. The only problem is that everything is too small and too short for Americans. I guess I'm going to have to keep running to be able to buy some clothes over here!