Tumeric cookies with a side of liquid Christmas trees

Vince Guaraldi: Check

Christmas movies: Check

The sickeningly-sweet aftertaste of Christmas cookie that continues to linger in my palate: Check

-time check- 1:34 AM

I hereby declare Christmas : COMPLETE

And you know what? For a Christmas spent away from home it was pretty successful.

- I mean, spending both  Christmas Eve and day with my last good friends here, cooking homemade dinners and pizza, baking cookies, coloring snowflakes, and watching a Charlie Brown Christmas while sipping on mulled wine that we added just a tad too much gin to? I don't know about you but it sounds like a splendid time to me. -

                                                               (Incidentally it was a splendid time)

It seems to me that once people hit their twenties, the greatest Christmas gift is the chance to just be a kid again-- whether from the childhood nostalgia that occurs, the jovial spirit which inevitably pervades your soul, or even just the ability to spend a whole day in pajamas, watching movies and playing games free from criticism or disapproval --  this is more satisfying  than any gift bought in a store.

SO ANYWAYS

While  this weekend  has been great I can already feel the raindrops of reality melting my winter wonder land-- this reality being the fact that the majority of my friends are gone, and the last few left will be gone by this time next week (oh and beeteedubs, they aren't coming  back)

In plain and understated terms, this SUCKS....MAJOR.

               But eh, life goes on. 

      AND,  while I am saying goodbye to my new friends, in a few weeks I will be saying hey to some old friends, which I am very excited for.

Unfortunately, however, I have two weeks of solitude to push through (...I mean...enjoy?) first.

But how will I survive? I mean, don't get me wrong, I do not require human contact all day every day....But two weeks? No friends? What ever shall I do?

THIS

MARISKA'S WINTER BREAK  TO-DO LIST: BUDAPEST EDITION  2011

1. Watch SO MUCH T.V.- movies, shows, cartoons....ALL OF IT.

2. Learn to cut my own hair

3. Curl my hair with bobby pins

4. Hang out in the children's section at Calvin Ter library and attempt to read books...attempt being the key word.

5. Learn a new craft- Card making? Embroidery? Whittling?

6. Perfect old crafts- AKA make more friendship bracelets.....for my self....sigh...

7. Learn the Cyrillic alphabet

8. Make a stop motion movie using only the objects in my room/ Vlog? Maybe?

9. Thoroughly learn about the Palestinian war

10. Buy  jeggings BOOTS (but really this time)

11. Construct blanket fort

12. Visit one new district of Budapest every day

13. BAKE

14. Learn one new thing off of wikihow everyday(staring with:  How to Avoid Copyright Infringement)

15. Reintroduce Sparticus work-out to my life (and my thighs)

16. CONSTRUCT LIFE PLAN (ideally illustrated with a nice flow chart)

Alright that seems about it..

OH ALSO

I really do ( for reals this time ( I  mean really  (reelee) ) )   plan to start blogging every weekend

So ...heads up? Sorry if it gets annoying? Your welcome?

okay, good night

BOLDOG KARÁCSONYT

        

Hungarian Turkeys and Serbian Hipsters

Have you heard the good news?

That's right! My keyboard has stopped it's boycott against Ts, Ys, Ns, and spaces!

(and thank god! The strike was really putting pressure on the system called my daily life and paper writing capabilities)

ANYWAYS

The semester is coming to a close, and you know what, the second half of this semester has been pretty different but overall great

                                                      (minus the existential crisis a few weeks ago, yikes)

I spent most of my time in Budapest, and while that sometimes felt slow or uneventful, it seems like the ability to be bored is a sign that Budapest is really starting to feel like home.

Though there's been some pretty neat experiences that ended up being far more significant than I anticipated.

check it:

Thanksgiving. This was my first Thanksgiving not spent with either my family in Montana or my sister in Portland. 

Now, Thanksgiving isn't exactly a holiday of much importance to me,  (especially after I went to high school and learned about a  little thing called imperialism and small pox infested blankets....womp womp)

But I've come to realize that the holiday season itself is significant for me if for no other reason than nostalgia. When I wake up on Thanksgiving  or Christmas morning to the smell of baking food in a slightly frenzied atmosphere that is eagerly anticipating the feast ahead, it recreates the strongest memories I have of my childhood, and particularly, of my mom. The ability to feel this way makes me want to cherish and protect these final weeks of every year against the other 46 weeks of reality and my ever deepening adulthood.

Surprisingly, this Thanksgiving was one of the most nostalgic holidays I have had despite being away from family and in a country that barely even eats turkey. I found myself in charge of organizing the dinner (though in reality this meant nothing more than creating a facebook event and badgering people until they told me what they were bringing to eat)

But as plans started to develop for thanksgiving a wierd sensation was coming over me. Suddenly I was searching everywhere for exciting sides, emailing my sister and grandma for recipes, I felt an unnecessary nervousness that there would not be a proper balance of sides vs desserts.....and the quantity..Oh GOD WHAT IF THERE IS NOT ENOUGH FOOD.

 - essentially, I was reminded of why I am very much a member of my family-

Now, this realization meant far much more to me than anyone could really know since for most of my life there has been a part of me that sometimes felt disconnected with my family. There has often been holidays that I spent quietly, simply listening or only holding conversation with my relatives under the age of 7. Of course this hasn't always been the case, but this Thanksgiving I felt a real identification with my grandma, my aunts, my sister and above all, my mom who so often hosted holiday dinners and who so enjoyed baking and cooking, all December long it seemed, that she really made the Christmas season what it was; to feel connected with this is a great and comforting feeling.

( Reconciliation with this whole 'growing up' thing through filling in the holiday role that I associate with the adult women in my life: CHECK)

Serbia. While not as sappy of a realization as Thanksgiving provided -my nostalgic childhood memories about the former Yugoslavia seem to be lacking- a funny phenomenon did occur during this fairly spontaneous weekend excursion.

First off, Serbia is pretty neat. Not necessarily my favorite place so far, but eh, at least my fears and exaggerated conceptions of Serbia were mostly extinghushed 

( minus the part where my friend and I entered our hostel to the sight of five police officers with guns watching some futball....wait what?)

But the most memorable part of our first night was when we found ourselves, not in a disco, nor a turbo-folk club, but rather.....at a bar-turned-indie party swarming with Serbian hipsters? Awww yeaaa we did.

And you know what? It was one of the strangest sensations because as I rocked my shoulders and tapped my toes to familiar English indie, I suddenly felt intense association with Seattle, and  being amongst the Serbian indie scene was such an unbelievable comfort that I couldn't help but feel so happy inside for those several hours we spent there.

(side note: the emphasis of this being that I associate Seattle and SU with the indie scene and hipsters not that I solely get comfort from the presence of hipsters...LAWL)

I honestly can't really say that any uber profound realization about life came from this night, but to feel at home in the middle of the Balkans is quite an amazing, and hilarious, phenomenon. And I suppose in a way it was reassuring  that a feeling of home really can transcend the physical place from where it derived.

Enough reflection for one night?

I think so.