Christmas

So, as you all know, if you read my posts, I went home to America for my two week winter break, and I don’t regret it in any way! Some people travel to other countries during the break or save a bunch of money by not traveling, but I am so happy I went back home! I was at the point where I needed to see my friends, family, and boyfriend, and I was definitely at my Taco Bell breaking point! The two weeks went by really fast as I expected. I didn't really have a lot of down time because I was meeting friends and family day after day, but I’m not complaining. I got to see pretty much everyone! I will admit that I completely stuffed my face with delicious American food the whole time I was home. I was so sick of Japanese food at the time. Currently, however, I am completely fine with Japanese food after having a break. I don’t think I was every hungry once when I was home because I was always eating… I ate Taco Bell, Hooters, Buffalo Wild Wings, Lou Malnati’s Chicago deep dish pizza, California Pizza Kitchen, Casey’s Taco Pizza, and of course, a bunch of delicious homemade food…including me favorite: taco salad. I’m sure I left out some places too, haha!

Hooter's buffalo chicken and shrimp and curly fries with cheese
dip of course.

California Pizza Kitchen's pear, gorgonzola, arugula pizza...
you won't find anything like this in Japan. 

Taco salad! My favorite!

Crispy potato soft taco from Taco Bell. Dear Lord Jesus!

Lou Malnati's Chicago deep-dish pizza.

I got home late on Saturday December 22^nd. The flight itself was fine as far as I can remember…I think I slept a lot. I saw my teacher on the plane and we talked a little. Things got really stressful, though, when I reached San Francisco airport. I had to recheck my bag (and there was a problem with a broken conveyor belt or something so I waited in a huge line of people trying to transfer planes), go through customs and security again, and switch terminals…all in like an hour. By some miracle I got on my plane 10 minutes before it was supposed to take off, but then of course, we sat on the plane for like two hours before it took off because there was a problem finding all of the baggage. So, when we finally took off, they gave us a reassuring “We think we have all the bags now.” Of course, when I landed in Chicago (my parents had been waiting for me for hours in the parking lot…and they hadn't gotten dinner yet because we planned to go out), it was about 10 o’clock at night, and they lost my bag. I was so tired and upset, I had my mom come inside the airport and talk to the worker about how to get my bag. It was kind of an underwhelming welcome home. So, we stopped at Taco Bell on the way home, and I felt much better haha! My dogs were really excited to see me. My parents got a new dog, too, while I had been gone. I was excited to meet her, but she didn't ever really warm up to me until it was time for me to go back to Japan :/ The 23^rd, my mother and her friend planned a scrap-booking night at our house. I was really excited! We made a lot of food, but unfortunately, my mother’s friend forgot to bring her pictures, so we couldn't scrap D: Instead we ate the food, drank Rumchata (I missed that, too), watched a movie, and chatted with my mother’s friend’s sons, and an Indian exchange student who was living with them for Christmas. That was fun! Now I want to go to India even more!

Moguls

Mia

Our new dog, Eevie! Plus snow! I missed not having
snow in Japan.

The next two days were Christmas Eve and Christmas. On my first full day home, my sister and I decorated one of our Christmas trees together which is a tradition in our family. I love it so much! We always have a big family Christmas party on Christmas Eve. We exchanged gifts, caught up, and of course, ate! Then on Christmas morning, we opened gifts from Santa and ate cinnamon rolls which is also a family tradition. My friend, Mitch, came over on Christmas night, and we caught up. He came to visit me not long after my Christmas break.

EXCITEMENT!

The day after Christmas, I believe, my boyfriend from Minnesota flew in to see me. That was nice! We spent around 5 days together. We relaxed and watched movies, and we went up to Chicago for a day which is something we like to do together. It was really nice seeing him, and it wasn't too hard to say goodbye because he was coming to Japan in a few months (he’s here now!!).

In front of "The Bean."

Huge Christmas tree in front of the John
Hancock building.

The rest of the time spent after he left was meeting friends and family, shopping, appointments, etc. I was not ready to leave when it was time to go back to Japan…but luckily, one week after returning to Japan, Mitch came to visit from America. That helped me ease back in to Japan life. It’s hard because I won’t be going back to the U.S. until next Christmas…I can hardly believe it L At the same time, I know that my time in Japan is short (even though I did sign up for another year ;) ). I love living in Japan except for missing home. My time to be back in the U.S. again will come.

I took my mom and sister out for a last dinner together at The Melting Pot,
my favorite restaurant. My Dad had to work, but he saw me off the next day.