It's Chriiiiiiistmas!

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So in 3 weeks time it will be Christmas day, i'll be waking up in my own bed, opening presents with mum, dad and the grandparents, and then spending the day in Thirsk with the nutters. I'll have friends spending their day on beaches in Bali, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, but honestly - I wouldn't want to be anywhere but Thirsk (now there's something I never thought i'd say!)

It's been a great few weeks since my last entry, the highlights being a party on a tram and a trip to Disneyland! The tram party was for our friend Will's birthday, as was the trip to Disneyland (not that we needed an excuse!) Basically we just hired out 2 trams for 2 hours and made our way round Hong Kong island getting through the drinks we brought onboard, until it was time to get off and hit LKF! It was a great night, and safe to say getting up the next morning to struggle to Disneyland was a bit tough, but we managed it. The MTR has a special train the goes to Disneyland, with mickey mouse shaped windows and micky mouse shaped handles, so it was all very exciting. We spent the day being big kids, jumping up and down with excitement at getting to go on Space Mountain, exploring Toy Story land and Tarzans treehouse in 'adventure land'. It's no disneyland Paris, but it was still awesome. The best bit was that I felt like christmas is coming for the first time. There were decorations everywhere but it was 25 degrees and blazing sunshine, so we didn't really feel it during the day. Then, as we were leaving, we were walking down mainstreet and suddenly everyone was moving to the side, then some people dressed as snowflakes started parading, mickey mouse santa was singing christmas songs, all the lights went mental on the christmas tree and there was lots of fireworks AND fake snow! I was unbelievably excited, because I realised christmas really is coming, and that means...I GET TO COME HOME!

It was a lovely weekend all round, despite how excited I am about coming back to England, I am falling for Hong Kong more and more. To be honest, even after 4 months it still feels a bit like it's all a dream. After planning and waiting to be here for a year, it all feels quite unreal. Going back to England is going to be strange I think, in a good way. It's odd how the feeling of being so far away from home hits you, simple things like when you're on public transport conversations around you are always white noise because you can't understand a word, and being so intruiged by another western face i'll turn around in the street and peer at them, trying to work out what they're doing hanging around North Point. It's going to be a nice respite to spend a week soaking up the feeling of familiarity. Homesickness is an odd creature, no matter how amazing a time you're having, you are always aware that you're very far away from family, old friends, and the places you always felt comfortable in. It's worth the trade off, but it will be amazing to not have that feeling of missing something hanging around in the background, just for a week.

School's been great the past few weeks, winding down for christmas now and it's mine and Maeve's job to decorate the school christmas tree! We're finishing off our project's with P4 and 5 so P4 will be performing their african folktale mini dramas next week and P5 are finishing off their paier mache dinosaurs! P3 are writing letters to Santa, which we started with listing what everyone wants for christmas. Needless to say this produced many shouts of 'I PAD 2' and 'I PHONE 4S' (I saw a 9 year old with Steve Jobs' autobiography the other week, madness). There was also the request of 'a toy gun' from a little boy, at which the slightly eccentric Librarian/classroom assistant Mr Luk shouted 'AH, HE IS A TERRORIST'. The boy found this hilarious and spent the rest of the lesson running round shouting 'I AM A TERRORIST'. That was a particuarly surreal day!

Right, i'd better stop rambling now. Hope everyone is well, i'll see you all very soon (touchdown in England in 19 days!!)

Loads of love x

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Comments

[Janice McVay]

Can't Wait for Christmas!!!
Hi Jess, Fantastic blog again and great to see you enjoying yourselves. It must be strange trying to feel Christmassy when it is so hot!! Glad you have managed to get into the spirit and can't wait to see you, we are all counting down too. Hope you are feeling better, your Mum said you hadn't been feeling well. I will not even take offence at being called the NUTTERS!!! Actually it is a good description and I wouldn't want us any other way! Katie and Darren have got a new puppy called Gordon - he is so gorgeous and Gran Jan and Grandad Tony are very proud!! Auntie Sally can't wait to babysit too! Anyway better get some work done. Lovely to see what you have been up to and not long now until we see you. You look fantastic and will be annoyingly tanned when you come back!! Lots of love Janxxx