Valeria Yrizar Monthly Report: December
A HOT Christmas
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”
I never really understood this phrase until this past month where I realized for the first time, how important family and friends are during the Holiday season.
As I was walking down Avenida Uruguay on my way to shop for Christmas gifts earlier this month, I couldn’t help but realize all of the wonderful decorations my city had so swiftly put up. It felt as if I were in a dream, not because of the fact that I was soon going to spend Christmas in a foreign country with people I had met just a few months ago, but because of the incredible HEAT I was experiencing at that given moment. I was in shorts and flip flops in mid December. It all felt so bizarre and out of place to me that it had to be some sort of prank or Global Warming was really starting to go into effect this Christmas season. As I came back to reality, I quickly reminded myself that I was in the southern hemisphere and this was “normal” for those who lived here. It could take me a good twenty years to even begin associating bikinis and mistletoe in the same month.
A trail of sweat dripped down the crease in my back as I made came onto the intersection between Mitre and Uruguay. As I looked to cross the street for cars, I caught sight of a billboard with the picture of a family that looked unusually happy soaking up the sun in a beach in Brazil. The Billboard read, “Where will you be this Holiday Season?”. At that moment, it really hit me.
I wasn’t going to be spending Christmas in Mexico with the Romero’s and then New Year’s in Puerto Vallarta with the Yrizar’s like I had every year of my nineteen years of existence. I was not going to be helping my mom bake her famous hot fudge brownies for the desert table, nor was I going to get to help pick out which pie’s we were going to divulge after we stuffed our faces with turkey and mashed potatoes. I was not going to hear granny hum to her well-known Christmas Carols playing in the background, nor get to participate in our annual Secret Santa that never really ended up being so “secret” by the time Christmas day came around. I wasn’t going to be able to go to Mass Christmas Eve with my family, nor place baby Jesus in his crib. I was not going to be able to wear tights with a matching scarf to try to keep warm in my grandmother’s very cold apartment. Sure, this Christmas would be different. I got to go on a Cruise to Brazil with my host family and spend Christmas in the Atlantic, but despite how amazing it may have sounded when I first found out we were going, it didn’t feel like Christmas. Sure, it was different and different is good, but when it comes to those special days, sometimes tradition and familiarity is better.
New Year’s was also going to be very different for me. I was not going to be able to eat Paella with the Yrizar Family, nor gobble down grapes as we did the countdown. I was not going to be able to go out with my cousins wearing those ridiculous plastic headbands that never seem to fit right but people wear them anyway for the sake of the annual New Year’s picture. I wasn’t going to be able to hug my family after the countdown and share each other’s New Year’s resolution, nor watch the sun rise after a night’s worth of dancing and partying. Although this really did take a toll on me this December, It wasn’t these details that had me really bummed out. It was the fact that the people I shared these crazy but yet wonderful moments with were not going to be there. It is the people that make the moment’s matter and those people that I had created these special little traditions with were in a country very far away. So yes, absence does make the heart grow fonder. I learned how important family is, especially your own. I learned that some things are meant to stay the same. I also vowed that I would never spend a Christmas without family because it doesn’t feel like Christmas nor New Year’s at all. But I also learned that one can always see the good in everything.
Yes, this Christmas was different and not what I was longing for but I did get to experience a different way of celebrating Christmas and learn different traditions so I could incorporate them with my family next year. I got to eat Turron de Mani, probably the most delicious sweet ever known to man. I got to go to the beach with my family and spend Christmas Eve in the water, something I never thought I would do. I got to eat salmon and green beans for Christmas Dinner and a cocktail of fruits for desert. Lastly, I got to spend it with my new family; which without them, I would not have been able to survive. I learned that Christmas in Argentina isn’t about giving gifts which no one really does but instead about spending time with the family.
All in all, this month was a rollercoaster of emotions, which has made my exchange even more unique and special to me. Yes, at times it was hard but sometimes one needs to actually experience hardships in order to realize what is truly important in life. I met some pretty amazing people thus far and learned a lot from them. So far my exchange has been beyond words, and I am truly looking forward to see what 2012 has in store for me!
