Y1-9: Weeks 12, 13 & 14, Christmas holidays!

Here goes an extremely late and long post. This is because it describes my whole Christmas break. Entirely. Completely. It honestly took me ages to write, so I will understand it if you don’t read it, but it talks about good times, so you should.

As I said in my previous post, on Saturday, I arrived in Tenerife! Back home to the little sunny island again! My dad and sister came to pick me up at the airport and drove me home. The first thing I noticed was: it was hot. From being less than ten degrees, a plane-ride away and I was at about twenty. Other things were the fact that everybody speaks Spanish, the sea is actually there (the presence of gulls is, at last, logical) and, most of all, you drive on the right. That was awkward. It was great to be back home, see my family, sleep in my dear bed and watch TV. Wonders of home.

On Sunday, Lara came over to visit. It had been ages since I’d seen her, so it was great to be reunited again. We hanged out and did teeny stuff like taking selfies. We also went out for a walk. It was so good to see the sea again and smell the coast air. That is certainly something that someone who doesn’t live with it every day can understand, but it makes a big difference.

On Monday I went to La Laguna with Dad to do some shopping. As the first week of my break my friends and sister still had class, I basically dedicated my time to getting the stuff that I needed to bring with me back to England, and I also worked. My idea was to finish my two essays before leaving to Switzerland, but that obviously didn’t happen. I should start setting myself lower goals, otherwise it will end up being depressive… Anyway, I started my reading and note-taking for the essays, which took me a couple of days to finish. The bloody books were so heavy I had to take them in the hand luggage with me because if I left them in the suitcase, I was over the weight limit…

Tuesday morning I went to the hairdresser’s after a long time. My idea was to cut my bleached tips off because my hair was so damaged and then get them re-bleached and dye my whole head purple. I took my Directions Plum hair dye as per usual, but it was a total fail. The hairdresser used a 10vol developer which didn’t make my ends light enough, only a little bit brassy. At least they didn’t mess the hydration up too much. Then, the colour. Oh, gosh. The dye stuck to the roots and tips, but it was sooooo patchy! First, some strands of the parts of my hair that had been bleached for over a year hadn’t been cut off, those turned blue. Then, my tips went cerise and my roots purple-bluish. My middles were the worst. The hair didn’t catch the dye properly so it just ended up being brown with a purple sheen. A total mess. Never dying my hair at the hairdresser’s again, my mum does it better. I left the dye to wash off the next week and then dyed it back to brown with a purple streak two weeks later.

On Wednesday I had a blood test done at the hospital which took up the entire morning. After that Dad took me to La Laguna to do some more shopping and then I kept working on my essays. It also rained, but it wasn’t real rain. Not after what we get in the UK. I’ve learnt to differentiate between drizzle-that-is-nothing and rain-give-me-the-umbrella-or-else. The first kind is Canary rain.

Thursday I kept working, but Sebas came over to visit. It was great to see my big bro again after all this time. He has to cut his hair though… In the afternoon I also packed my suitcase to go to the land of the Swiss.

Friday morning was the last class day for the Spanish students, so a couple of friends  and I went to visit our ex-teachers. It was great to go back, I miss high school. Everything was so much easier. I was lucky to see all the teachers I was looking forward to seeing and then we had a coffee at the bar. In the evening, the girls and I went for dinner in La Laguna. We had pizzas and an awfully nice time together, catching up. Afterwards we went out for a bit, there was party going on so we joined until they came to pick me up because the next day we were leaving early to catch our flight.

On the 20^th morning, we caught the plane from the airport in the South to Geneva, in Switzerland. We saw the Alps and Mont Blanc from the plane, which was awesome! Then Bill picked us up from the airport and took us to Trélex. The children were so excited to see us and they have grown so much!

On Sunday the whole family took the train around the Léman Lake to visit a Village de Noël in the mountain over Montreux. We went up in a zipper train that was really cute and the views were absolutely stunning. The village was nice, but there wasn’t snow so it had something missing… I had a nice time all the same. Plus, there was a boarding school right next to the village that looked like a building stripped right out of a fairy-tale. Wouldn’t mind living there… After lunch we went to Montreux and walked around the Christmas market, it was similar to the one in Bath, except for all the raclettes!

On Monday we went to Nyon, again taking the train. I liked that city, it wasn’t too big but it was quite nice. I bought a jumper (everything is so expensive there…) and then we walked around. We saw amazing views from a castle and then from the harbour, I am in love with the lake and the mountains. The good weather was a plus, it didn’t rain or snow, and the temperatures were high for December weather. We had crêpes for lunch in a fancy crêperie. I ate so many crêpes whilst being in Switzerland… but never mind. My idea was to “gain fat over the holidays to spend winter”. The exam period in January requires a bear-tactic during the holidays, and nothing was going to stop me from eating as much fish, home-made food and Christmas goodies as I could!

On Tuesday we did paper cut-out Christmas decorations with the toddlers. Custom garlands and coloured-in drawings that we hung up on the living-room window. All you need is paper and kids, no more money spent on decorations needed… Afterwards we went to Nyon to visit the museums, but apparently they were closed until Friday, so we just walked around the bank of the lake instead. Later, Josie’s friends came over for a little party and after hanging out for a little bit I decided to keep working on my essays. I had managed to finish my Introduction to European Studies before leaving, but was less than half-way through the Révolutions one…

On Wednesday the four of us went to Geneva. We walked around the main parts of the city and visited a museum. It was quite a long morning but it was also a pleasant day. There was a big contrast between the high-street avenues near the fountain were you could find Cartier or Chanel stores and the old part of the town, with small streets and alleys, which is a lot prettier. We also found a flea market where we bought a couple of things, and there was an awesome skate park with some guys doing some sick acrobatics with the skates, rollerblades and bikes! After coming back from Geneva to Trélex, we walked around the little town and saw the school the children go to. It is so strange to see troughs everywhere, but they are! And some of them are fairly pretty. That night, back home, we had a special Christmas dinner, in honour of our Spanish tradition. The children left some carrots for the reindeers and some whiskey and mince pies for Santa and went to sleep.

Christmas Day was hectic. The children had been up since half past seven and at about an hour later, we had to get up because they just had to open more presents. The amount of gifts that Santa “left” was insane, and they literally opened presents all day long. We ourselves got some nice bits and bobs from Josie and Bill. The Christmas lunch was also really good. We had turkey and parsnips and Brussels sprouts and potatoes and gravy… The Yorkshire puddings were the only thing missing, but everything else was so yummy! Congrats to the chef!

On Boxing Day we went for a family walk in the forest in the hauts-de-Trélex and then went back to Nyon to visit the museums. We saw the Roman museum, the Lac Léman museum and the castle museum with a really bizarre porcelain exhibition. Some parts were interesting and some not, but mostly it was enjoyable. That night we had to pack because we were leaving early on the following day, and we had to say good-bye to Bill and the children until next summer.

On Saturday really early in the morning we got up and… it was snowing! The snow was falling in the dark outside, which was great but also bad. The car slipped once on the journey to the airport and then our plane was delayed for an hour and a half because of the snow… But at least we got to see it. It would have been sad to go to Switzerland in winter and see no snow… After the long trip home we opened our presents under our tree in Bajamar –which were all we had asked for- and then I spent the rest of the day working on the French essay and managed to finish it!

Sunday was basically a waste of a day. I couldn’t get my new iPod touch to work so I wasted the whole day to figure out the problem and solve it. Apparently it was missing some Device Manager thingy that I had to install and then it worked fine. But to figure that out took me the whole day so I could not do anything else… I hate technology at times…

On Monday I went shopping in La Laguna, again, and then in the afternoon I went to Yaiza’s house and we Skyped with Katya for, like, two hours. That was great to catch up with them both; it had been ages since I’d talked to either of them aside from Whatsapp.

On Tuesday morning I slept until late in my dearest bed and then my mum fixed my hair with Cris’ bleach and Directions dye. Afterwards, I went to Santa Cruz with Lara and Erin. We had lunch at MacDonald’s and watched the last film of The Hobbit. I won’t get into details, but the book is pretty messed up. Let’s just say the films could be worse. That evening when we got home, my aunt, uncle and grandma and their dog had come over to Tenerife for New Year’s, so I got to see them too.

On the last day of 2014, I didn’t do much. I slept, tried to work out some insurance thing and failed, finished the essays and started looking for houses for next year. I slept for a while more because I was feeling quite tired and then took a shower and got ready. We had a nice New Year’s Eve dinner in family and opened the Christmas presents afterwards as I am not home for Reyes this year. Then my sister and I prepared the grapes and we welcomed the New Year together. At 1pm, my mum dropped Cris, David and me in La Laguna and we took the tram to Santa Cruz. There we met Annabella, María, Mara and some other people and hanged out together. I got home at about six o’clock after a great night.

Later that day, after sleeping a lot, I had to start preparing my stuff to take back to Bath with me. I felt so depressed that I cried a couple of times, the holidays had come and gone too fast and I certainly did not feel like coming back and having to be on my own in cold England again and to study. My family from Gran Canaria also left that afternoon. That night we watched Home Alone 2 together and I felt depressed a while more.

Friday was the last day I spent back home. I slept, read for a while and had quite a chilled morning, I was still sad but I tried not to think too much about it. That afternoon I went to Lara’s house to say good-bye and saw Jorge too. Then he drove me to La Laguna, where I met with some of the girls and we had dinner together. I had a nice fun night with them.

On Saturday morning I had to pack my stuff and deal with being over the weight limit, as always. It stresses me out. It is so annoying. Ended up having to leave things behind to get them mailed to me and carry heavy stuff in my hand-luggage. We also sorted out the Easter holidays. My family was going to come and visit but as I have two weeks off, it will be me who goes back home. I am looking forward to that too, although it won’t be for too long, but at least I won’t have to wait until the summer to be back. I cried a lot when I left. We had to do a massive queue to drop off my bag and then I cried a little more. The trip was alright though. They changed the gate from one end of the airport to the other end, so I had to walk a bit, but the flight was alright. The plane departed at sunset, and the view from my window was perfect. The silhouette of Tenerife and El Teide against the orange sky, with the little dots of light from the towns and, in the distance, the heights of La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma amidst a sea of clouds… I even think I might have caught a glimpse of San Borondón ;)

Once in Bristol, the rest went smoothly. I made it to the 23:00 A4 bus so I arrived an hour earlier than expected and then took the bus to the campus. Brendon Court was extremely quiet and empty. I cleaned a bit of my room, had some soup, made the bed and basically went to sleep.

Today is not really part of my holidays anymore, but it is not term time either so I will quickly add it here. I woke up late, cleaned my room, unpacked, took a shower and went to have pizza with Begoña and Khumbo. It was good to see them again. Then I did some work in my room, sorting out stuff, because everything else on campus was closed. I had some soup for dinner with Alex and Vidushi. It is weird that the residence is half empty, but people seemed to have arrive throughout the day, all silently. Now I will upload the post and watch some film or something and go to sleep. Tomorrow I have to run some errands.

Goodnight x