Flying home to Ireland from Germany for Christmas feels like the best thing in the world. Although I love Munich카지노 게임 컬렉션s overpopulated Christmas Markets, and the aromatic glühwein which is so sweet yet so delicious that I drink it to the point where I feel like a giant gummy bear has impaled my stomach with an equally giant candy-cane. I long for Ireland, where Christmas presents are brought, more logically, by a fat, bearded man coming down a chimney rather than an infant Jesus busting through the window like a thief in the night. Ireland, where the heavy commercialism of British and American television means that Christmas only begins when the Coca-Cola advertisement interrupts Eastenders, Coronation Street or The Late, Late Show. The Irish Twittersphere goes off like the 4th of July when this happens.
At Christmas, Ireland is at its most beautiful and romantic, and Dublin becomes a place broken by the sky. The cold, short foggy days are accompanied by jubilant songs like Slade카지노 게임 컬렉션s 카지노 게임 컬렉션Merry Christmas Everybody카지노 게임 컬렉션, while during the long, clear nights, the soft crooning of Shane McGowan singing 카지노 게임 컬렉션Fairytale of New York카지노 게임 컬렉션 follows you down the streets and the darkness is held at bay by hundreds of lights, breaking the city into great blackness so close above and a sublime orangey-yellow glow so tightly around you. On Christmas Eve, Bono busks on Grafton Street for charity, followed by countless gifted amateur musicians, who are either on their break from school, or are old and only play or sing at family parties after a few drinks and the constant pestering of relatives.
That카지노 게임 컬렉션s why I book my flights nearly every year. There is no place on earth like Ireland at Christmas. I think the main difference is that people aren카지노 게임 컬렉션t completely overcome by merriment. Instead, everyone young and old, seems to be infected by the wonderment and nervous excitement of children waiting for their presents.
As an expat, however, I don카지노 게임 컬렉션t get the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere or the beautiful city that much. Because Christmas at home is like a trip home at any other time of the year, but on crack. Everything just happens so fast. But I suppose when you return to your country of residence and look back, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s a bit like childbirth; you just seem to forget the pain.
The first few days are like a return to your teenage years. You don카지노 게임 컬렉션t have to do anything, no work, no rent, no general paperwork. Instead, you can lie on your parents카지노 게임 컬렉션 couch, watch TV, and have a nice home-cooked meal you didn카지노 게임 컬렉션t cook yourself. The only thing that makes it better is if you haven카지노 게임 컬렉션t been home in a couple of years. Then, for your parents, you카지노 게임 컬렉션re the present. Suck it siblings. But you bring back presents anyway and get extra points. 카지노 게임 컬렉션No Mary, he did! Presents he lugged halfway around the world. The dote카지노 게임 컬렉션. I live in Germany, so technically, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s more like a tenth of the way across the world, but I카지노 게임 컬렉션m not correcting anyone.
And then it starts, and you카지노 게임 컬렉션re sucked into the chaos like a provincial cow in a hurricane. The thing about Christmas is, while everyone is off work, they all have things to do. So when I go home, this means I have to meet people for lunch in the city center, after spending two hours in traffic for a forty-minute journey and then meet someone else after. Or, since Dublin is a small space, you meet someone you haven카지노 게임 컬렉션t seen for years on the street and you try speaking to them about what you카지노 게임 컬렉션ve both been up to in the elephant stampede of holiday-shoppers, the conversation only stopping as forceful bodies push you both in opposite directions and you shout 카지노 게임 컬렉션yea, best of luck!카지노 게임 컬렉션 from what has become the other end of the street.
Then it really starts to accelerate as the extended family and family friends enter the picture. Tea, drinks, dinner 카지노 게임 컬렉션 it카지노 게임 컬렉션s bedlam. The anarchy of the dinner table knows no equal. It카지노 게임 컬렉션s rapid fire 카지노 게임 컬렉션 카지노 게임 컬렉션Sam, pass the peas, so how카지노 게임 컬렉션s Germany, are the people nice?카지노 게임 컬렉션 카지노 게임 컬렉션Here you go, yea they are really ni-카지노 게임 컬렉션 카지노 게임 컬렉션And the gravy there, they카지노 게임 컬렉션re alright are they, yea? How카지노 게임 컬렉션s the economy? This one is in the dogs카지노 게임 컬렉션. That카지노 게임 컬렉션s just one person, and invariably at least another two are trying to catch up with me simultaneously.
But when the turkey카지노 게임 컬렉션s gone, it relaxes and you can easily talk to your family without the pressing urge of a short trip and a Christmas ham. However, unfortunately by that time, I카지노 게임 컬렉션m either too tired or slightly intoxicated to ever clearly remember what exactly happened. But that카지노 게임 컬렉션s Christmas and Tiny Tim couldn카지노 게임 컬렉션t ask for a better one.
There is a huge difference between being an expat at home during Christmas and being an expat at home during any other time of the year. The first few days are comparable, but in mid to late December, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s just the eye of the storm. While on a regular trip, you have the time to get bored and think of what you카지노 게임 컬렉션d be doing back in your country of residence, at Christmas you don카지노 게임 컬렉션t have that time. Everything seems to happen at super speed and things blend into one another. You just don카지노 게임 컬렉션t have time to think of the differences and even the famed 카지노 게임 컬렉션reverse culture shock카지노 게임 컬렉션 is fleeting.
But the main difference is that Christmas at home, isn카지노 게임 컬렉션t really home. I mean in one sense, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s the defining characteristic and when you think of home, your mind drifts towards Christmas dinner. But it카지노 게임 컬렉션s not the everyday reality. The three weeks surrounding December 25th are like a special world, while the other forty-nine remind you of why you left and how much you stick out now.
And I think some part of you acknowledges that. It카지노 게임 컬렉션s the best time to look back on, because it is so special. The bad sides of home like small arguments, terrible public transport, awful queues in the shopping market, etc. can just be put down to being the hectic Christmas period. And the good sides are even better because everyone is in a good mood. It카지노 게임 컬렉션s probably why most people go home then, rather than Easter.
Sam Malone is an Irishman living in Munich, Germany. As a masters graduate in continental American literature, he is qualified in two things: being a nerd and reading books.
Homesickness, it카지노 게임 컬렉션s a feeling many, if not all of us have felt at some point in our lives. A longing for home is a state of mind that can impact your experience abroad in the most negative ways카지노 게임 컬렉션 that is, if you let it! Take the tough love approach and say bon voyage to feeling blue.
In many countries, tea is much more than just a beverage. It카지노 게임 컬렉션s often deeply connected with the culture and the people. The Japanese tea ceremony is about connecting on a spiritual level while in Morocco, tea is served as a sign of hospitality. Discover the different traditions around this hot beverage.
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