Michigan Again

After a busy 2 month hiatus from blog writing, I realized that I should probably update the blog before I forget the hectic times and experiences I've had.  Currently, I have the most free time I've had in a month (an  entire afternoon!), so before I have to face the reality of a math test, English paper and endless Spanish tarea, I'm going to try to "concisely" summarize my December in one blog, then January in another.

Facing the reality of non-tropical weather

In December, after my last blog post, I was pretty packed with assignments and meetings, so my life wasn't all that interesting at that point and I'll skim over it.  Anyways, Christmas break finally arrived, so I got to board the 16 hour flight back to Michigan.  It was considerably less painless than my first flight, but probably only because I stayed up the entire night before, so I could sleep half the flight.  After getting stuck at O'Hare for a few hours due to the weather, I finally made it back to my family, and eager to continue my Michigan life right where I left off, went straight to dinner and a movie, not realizing how tired I actually was.

Over the next three weeks, I was able to spend plenty of quality time with my friends and family in Northville.  I started by somewhat-illegally attending Northville High for a week, shadowing Rachel at first before ditching her rigorous schedule for more fun classes.  One time, I sat through an AP Euro class, and I asked the teacher a question about the upcoming test, and he answered it, thinking I had been a student in his class.  When the class started laughing, he finally realized that I didn't even go there. Apparently he doesn't even know the names of his students after one semester in his class.

Michigan themed gifts for Rachel's
future college

Our tree

The week before Christmas,
I joined the family festivities: decorating the Christmas tree, baking cookies, going sledding... It was perfect Christmasy weather too, with a nice coating of snow on the ground and a not so nice coating on the road.  I figured out how to drive again, and luckily never swerved into the incoming traffic lane like I initially worried after months in a left-side of the road country.  When Christmas Eve came around, we all went to the candlelight church service, and then celebrated Christmas the next day with the extended family, just like any other year.  When the presents were all unwrapped and our stomachs were full from the food, we had a relaxed family day.  I was so thankful for the generosity of my family's gifts, especially for allowing me to travel to Malaysia and
Singapore for Chinese New Year in February.

Christmas celebrations and cookies

Over the next few days leading up to New Years, we welcomed friends from Chicago, and I continued to visit my friends who I wouldn't be able to see for another five months.  By that point, I was so settled back in my old routine that it almost felt like I'd never even left the US.  In reality, I had less than a week left in Northville, so after going to a few New Years parties, I had to pack again, eat a celebratory last meal, say
goodbye to everyone, and then fly back to Asia. It was nice to be escape the cold, but it was sad to say goodbye to my hometown after such a nice break.

At this point, I would continue with my January stories; however, considering the length of this blog, I'll expand on it in a separate entry, to avoid writing a novel in one entry.