It has been another few weeks since I wrote anything. I am in a bad habit of planning to write but then forget about it. But now here I am again with a brief summary of the past two months. The fall semester at UNC was challenging and I have to admit online classes were not designed for me. At the same time, I managed to work my way through the 15 credits - which kind of felt like 19 - and it turned out to be a successful semester. I was looking forward to the winter break, which is much longer than it usually is since school started earlier in August and we did not have a fall break. Since the break started I have been up to a few things. I worked for two weeks so I did not get bored. At the moment of starting it seemed to be a genius thought, but soon I realised that waking up early in the morning and kicking the day off with a few hours of tutoring may not have been the best idea, considering that I was extremely exhausted and all I needed was a lot of sleep. Still, I enjoyed working and it was a success for me that I saw others improve.
Soon after, winter break has started in the primary schools as well, so I stopped tutoring, but again I came up with a fascinating plan. Volunteering is always nice, and nothing is better than volunteering when one is already exhausted. Therefore I started volunteering and sometimes these days I do some work for that. More than making these unforgettable decisions, I am already planning for the summer. This is why I have been - and I still am - working my way through a long application for a summer camp job. I am excited if it will work out because I enjoy working with younger children, and working as a camp counselor would definitely contribute a lot to my Psychology studies. So don't ask me where did the energy and enthusiasm come from to spend pretty much every free minute of my break planning for some more work to do.
More than that in the past days my family was working on making our Christmas as amazing as usual with a huge effort. On the 23rd we made the tree and we even cleaned the house to some extent. A week before that we found some wire lights and decorated the house a little bit. And I have to admit this year's Christmas Eve was just as magical and emotional as always. I could write about this unique Christmas for pages, but I think most people understand that COVID made this year a bit different from the "routine". Maybe this change is not that bad. Usually, my family goes to the cinema on Christmas Eve, but since this year it was closed we had to come up with another plan. My dad drove us up to a mountain - near where we live- and we found some snow. In the past 4-5 years, the only thing I really asked for was a cold and snowy Christmas, but global warming would not really agree with me. This year, however, I got some snow and this was the most beautiful thing that could happen to me. I am super grateful for this memory. Even though the virus overall makes life more complicated, it allowed me to have a white Christmas. 😀
Coming up the next year, both in terms of calendar and school I am excited. I have my Spring 2021 schedule for UNC and I am more than certain that I will not be bored. I am still hesitant whether to go back to the USA or not, but I am hopeful that the pandemic will at least slow down so I can see and visit my friends again.