It's Not Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

I love Christmas season. The minute that turkey is in my belly and I wake up in a food coma the morning after Thanksgiving, I am officially ready for Christmas. From the Christmas music to the houses twinkling with lights each night to the chilly winter days, the month of preparation for Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. This year though, I just can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit.

It's not that I don't want to get into the spirit of Christmas. It's not even that I'm feeling homesick not being home for the holidays. The problem is Australia is just plain backwards! I'm walking around in shorts and sandals, spending my days off at the pool and enjoying long summer nights, yet somehow it's Christmas season?! I see ads on the televsion for Christmas and I get that frustrated feeling I normally get when people try to put up Christmas decorations in October. But then I have to stop myself and it suddenly hits me that Christmas is a week away. How can it be? Christmas in the summer time? Am I really going to spend Christmas outside in the sun? Is that really in the Christmas spirit? It just doesn't make sense!

Christmas, for me, has always been associated with the winter. Snowflakes and hot apple cider, big wooly Christmas sweaters and furry slippers, sitting by the fire opening presents Christmas morning; now that's a real Christmas! Christmas in a bikini? Not so much.

I grew up with Christmas images of Santa Claus living in the snowy North Pole, everyone wishing for a white Christmas, and the beginning of winter signaling the Christmas season. It was always a sad day when it was time to store the summer clothes away for the winter, but it was also bittersweet because bringing out those winter clothes meant Christmas was coming! Snowballs and snowmen, skiing and sledding, and holidays in the snowy mountains were all part of celebrating the holidays. A vacation at the beach? Now that's not a Christmas activity!

But here I am, living in Australia and about to have the most backwards holiday season I can imagine. There will be no white Christmas for me this year. Maybe I can work on my tan, maybe I'll enjoy a day off from work lying on the beach. Surely not very Christmas-esque, but I'm trying very hard to embrace this backwards Christmas. It will defintely be one for the memories! And on the bright side of it all, at least I won't have to remember to turn off my fireplace so as not to light Santa Claus on fire!

Essential Life Skills I'm Learning In Nebo

I initially thought I'd come to Nebo, do a little grunt work, earn a little money and be on my way to New Zealand & Fiji. And while all of that is all still true, I am actually gaining a plethora of life skills I never would have had if I hadn't come to Nebo. I'll list them here, as I think it's quite remarkable all the things I'm learning here!

 

Life Skills Learnt in Nebo

• I can now sucesfully take a nap during the middle of the day. I don't mean "rest my eyes in front of the tv" kind of nap you have whilst waiting for dinner. I mean full-blown, I'm having dreams of epic proportions, I don't know when that time passed kind of sleep. Before coming to Nebo, no matter how tired I was, I just couldn't nap. I'd close my eyes and I'd try so hard to will myself to sleep, but it just never happened. So thank you Nebo for not only succesfully curing me of my inability to sleep during the day, but for also transforming me from a non-napper to an olympian napper!

• I may not be able to drive a 4X4 car on Fraser Island, but I am a pro at driving a golf cart on narrow sidewalks, through rows of mobile home units, while maybe only hitting a stair railing or a trash can here and there. Seriously, this is like 4X4 road tripping golf cart style, and I can do it like a pro! Linen and cleaning supplies in tow, I drive these buggies with style and class. One day I'll be old and wrinkly and I will need to drive a golf cart to get to my neighbors house for our weekly 4pm early bird dinner; this is when this life skill will definitely come in handy.

• It's hot in Nebo. Hot like you've probably never experienced before. I'm talking 100 degree days on top of unbearable humidity. It's not like I can wear baggy sweatpants and a hoodie every day. I have to bring out the shorts and the tank tops. I really have no choice. Otherwise I might melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Unfortunately short shorts and creepy, female-deprived miners don't really mix. But, oh, how I have perfected the evil eye "don't you dare stare at me" face. These miners can't get more than a three second glance before I am scaring them away with my evil eye. This is obviously essential, because when I get back to San Francisco I am definitely going to have to fight off all those miners digging for gold!

• After a long 15 hour day in the heat---ha! who am I kidding? I sit in an office all day. Excuse me. After a long 15 hour day doing horribly tiring administrative work in the air conditioned office, nothing is better then sitting outside on a cool summer night and having a beer with your friends slash coworkers. I'd like to say I've mastered the skill of acquiring the taste for beer. I'd really really like to. It's about as essential here in Nebo as it is waking up for work every morning. But I suppose I can't be succesful at everything, and this is just one life skill that's never going to happen for me. I guess I'll just stick to the cider for now!

• And finally, the very last and probably least important life skill I've learnt here in Nebo. I can now beautifully and eloquently make a bed in record time. And I don't mean pull the duvet and sheets up and kind-of-sort-of make it look like it wasn't slept in. I mean hospital corners, smoothed and wrinkle free duvet, 5-star hotel made bed. My mom would be proud if she saw these beds. But let's be realistic. Once I leave Nebo, I'm never going to use this skill again! Sorry mom!