A very "TENYLEG" Holiday Season

What a wonderful break!  I would never have imagined coming home for the holidays could be so great—granted I hardly saw any friends *sorry to everyone for my ghosty-ness*.  I just got to Istanbul (well, not really, I'm currently back in Rustavi but I wrote this in Istanbul), ahead of schedule, which means my layover is even longer.  I got a good bit of sleep on the plane ride over from Toronto by building myself a mini fort made of pillows but all I want right now is to lie down on the floor on my jacket and sleep in the middle of the airport like a beggar. *long pause* No? Just me?

So I got to Toronto on December 10 and started my rounds of epic surprises as no one knew I was coming home.  I will forever remember the way Dezso’s  (cousin) face dropped when he came in through the door and I was standing in the hallway. Silly goose, I can’t believe you thought that my dad would have left you alone for 2 weeks during the holidays to go to Cubanos.  I never imagined that Dezso and I could get any closer, but this 6 week period of time was just what we needed to mesh into one big pile of Bolgar family awesomeness. That night we went out to eat which is when the reverse culture shock hit me—I really think that buffets should be illegal as no healthy person enjoys gorging on food for a couple of hours (HA! says the person who gained 40 pounds during the break thanks to my incessant need to take my cousin to “new places” aka Taco Bell, Greek food, Quiznos, Bubble Tea, KFC, McDonalds, Wings… the list of delicious fried foods and high calorie delicacies could go on and on).  *cue irrelevant funny story* So this one evening we are coming home from god knows where and we get in the elevator to go up to the apartment.  It stops on the first floor and this man and an older lady step in.  They press the button and smile at us; as we are going up—he looks at me and goes, “Is that your son?” and gestures towards Dezso.  I was DUMBFOUNDED.  1. Dezso is 2 years older than me-- 2. How old does Dezso look?-- ANNNNNNNNND 3. HOW OLD DO I LOOK?!

I got to surprise a bunch of Fazoolis co-workers at a Boxing Day party. We all exchanged boxes. I’m actually hysterically laughing. *deep sigh* I REALLY NEED A BED.  I also got to surprised my light, Albart, by jumping out from behind the couch after he had gotten home from a long day at work.  I am so grateful that Alex and he are in my life as when they are around, it is days upon days of hilarity and awesome conversation.  GULUM! Merlin the Wizard, Marry the Night, the night we SPEAK NOT about-- PRISMS everywhere, “Get Jenny on the phone”, growing up in a hard neighbourhood while being a huge gangsta—then I remember that  Albart is the biggest poin-dexter there is. “Do you know what John Lennon did when he was faced with adversity?” “I dunno. What? DIED?!”

Albart- “Questions? Questions? Does anyone have any questions? You can ask anything!”
Alex- (who had been silent for 2 hours) “No Albart, no one has any questions! We’ve established that hours ago as no one has asked you any questions!”
Albart – “But the question is… do you have a question?”

Over the 2 week Christmas/New Year holidays I was super busy as Dezso and I wanted to get a lot of stuff done in a super short period of time.  We got to check out the CN Tower and the Science Center, both places were much cooler and more interesting when I was a kid.  We also went to the Royal Ontario Museum—we totally loved it there but didn’t have enough time to check EVERYTHING out.  While up in the CN Tower, we wanted to see the sunset and Toronto skyline at night so we just walked around and around until the sun decided to get it’s big, hot ass to sleep. We went to Castle Loma, saw a magic show, walked around downtown on Christmas day, checked out China Town while on the hunt for a lit up Christmas tiger which we never ended up finding.

New Years was spent in Mississauga with the boys as per our tradition; I do believe this is the 6^th year we have celebrated the countdown together. For any Canadians reading this, they brought back Electric Circus for the night on Much Music.  In all fairness, I have no idea why they brought it back as it was HORRIBLE and really boring to watch.

We hung out at the Toronto Zoo one day looking for potential beaver and moose mates for Dezso seeing as he likes a woman with STRONG teeth!  It was semi-cold and wet that day which I am POSITIVE what made me become deathly ill the next week.  I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the first week of 2012 in bed super sick, sleeping 17 hours a day like a sloth.  But then again, I had to get healthy as I was going to CUBBBBBA the next week.

I can’t thank my Papa Bear enough for surprising Dezso and I with a weeklong vacation in Varadero.  We spent the majority of our time soaking in the sun by the pool and beach— I really enjoy the beach in theory, in actuality not so much, as I really haven’t worked out my feelings on sand.  I mean, it’s great when you are dry and you can just brush it off but for anyone that knows me, I am legit part sea loin.  Have fun getting rid of sand on your body, on the beach as your wet.  Whatever, I’m just being a DIVA right now.  I would take being covered head to sea-loin toe in sand while wet over snow and gusty winds any day!  I got Dezso really into mojitos and pina coladas— this is the only time in life that I prefer anything a virgin seeing as Rum in Cuba flows pretty much like water!  We enjoyed the hotel entertainment which ranged from the animation dance team to beached whale watching to the large group of crazy 19 year old Quebec-ions who loved to be as ridiculous and drunk as possible.  For years now I always thought that renting the scooters in Cuba was a bad idea— a friend had told me how she had rode into a pothole and really messed up her leg as the bike fell over and skidded; then there was this time that my dad decided to rent one and he flew through a bunch of bushes the second he got on—so when Dezso was like I wanna rent one, I was like *ugh* we are going to die.  But we didn’t die and had a wonderful day riding around Varadero and the surrounding area—it got even better  the second we discovered that there were little foot holds for me as I was hanging onto the back of the scooter for half the day scared that the exhaust was going to burn off my ankle.  The weather was not the best Cuba could offer a few days, thus luckily on poopy days we got to explore the resort and watch 3-4 of the same movies 7 times thanks to HBO Plus.

My last weekend home was spent in Niagara Falls with Dezso on the Friday. Lucky for us it was one of the coldest days since my arrival back in Canada—and then with the boys on Saturday.  It was a lovely weekend to end a wonderful trip.  I seriously do not think I have slept to my little hearts content since BEFORE Cuba! It seems so weird that I went home on vacation… no? just me? I find it very interesting that for the first couple of weeks that I was home, I would non-stop talk about Georgia—the friends I miss, the places I visited, the food I love—but as the weeks quickly passed I wanted nothing more but to stay in Toronto and be with my family/friends.  It seems surreal that I was even home and got to see a couple of people that I enjoy.  Once again, I do sincerely apologize to everyone that I didn’t get to see for whatever reason.  As weird as it seems, all I wanted to do was hang out and relax as I am always doing something or going somewhere during my free time in the George.  Going to Georgia was the best decision I ever made but it can become rather difficult as you are constantly surrounded by people that don’t actually KNOW you.  Being around family and friends puts my personhood (is that even a word?) back in check.   I never realized how much I actually missed people until I reconnected with their spirits.  People change but their core persona stays pretty much the same.  It was so nice to talk to and connect with people that know a part of me that can’t necessarily express in Georgia.  With that being said, I am very excited to go back to teaching and to see all my students.  I am excited to see and hug my host family as they are one of the best things that could have come out of this experience.