That Time of Year

So it's that time of year again.

The bustle of the crowds as they do their last minute shopping in the glow of the Christmas lights hanging high above the streets. Unfortunately it doesn't feel like Christmas at all for me. School has been an absolute nightmare these past few weeks; so much so that I completely lost track of time and did not realize that the 25th of December was only a few days away! I find myself sitting on a train on my way to Kokkola from Helsinki and for the first time in 17 years (that I can remember), we landed in Finland with absolutely no sign of snow. That is reason number 1 for why it really does not feel like Christmas. Besides that, I just really haven't had the time to get into the Xmas spirit. My house has no decorations whatsoever and the first time I heard a Xmas song was yesterday.. how sad! For the first time I feel like I'm almost "too old" or "grown up" for Christmas, but that can't be possible. I get to open my presents tomorrow evening and as excited as I am to dress up and see my sister and my niece after so long, I already know half of my presents so there really isn't an element of surprise. I feel old.

Today has been an extremely exhausting and very long day (that isn't over yet), but luckily I got to see my friends Jenny and Helen in Helsinki for a couple of hours, which was great! I really have missed them. Although I wish we were in a more cheerful place; Finland is quite depressing at the moment! I had to say goodbye to them at 15.30 and it was already almost pitch dark and now I'm looking out the window on the train and all I see is the occasional street light. One whole week of this? No, thank you! Thank god there's Rihanna to cheer me up! She released her new video today! "You Da One" is out on YouTube, so check it out. I've been trying to load it for the past 20 minutes, but that's because I'm using the train's WiFi and although it's slow, it really is better than nothing.

I hope that whoever reads this has an amazing Christmas and hopefully you're more in the spirit than I am! Feel free to link me to some Xmas-y songs! Oh, and Happy 2012 as well if I don't post before then!

Ari