Thinking back, I spent Chuseok (equivalent to the Mid-Autumn Festival in other cultures and also similar to Thanksgiving), Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day alone in my apartment. Only five of the mentioned holidays do I actually celebrate but still, that’s a handful of holidays that have passed! Spending the holidays alone actually isn’t too bad. It just felt like any other day or maybe even just a long weekend at most. I got to sleep in, lounge around at home, and be lazy. The exact same things I would have done back home in good old Cali. The only real difference is probably the lack of holiday themed food.

When it was Chuseok/Mid-Autumn Festival, I was really craving mooncakes. When it was Thanksgiving and Christmas, I was really craving turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. When it was Lunar New Year, I was really craving all those delicious Vietnamese Lunar New Year dishes and snacks such as bánh chưng (a glutinous rice cake with mung bean and pork), chả lụa (pork roll), and bánh dậu xanh (mung bean cake/snack). I crave food. All day and all night. Lately I’ve been craving some In-n-Out and broken rice (cơm tấm) but they’re not specific to any holidays haha.

I get asked a lot if I miss my family or friends… Reality is, not as much as normal people? Due to the wonderful world of technology and Internet, my mom Facebook messages me almost every single day and video calls me via Skype once a week. I keep in touch with my friends and sister via various SNS such as Twitter. It’s not like I see them everyday at home anyways. The only difference is I cannot readily go hang out since there’s a big gigantic Pacific Ocean between me and America. I also attribute my lack of loneliness due to my frequent travels across the country in high school and college. Living abroad for more than two months just feels like a really long conference to me.

I also get asked what I do during my free time. I mostly just sit at my computer desk and do the usual net surfing and tv watching. The exact same thing I do back at home home. It is kind of a pity that I don’t go out and explore as much as I should be but that’s what weekends are for! And by the time I get home from work, I’m tired and just want to eat, shower, and sleep. Plus, I’m trying to save some money here ^^

So back to the main point, how’s it like spending the holidays alone? Not too shabby. But then again, it’s not for everybody 🙂

On a side note, my landlady is awesome!~ During the major Korean holidays such as Chuseok and Lunar New Year, she came to my apartment and gave me Korean holiday goodies/snacks!

Oh woops I guess I never took a picture of what my landlady gave me for Lunar New Year. It was some delicious sweet honey-coated(?) flour(?) snack and more rice cake similar to songpyeon (송편).

Man… now I’m craving food at 10:17PM… T~T