Winter Holiday Assignment 2nd

This Winter Vacation is like any other vacation I had in my life. Okay, even though it has the Christmas and the New Year's holidays, I do not feel as excited as others would (well, maybe for the presents). Since my family does not celebrate either of those two holidays, so it is just the same vacation. The only good part I could think of is that this vacation is longer than the rest of the vacation we have from school except summer vacation. Like others, I still expect the new year coming and new and good things coming; 2008 will be past and 2009 will be the new.
For Christmas, my family didn't have a family gathering and eating dinner or anything like that. However, my relatives send cards and a check to show their Christmas spirits. As I am writing this post, I started thinking what I would do next week but most likely, it would be staying at home, relaxing, surfing on the internet and watching anime. The outdoors activities will not be much, but going to watch movies, going here and there to see things will be it. I know there are many places to go, but it is not like I have that much money and anyhow, directions are not one of my best skills. Also, there are a lot of school assignments to do, especially exhibition and starting to think about college. I feel that this year's winter vacation is much more frustrating and too much things to think about. But then I guess, next year will be harder as well. I think this is part of my race as well in a way because I, as a chinese person, does not celebrate Christmas and I guess because it connects to religion, the Christians), I am not a Christian. Even thought my parents know about Christmas too, it is not in their tradition and it's not a chinese holiday. Therefore, there is not much point. I think that giving gifts is good but I do not see how it connects to Christmas in a way. But I think that because Christmas is a warm happy holiday, by giving gifts to each other shows that they care for each other and giving little pieces of their happiness to others.
Christmas and the New Year connects to the American Way of Life in a lot of way. For Christmas, besides giving gifts, the Christmas tree is a big aspect because in the class discussion before the vacation, we talked about Christmas. Then we go to the tree and because we chose the pine tree because the leaves does not fall off symboling how it does not die easily (even though it is when its cut down). It also connects to Jesus and being immortal and giving new life. I feel that the Christmas carols and the "merry" songs that the people play also connects to more of the religious aspect because a lot of songs have "angels", "joy" and other words (I do not really listen to them but then when I listen to it, it gives off more of Jesus's feelings and such). I think Christmas gives the capitalism a lot of profit because everybody is buying materials and ingredients for their family gatherings and decorating their whole house plus the tree. Shopping is always hectic and crowded so I do not do the shopping the day before Christmas. A big connection is Santa Claus, which the Coca Cola corporation made up. Santa Claus is a figure and is also representing Christmas. "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas" is what the Santa always say and if you are "good" or a "bad" girl/boy this year. I think the people made up all of these things to give a "merry" feeling to everybody. Also because little kids believe in it very much that the capitalist use it to capture and using the little kids for profit. Many little kids get want a lot of things and by Christmas time, the parents does not refuse too much to buy what the little kids want because its Christmas.
New Year is also one of the biggest event of every year. There will be lots of celebration and everybody is all hyped for the new year to come. The ball drop(not sure the name) is always shown on television and the feeling of waiting for the new year and the ball to drop, the people's excitement would flow in their chest. By the next second or so that the ball had drop, everybody would be exploding with partying and jumping up and down. It shows how the American way of life likes to "party" and celebrate a lot, which makes a lot of money for the capitalist. In a way, I think the people of America likes to shout alot because like sports and especially the big celebration/events, they would be shouting far louder than a lot of countries would do. This shows our extreme excitement and our support for the sports and events/celebrations.

[add in january 5th, 2009]
For the last week of vacation, all I did was staying home, or go to the book shop to buy books. At home, it is mostly to watch anime, read manga or play games. I think other teens are like that too unless they have a detailed outline of what they are going to do during the winter vacation. Then with a lot of people, they do homework during the last two days of vacation because homework ruins the mood of the vacation and vacation is suppose to be fun and relaxing. In the class discussion, everybody said they had a typical vacation and I think everybody does. When I was talking to Maggie, she said, there weren't any fireworks near the East River and it's true there weren't. I thought there were fireworks the years before, but this year they haven't had it near the East River. I think maybe is to save money because of the recession. This year, it feels as if the whole winter holidays has decreased because there were not much things that people can do because of the economics.