Christmas in Taiwan!

I wrote this on Christmas Eve, but I wasn’t in my best days…so, I’m posting it today!

This is the strangest Christmas I ever had in my life!!! It has been so strange that I didn’t know that Christmas was today!!! No, really! I totally forgot about it!! Around 5 PM I found out that today is 24^th and I couldn’t believe on it! Wow, how the place we are in influences all lives and routines!! Me, forgetting about Christmas?? Insane!!

Well it’s true that I’m not feeling like celebrating Christmas since 2004 because I don’t know if I’m a Christian woman for sure. I do have many doubts about it and as I do things giving 100% of myself, I decided to stop the Christmas celebration because I’m not a fake person and I don't do things automatically and/or commercially!
My religious orientation was Christian for the reasons that I have lived under its influence all my life! I was born on it, I was raised on it, I was baptized on it and all my family and relatives are Christian, but I really don’t know if I’m one anymore if one day I was!

Well the fact is that I’m not very happy with the situation I’m in at this moment! I mean, I have forgot about Christmas!!! How come??!! There is a reminder about it everywhere here, even though I guess that Taiwaneses don’t know for sure what Christmas means since they are essentially Buddhists and Taoists but surely not Christians. Every single place I went so far there was Christmas decoration…Santa Claus, trees, garlands, representation of snow flakes, wrapped boxes, shiny ornamentations and so on, but something was missing and it took more than a week for me to realize what was it…the baby Jesus!! There is no Nativity, no baby Jesus!!
Oh I even saw Santa "in person" at Carrefour! So funny!

It’s just and only a commercial thing! Well at least there isn’t the mediocrity of the occidental world about it! Here, Christmas is just another excuse to increase sells. No holidays, no free day, nothing…only Christmas ornaments and songs! Oh yeah, the songs, they annoy here also!

Christmas here is nothing else but a way to sell a little more as I pointed it out! All stores, huge malls all of them crowed with people doing their Christmas shopping, just like other Christian country with the details that Taiwan isn’t one. I wonder how long the sellers will be using Santa’s hat…also I need to ask Alice, a very nice Taiwanese girl that I met here, how they exchange the gifts!!

Well, today is Christmas and I’m missing it in a way I never did before… in about 10 hours my family in Brasil will be together at my mom’s apartment to celebrate it. Can you believe I forgot even to ask my super sister-in-law to do my Christians shopping? Thank God there is this 10 hours difference time and I could call her asking for help! Thanks Ma, you are perfect!!

I really don’t get why I’m feeling so miserable today! In those 10 years I’m living abroad I’ve spent Christmas with my family just once and usually I really don’t miss it that much! I’ve called my mom’s home and my brother is already there with his wonderful family to start the preparation! He is the best in decoration and preparing fancy dishes!! He and his family fulfill the house with so much love and caress…oh God, I do miss you guys!!

At night, morning of 25th here, I'll call my family again to check on them. Usually I talk to each one and they tell me what did they get, how food was wonderful, how the kids are happy and everybody says the same...we miss you here...
So, I'll call to suffer a little more!!

Merry Christmas!!