Christmas Day

It's Christmas, December 25th! I'm a long way from family and friends, although I'm having a kiwi Christmas over here. In the morning I could see Samuel and Shelby opening their presents. Here, from what I've seen so far, Christmas is all about presents. The living room had presents all over the floor and the kids couldn't stop playing with their new toys. In the afternoon we went to Lisa's sister house to have the Christmas party, where I could meet a few people. The party was at Steven's house (Lisa's sister husband), an amazing place with a wonderful view to the Oceanside. I believe it is in a very rich area of Auckland. At the party I could talk to Steven, his father, his mother, his wife and Lisa's mother. All of them were very kind to me, asking some things about our 'great' country. Quite a few times I felt like a dumb, because Steven's father (I'm sorry, but I'm really bad memorizing names), who I spoke with most of the time, asked me things I had no idea. - Do you have a lot coffee in Brail?- Yes, we have! (this one was easy)- Do you have a lot of rubber in Brazil? (this one didn't make sense to me) Steven's father told he thought that Brazil was one of the main rubber makers in the world, just like Malaysia! I'll maybe show you my ignorance here, but I have no idea about this one. Well, these were only two examples, between many and many things they were talking about. I could get some knowledge from them too, more specifically, about the England, Australia and New Zealand (they don't like the USA, just like most people in the world). What is really fascinating is that many people here have worked for awhile abroad. Darell has worked in Australia for6 years. Steven's father has worked in England for a year. Steven has 3 brothers living in Australia. Lisa's ex-husband told he has lived in Australia, England, Tahiti and somewhere else I don't remember right now. The truth is that everybody here has traveled a lot around the globe (except to Latin America, what's understandable). Besides all the talking there were food, lots of food. What we had was a barbecue with some New Zealander salad (they put peppers on the tomatoes, what makes it a very tasteful salad) and a pork, which was pretty amazing. Following we could have some desserts (at this time my stomach was twice its normal size). At the end of the day I could see two films (old ones) and then I'm here on the bed, ready to finally sleep! :)