But, being a true (now) New Yorker, I of course made it out that night.

Here’s a little video of one Irish-ish man cutting a rug. And why he shouldn’t have.

For my first real holiday back in the states, I had a bit of a decision to make. I knew I’d have to be in NYC for the 4th of July, but what to do??? Unlike when my friends and I were younger — and planned out the holiday weeks in advance — this year, come the last week of June, there were still no concrete plans.

Eventually a rooftop party surfaced. Could have been fun. Sure. But in my head, I couldn’t get over the question of why having a party WAY out in Brooklyn made sense…you could do that ANY day of the year. Fireworks only come once.

SO…a smallish group of 13 of us (mostly Peace Corps and grad school friends of another friend) gathered for a picnic at a park and set up shop for a great view of the pyrotechnics to come. Although we had a little rain come down right before the show, it was still a fabulous time watching the bursts of light popping behind the Brooklyn Bridge (the first time I’d seen it!), which had a couple of American flags waving from the top.

Definitely a great way to spend my first holiday back home (And WAY better than the 4th of July last year). It’s good to be back, America…

So, in honor of the day, I thought I’d share with you a photo from those days…here’s a pic of a depantsing gone bad.

So the day AFTER Easter we had an Easter egg hunt with the kids at the home. (I have no idea why it wasn’t on Easter, but que sera sera)

However, there were no actual Easter eggs. We did, though, have lots of these chocolate egg-like things. As you can see, they’re no Cadbury eggs. Mmm…Cadbury.

When I talked to my family earlier that day, I also remembered how zany my family is (and found out one of you has been telling my mom about the pickpocketing…). So, yeah, I have to say, I promised my sis I wouldn’t leave her alone for family holidays for an entire year again.

And since I have no Easter pics, here’s another pic of a penguin in South Africa.

Random? Yes. But that’s me.

Just imagine he/she is telling you “Happy belated Easter.”

“What??? It’s St. Patrick’s Day today and I totally forgot?” I couldn’t believe that I not only forgot but I also did absolutely nothing. This was the first St. Patty’s day in nearly a decade where I was without a big parade, green beer, or my “Everyone loves an Irish girl” shirt. Seriously, this was one day that post-college has continued its college-day revelry. I mean, twice I purposefully spent it in NYC (and once even planned the flight so I could spend part of it in NYC and the other in LA) and once even got to spend it with an Irish Patrick come back to visit his LA pals.

But here in South Africa. Nothing. And when I couldn’t get over my surprise, the German girl asks me, “What’s St. Patrick’s Day?” Huh? My mouth stood agape as I tried to think of how to explain it.

“You seriously don’t know?”

Her response: “Well, I’m not very religious…”

Hmmm…never thought of the “St.” in “St. Patrick’s Day” giving it such a religious feel…

Last week, I made a last-minute trip for one of my projects with Impulse. I went to a village with one of the girls who now works at the office but had previously been trafficked.

The whole trip was of course a bit of an adventure: as the girl speaks 6 languages quite fluently…but English only limitedly, there is no electricity in the village, and the day we were supposed to leave, the holiday “bandh” had already taken place there.

It was one of those rare trips where you’re really a traveler, but not traveling for the purpose of travel. And, I have to say, I got pretty excited when on the way there, the girl was telling me that there are elephants that come around the village every night/morning. That excitement wore off pretty quickly when it became 4 in the morning, and I’m squatting to pee in the middle of a frickin’ freezing field…was thinking then may not be the time I want to see an elephant heading my way.

When I went back to sleep, the girl’s (absolutely adorable) nephews kept trying to wake me. “Auntie, *&^$%,” they were saying as they pulled the covers off my head. As I don’t speak the local language, I had no idea what they were saying. They’d been asking me to take pictures of them all night before we went to sleep, so I thought that’s what they were asking. Now, though, I think they may have been telling me they were out watching the elephants, but yeah…I kept sleeping.

Back at the office, I found out that the girl’s sister had been attacked by an Elephant last year and hospitalized for months. Have to say, I’m pretty happy with my decision to stay in bed.

Difference United performed as (I think) the third band of the night. During their performance, something about them made me think they must be a Christian rock group. I think it was the facts that the lead singer had a bit of a Southern twang, I’d never heard of them, and they had these really bad dancers wearing white tees and red track pants…doing a kind of hyped-up version of the “signing” hand dances popular in mega-churches in the ’90s (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a scene in Napolean Dynamite where Napolean is performing one of these dances with some girls).

The band’s myspace.com page confirmed the group’s Christian roots, which is probably why they came to uber-Christian North East in the first place. Sometimes it’s so weird being in a place that’s more Christian than the Bible belt I grew up in.

As the night was only the second time I can recall crying in the past year or so (viewing cheesey movies exempted), I realized, that, yeah, Christmas is important to me. And that I don’t think I’ll want to be away from my loved ones in MO come Christmas again…

Side note…at the Christmas Day service I went to, I learned that “Away in the Manger” has two melodies. The Brits have one version, and the Yanks another. The church I was at chose the better one, of course.

(And I didn’t take any Christmas photos…so the above pic is a nice little holiday greeting from Elvis…taken at Graceland during my Christmas break last year.)

Will write more soon…but just wanted to say Happy Holidays if you’re heading home already.

So drink some eggnog, kiss under the mistletoe, and have a funky, funky, Christmas for me.

…heart, Jayna.