Christmas in April?

The air is getting markedly cooler. It feels like autumn.

That’s because it is.

If Tonga had four seasons.

But they don’t – they only have the hot/wet season and the cool/dry season.

This is a little odd for me. I feel my internal clock wanting to listen to Christmas music, yearning to wear scarves and jeans (even though it’s not THAT cold yet) and wishing for things like Pumpkin Spiced lattes. The sun sets at 6:15pm and doesn’t rise again until almost 7:00am. The days are getting shorter.  I’m getting sleepier.

And it’s mid-April.

I should be getting excited for summer, but I’m not. Something inside keeps telling me that winter is right around the corner, but I know it’s not. And sometimes I daydream about snow. How cool would it be if there was snow on the ground in June when I landed in Colorado? Even though 99.999992% of the people in the U.S. would hate it (including my sister who is getting married at the end of June), I’d secretly LOVE it. I think about how if I’m like this now, barely 8 months into my Peace Corps service, wishing so badly for snow, I can’t imagine how I’ll be when I get home in November 2014.

Seriously.

I’m going to be honest with you; I will probably set up a tent and sleep out in the snow with my mittens, favorite jacket and a pumpkin-spiced latte in my favorite green thermos. THAT is how much I am a four-season girl.

And while I’m wishing for any weather that doesn’t make my face look like a bloated tomato, I am also trying to EMBRACE THIS MOMENT.

I’m not going to fight it so I’m welcoming this peculiar mid-April-is-it-fall-or-spring? phase. I’m listening to Christmas music, I’m watching “Elf” on repeat, and I’m making hazelnut lattes (erhm, the Tongan version anyway).

Confession: I may have sang “Jingle Bells” to one of my classes today and then proceeded to draw a picture of a “one horse open sleigh” on the board because they didn’t know what that was. And duh, Tongan kids obviously need to know what sleighs are. Vital information when trying to pass a test that determines a lot. And really, a sleigh is not a sleigh without Santa Claus. So I drew him, too. And I got a little out of control. I may have been waving my freak flag high in the sky. Really high. That’s okay though. The kids loved it and when 3 of my sassy Class 5 boys were walking home from school I heard them singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of their lungs. YES. IN MID-APRIL, PEOPLE.  [Fist pump]

I mean, it’s not like they don’t celebrate Christmas a bit early here anyway (I heard Christmas music as early as September). So I started 7 months before the average Tongan. Big whoop.

I’m sure this confusion will dwindle. And if it doesn’t… well then I guess this girl will just be celebrating baby Jesus and spreading her yuletide cheer far and wide for the next 240 days.