Hi guys! Happy February, I can’t believe January is already gone! I forgot I never even wrote about my winter break in PEI. I guess that’s when “writing depression” (let’s just call it that way for now haha) hits and you just never feel like writing anything.
I’m pretty sure one reason why I never feel like writing is because I wait to dedicate one whole day or several hours in a day to write everything down. Instead, I could take it apart and write a bit at a time over several days. I’m going to try to do better with that this year, and hope that it goes a little better for me!
Anyway, I spent practically my entire Winter break up in Prince Edward Island (PEI) with Victor and his family. This was our first time spending Christmas and New Years together, which was really exciting!
Winter Break in PEI
My Fall semester ended Wednesday, December 18 and my flight to PEI was that Saturday, the 21st. I basically had a few days to pack everything up which was pretty hectic, but exciting. I had my fifth laser appointment on that Friday the 20th so I just took the bus to NYC, went for my appointment and took the earliest bus I could home.
SPEAKING OF WHICH, I’ve finished all six sessions of laser hair removal since my last one was in January so I’ll be writing a post about that in the upcoming future.
Anyways, back to the topic of holiday traveling. I’ve never traveled during the holidays and boy was the airport busy!
I’m so thankful for Victor who is always so generous towards me and paid for my entire trip (including the really expensive Uber trips to and from the airport)!
Christmas & Polish Food
Victor’s family usually spends Christmas at his grandmother’s house, but this year his sister wanted to have everyone over. It was an absolute feast! I got to try a bunch of different Polish food for the first time, which was one of the highlights of the trip.
Victor and I helped his mom make some Polish food for the party like stuffing pierogies.
For the sake of not completely butchering the names of the Polish food, I won’t spell them out. Besides the pierogies, we had a dish with pickled vegetables like carrots and peas, chopped boiled eggs with mustard and mayo. It was actually pretty good and I found myself reaching for seconds! This is a cold dish, by the way.
Another dish I tried was a minced meat mix (it had liver, pork? Some other cooked meats were in it) and bread. One thing I found strange was that they ate this one cold. I thought it was pretty decent.
At the Christmas party, we had so many food options! We had those mentioned above, plus a Polish red beet soup, traditional beef stew, vegetarian chili, an assortment of cheese and crackers, and other food I couldn’t remember.
Secret Santa
In addition to the Christmas party, we also did Secret Santa, but not the traditional way. Random numbers were put on the presents and we would take random numbers from a deck of cards. We’d match our random number to the right present and that’s what we’d get.
This method was more difficult because we all had to buy presents that would work for either gender. We also had a range of ages involved so that made it trickier!
My Secret Santa gift was 8 different flavored hot chocolate, a mug warmer, and a K-Beauty foot peeling mask. In the end, my gift went to Victor’s brother which I found funny! Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky with the gift I received. I got an army green and gray Harley Davidson’s winter hat. I gave it to Victor.
Hojo’s Japanese Cuisine
Unfortunately, the Blue Winds Tea Room that I mentioned from my Prince Edward Island – Week 2 post is closed during the winter, so we sought a new place to try.
If you’re ever visiting PEI, make sure to visit Hojo’s Japanese Cuisine. The ambiance inside is so nice. The people and the food were also really nice. Victor and I spent quite a bit of money on drinks, appetizers, and the main meal but I think it was worth it!
Just Chillin’
Unlike Summer 2018 when I first visited, I didn’t have as much spending money on me so we opted to stay home more often and go out less. Chilling out at his house and just playing or drawing was really nice and relaxing.
We’d either spend time playing video games together or studying our own respective materials for school. He’d do some CS work while I watched some Adobe Illustrator videos. I was so much more productive than what I originally thought during the Winter Break despite technically being on vacation in Canada!
Parting Ways
Parting is always so tough, but I’m happy to say I cried less this time. I even got lucky because my original flight departing PEI was cancelled due to a winter storm that just occurred the night before. As a result, I was given an additional two days to spend with him.
Before I left, we made tentative plans for him to come over during the following Winter season. Making such plans made it a bit easier for me to say goodbye, as it gave me something else to look forward to and work hard on. Just as it was an all-expenses-paid trip for me this past Christmas, I want to do the same for him!
Until next time,
TRADITIONAL POLISH FOOD IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! THAT SECRET SANTA SOUNDS COOL BUT ALSO CONFUSING, SORRY YOUR GIFT WASN’T TOO GREAT. I WOULD LOVE TO TRY THAT JAPANESE PLACE… DANG, I SHOULDN’T HAVE READ THIS POST WHEN I’M HUNGRY LOL. GLAD YOU HAD FUN AND HOPEFULLY YOU’LL BE REUNITED SOON!
Thanks Jackie!! It was really interesting to have for Christmas hahah and the get together was really nice, my family here in the US isn’t that big so it’s nice being with a large group for once! Hahah I should post a food spoiler alert at the top next time lol!!
It is great that you got to check out Prince Edward Island with Victor! I am so happy that you get to spend some physical time with him!! Ohhhh I should try the laser hair removal one of these days!!! It is great that you got to have some Polish food! You did a great job with your gift, even guys need peeling masks, hehe. Your food looks delicious!!! Glad you enjoyed your time out in PEI!!!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
Thanks Nancy!! It was really nice. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait a whole year to spend more time with him. Totally look in your area to see the prices of LHR, SEV has many branches there in Cali 🙂
Glad you had a fantastic time Geraldine. THe food looks and sounds amazing!
Thanks Alison! <3
Ahh I’m so happy you got past your writing block to share some of this trip with us! Sometimes, we’ve got to just take a break and wait for the inspiration to come back 🙂 All of this food sounds soooo good, However, since I just had lunch, I’m not drooling over your food snaps as usual 😉
HAHAH Good to know you were prepared before reading lol!! I’m glad too, I wasn’t sure when it would end!!
i’m so glad that you had such a wonderful trip to pei. I’ve never tried Polish food before but the dishes you tried sound really interesting – especially the PIEROGIeS.
omg the Japanese food looks so wonderful, too! The dishes from hojo’s are seriously making me so hungry!!
I’m glad that you got to sneak in a couple of extra days in pei due to the storm, but that you were still able to travel back home safely.
They were so good! The filling in the pierogies were definitely different from the usual potato filling I get at the supermarket haha. Thanks so much LP! I’m so glad I got to see him over the winter! 🙂
I’m glad that you had a wonderful trip to PEI. That Japanese food looks so delicious. It’s making me hungry. I had Polish food a long time ago when I visited the upper part of Michigan. I had a Paszteciki and loved it. I shouldn’t have read this right before lunch. >.<
That's so kind of Victor to pay for your trip. I'm glad you able to enjoy the time you spent together, and you were able to spend a couple of extra days in PEI and travel home safely.
Thank you Angela!! It was so lovely. I’m sad it went by so fast. I hope we can meet up again soon this following December! And yesss it was so good. Polish food is amazinggg
I’ve been curious about the treehouse living trend. This place seems so lovely and like a perfect spot for a relaxing getaway. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Yes it is such a relaxing place to visit!! Thank you for reading!