Survival of a naive travel nurse.

Happy holidays

In January I'll be heading to New Zealand with a few friends from work for a fun little trip, but for now I'm concerned with the Christmas holiday. I'm not sure how much fun it will be to celebrate Christmas here in Australia without my family so I'm a little apprehensive, to say the least.
First of all, I have to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Not exactly a great way to spend the holiday, but at least I won't be sitting at home by myself.
My friends have invited me over after work to hang out, play a few games, and do a bit of drinking. I also plan to skype with my parents before work so they can see me opening the presents that they sent me. at least I can sort of celebrate with them.
As I'm getting ready for work on Christmas morning; I turn on my computer and send a message to my mom that I'm ready to skype when she is.
I finally get her on the line ten minutes before I have to leave for work. Not only is she late getting online, but also she is preoccupied with my niece and nephew who want to go outside and go sledding right this minute.
I can't help but feel a little bitter because here I am on Christmas day getting ready to go to work and spending barely a few hurried minutes online with my mom, who is too preoccupied to communicate and watch me open presents.
Also, the kids are talking to her about sledding and having fun in the snow which is such a Christmas thing to do, and I'm here in the middle of Australian summer, which simply doesn't feel like Christmas. Oh well, better quickly open my presents and get to work.
On a side note, I have to say that the rules for customs (what legally comes in and out of Australia) make no sense to me.
For instance, my mom sent me a care package for Christmas that included some flavored tea, chex mix, and a few other odds and ends. Customs decide to confiscate my mint and orange tea that is in the original package from the store, but they let my mom's homemade Chex mix with chocolate, peanuts, and oats slide through with no problem.
Personally, I think they just took my teas so they could drink them. Australian stores don't have as many options as stores in states, which was the main reason for my mom sending me the different flavors of tea.
Imagine my disappointment when opening the package and expecting my tea, only to find a nice little tag from customs to let me know that they'd gone through my package.
Thank you lovely customs agents and hope you enjoy the tea because I just know you are drinking it right this minute.
In other news, I've survived Christmas and actually had a great New Years holiday. We spent New Years eve drinking and watching the fireworks display over the harbor bridge. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year and now I'm excited about my little trip to New Zealand.
Let me back up a bit and tell you about the friends I'm heading to New Zealand with. Their names are Claire and Aina and they are both nurses who work in the intensive care unit with me at the hospital. We sort of hit it off at the Christmas party when we were chatting about where we were all from.
We started commiserating over our shared annoyances with the inconveniences that come with living in a foreign country. Claire is from England originally and Aina is from Norway, so all of us are ex-pats who are in Australia to have a good time and see as much as we can. Claire has a funny British wit and is constantly making me laugh, while Aina is soft-spoken and very sweet. I think the three of us make a great group and meeting them has really made life so much more fun.