I started Steemit 4th of December and I have religiously written posts almost everyday. And for the last couple of days: I have opened my own contest, written other articles here and there, joined different contests as well, all the while trying to reach out to my family back home. I am an expat living in United Arab Emirates for 2 years and 4 months now. Sadly, this is my 3rd holiday away from home and it really made me depressed as hell.

_{TWO (2) MORE DAYS UNTIL THE DEADLINE OF MY CONTEST: OLAIVART THEME I ― WOMAN (4 WINNERS, 4 SBD EACH!)}

If you ask me about my experience in welcoming 2016 and 2017, it was all the same. We went to Dubai Mall, huddled with thousands of people of different nationalities just to see the yearly fireworks display of the tallest building of the world ― Burj Khalifa. It was great and it's something I missed this year, but I guess I don't want to go through that horrible traffic and wrong company ever again.





This year, I celebrated my holidays in Ajman, one of the emirates of UAE. Ajman is like a countryside for me ― peaceful and not that busy unlike the metropolitan Dubai. And I like it; I like that I can go to grocery store and then to a mall in a matter of 30 minutes just by walking. I like the simple life and I like how boring it is, well, boring in a good day.

My sleeping pattern has been really, really bad a week before 2018. If I remember correctly, my pattern in 5 days looks something like this: 12 hours, 2 hours, 12 hours, a good nap (around 20-40 min), and 7 hours. This is something I am very guilty about because it happens whenever I get way too excited about something, and that something is Steemit.

I think I only slept for a couple of hours on the 30th of December and has been awake for the whole day the next. I as writing and writing while waiting for my friend to come home. Oh, I remember that I slept for 2 hours just before my task which is to go to the grocery store to buy food. I slept around 5:30 in the afternoon and set my alarm to 7:30pm; my friend's duty ends at 8pm. I remember waking up with a terrible headache and sat down for at least 10 minutes feeling all dizzy and nauseated.

Finally I went down looking so detached from the world. My friend saw me so we went to grocery together. It was almost 8pm already which meant it's almost 12mn in our home country ― Philippines. When we got back, she immediately cooked the same meal we had for Christmas (because we both like it so much) while I cleaned our room. Our flatmates cooked some food as well and shared it to us. We had 5 different food in our table; not bad considering that we didn't have enough time to prepare.

_@katiepals

While eating, we heard a knock on the door and our flatmate's calling us to go out because we rarely go out. In Christmas, they asked us to come out but I told Katreena to tell them I am busy talking to my family back home even though I am only writing for Steemit. I don't know, it is just so tiring to hear the same stories again and again. This time around though, we went out. We played cards while waiting for the New Year countdown.

At around 11:45pm, we went out to watch the display. What made this year special and beautiful for me is that we climbed up and watched in our building's roof top. Although our's is just a 2-storey building, I think it was still the most perfect view and I couldn't be more thankful. I am a rooftop person, and experiencing that made all things perfect.

Good night!

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Thank you @anomadsoul for the fun contests this holiday season! I am perfect in attendance! Yehey! Time check: It is 11:43pm, January 2, 2018! Happy new year to you and your family! X

Happy New Year, Everyone! Cheers!

_{WITNESSES: @aggroed | @ausbitbank | @blocktrades | @cloh76.witness | @curie | @pfunk | @precise | @smooth.witness | @someguy123 | @steemgigs | @timcliff | @utopian-io}