A Christmas filled with sun, humidity, and diving...Is that normal?

Well, I just returned from the northern region, visiting Nkhata Bay for the Christmas holiday. It was so different from the normal Christmases that I am used to in the US. I luckily had the best weather ever given that it's rainy season and only ended up raining at night during my stay. I went with 12 other PCVs to Mayoka Village for some rest and relaxation and that I did get. We all felt like we were in a random island paradise and not in Malawi! It was ridiculous how beautiful Lake Malawi is!
I took a diving refresher course with my friend Catherine and then we went on a pretty good dive for getting back in to it. It was so much different than diving in the NW, things actually had color! I saw some blue crabs, blue chiclids (can buy in pet shops), and some mouth brooders. It was pretty cool! I also went through a thing called a swim-thru, kind of like a cave, but a little different. It was also different to dive in freshwater as opposed to salt water, I didn't have to wear tons of weights! I also liked that the temperature was warm enough to not wear hoods, gloves, or booties. It was great! We did a boat dive, which is when you have to roll off backwards into the water (I had never done this before), and we were all sort of sea sick from the waves until we got under water.
So, Christmas day was all hyped up by the place we were staying at and ended up sort of being a disappointment. They had all these random activities planned and ended up only doing one. Then dinner was disappointing because my meat had fur still on it (not supposed to) and then only had 1 out of the 3 desserts that they said they would have. Oh well. At least I only have one more Christmas to get through. It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't home.
Yesterday we traveled from Nkhata Bay to Mzuzu. Instead of taking the normal minibus, we decided to hire our own minibus to get there faster and to not be super crowded. This sounded like a great idea until all of the other minibus drivers started getting really mad at the one that we hired. They didn't want to let us in the minibus. It was pretty crazy! We did finally get in the minibus we hired and made our way to Mzuzu. We then decided to go to Lilongwe from there on a luxury coach bus line. We got in at 11pm and met up with more PCVs.
A bunch of us are having stomach problems, so we are all on antibiotics to fix that. Oh well, it happens...so, I will be here through New Year's in Lilongwe...let me know how everything is going! I love and miss you all!