On Christmas Day, we get to Jeju and head over to the Black Pork Barbecue restaurant as soon as we land. It was some might-y good food!
Cook it on the table--I love it!
Yummy yummy!
See, Lisa and I like it so much we made a heart! Our first of many Korean-inspired photographs!
Sarah and I get done fairly quickly and she pops up like her pants are on fire: "Let's make a snow angel!" Always one for some fun in the snow, I agree and we head outside to go find an undisturbed patch of snow. We find it behind the restaraunt.
Sarah's First Snow Angel.
Seakjin (Adventure Korea owner, and really cool Korean man) comes out of the restrooms and sees us starting a snow fight. He waves his hands and says he has something really cool to show us. We shrug, drop the snow, and follow him. He showed us the flower that only blooms in the winter. Look how pretty!
Then, back to our snow fight!
We got a few people to join in with us. Saekjin and Angelina mostly--other people came out and looked at us like we were being "juvinelle." And, to some extent we were, but really, we were having fun!
Snow down the back! Down the BACK! AHH!
Next we had on to the Trick Art Musuem, which is going to get a posting all of it's own because it was pretty awesome!
We wake up early on Christmas Day and head to the Gimpo Airport in Seoul to meet up with the Adventure Korea group outside of Starbucks. Very smart decision on Adventure Korea's part to meet outside a coffee shop--Lord knows I needed!
Us waiting for the subway...It was very easy to get a Korean to take a photo of us--it might have been the santa hats.
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Sarah was the morning person--she spent most of the subway ride singing Christmas carols and not-so-successfully-trying-not-to-dance. Katrina eventually got out some change and started chucking them at her.
We arrive at the airport and grab a seat in the "green" area outside Starbucks. A green mat, some potted plants, and a picnic table. In the middle of the airport--of course! Katrina asked me if I liked playing the sliding game. I asked, "what's the sliding game?"
I should have seen that one coming as she slides me right off the seat....
Eventually most of the people arrive, we pass out tickets and head to wait for our 9.55 am plane. In the down time, we take some goofy photos. I mean, it IS CHRISTMAS! Of course it's time for goofy photos.
So this picture is here for 2 reasons. One, my santa hat. Two: Behind me is airport security. I basically had just put back on my belongings and my hat happened to stand up straight. This prompted about 5 people to pull out their cameras and snap a photo of me. Then an airport security lady comes over, crosses her hands and says, "No photos! Security!" We all immediantely put our camera's away. And then we slowly walk away--slightly mystified when the security lady was satisified by our putting the camera away. We all looked at each other went, "She's not going to delete the photo?" At home, you take a photo by security and it gets ERASED. I guess not so much here--or maybe it was just the fact we are a bunch of foreigners in santa hats....
Three friends (R to L: Scott, Katrina, and Angela) wear the same shirts on trips they do together. This one says "Assa!" Which means "Yes!" in Korean. THink about a 5 year old boy pumping his fist and saying, "aSSAH!" LIsa and I jump into the photo --me with a butt shot and Lisa with a very, pretty, "I'm here too!"
So, we get to Seoul and realize it's 5.30 at night. On a Friday. On Christmas Eve. The subways are going to be a mess! And, guess what?! They were...aweful! It was so much fun!
Sarah's "really?! what have we gotten ourselves into?!" face
The train had just taken off--these were all the people that couldn't fit into it. We were so screwed.
We waited through 2 trains coming, being JAMMED stuffed, and finally we were at the front of the line.
Waiting for the training...you can tell we're still waiting because we are standing up-right.
Now we are on the train. I took a shoulder bag--which was much better than a wheely bag, but still, not great because it got caught underneath the hands, arms, and bodies of everyone else. This equals Maggie shrinking about 6 inches. Talk about a soar back!
It was great. We are stuffed like sardines. You can't move. You aren't holding on to anything. When the train slowed down the whole crowd would just sort of lean because we were all so tightly packed that you wouldn't fall down.
I literally am resting my head on some strange man's shoulder. Sarah is about 4 feet away from me, but there are around 5 people inbetween us. To make sure we were all on the train we would randomly yell out, "Marco?!"
Somehow, I have my left arm free. I was able to reach into my pocket and pull out my camera. I slowly raise it into the air and aim it at me. All the Koreans start laughing. I couldn't stop laughing. It was some serious culture shock.
Over Christmas, I took a 3 day trip to Jeju-do. ("do" means island in Korean, so it is Jeju Island). It is located off the southern tip of South Korea and considered the "Hawaii of Korea." A place for honeymooners.
Jeju is the island at the bottom. Note the spelling change: it is not exactly a "J" sound, more of a blend between "J" and "ch".
I went with a company called Adventure Korea. They organize medium to large group sized tours aimed for foreigners. Some friends in Gunsan know the owner, Saekjin, so we (my friend Sarah and I) booked the trip around 4 weeks ago. I would so highly recommend Adventure Korea to anyone in South Korea looking for traveling opportunities.
adenturekorea.com
But because I live in Gunsan, I had to travel up to Seoul the night before so that I could meet up with the group on time.
This meant that on Friday (Christmas Eve) meeting up with some friends from Gunsan (Sarah and Scott) and catching the bus up to Seoul.
I had Christmas with my family over Skype that morning. I opened all my presents and they opened the ones I had sent them, plus the secret stocking stuffers my family and I do. My cousin got very lucky--she got a very Korean Stocking this year!
Dad was setting the mood with candles...so I couldn't really see everyone but It was great to just hear all their voices.
In the package my parents sent to me for Christmas, they also included a few small gifts for the Kim family. Ms Kim is my co-teacher, and the wonderful lady who helped me get adjusted my first week. I have become good friends with her, and I really like her children: Suk Young (5) and Suk Jing (2). In fact, Suk Young called me his Aunt.
The Kim's are Christian, but they don't really celebrate Christmas. What I mean is, they only go to church, and maybe 1 present for Suk Young (Suk Jing has been too little to get any presents thus far). But that changed this year--much to everyone's surprise!
I brought in the gifts and discreetly gave them to Ms Kim. I did not buy anyone else Christmas gifts because I have been lazy. Not going to sugar coat that one...I've been lazy. If I was on top of my game I would have made little ornaments for everyone. But, not this year. So I didn't want to broadcast to the rest of the teachers that I was giving Ms Kim a present.
This is how Suk Young and Suk Jing ended up having their first Americanized Christmas. And I think, as you can tell from the pictures, they loved it!
Suk Jing had never been given a Christmas gift before so he was especially excited.
Although I'm not quiet sure if they understood the concept of American Football. Ms Kim tried to explain that it was like Soccer in Korea...but I'm not entirely sure a 2 year old can grasp that concept....
So precious!
My personal favorite picture of the bunch. That's one excited kid saying thank you in the only way he knows how.
I got a package in the mail last week and discovered that my parents are super cool people--which I sort of already knew. In addition to some Christmas presents, they also sent me a 2 ft Christmas tree and lights so that I actually have something to put my gifts around. And when I opened my Aunt's package, I discovered some candy canes (which are not in Korea so Thank You Karen and Randy)!!! So I moved my TV (Because, seriously, I've turned it on once in two months) to the floor and put up some Christmas cheer.
Lights off!
Lights Off
Lights On and Off!
"Oohh...pretty!'
But I did not just decorate my little tree. The Apartment is appropriately Christmas-tized:
And because my Christmas Soul has been depleted so much of the extreme festiveness from the homeland, I also have gone a little bonkers at school:
"Tee-cha! So cute-e!"
I have been wearing this headband and Santa's hat for 2 weeks now. These girls decided they would model it for me...so I'm getting them in the Spirit Also!
The Christmas Game we've been playing in class. Note the garlands--the students have been writing their 3 favorite things about Christmas on the paper and then we make class chains.
This is one of my country school classes. We have Ms Cho (pronounced Joe) on the left, my only English Co-teacher for Oku Middle School.
And then my city school also has been Christmas-tized. There's me in the front in purple and Mrs Park right behind me. One of my four co-teachers at city school, the lady who did the video lesson with me, and the one who picked me up the first/second day in Korea.
It does not feel like Christmas here. I think its a combination of two things: no snow (it has all melted and the last 4 days it's been 45 degrees) and no Christmas carols. I'm a musical person...I've played the French horn for 10 years, plus two years of trombone, I know how to play the trumpet and piano. I think my New Year's Resolution is going to be learn the guitar. Music feeds my soul.
I've thoroughly enjoyed learning/hearing all the new music that Korea has to offer. But...I've heard 3 (Count them! ONE TWO THREE!) Christmas Carols my entire December. It is depressing...It makes it very hard to get into the Spirit--but don't worry! I have been "teaching" Christmas the last 2 weeks so I can supplement all the Carols I want during class.
I have a good bunch of students. They are pretty advanced for 1st and 2nd years in Middle school (at least, I think they're advanced.) (Korean school have middle school starting with American 7th grade through American HS grade 9. So my kids are roughly 14-16 years old.)
So we've been playing this game I found on the best ESL Teaching Site: waygook.org. It's a Quiz Game with questions like, (Q1) "What color is Rudolph's nose?" The kids know this one and one student usually shouts out the answer (granted, it's not a person on the team...but they know the answer). But this has given me the perfect opportunity to break out into song:
"Rudolph the RED NOSED reindeer, Had a very shiney nose! If you ever saw it, you would even say it glows!"
Motions are necessary too. Point to your nose, flick your fingers to have it "glow" and generally just dance. I swear, I am the biggest goof in the classroom. I am always dancing, singing, and twirling in circles. I once ran up and down the aisleways screaming, trying to explain to the kids what Black Friday was like. It worked...
Anyway, back to Christmas.
(Q2) "How many reindeer does Santa have?"
"He has Dasher and Dancer, Comet and cupid, Donner and Blitzen, Prancer and Vixen... But do you remember the most famous Reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?!!!!!!"
(Q3) "What is "Merry Christmas" in Spanish?"
Which prompts me to sing Felize Navidad--which I really only know two lyrics: Felize and Navidad...but I do end up humming the rest.
(Q4): "Who is the famous snowman?"
"Frosty the Snowman Was a jolly happy soul, With a corncob pipe and a button nose And two eyes made of coal!"
I think I end up singing at least 4 or 5 carols throughout the class. Others include, "Santa's coming to Town," "Carol of the Bells," "Joy to the World," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and (of course) "Jingle Bells." I can usually get half the class to join in with me on Jingle Bells.
People who know me from home might be surprised that I'm so Christmas Song happy. I typically really do not like Christmas songs. At home, they make my head hurt. You hear them EVERYWHERE! But here, I tend to be the only one who is singing them. And I do mean singing them--up and down the streets, dancing as I go along.
It doesn't just stay at school, either. At home, I've been surfing Youtube in my freetime. And I came across this group: Straight No Chaser. I do believe I've listened to the 12 Days of Christmas Rendition just about 15 time this morning. It's a little pathetic. But it's feeding both my Christmas and Musical Soul.
A little background: (Thanks Wikipedia):
Straight No Chaser is a men's a cappella group started in Indiana University. (Woot woot! Shout out to my home!!!) There is an amateur college group, but there is also a professional group composed of alumnea from the college group--I think most of them were original members from back in 1998. In 1998, some of the members posted a video on YouTube and was watched by 12 million people. Back in 1998--that's incredible. One of those 12 million people, the chairman and president of Atlantic Records, and soon Straight No Chaser had a 5-album recording deal.
Here are some of their songs:
12 Days of Christmas
The Christmas Can-Can
I have posted just Christmas songs, but they also sing pop stuff. They are fantastic and they've helped me cope with the void that is Christmas Time.
