Happy Holidays from Around the World!

즐거운 크리쓰마쓰! Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! I'm sure I could do a little more research and put some more "Merry Christmas'" in different languages, but today is Sunday which is my designated lazy day.

First and foremost, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I hope everyone enjoyed the good food, the good drinks, the laughter, and the memories with families and friends.  This was officially my first Christmas away from home; away from the wonderful routine of opening gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the delicious breakfast casserole my mom always cooks, and the craziness of the Wright family at Greg and Trina's house.  While I whole-heartily missed that routine, my Christmas was interesting, different, and a lot of fun. I actually enjoyed spending one of my favorite holidays in another country.  Living in Korea, though, has caused my Christmas spirit to dwindle.  Christmas isn't celebrated or commercialized like it is back home.  There aren't Christmas lights up around every corner, no Christmas commercials on TV, and no kids scurrying through the mall to see Santa.  The largest amount of Christmas I experienced this year was singing Christmas carols with my students (see picture above), buying and sending home Christmas presents, Skype dates with the family, and a random Korean-ized Christmas song playing in the background while walking downtown.  Nonetheless, my friends and I knew how to kick it here in Korea while being away from home.  Here is recap:

My Christmas vacation started on Thursday which meant a four-day weekend! (I can get used to these considering I have another one next weekend for New Years).  Since Katelyn was home in America for the week to visit her family, I decided to throw a nice get together for everyone who had to reside in Korea for the holiday. Jo, Ryan, Leigh, Gillian, and Chuck all came over late afternoon and we all started cooking dinner.  We had to improvise our meals.  We wanted something that reminded of us home and not really too "Korean," so we decided to fix chili.  It wasn't that bad at all and our concoction actually tasted similar to chili.  I have Ryan and Jo to thank for this.  I decided to make my dad's infamous nachos which turned out pretty decent (although they could have used a little more queso), but I must say they were the hit of the party!  Everyone enjoyed them which was a success. Chuck, being from Tennessee, decided to make the best contribution of all: Mac N' Cheese with sausages.  As you an see from the picture above, Jo was in charge of dicing up the vegetables and Chuck's sausages.  While the contribution was highly appreciated, I'd have to say that Chuck got a lot of heat for this truly southern meal :).

Jessie and the boys: Lee, Jun Ho, and Bu.

A few hours past and a few Skype conversations with our families over, people began to show up for the party.  We had a good mixture of drinks and quite a few people came over.  We met some new Koreans as well which is always a plus.  It turned out to be a really good night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  We played numerous games, and had a few small mini dance parties here and there.  We pulled an exceptionally late night and all went to bed around 7:00 am.  The next morning, we all got up and cleaned the apartment, cooked breakfast and ramen (surprising), and relaxed for the day.  

We decided to change it up a bit and head downtown the next night.  Nothing too exciting happened worth writing about.  We hit up a few bars, played some Kings (the traditional let's-see-how-big-of-jackasses-we-can-make-ourselves-look-like game), and went to the big Fish N' Grill.  There was, however, a moment of my night where I could not stop laughing.  Lauren decided to reenact how she thought she reacted being introduced to the world from her mother's womb.  Luckily I got it on film and it is posted below.  You really may not think it funny, and it may be a case where you had to be there in order to find it humerous, but watch it anyways :)

Lauren's Birthing Reenactment 



Overall, it was a really good Christmas. I enjoyed spending time with some of my favorite people in Korea.  I missed my family a lot and I am really glad they enjoyed their Christmas presents from Korea and China.  I know it isn't the same as being at home, but thank God for Skype.  Now, all I have is three days of work and then another four-day weekend where Jo and I (possibly Jessie again) will head to Osaka where we will bring in the New Year from across the world! 

Ji Ho, Jessie, Jo, Jun Ho, and I.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! 

Not Much to Say

As the title says, there really isn't much to say.  So, this post will be brief.  I haven't done a lot in the past few weeks.  I finally moved in with Katelyn seven floors up.  The apartment is the same layout as my old one.  I changed rooms, though, and surprisingly it is a lot bigger.  I've got the decoration works going which includes pictures from home, a bamboo mat on the wall, a Cass (beer) poster with two of my favorite Korean celebrities and yes, a Korean flag (in case I wake up one morning and forget where I am).  Living with Katelyn, so far, has been a lot of fun.  We get along great, and it will definitely be a lot of fun!

Since Katelyn's birthday, I haven't done a lot of traveling.  I did decide, however, to travel back to Osaka for New Years.  Of course, Jo, my traveling buddy, is going with me.  It should be a lot of fun.  The plane tickets were not that expensive-- that is, nothing I can't afford to pay off in one month's salary.  

Speaking of Jo, we celebrated her birthday a week or so ago.  Below are some pictures of that.  This past weekend, though, Candace, Ben, and Brad were all in Gwangju.  I worked with them my first couple of weeks and month of being in Korea.  Brad (as mentioned before) lives near Seoul, Ben lives in Mok Po, and Candace is currently living in the States but visiting for a month.  We had a good time this weekend. We had a big house-warming/ECC reunion party.  A lot of people came and it was a lot of fun.  We then went downtown, had some drinks, mingled, and called it an early night.

So, yeah.  That's a quick summary of my past couple of weeks.  I now get off work at 8:40pm every night so that is exciting.  No more staying at work until 10:00pm!  

Christmas is approaching and that's really exciting!  I'm going to miss my family but I'm interested to see how my first Christmas away from home is going to go.  I have got to mail off my box of gifts this week in hopes they will make it home in time for Santa's Day.  I just bought and sent my first Christmas presents home today, so I'm super excited about my family getting those.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all and a more in-depth post will be published after New Years and Christmas.

 

Wearing our cool, new toboggans.

 

Jo and I

Me, Ashley, and Katelyn at Jo's birthday party.