Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone! I apologize for being so late in getting this posted - I've had a busy week, and I don't have my Monday prep morning anymore (aka Monday morning e-mail answering and blog writing) so this has been pushed back. I did start it on Sunday evening though, so I'll just pick up where I left off - you won't even notice. Happy New Year!

I don't think my parents know this, but when I was younger I used to sneak out of the house late at night and go on 'snow walks' when it was snowing outside. Not when it was blizzarding, not in freezing cold winds, but only on those special nights when just a hat, coat, boots, and mittens kept you warm enough to comfortably walk around the quiet neighborhood, with big thick snowflakes falling all around you and the sky illuminated with the reflection of the snow and streetlights. These were my sacred nights when I felt like I had the magical transformation of the neighborhood all to myself, and each step I took in my boots would be buried in snow within the hour, so no one would know I had been there (though I always figured I could bank on the paper boy to cover up my tracks if Dad ever wondered why there were snow footprints leading up to the front door when he got the paper in the morning.)

My snow walks became less frequent as I got older, but I remember one night, when I was home for Christmas break last year and coming back to the house late after visiting some friends, when it was the perfect snow walk night. The sky was almost pale orange and the snowflakes were picture perfect, looking especially luminescent against the brightly colored Christmas lights around the neighborhood. I had to get up early the next morning to go work at the cafe, so I refrained from going out walking, but I remember standing on the driveway in the snow, peacefully looking around and thinking about how beautiful winter snow is, especially at home after being away at school for so long. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and the beauty of the winter snow has always enhanced it for me.

As I prepared for my first Christmas away from home, I tried to keep myself as busy as possible so I wouldn't have much time to think about how much I would miss my family, friends, and Minnesota over Christmas this year. As the weekend grew nearer, certain songs made me tear up, teaching my kids about my family's Christmas traditions hour after hour made me sad because I knew I wouldn't be there, and we had no snow to speak of. Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive about how I would actually handle Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Lucky for me, I've made some great friends here over the past four months, and it was comforting to know that if we couldn't be at home with our friends and family, at least we had each other to stick it out with. I was planning to spend Christmas Eve in Jangheung (please note the careful and correct spelling this time - I'm not about to make another error at the bus terminal.) with Sara and some friends, and then head with Sara to Mokpo on Christmas Day for the Christmas party that our other friends Chad and Lisa graciously hosted.

Christmas Eve happened to be the last day of the school year, (each school ends on a different day, depending on the principal - my country school ended the day before) which meant that I had to say goodbye to all of my ninth graders. It was bittersweet, for though I was happy for them to be moving on to high school I knew I would miss them next year. I received some wonderful Christmas cards and even a bookstore gift card (yes, even in Korea someone made sure I got books for Christmas) from my students, and even exchanged e-mails with some of them, promising to help them with their English in high school if they needed it. Friday morning I only had to teach one class before the assembly, which consisted of an awards ceremony and a mini graduation ceremony. After that - it was winter vacation! All the students left, celebrating the end of another school year, and all the teachers celebrated also - by going out to lunch. I received a nice surprise by getting to go home right after lunch - I had expected to have to stay most of the afternoon.

So, I headed back to my place and packed up the rest of my stuff for the weekend (including remaining Christmas cookies that I was determined to get rid of after an entire week of baking and decorating for my kids) and headed to the bus terminal. I surprised Sara by arriving right as she was done with school. It was an especially cold evening, so after enjoying coffee at her local coffee shop we hurried to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner, then hurried back to her place to have a cozy night. And cozy it was. We cooked a delicious stir fry, complete with some gravy to add to our potatoes, boiled some frozen green beans (one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve dinner), toasted some wheat rolls, and broke out the wine. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, without a taste of Korea. No lefse or Swedish meatballs for me this year, but the potatoes, gravy, green beans, and rolls were spot on. We finished off our meal with Christmas cookies, and then started to watch The Holiday - classic chick flick Christmas movie. Our movie was interrupted early on with some other teacher friends who live in the area, so we switched to the more gender neutral movie Elf, and enjoyed our Christmas treats, then just sat around and chatted. It was a perfect relaxing night.

The next morning, Christmas Day, we again treated ourselves to relaxation, and after Skyping with our families (still Christmas Eve at home) I was treated to delicious home made Swedish pancakes and coffee by my gracious hostess. We finished watching the Holiday (and were inspired by the hot chocolate scene to go make our own hot chocolate to accompany the movie) as we enjoyed our breakfast. A little later, we made lunch and then got ourselves ready to head out to Mokpo, where the Christmas party with our other teacher friends were scheduled to take place.

When we walked outside we were greeted with...Christmas snow! Nice, big, white flakes that were coming down at a surprisingly fast rate. I had my beloved white Christmas after all, as the snow persisted during the hour and a half bus ride to Mokpo. and coated the city with a thick white blanket.

The Mokpo party was a lot of fun - about 12 other teacher friends and couples from orientation - here are some pictures of the decorated apartment (you can buy some Christmas decorations here, but they are few and far between - most of us has people from home send us candy canes, stockings, etc (thanks Mom)) We had a potluck of snack foods, drinks, and desserts, which we happily munched on while chatting away about school, our upcoming travel plans, etc. Our contract allows us all to have 24 consecutive days off sometime during winter break, which is January and February. Virtually none of us have the same schedule - some people are splitting theirs and working in between two different country trips, some are going early in January, some in early February. From my information gathering at Christmas, the vacation hotspots this winter will be Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia (Bali), and the Phillipines. Think warm and think beach - that's what we are all planning. I myself am actually heading a bit farther west to India, but I'll talk more about that later.

So, what did I have for Christmas dinner? Pizza. Yup, around 8 PM we decided we wanted 'real food' and so the boys made a run down to the local pizza chain and brought us back our Christmas dinner. Not quite like turkey, but it was a pretty good second choice. The Korean take on western pizza is actually pretty decent, though they tend to favor some strange toppings, like sweet potato and corn...and for some reason the pizza always comes with a side of pickles.

We also had a White Elephant gift exchange (pictured) and played Pass the Present with Christmas music. We had some classic Christmas movies playing in the side room alternating with Christmas music. Between the decorations, treats, friends, music, movies, and fun it definitely felt like a holiday celebration. We made the most of being away from our families and friends by adapting to our new home, and we all had a great time. Most of the guests left around midnight, since they live in the area, and Sara and I stayed over at their place - we headed to bed shortly after.

The next morning, after a highly nutritious breakfast of cold pizza and Christmas cookies, we said our goodbyes, commenting on the success of the weekend. The snow was still coming down hard as we left, just to give us a taste of home, we figured. I slept a little on the way home, and then decided to spend the day doing what I do best - coffee shopping. Downtown was hopping, for in Korea, they celebrate Christmas only as a nominal holiday - some places get into the decorations and the colors, but its more due to Western influence than actually following traditions. Many Christian Koreans will celebrate it in their churches, but not much at home. On the contrary, Christmas is a day to eat a special 'Christmas cake' and typically it's a date night for young couples.

On the walk back to the bus stop I realized though it was still lightly snowing it really wasn't all that chilly, so I decided to take a detour and walk to the other bus stop by Art Street - my favorite quiet, cobblestone street in downtown. As I walked by I noticed the huge lit up Christmas tree on display in the downtown area - I hadn't ever noticed it before. As I reached the bus stop, I decided that it was the perfect night for a snow walk. I wasn't disappointed - the trees were beautiful, and everything was covered in snow.

Obviously, I've seen snow before and I know what a winter landscape looks like, but for some reason it seemed more special and magical in Korea. It was a sense of familiarity, a reminder of home, and it brought me back to my childhood snow walks. No matter how old I get or what country I'm in, snow always has a sense of fascination for me. Even if I'm freezing cold or frustrated at the road situations (ex: driving home from Green Bay in bad weather) I've always stopped to take a moment and appreciate the snow. I realized that as much as I gripe and moan about the cold sometimes, I would never want to live permanently in a warm climate all year round and not see snow.

Between my cozy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning, my white Christmas snow, the fun I had with my friends at our Christmas party, and my snow walk, I decided that I had had a pretty great Christmas, despite the fact that I'm hundreds of miles (and quite a few time zones) away from Minnesota. I hope you all had wonderful Christmases - many thanks to those of you who sent cards - they were such a fun surprise to receive  I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's weekend - stay warm and stay safe!  Happy New Year

A Christmas Wish Come True

Good morning everyone!

I'm sure all of you are busy baking cookies, shopping, and preparing for Christmas this week. I can't believe it's in four days. I had a fun weekend that turned out much differently than I expected - but in a good way. I've been keeping up with Christmas episodes on TV, playing Christmas music for my classes, and this week I'm teaching all Christmas lessons, so I am definitely feeling the holidays, but my experience on Saturday at the orphanage is what really captured the essence of Christmas. Oh, but first - here's a lovely picture I took when I walked outside the door at school last week - the mountain valley views are forever changing and always beautiful.

If you remember, I mentioned last week that this past Saturday was our Adopt A Child day at the orphanage. One of the volunteers organized the entire Adopt A Child program, which was a huge success. A few weeks ago, he asked the girls to each write down four things they have on their Christmas list, including their name, age, and size. After some translating with the orphanage director, he put out a notice on Facebook and put an announcement in the Gwangju News, calling the foreign community of Gwangju to help make a special Christmas for the girls. He had a tremendous response, and soon had tons of people calling him to volunteer to buy gifts - he personally assigned each person with a gift, took down their contact information, and established two drop off points for people to drop off their purchased and wrapped presents at. Within three or four weeks, he had nearly every present accounted for, and he personally took care of the few remaining. He expected a much smaller amount of people to respond and hoped that the girls would get at least two gifts on their list - but in the end, all the girls got four gifts each, due to the Gwangju community effort.

After our last Korean class (I passed!) and a visit to the bake/book sale orphanage fundraiser that was put on by my book club, my friend and I headed over to the orphanage. There was quite a bit of activity, and we ended up staying the whole afternoon to enjoy the festivities. Some of the girls are placed in a homestay program, similar to foster care, so they were all there with their homestay families to celebrate also. The afternoon started off with lots of performances by both a local band and then by the girls themselves. I was so impressed. There was singing, dancing, and playing of instruments. It was neat to see them having a ton of fun and showing off for their audience. Us volunteers even showed off our skills by singing a rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas for the girls. Here is a video of one of my favorite performances: the star of the show was the little cutie in the front, which I'm sure is no surprise to you.

After the performances, there was a big meal provided for the girls and the volunteers by local donators. We socialized and played with the girls, enjoying pizza, fruit, snacks, and salad...that I ate with chopsticks. When in Rome.

After lunch and cleaning up, the homestay families left, and all of us volunteers waited in anticipation for what we knew was coming next. Sure enough, guess who showed up? It was Scottish Santa Steve, otherwise known as just Santa. A big cheer rang out, of course, and there was an extended photo shoot with Santa - the girls were thrilled.

After Santa's arrival, it was time for...presents! I was very impressed at the organization - the presents were all brought in in cardboard boxes, and, with his helpers, Santa called out the names of the girls, who came up one by one to get one present at a time. Instead of ripping them open immediately (which I would have done, I'm sure) they sat and played with their wrapped presents, eagerly waiting to see who would get called next. It was really fun to see the girls that I bought presents for - I got two clothing items for two different girls - smile with excitement as they received my presents. I couldn't help but think how wonderful it was of Al to organize everything - who knows what kind of a Christmas the girls would have had otherwise? It was really inspiring and great to know that so many people had made just a few donations each to bring Christmas to so many girls. I couldn't think of a better way to see Christmas in action, and was so thankful to have the opportunity to see firsthand the joy that was brought to the little girls.

We all had a lot of fun during the present distribution - sharing the excitement with the girls who proudly came over to show off what they had gotten. One of the little tootsies got ahold of my camera and started taking pictures of everyone (note: if you want silly pictures of people, just find a two year old to carry around and take pictures for you - it's also highly entertaining.) We gave her a taste of her own medicine by sneak attacking the camera away from her and taking her picture with me - we made sure to give it back right away though, of course. Clearly she has a bright future in photography - here are Sara and Santa Steve, post Santa costume.

After about three hours at the orphanage, the festivities began to wind down, and we made our exit (after detaching our little photographer from my camera...and my arms.) I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend the afternoon. Since we had eaten at the orphanage and figured we'd better not try for a repeat of last weekend's dining marathon, Sara and I headed back to my place for a while to regroup and run some errands, then we went out to meet some friends later.

I had planned to spend all day Sunday finishing up my Christmas gifts, decorating cookies, and getting a head start on my lesson planning for next week. However, due to staying out late Sara stayed over at my place, so instead of my planned early wake up, I ended up sleeping in (I kept having to reassure myself it was okay and I'd still have the day to work.) However, after a relaxing cup of coffee at my favorite neighborhood coffee shop - Kenya Espresso - we made the spontaneous decision to throw out any plans of productivity and instead spend our afternoon at the...movie theater. Harry Potter 7 had made its release in Korea on Friday, and we heard from some friends that it was worth seeing. I hadn't seen a movie in months, and had never seen one in a foreign country, so I considered it a new and necessary experience. After stumbling around a bit trying to figure out how to buy a ticket, we purchased them (with the help of some Korean guys who could see our obvious fail to understand how to buy them) and only later did we realize we actually bought tickets for the IMAX viewing instead of the regular screen - better than the other way around, I suppose. After a very authentic Korean lunch (aka - mouth on fire spiciness that left us both slightly warmer and in a lot of pain...so good though) we purchased popcorn and pop to complete the experience, then headed inside.

Note to self: IMAX is probably a better idea when you're not in the front row...however, those were the only seats that were left. (When we purchased our tickets at the machine we had to select our seat numbers on the touch screen.) After attempting to adjust our heads and necks (I felt like I was almost laying horizontally) we settled back and zoned out to enjoy two and a half hours of Harry Potter. I thought the movie was really well done, and am definitely anticipating the final movie next summer. It was also nice to just relax and focus completely on a movie. My head was still spinning when we left the theater due to the proximity of the screen, but as I walked out I was struck with the odd reminder that I was still in South Korea - the day had seemed so typical of a weekend at home that I had nearly forgotten I wasn't at the River Hills Mall or BayPark Cinema (Mankato or Green Bay.)

I realized that even though I was so far away from home there were still experiences that seemed completely normal to me. Friends going out for coffee, families going to an afternoon movie, watching a movie in English in the theater (though you'd have to ignore the Korean subtitles...) The sense of familiarity was comforting, especially as Christmas draws closer and closer. I have to say though, the best and most comforting feeling was manifested at the orphanage this past Saturday, when the joy of giving was so obviously shared by all who donated gifts, and the happiness of watching the girls' faces was contagious. The effort of the community that pulled together to make Christmas happen for these girls was incredible, and I was so happy to be a part of it. As you make your final rounds at the mall (especially on Christmas Eve) this week, and then hopefully get to watch your family and friends open your presents, I hope you experience the same feeling of happiness that I felt this weekend. Making those girls' Christmas wishes come true was the best present I could have ever gotten.

I wish you all and your families a very Merry Christmas! Stay warm and safe on the roads, all you brave winter weatherers!

Fun, Friends, and Food...always food

Good evening to you all - I'm writing especially to the brave Minnesotans today who are dealing with the Midwest's greatest accomplishment: winter weather. Exhibit A: subzero temperatures and snowdrifts. Exhibit B: the Metrodome's roof collapsing...yikes!

Anyway, Minnesota totally stole my thunder for this week's post, since I have some pictures of my first snowfall in Korea (it just had to one up me, didn't it?) On Wednesday it snowed for a couple hours in the morning, but by the evening it had all melted and then it was back in the 40s for the rest of the week. So I got a taste of winter on Wednesday, but mostly I still feel like I don't deserve Christmas yet because I haven't endured the suffering of the Midwest in December. There's still time I suppose. These are pictures outside my classroom window, by the way - they have an interesting way of pruning the school bushes and trees.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but it's down to my second to last week of the semester -our last day is Christmas Eve. I have been in Korea for almost exactly 4 months now - unbelievable. Remember I told you time seems to work differently in Korea? Still true. Anyway, I have a bunch of Christmas events going on this weekend and next week, so I have been busy baking, shopping, wrapping, and crafting. I must say, it's a lot more fun to prepare for Christmas when I don't have to worry about final papers, exams, swimming, and driving the 6 hour drive home through winter weather. The only thing missing (besides friends and family, of course) is Barnes and Nobles - the best at Christmastime. Someone please go enjoy it for me. 

I had a really good weekend - it was a balance of fun and productivity (and a lot of food consumption) that, as usual, went by way too fast. Friday night I studied diligently for my test on Saturday morning (test, not quiz) but when I showed up on Saturday morning with conjugated verbs dancing around in my head, I found out that instead of Korean class all of the students were going on a 'field trip' to put our newly learned language skills to good use. All of the levels were combined together (so I was with some of my other friends in the other classes) and we were walked a few blocks over to Daein Market, one of the largest covered markets in Gwangju. I must say the GIC (the people who put on the lessons - Gwangju International Center) had a pretty great field trip set up for us - our small group task was to walk around in the market and buy ingredients that we needed to make a Korean dish. We had fun wandering (more like led around for fear of us getting lost) around the market, and now I know where to go when I need fresh turtles or eels for my next recipe.

After purchasing our ingredients (green onion and mushrooms) we were led to a little room that had tables and a mini kitchen set up for us, where we were taught how to make a dish called sanchyeok. It is made of ham, imitation crab, mushroom, and green onion, which are skewered and t

hen dipped in flour, egg, and fried in a pan. It was delicious.

When we were finished cooking we took our creations back to the original room, where the other group was busy making a type of cookie out of melted sugar. We all shared and enjoyed our mini lunch - much better than taking a test.

After Korean 'class' I headed to the orphanage, where we talked about puppets (in preparation for the upcoming puppet show) and did a mini skit with the girls - it was so much fun! There is a little more structure to our orphanage activites these days, with planned activities and topics - a little planning sure goes a long way. The girls always put a smile on my face, especially when they come running over to greet us as we walk in. We have our Adopt a Child Christmas gift event this Saturday, when we will give the girls presents from their wishlist (all through volunteer efforts to put their name on the list and buy presents for the girls) I'm really looking forward to bringing Christmas to the orphanage. There is also a bake sale this weekend to raise money for the orphanage. 

After the orphanage Sara and I really had no objectives in mind but we still wanted to hang out downtown. Since it was a little chilly to just wander around, we did some minimal shopping...but ended up bouncing around to different establishments - first for coffee, (oops...twice for coffee) then a few hours later we had a snack, then dinner, followed up with dessert. We concluded that our day had absolutely no productivity, but at least we did what we are best at: sitting, eating, and chatting. It was nice to have a day of nothing.

After Sara went back home to Jangheung I headed back myself to get a head start on Sunday's task: Operation Christmas. I have taken it upon myself to make Christmas cookies for all my students, since they don't really have the concept of baking Christmas cookies over here (Korea has never really been a traditional baking society - many Korean homes don't have ovens.) Can you imagine? Anyway, I decided to bake all the cutouts this weekend (thanks to Mom for mailing me Christmas cookie cutters) so that I could freeze them and decorate them when the time came to distribute them in class next week. So I got busy. By dinnertime on Sunday I had accomplished most of my tasks, so I figured I deserved the night off. I had been invited out for seafood at a traditional Korean seafood restaurant, so I showed up ready for a new experience, since eating seafood in Korea is quite different than the way we eat at home.

And an experience was what I got. Our friend Eddie (his actual name is Hyun Seok...but we call him Eddie) took us to a shellfish restaurant, where we were seated at a round metal table with a huge hole in the middle. Inside the hole was a fire thing (I'm not sure how they lit the fire...I just know it was burning...) with a grill on top. What did we do with this grill, you might ask? Grilled a basketful of oysters, that's what. We got a huge basket overflowing with fresh oysters, and with our metal tongs and special gloves, we roasted and grilled our oysters to perfection. I had actually never eaten an oyster out of the shell before (to be honest, I didn't even really know what one looked like...) but I learned that you have to wait until it starts to crack open on its own, and then you have to pry it open with your knife and check to see if it's ready to eat. It turned out Sokhom (pictured - happily prying open an oyster family of five...) liked hers pretty raw, I liked mine well done, and Eddie was somewhere in the middle, so the three of us had a good system down of opening them up, then passing them over to whomever would enjoy it the most, depending on how much it was cooked or not. It worked well. We had a great time cracking, chatting, and munching.

We had some side dishes with our oysters (soup and kimchi, of course) so I was pretty satisfied by the time we finished our basket...but then I learned that we had ordered the unlimited oysters...and my dinner companions weren't full yet. So, we got another basketful and I continued to enjoy perfecting my oyster skills. I ended up getting more practice than I bargained for...because Sokhom and Eddie still weren't full! Three hours and three baskets later, we finally decided we were pretty oystered out, so we paid a mere eight dollars each and headed out.

 This past week I've noticed how much more settled in I feel - I don't feel like I need to run myself down by jam packing my schedule and making sure I don't miss any 'Korea experiences' - I have an actual life here, and living includes working in some time to just stop and enjoy life around you. There is rarely a day when I don't think to myself 'hey, you're in Korea right now!' especially as I walk to the bus stop from school and admire the beautiful mountain scenery along the one street village. Korea is continually surprising me, and I'm learning to just settle in and take it as it comes, one day at a time.

I hope you all have a great week - you are probably all snowed in right now if you're in Minnesota - enjoy a cozy day at home. You know you wanted to stay home instead of go shopping at the mall anyways. Happy almost Christmas week!

Christmas in the Air.

Hello all!

I'm a little late in getting this post out today - I've been working like a Santa elf to get my Christmas package shipped home today - it's a relief to have that done.

I hope you all had a great weekend - I actually don't have too much to write about today, as I enjoyed another low-key weekend (I'm getting better at them.) Friday night I headed to a nearby coffee shop to study for my Korean test on Saturday (which went fine...though I studied the wrong chapter...) and then after doing some banana bread baking for an upcoming bake sale, I headed to bed. Saturday after Korean class I headed to the orphanage, which was a ton of fun. We are trying to implement more of a proper ESL program for the girls, so the Korean high school girls who volunteer with us have sort of taken charge and provided activities for the girls, like ABC worksheet and word puzzles, etc. They administered a skills test a couple of weeks ago, and now are organizing the girls by skills at different tables. Our job now as volunteers is to sit at the tables with them and help them along, either by providing clues or adding on to their basic knowledge. We sang the ABC song and helped them work on their penmanship, along with other activities. There ended up being so many volunteers on Saturday that the kid to adult ratio was nearly one to one. It was a lot of fun for everyone, and as always the time flew by.

After volunteering my friend and I made ourselves slow down a bit and enjoyed a nice afternoon sitting and chatting at a coffee shop downtown. Most of the coffee shops here (since they have English names and Western influence) are decorated for Christmas, and they usually have some sort of Christmas display. So between the Christmas tree display that I conveniently planted myself in front of and all of the busy shopper people watching (yes, that's a term...I made it up) I got to do from the window, downtown Gwangju definitely had the feel of Christmas in the air. I must admit, I had been a little skeptical about Christmas in Korea, since they don't celebrate it nearly to the extent that we do. (About 25 percent of Korea is actually Christian these days, so they celebrate it as a church holiday, but now western influence has infiltrated it enough so that most Korean families have a tree and a big family meal on Christmas...but still not like most western countries.) I purposely avoided playing Christmas music in my apartment, and I tried to brush it off, as I figured Christmas would just have to be something I look forward to upon my return home, since thinking about it made me sad for home. However, I can't ignore the days on my calendar as they draw me nearer and nearer to Christmas (I also can't ignore the excitement of my students for their winter vacation, which starts Christmas Eve.) So like it or not, Christmas coming fast and furious, even here in Korea.

We met up with two friends of ours who were in town for the day and had a nice dinner out at an Italian cafe - we got our pizza fix and got a lot of chatting in. After dinner they all headed back to their respective towns and I headed over to Art Street to pick up a few Christmas supplies. I've mentioned Art Street before - here is a picture to the right. It's one of my favorite places to walk through, especially at night - much quieter and less busy than the nearby downtown streets, and the cute little galleries and shops tucked in among the narrow, cobblestone street give it almost a European feel. The entire street is decorated with these lit up archways, giving it an extra special experience. It was a nice quiet end to my busy day.

On Sunday I woke up with absolutely nothing planned, but I had two goals in mind: to clean my apartment, then make my Christmas cards and get everything packed up and shipped home on Monday. If you would have seen my disaster of a room you would have been very impressed with my ambition. I'm continually impressed with my skills for making such a small room so messy when I have a busy week - I'm barely ever home, and when I am I'm usually getting ready to go somewhere again. This particular week it looked like Christmas presents and card making supplies were thrown into the tornado that swept through my room, in addition to the usual clothes and random books/notebooks. It was quite the mess. I always seem to find something better to do than clean...but I put my foot down yesterday morning, played a BBC documentary about Indian history on my computer to keep me company (did I mention I'm going to India next month? More on that later.) and got started scrubbing.

Later that day I decided to do some Christmas shopping. I was Santa Claus on a mission when I finally reached my destination: the huge bookstore/stationery store in the bus terminal. I knew what I was looking for, and I was quite pleased with my purchases by the time I checked out (somehow some other cutesy little things not on my list found their way into my bag too...I wonder how that happened?) Then I spent some time wandering around Shinsegae, a fancy department store with brand names like Louis Vitton and Gucci that currently has a fantastic Christmas display up. There were many parents and children admiring the display - it was fun to see their oohs and aahs. The picture above is more to capture the adorable little girl on the right than the display itself! Between shopping for Christmas presents and taking the time to admire the Christmas displays, I was definitely in the Christmas spirit.

The picture below is an interesting contrast - there was some sort of Korean celebration happening right across the hall from the Christmas display at Shinsegae. I've seen a display similar to this for a Korean wedding celebration- much like we send flowers for a funeral or special event, they send flowers with either the event or some sort of good luck saying written on it - I've no idea what they say, but they were pretty to look at and they smelled really nice.

After getting back home, I worked on my Christmas cards at a nearby coffee shop. As I wrote my many holiday greetings to my friends and family back home (sorry, my handwriting is still messy - Korea hasn't changed that,) which will be on their way to the States very soon, I was reminded that no matter where you are in the world, you can still have Christmas. I was expecting a non-Christmas this year due to the lack of red and green merchandise in all stores, the lack of cold weather/snow, and especially the lack of my friends and family. However, that night in the coffee shop it really hit me: the Christmas spirit doesn't come from Santa displays or loudly blaring Christmas tunes that bombard you wherever you go. It comes from the spirit of giving and the universal idea of caring, sharing, and spreading joy to those you are close to, or even to those you aren't. Though I'll miss being with my family a
nd friends so much this holiday season, it's nice to know that I can still send them Christmas cards and little sticker packets with random Korean sayings on them just to show that I will still be thinking of them. It's also nice to know that being so far away takes the pressure off of other people feeling obligated to get a present for me and instead I can just fully enjoy Christmas by giving to others. (Plus there aren't any Barnes and Nobles in Korea - I'd be kind of hard to shop for this year, hey? )

So, though I take the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, this year I ask you to make sure that among your crazy busy holiday schedules, weekend mall avoidances (sometimes necessary to preserve sanity) and last minute Christmas Eve shopping runs (you know who you are) you take the time to remember that Christmas is all about giving and bringing joy to others, whether in a card, a Christmas cookie, or even just a couple quarters in the Salvation Army bucket. I guarantee you I'll be trying to do the same, all the way over here in Korea as I prepare for my first Christmas away from home.

Wishing you all a happy and blessed holiday season! Have a great week!