Keeping Warm in Winter

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year! I'm writing to you from the cozy living room of Steve and Mary's, smack dab in the middle of Seoul. Unfortunately, I had a full draft written earlier this week but forgot to copy it onto my USB, so I have to start from scratch here, just to update you on how my winter has been before I embark on my tropical vacation. (sorry)

I hope this finds you all still working on your New Year's resolutions (it's only the third week in January, after all...) and recovering from the recent Midwestern heat wave - it must have been quite alarming for you all to have forty degree weather in January. It was even warmer in Minnesota than in Korea for a few days! But now I hear the temps have dropped back down to normal, so you can continue on in your winter mode while recovering from the holidays as usual.

My winter mode, post-Christmas, has been almost entirely focused on teaching winter camps. I had two winter camps at my two different schools, four hours a day, for four weeks straight. Ten days at one school, seven days at the other school. Needless to say, I got pretty burned out, and was ecstatic yesterday afternoon when I finally finished the final day of camp. Sometimes I feel as though I shouldn't complain about winter camps, as I get to go home early each day, and the camp atmosphere is much more laid back than regular school. After all, there are no books, no curriculum, and no tests...but it's still four hours of school a day during vacation. My poor kids. I felt more sorry for them than for myself.

However, my co-teacher and I tried to make camp as fun as we could for the kids. We did little mini-lessons each day, complete with vocabulary and word-related activities and projects, but we also did a lot of games and had 'talk time,' as the most important emphasis of camp was to improve English speaking. We brought the kids treats each day, had a cookie making day, took a field trip to the movie theater after camp was over, and on our 'snow day' we ventured out in the cold to attempt to make a snowman. Unfortunately, the snow wasn't sticky enough, so our snowman has a height issue, but we still enjoyed making it. He, or she, I should say, was aptly named 'Sunshine' by one of my boys.

Although I enjoyed bonding with my students, it was nice to have my afternoons free. To keep myself occupied and alleviate my trip anxiety, I implemented a swimming pool, coffee shop, and gym routine each day, alternated with some lunch and coffee dates with friends. On the weekends I tried to both break the monotony and take advantage of my Friday afternoons off by doing some traveling.

The first weekend in January, I headed up north to a little town called Hwacheon, about six hours north of my city. What was in Hwacheon? Well, it turns out Hwacheon is the host of one of the biggest winter festivals in the world, coming in at number four, after Canada, China, and (Russia?) The main attraction at the three week long winter festival is ice fishing, specifically for the abundant supply of mountain trout that runs in its freshwater mountain river. Though I didn't have much interest in ice fishing, I decided a winter festival would be neat to see, and it would be a nice mini-vacation. Website here.

So, after taking a five hour bus to Chuncheon, the northern provincial capital, I stayed the night in a quiet, cheap motel room. The next day, a nice, sunny Saturday morning, I took a bus about an hour north to reach the festival. My first thought was 'where is all the snow and ice?' The river was freely running, the hillsides were brown, and there was no snow in sight. It wasn't even that cold! However, as I followed the crowd of people from the bus terminal through the town to enter the festival site, I realized there must have been some magical snow-making and ice-freezing action going on, because all of a sudden I was surrounded by snow sculptures and slipping on the ice underneath my feet.

The complex was centered around about a quarter mile stretch of the river, and both banks were lined with snow, activity booths, and food booths. When I first arrived, I decided to walk the entire perimeter and scope things out to decide what to do. I walked past a little skating area, a sledding hill, a snow scupture display, a snowmobiling area, cross country ski trails, a larger skating rink, and of course, the ice fishing areas. Once you paid a fee you could enter the area, pick a hole, and jig away.

Wow. I was blown away, and was excited at the prospect of designing my plan for the day so that I could do as much as possible. However, before I could even finish walking around the perimeter, I saw a Korean couple eyeing me from afar, and sure enough they came over to talk to me. It turned out they were from Daejeon, a city a few hours away, and they came to the festival with about ten other Koreans and foreigners. Upon seeing that I was alone, they invited me to join them and their group for ice fishing. I decided I might as well give ice fishing a try, since that seemed to be the thing to do, and it would be nice to have some company.

They ended up adopting me for the entire rest of the day, and for the evening as well, when they offered to take me back to Daejeon, so I could catch a much shorter bus home the next day. We all had fun ice fishing, then grilling our catch at outdoor grills provided at the festival site, and then the leader of the group treated us all to a delicious fish soup dinner. We fished for the better part of the afternoon - I caught two keepers. It was fun to meet and chat with an entirely new group of people, and they were happy to include me in everything they did. Festival success.

For my second weekend of adventure, I stayed close to home and did a couple of little day trips. On Friday afternoon I ventured down to Jangheung to see Sara, as she was leaving for Nepal the next day. We went for a nice little winter hike in the Jangheung mountains, then had a yummy Korean dinner before relaxing at her place, where I watched her proceed to stuff about half the contents of her apartment into a giant backpack that was literally half her height. Her trip involves volunteering in Nepali orphanage, while staying with a host family, and then will conclude with a two week trek to Everest Base Camp. Here she is during our lovely hike.

The next day I saw her off at the bus station, then went on another day trip to Jeonju with my fellow Mankatoan friend Sam. I swam with him way back in elementary school, and we've kept in touch throughout the years - now he's teaching at a school about an hour away from me. We left around one, and had a fun afternoon walking around, exploring, and catching up. It was my second time to Jeonju, and I enjoyed it just as much.

Finally I reached my final week of teaching camp! This past week I spent cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting ready for my departure...though I still felt like it took forever to reach Friday! Now I'll be spending three days here in Seoul, hanging out with Steve and Mary, as well as exploring a few new areas and maybe checking out some museums. I'm flying out Monday afternoon, and will be meeting up with my best friend from university along the way during my trip. We weren't sure if it would work out, but as she just finished her student teaching and has some vacation time, and because it's been a year and a half since we've seen each other, we were able to make it work to spend some quality beach time together. I can't wait to see her and catch up, as well as explore some new places, of course.

Last, Happy Lunar New Year to you all - it is now officially the Year of the Black Dragon, all you fellow 1988ers, so obviously it's going to be a good year. I'll be sure to update you all when I get back from my trip - until then I hope you stay warm and enjoy the winter weather! Take care, love you and miss you all!

Happy New Year!

Wow, I bet you miss me - I think my last post was sometime last year. I hope the New Year is finding you all warm and cozy as you cross through various stages of winter hibernation, especially in the Midwest. Luckily, your hibernating abilities have been greatly aided by your recent consumption of all the delicious holiday treats that passed your way...at least, that's usually how it works for me.

Before you begin reading I must warn you: the following blog entry contains lots of snow pictures. I'm sure those of you who have been living in record breaking snowdumps are pretty sick of the snow, so if you don't think you can handle another image of snow - stop reading. If you're willing to brave it and you have a warm blanket nearby, you may continue reading.

For the past four years New Year's has marked the beginning of my annual Florida training trip for the university swim team - ten days of sleep, eat, swim, eat/beach/sleep (either simultaneously or some combination of the three within a short time period), swim, eat, sleep, repeat. Insert random games of shuffleboard or cards (all we have energy for after swimming four hours a day), add some wicked sunburns to those of us whose midwestern skin has turned nearly translucent by January, and of course, add some pain medication and/or ice to help alleviate the intense pain our muscles have to endure, and you have a pretty complete picture of my usual January.

My situation is drastically different this year. I'm living in a moderately cold climate (around 30 degrees, warmer in the day and colder at night) with some snow to look at and enough ice to make the roads a bit slippery - a strange change from the January tundra weather in Wisconsin and Minnesota. No swimming, no beach, no pain. This was my walk to school from the bus stop on Thursday morning (which I had to walk back home on a half hour later because we found out it was a snow day) Instead of a break from schoolwork during which I usually tackle a long, difficult novel that I actually have time to read (Tolstoy was usually my winter break author of choice,) I am working harder than ever now, as I have to prepare for four hours of English camp a day, five days a week. Last, instead of stocking up and eating staple swimmer foods: cereal, pasta, sandwiches, and (my personal favorite) Goldfish crackers to keep up energy and fuel for the thousands of meters I usually have to swim, I'm indulging in my new favorite Korean foods: kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage), kimbap (rice wraps), and jjigaes (soups). Said foods usually run for 2 to 3 dollars for a filling meal of rice, vegetables, and soup - the perfect meal on a cold winter day. My friends and I, who were tending to favor the western restaurants when we first arrived in Korea since we eat Korean every day at school, are now choosing Korean restaurants to eat at...they are cheap, delicious, and incredibly flavorful.

My last post about Christmas was much later than I usually write - the reason I was so late on that was because of the aforementioned English camp. Even though the school year technically ended on Christmas Eve (their school year runs from March to December, with a long winter break and short summer break compared to our year from September to May, with a short winter break, spring break, and long summer break) most students attend some form of 'winter camp,' be it math or science or English, for about 3 to 4 hours a day, usually only for one to three weeks. I tend to think of them as 'enrichment classes,' as there is no set curriculum, and the main objective is to just keep exposing them to English through reading, speaking, listening, and writing, but in a more fun way than a typical class lesson.

As a result, I've been racking my brain trying to think of how to entertain the same 12 kids, (2 diferent levels) for four hours, 5 days a week for three weeks - about 20 lessons a week, compared to the usual 10 I have to prepare (minus my usual prep hours!) This past week I was prepared for each lesson, but only on a day by day basis - I came home and immediately started working on the next day's lessons, usually waking up early to finish them after spending five to six hours a day preparing. My life was consumed by winter camp. However, due to the two snow days that I lucked out with last Thursday and Friday, I am now prepared through most of the upcoming week, and I can plan the rest of the lessons at a more leisurely pace. The camp theme is 'Around the World' - we are reading an abridged version of The Adventures of Sinbad chapter by chapter each day, and then 'traveling' to a different country each day, which the vocabulary/activities/readings are centered around. It's been fun, but again, a lot of work.

I only have two more weeks of camp at my main school now, and then I spend seven days at my other school (for which I can use the same lessons since it is a different group of kids) before finally leaving on my vacation! I haven't had one (well, besides my recent snow day four day weekend) since September - I'm definitely ready! After working out my camp schedule with my two schools (a longer process than you might think - Koreans tend to not have schedules ready and made far in advance like we're used to - there are a lot of last minute changes) I booked my tickets, got my visas in order, and have been travel planning ever since. I'm going to three different countries: Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka, and then I have a 19 hour layover in Singapore on my way home, during which I'll be able to leave the airport and do a little exploring. There are endless amazing sights to see in all three countries, and a month doesn't seem to be enough to cover just one, let alone three, but I figured I'd rather go and get a taste than not go at all. I'll post more about my itinerary as the time gets closer, but for now the thought that in less than four weeks I'll be taking off for Nepal is enough to keep me braving the winter cold (I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about compared to most of you guys back home) and not lamenting the fact that I'm not in Florida right now.

My 'snow days' were a joke by Midwestern standards - about three inches of snow on the ground, but due to the lack of salt on the roads and the apparent lack of snowplows (I hear they have them here...but I haven't seen one) the roads weren't in great condition. As my school is out in the country, (the picture to the right was outside the front door of the school) it was hard enough for us teachers to get out there on the bus, but a lot of the students had a hard time getting there as well, so school was cancelled. I spent the day happily working away at one of my favorite coffee shops downtown (pictured), watching the snow come down outside the windows and laughing at all the people walking by carrying umbrellas for the snow.

On Thursday night I found out that the next day would be a snow day as well, as there was a bona fide snowstorm going on - big thick flakes falling all day and all night, (I took this while waiting at the bus stop on Thurday night) all over the area, so I planned to sleep in a bit and hang around on Friday morning before heading out to Mokpo, where the New Year's Eve festivities were planned to commence. However, after corresponding with Sara that morning it turned out she couldn't get to Mokpo that night due to the buses having a hard time getting in and out of her little country town because of the snow. Unsure of how the night was going to end up, by the time I got to the bus station I found out that the buses were, however, running to Jangheung from Gwangju, so we decided I should just head there first and then see if we could get out to Mokpo if the roads were more clear later in the afternoon.

After a longer than usual bus ride that I spent most of looking out the window at the pretty snow and mountains, once I got to Jangheung it turned out the Mokpo line was closed for the rest of the day, so we decided not to waste time by going back to Gwangju and then Mokpo, as we woudn't get there until close to 9 or 10, and instead just make the most of our New Year's Eve in Jangheung. Sara made a delicious pasta dinner for me and our friend Cassie, who also lived in Jangheung, which we enjoyed with 1 dollar bottles of sparkling wine. After relaxing and chatting on the cozy warm floor (I like to think that hanging out at Sara's place in the winter is best compared to hanging out in the Arctic Circle, but at least she has heated floors) we toasted in the New Year outside in the snow (our grand plan ended up lasting about one minute - it involved running outside, yelling Happy New Year at midnight, and then immediately running back in due to the cold) and then decided to celebrate by going out for our new favorite...Korean food. Yes, it was 1 in the morning, and yes, it was delicious.

The next day we lazed around in our pajamas and worked on booking tickets and planning for our upcoming trips (she's going to Indonesia and Southeast Asia), watched a movie, and then went for a walk to take some pictures of the beautiful snow covered scenery in Jangheung. I thought about where I was at this point last year (in Green Bay ready to leave for Florida, with two months left of swimming after my fourteen years of training, and only one semester left of college.) I applied to work in Korea right before leaving for Florida, knowing that I wanted to work overseas after graduation, but having no idea where I would end up and how amazing it would end up being.

As I headed home that day and gazed out the bus window at the dazzling snow, I thought about how comfortable I am with my current life - teaching, traveling, riding buses everywhere, eating with chopsticks every day, reading whatever I want instead of what I needed to write my next paper on, and planning dozens of upcoming trips. It's exactly what I imagined my life to be while living overseas - but I realized that what I hadn't counted on were all the great experiences I would have due to all of the great people I've met and become friends with in just a short time. No matter where in the world you are, you can almost always have the essentials - food, water, shelter, clothes - but it's not until you interact with the people - local or fellow travelers - and you share experiences with them, either at work, volunteering, or even just out to eat for a meal, that you will really truly experience a new place, and nine times out of ten you will enjoy it that much more. I can read books anywhere, I can sleep in hostels all around the world, I can take as many pictures as I want to, but how many times am I able to pay three dollars to eat a steaming hot bowl of kimchi jjigae and rice with my friends at 1 AM on New Year's Day? Or eat Korean pizza with corn as a staple topping (don't ask me why - they think we do that on pizza, apparently) with my friends for Christmas dinner?

These experiences and many, many more, are what made my 2010 such a great year - I can't wait to see what 2011 will bring! Much love to all my family and friends who make me count my blessings each and every day for being in my life. I hope you all had a great holiday season and have a fantastic start to your New Year!

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!