expat xmas and an interesting new years

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. Christmas abroad, well it wasn't really Christmas, but it was good.

Christmas to me is being home with my family, tamales on Christmas Eve, Christmas music, cinnamon rolls early Christmas morning, the smell of a real Christmas tree, last minute runs to Fiesta Foods because its the only store open and we forgot something important, the whole family coming over for dinner, playing games, sneaking away with the cousins and and my sisters to go look at christmas lights around town, and more than anything just spending quality time with the most important people in my life.

Christmas here wasn't nearly as important as it is at home. There were decorations and christmas music, but overall people didn't seem to care much. My students weren't even excited. They told me that in Korea it is celebrated more with your girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other, than with family. Many people go out to dinner with their partner and buy them a gift. Young children spend it with family. Not nearly as celebrated as in the states, but they go to church, have a family dinner, eat cake, and open a present.

Christmas day really just felt like any other day, so I decided that I would find some Christmas spirit. I decided to go to the busiest shopping district, Myeong-dong, by far the most crowded, craziest shopping area I have ever been in. According to Wikipedia the floating population of Myeongdong is estimated to be around 2 million a day. There were christmas decorations and music and Koreans dressed as Santa!

I mostly just wandered around, in and out of shops, and through the maze-like streets. Its was exciting to be around so many people, and so much color and neon. And it smelled delicous from all of the street vendors. I bought hodo-gwaja (translates to walnut cakes). They smell like doughnuts and maple syrup. They are little pancake like balls filled with walnut paste and a walnut. They sell them everywhere, even in the subway station. They are very yummy.

After exploring Myeong-dong I went home and made myself a Christmas dinner, curry and wine, my favorite! Totally expecting to have a mellow Christmas night. But plans changed quickly and I ended up in Hongdae with my co-worker and his friends. I quickly found out how Christmas is really celebrated by younger Koreans. The rest of my night involved a lot of dancing, most notably to Spice Girls and the YMCA, some drinking, and meeting random friends and a lot of Christmas merriment. It was really fun.

This last week work has kept me very busy. We currently have intensives. While Korean children are on winter vacation from school we offer morning classes in addition to the evening ones. I teach morning classes a few days a week. My class is a listening and speaking workshop, which involves me playing a TV show and having the kids discuss and answer some questions about the show. This past week's lesson: Sabrina the Teenage Witch! So fun, the kids loved it! My night classes are going well. Although for one lower level class, the kids are about 8-9 years old, we are reading Arabian Night short stories. Reading a story where the sultan beheads his wife after she "takes other lovers" and main characters with names like Scheherazade, Masrour and Shahryrar is more than a little challenging. Thanks to whoever decided 9 yr olds could pronounce or even like a story like this.

Although I worked until after 10 on friday, my co-worker and I decided to go out for new years. We planned on a mellow night, but of course that is nearly impossible in Seoul. We went to a small Australian bar in Itaewon. The owner is an old hippie with long hair, but bald on top and strangely no Australian accent. He was very nice and sat and talked with us for a while. We rung in the new year in this quiet little bar, but soon decided to go see what else was going on. We went to a few different places and then decided to go home. Catching a taxi was impossible, and the subway was closed and wouldn't open again until 5am. So what did we decided to do? Of course we made the responsible decision of going back to a bar and playing darts and hanging out for about 2 more hours, until the subway was up and running again. Highlights of my New Years Eve, falling on the ice, delicious Kebab/sharawma, claiming I was really good at darts,dancing to Backstreet boys, and falling asleep on the subway at 5:30 in the am. I really hope this isn't a preview to the rest of 2011.

I hope you had a fantastic NYE! I wish you lots of love, adventure, and happiness in the new year! Miss you very much.

a little gift to you....

Brionna's suggested listening for a wonderful beginning to the new year, old, new, completely random, but all very good:

1. All I Want Is You -Barry Louise Polisar
2. Own Stunts -Breathe Owl Breathe
3. Rattle Your Bones -Black Whales
4. Anything At All -Tristan Prettyman
5. Discovery Park -Jordan O'Jordan
6. Brusies -Chairlift
7. Hysteric (Acoustic) -Yeah Yeah Yeahs
8. Fly Mama Fly -Moondoggies
9. Forever Young -Bob Dylan
10. If You Aint Got Love -Mason Jennings
11. Not Tonight -Tegan and Sara
12. The Reeling -Passion Pit
13. Slowness -Calexico
14. Like a Wheel -The Tallest Man on Earth
15. Those To Come -The Shins
16. Swept Away (Sentimental Version) -The Avett Brothers
17. True Love Will Find You In The End -Daniel Johnston
18. Who Knows Who Cares -Local Natives
19. You're Not Broken -Sera Cahoone (My current favorite!)
20. Firecracker -Ryan Adams