♥ Merry Christmas from SoKo ♥

Orphanage fundraiser
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 Well Christmas came and went pretty quickly here in Korea.  It's not quite like at home, and it didn't really feel much like Christmas until Christmas day.  Korea isn't a place that really has a lot of Christmas decorations, trees, or lights.  In fact only about 1/3 of my students actually celebrated Christmas, and even the ones that did did not celebrate quite like we do back home.  
Singing Christmas songs
Snowball fights
I tried to bring the Christmas feeling into the classroom as much as I could.  I had Christmas lessons, sang Christmas songs, and made snowflakes to hang in the room.  The students did seem to enjoy talking about Christmas and how it is different here in Korea.  

Presents!
This Christmas was my first Christmas away from my family, and it was a bit strange and sad.  I'm used to being around my family all day long and cooking and eating and playing with my little cousins.  BUT this Christmas I didn't have the little ones running around me playing with their new Christmas toys or my family for that matter.  Christmas started last week kind of for me, when I received my package from home.  I went to eat my lunch and came back to a lovely box sitting on my desk with gifts and a stocking inside it.  

 I did however have my amazing friends around me.  We made our way to Gumi Monday evening after we all finished our day at school.  Had a lovely dinner at an Italian place and enjoyed a glass of wine.  We then made our way to Corona's (a popular bar among westerners in Gumi) for their Christmas party.  It was such a great night with all our friends.  Ange and I stumbled our way out of the bar around 4am to find snow falling!  I was so excited to have a 'white' Christmas!
My family in Korea!
Christmas morning rolls around and we got ourselves ready to head to Heather's, about 20 minutes by taxi from Ange's place.  This is where we had our lovely Christmas celebration with our adopted family.  We had about 15 of us in her apartment and we all sat around, drank wine, laughed about how strange our Christmas was, and cooked our Christmas dinner. 
Christmas dinner
Dishing out our dinner
We finally started eating around 6:30 or 7:00, and yes we did sit on the floor for our dinner.  We sat around enjoying our meal and talking about how lucky we are here in Korea.  No, I did not think I would come to Korea and sit and enjoy my Christmas dinner on the floor with people that I didn't even know last Christmas.  However, I am truly a very lucky person to have each and everyone of them in my life.  They have become my family and I love each and everyone of them!  
Merry Christmas Cake!
We joked that it's not sad that we spent this Christmas on the floor, what's sad is that all 15 of us chose to spend next Christmas on the floor as well ^^.  But, I do not regret signing for a second year, because I know that it will bring many more memories and laughs.  We may all have a few more tears even next year but at least we will have each other to have a shoulder to cry out and a joke to make us all laugh and cheer each other up!  I am looking forward to see what the next year brings us here in Korea.  

Comments

  1. MKDecember 27, 2012 at 4:31 PM

    "We joked that it's not sad that we spent this Christmas on the floor, what's sad is that all 15 of us chose to spend next Christmas on the floor as well." hahaha Great line!

    Looks like you guys had a great Christmas =)

    ReplyDelete

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