Merry Christmas!
Wishing everyone all the best for the holiday season!
Hope this finds you all happy and healthy
and enjoying time spent with you family and friends!
This week, I received the above card with "last but not least" written inside. I've got quite the collection of gel gems now, and when the holidays are over, I'm going to safely tuck them away to bring back to Canada and enjoy for many Christmas' to come. Thank you Younes'!
Yesterday I was still teaching classes, and will do so for the rest of the week. I can't actually be bothered to "teach" as the students have finished exams and currently have so much surplus energy they could be locked in large hamster wheels as alternate energy sources. A BIG thank you to Vanessa and my brother for finding me copies of The Grinch to show in my classes. For the first time since my introductory class in September, the kids were so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop. Despite the imaginative language of Seuss, and the animated nature that I thought would make it flop for being too childish, my students watched with wide eyes, laughed at Max the dog and even cooed at Cindy Lou Who. My Christmas week sanity has been saved!
Last night, Sara and I had a quiet Christmas night filled with all sorts of tasty treats, and watched a movie that is slowly becoming a Christmas Eve tradition. Last year I was curled up on the couch with Kyle watching it, and this year Sara decided to join into the cult following of Love Actually.
Movie watching was a more interesting experience than expected: my TV doesn't have outlets for S-cable hookups, and the speakers on my laptop are ridiculously weak, so Sara and I ended sitting side by side on the floor, 6 inches away from the laptop, each with one earphone in. No sudden movements were allowed, and Sara would occasionally shout out commentary that must've made the neighbors think there's someone with Turrets living next door. In the end, Sara is now a Love Actually convert (mission accomplished), and I got my annual helping of good movie giddiness (how great is Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister?! I mean, really...)
Bellies full of veggies and dip, cheese and bread, and cake and Baileys, we opened one gift each and were both out for the count by 10pm. Today, the celebrations continue with more friends!
Stockings are always my favourite part of Christmas, so this year I made myself a little one! No peeking until tomorrow though...
In the weekend leading up to Christmas, I have fallen drastically behind in my countdown. Oops! I was doing so well too! Well, a quick update...
On Friday, thirteen of us were supposed to go to The Nutcracker ballet to kick off the final weekend to Christmas, when I received news that the theater where it was being held had a fire on December 12th and all shows were canceled! Plans were quickly rescheduled to Thai food (how festive!) instead, and the evening was saved.
Saturday was Tammy, Brent and Cohen's "'Twas 3 Nights Before Christmas" pajama party and gift exchange. In true Christmas tradition, we all stuffed our faces with delicious food, and remained in a semi-comatose state until it was time to open gifts. Never have I seen a more lively (and sneaky) gift exchange! Couples formed trading tag teams, while the singles were left to fend for themselves and their beautiful handmade gifts. A fabulous time, and a very big thank you to Tammy, Brent and Cohen for opening up their beautiful home to all of us.
Today was last minute grocery shopping, house cleaning and gift wrapping before the big day. Hard to believe we're at the two day mark!
The current window display at Lotte Department Store in Nowon-gu. I don't know if you can read her speech bubble, but it says, "I'm a Christmas Table!"
I hate to be the one to break it to her, but she's actually a tree. With a lamp shade on her head.
Whatever she is, she sure sparkles a lot, so I'm happy.
Namdaemun Market Christmas trees. I happily wandered this section during my Election Day holiday on Wednesday. Not a campaign truck to be heard :)
Yesterday, I decided to give the Nandaemun market a second chance. First time I went it was crowded and chaotic. Yesterday it was still crowded and chaotic, but I warmed up to the place a little - maybe it's somewhere that'll gradually grow on me over time. One thing that helped me develop a mild fondness for the place was the general explosion of Christmas throughout the market. Shops were overflowing with everything you could ask for: baubles, Christmas arbors and even giant mechanical skiing snowmen. I was particularly fond of the wrapping paper displays, but unfortunately you couldn't buy just one piece. Minimum purchase was 10 sheets at $3 a pop, so I took a picture instead.
Another outdoor department store Christmas display, this one at Lotte Department Store in my neighbourhood: Nowon-gu. I don't know about anyone else, but when I think Christmas, large, white woodland creatures are not the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, they are about as obscure to me as the Christmas armadillo from Friends.
In other news: Today is Election Day! No more election trucks! No more campaign dancers! No more subway cheerleaders! Hooray! Yesterday over lunch, one of the Korean teachers asked me if I would be voting today. Somehow I don't think that'd fly, but it led to an interesting conversation among my friends later in the evening over galbi and wine (today is a holiday after all). We've decided that we'd like to be able to cast one traditional vote, and one "anti" vote. So, it'd be like an election of who's least disliked where the "winner" would come out with only -26 votes compared to -732,480 votes. Potentially. The only limiting factor would be that I'd personally like to cast three "anti" votes in the Korean presidential election against candidates 1, 2 and 6, all of whom have had their trucks parked outside on the street for the last three weeks. In the end though, I think candidate 2 is going to win, he had the biggest speakers afterall.
I've been attempting to finish a second installment of writing from my adventures in North Korea to no avail. In the meantime, enjoy this article recently posted on cbc.ca.
My Christmas tree is finally up and decorated! When I purchased my Christmas tree this year, I already had it planned that I wanted to decorate it with mini-balls of yarn and make a star out of bamboo needles after being inspired by a Kosney shop in Apgujeong.
My mini-tree cost the equivalent of 20 CAD which I figured was money well spent considering how much I love this holiday. I realized what an even better bargain is was when I opened this box and saw that it came with a plethora of decorations AND lights!
I still went ahead and decorated my tree with the knitting theme, but now I have decorations to spread around my apartment, including stringing an extra strand of lights around the loft railing. My apartment definitely has that festive atmosphere!
This year, I was very lucky to be given the housing assignment I was. There are numerous horror stories circulating the English teachers community in Asia about accomodations they have been expected to live in ranging from pest infestations to mold. I was preparing for the worst, so when my co-teacher opened the door to what would be my home for the next year, I had to stop my jaw from hitting the floor. You can see my apartment in more detail under the Korea tab on this page, but in one word it's fabulous. I am very lucky.
Living in a loft though, there are some interesting situations that come up once and awhile that I would never have thought of being problems previously. Lack of storage is one, changing lightbulbs is another, but most recently, a new "problem" has literally kept me up at night.
Looking at the above picture you can see where the kitchen is. Now, imagine the bathroom space behind it. Stacking apartment on apartment means that my upstairs neighbour's bathroom and kitchen are over my sleeping area. I had never really given this any thought until a night earlier this week where I laid awake in insomniac mode: eyes wide open, foot twtiching is anxious anticipation of falling asleep. In the early hours of the morning, thinking I was finally feeling drowsy, I closed my eyes. Just as I did so, I hear footsteps above me. And then the unmistakable sound of someone taking a tinkle.
My eyes immediately sprung back open as I realized the proximity of my neighbour relieving themselves, and felt slightly flustered by overhearing this generally private time. In sleepless delirium, I started to have visions of the ceiling (2 feet from my face) giving way, and my neighbour and their toilet crashing down on me in an accident of the most unfortunate sort.
Unable to erase the potential scene from my mind, I scooped up my blankets, made my way downstairs and collapsed on the couch which is at least 14 feet away from the ceiling and any of my neighbours peronal business. Since then, I have gone back to sleeping with earplugs, and have had peaceful, potty-sound-free slumbers since.
