Friday, December 26, 2008

Happy Merry Christmas

I was dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Unfortunately, anytime we get snow in Ilsan, it is gone within a few hours. We did however, have a good Christmas celebration. On Christmas Eve, Sun took Christine and I out to lunch before work. He had asked us the day before if we would join him for lunch and not to tell anyone else that we were meeting. We spent the night wondering what this was about. Turns out, he just wanted to treat us to a nice lunch on Christmas Eve. We bought him a bottle of wine for Christmas from the grocery store across the street from L*Bridge. When I told him I didn't know if it was good or not, he simply stated, "It doesn't matter, it is alcohol. It will be good."

I had brought tangerines into work to give to all of the other teachers and quickly found out that I had been outdone by a long shot. We had three different cakes during our initial prep time. Later in the day, we all got pastries (something we used to get on a weekly basis until this last month). At the end of the day, someone else came in with a platter of cookies, kimbab, and sweet potatoes. I think most people forgot about the tangerines.

We came home Christmas Eve to find that the package from home had arrived. We tried to hold out and not open presents until Christmas, but midnight couldn't come soon enough. Our stockings were both stuffed with goodies and the presents were sitting under them just waiting to be opened. We opened presents at 11:00 PM on Christmas Eve. We got tons of goodies from each other and from home.




























On Christmas Day, we had decided to eat at an International Buffet that we had seen earlier in the week. When we arrived at 6:30, we found out the wait was over 2 hours. I had planned to take full advantage of this buffet and hadn't eaten all day, so we decided to go somewhere else. We went to Wazzle to eat Chinese food instead. It was an incredibly nice restaurant with a great view of Western Dom.

While walking home, we bought a cake from one of the bakeries. Apparently, this is the thing to do on Christmas as almost everyone we saw was carrying a cake. We went home and indulged in a white cream cake before grading some papers for class tomorrow.

2 comments:

Lesley @GEEKSOAP said...

Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year to you both! I apparently called on Christmas Eve at grandma's house around the same time you did and there was lots of phone passing. Do you find it's hard to be away during the holidays? I know you're kept busy (me as well), but it sure is hard especially at Christmas to be so far away from family. I'm glad you two had a nice Christmas. That cake looks fabulous!

I am eager to see your classroom, so yes, post pictures! I was recently offered a full time, permanent Kindergarten teaching contract at a private school in downtown Calgary and was really excited to set up my own classroom again. Subbing was alright for a year, but it sure does feel good to be back in my OWN classroom. I don't see you on Sara or Stacey's Facebook but I put up the pics I took after setting up my room this past week here:
http://lookatusgo.net/gallery/index.php?d=content/Miscellaneous/Lesleys%20Classroom/

Is the school system a lot different than at home? The Canadian school system really isn't all that much different at all.

Anyway, happy belated holidays, glad to see some updates to the blog (life can get so busy!) and take care, both of you!

jc said...

Merry merry and happy happy to you too! This was the first time I spent the holidays (Christmas at least) not in Indiana so it was a little tough. We made sure to do as much as we could so we would have fun. The dinner was essential. I got passed around a lot quicker than you did, I'm sure. My phone connection sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. We still haven't setup internet at the house so we rely on whatever wireless we can find at the time. I know, we shouldn't, but it has just become habbit at this point.

I'll talk a lot about our classes and L*Bridge really soon. I feel bad that we haven't said anything in 4 months about the place we work at everyday. There is too much to say in a comment about how different it is.

I found you on Facebook through Stacey after you mentioned it. Your classroom looks awesome! So much space and color (as you can tell we lack both here). You are brave with the Kindergarten group. They are fun, but I don't have the energy to keep up all day long with them.

How cold is it over there? We have been sitting around the low 30's during the day with 15-20 mph wind. I used to like the cold - a lot - until I came to South Korea. It just feels much different than Indiana cold. Hope you and Lucas had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

About Me

We are both living in South Korea teaching English as a second language to elementary aged students. We arrived in September 2008 to work at L*Bridge for one year. It's like a reality TV show without the cameras and obscene backstabbing. See you in 2009!