Christmas, Christmas Time [Was] Here

Oh what a Christmas!  I miss home wayyyy more than last year, so I was a little nervous for what Christmas would hold.  But, it was absolutely fantastic.  The community of people with whom I have surrounded myself in the last several months made all the difference.

A week of celebrating Christmas started with our weekly potluck, hosted by the Husted's.  Ten of us gathered for a beautiful start to the holiday, complete with delicious food, great conversation and some pretty strange white elephant gifts.

It snowed on Wednesday, and even though it was just a little (and it melted pretty much right away), it added to the Christmas feeling.  When it began to snow even more Friday night, it finally felt the way Christmas should.  It's funny how important the presence of snow is, for me, to really feel Christmas.  Thank you, Iowa :)

Thursday night was an EB teacher's dinner at a swank place called Il Party Room.  A fantastic buffet dinner, being surrounded by some of my favorite Koreans, and some creatively planned gifts for each teacher made for a delightful night.  Friday night was the Christmas dinner for all three Kyunghwa schools, held in our school's gymnasium.  Following dinner, all of my closest girl friends gathered at my place for a little Christmas party.  We enjoyed wine, secret Santa gifts and conversation.  A fantastic evening, indeed.

The next morning, I met some of the students with whom I am the closest for coffee.  Both of them are third graders and are graduating (one of them, WonYoung, moved to Malaysia yesterday to go to college and SuGa has been training for a job at a bank for about a month) so it was nice to hang out them one last time.  After coffee, I met Diane, Desiree and Grace at E-Mart to make some Christmas Eve dinner purchases.  We happened to walk past a man playing Santa Claus and decided we needed our picture taken with him.  I asked the closest man to me (in broken Korean, more Konglish really, if you can even call it that) to take our picture (Uhhh... Po-to, ju-say-yo? (translation: Photo, please?) to which the man replied, in beautiful English, "Sure, no problem.  Do I press this button?"  I felt like such a dunce.

On we went to Dionne and Scott's for a beautiful Christmas Eve feast.  We had crazy amounts of seafood, clam chowder, lobster, smoked salmon, Caesar salad, bottle and bottles of wine and cupcakes.  Wowza.  Then, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the first time for me - a travesty, I know.) and a ghost story involving a mysterious trunk.  What a crazy, delightful, fantastic turn of Christmas events.

The next morning, we woke up, opened gifts at Desiree's and went back to the Husted's for Christmas breakfast.  Oh wow.  I feel lucky to have made friends with so many people who not only know how to cook like crazies but are so generous with sharing their culinary gifts.  For Christmas breakfast, we had smoked salmon omelets, sourdough waffles and fruit.  It was so relaxing to sit in their living room with the sun streaming through their huge windows, eating, laughing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, we watched A Christmas Story.  My holiday was made.

For dinner that night, Desiree, Diane, Grace and I ventured to our favorite Chinese restaurant for our favorite Chinese fare.  Seriously, I don't know what the woman puts in that food, but it is pure magic.  Every. Single. Time.

And so, that is how my second Korean Christmas became one for the books.  Last week, along with the so-close-I-can-hardly-contain-my-excitement arrivals of Ruth (in a week and a half!!) and my parents (in seven weeks!!) have revitalized me.

English Festival

Oh my gosh.  English Festival.  What a delightful day.

It started with some English speeches (two from which I posted excerpts).  The first graders were to introduce themselves, but were given instructions to be entirely creative in so doing.  The second graders gave informative speeches about a variety of topics.  I am always surprised at how creative our students prove to be.

Next, there was a singing contest.  Each first and second grade homeroom was somehow represented, either through whole choirs, smaller ensembles or solos.  My absolute favorite performance was an acapella rendition of a Lady Gaga medley.  Oh. My. Wow.  They were awesome.  And, I found out later that they didn't even have music.  They taught themselves (there were six singers and one beat boxer!) each part by watching a YouTube video!

After we watched each of the first grade homerooms perform their winning business plays, the students played a few different English games.  I can't get over how competitive they are - one homeroom kept telling me that another was cheating and I always had company as I was tallying each team's points.  Yikes.

Last, Dionne and I taught (more like reviewed, since we'd already done this with all of our classes...) everyone (including the teachers!!) two line dances: The Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle.  Watching as the entire gym was filled with line dancing students and teachers was so fantastic.

And so, English Festival closed up our school year (for the most part) nicely.

My Students are Clever Little Boogers

Sorry (or maybe not?) for the unrelated pictures from our last two potlucks - t*party and bacon - wowza, can my friends cook!

Next Tuesday is English Festival (there are posters plastered around school with Santa and snow scenes saying "English Festival: Coming Soon!" ... awesome!) and the English department is in the middle of preparations.  Here's a rundown of the day's events:

• English Speech Contest
• English Business Play Contest (original plays written by our first graders whose only requirement was to use business English dialogue that we have worked on over the course of the school year)
• English Song Contest
• Line Dancing (!!!)
• Various English Relay Games

Today, I was editing some of the English speeches by some first graders and I came across some clever little gems that I just had to share:

You may not know me because we are in different classes, but I am famous in class 3 - it is not a lie! As you know, I'm a cool class president who goes hiking every morning, just like everyone who goes to this school.  For the moment, I want to introduce my family who play a big role in my life. Some of you guys know that I have seven family members in my family. So incredible, right?!  But, there is something more important. Please be ready to listen to it. It is that all children in our family are all the pretty girls! Wow! How is it possible? It make you curious on who my father? He is look great, right?!

She goes on to write about the love of her life (a famous Korean actor), her strengths and weaknesses and her dream of being a wonderful career woman.  I love this girl.  She's ab-fab for sure.

Another girl who is about as funny as they come:

(She's going to play a song and stop it before the best part of the song) Just now, I stopped the music before the best part. Do you know the reason by any chance? wow~ That's because the highlight of this stage is me!  ...  (She goes on to talk about how she's the youngest student at Kyunghwa because her birthday is Feb. 29 and then she says): I was already given a birthday present when I came to Kyunghwa (She's going to lift up her skirt to show her legs): well muscled legs. Has everyone else received them too? 

She goes on to talk about her determination to study after she failed a business English exam and was "stricken with grief."  Then, she tells a story about some handsome man stopping her on the street to ask if she's the sister of some other girl who she looks a lot like and how disappointed she was that he wasn't asking her out.  HA!  I'm not sure what else her speech entailed because about half of each paragraph was still in Korean, but I'm sure it was just as delightful as the already translated parts :)

Based solely on these two speeches, I am over-the-moon excited for next Tuesday!  Bring on the awesome, Kyunghwa!  I'm all sorts of ready.

A "Meating" With the Husteds

Tonight for dinner, the Husteds and I went to our favorite neighborhood all-you-can-eat grill house for what Jonah coined a "meating" (haha, get it?).  I hadn't been there since my birthday (what a crime!), so I was long overdue for a marinated beef feast.

Post "meating", we retired to the Husted's for an episode of Pushing Daisies (what a fantastic show!) and some banana pudding.  What a great end to a completely relaxing day.

This week is going to be super chill - I teach (read: watch School of Rock) just three third grade classes since the first and second graders have their finals this week and the third graders have a special program on Thursday.  That also means that I don't have school on Monday or Thursday.  The school year is winding down and I'm left wondering where the time has gone...

I've been listening to Boyce Avenue all day.  Love that man's voice and mellow acoustic take on otherwise guilty pleasure pop songs.  I'm especially a fan of Cover Collaborations Vol. 1 in which he sings his signature cover songs, but as duets with some other similarly sweet sounding friends.  Check him out.  You won't be sorry :)

Also, I had a weird epiphany tonight as I left my apartment to meet the Husteds.  When I'm in my apartment or with other foreigners, I kind of forget that I live in Korea.  Since I spent the whole day in my own little world, watching American television, listening to American music, etc., the moment I stepped onto the street tonight, it kind of hit me that (HOLY COW!) I live in Korea.  You'd think after over a year of this lifestyle, I'd be used to it, but almost daily, I get a glorious reminder of what my life entails and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't refreshing.

Hapdashery (a la Desiree)

So many little things (and a couple big things, too) have happened since I last posted.  I guess they can all come together for one melting pot of Korean delight.

Apparently, the Korean government issued some sort of report about Korean students not getting enough physical activity in school.  So, a week or so ago, our school canceled the last two periods of the day to hold an all-school dodge ball tournament.  Let me just tell you, it was intense.  There were some minor injuries that were remedied with Popsicle sticks and the next day, everyone was exhausted.  Dodge ball is no joke.

For Thanksgiving Day, after work, five area teachers gathered together at a funny little duck restaurant.  We had a great meal consisting of two courses: first, shabu shabu and later, roasted duck served atop pumpkin.  It was one of the best Thanksgiving alternatives for which we could have asked.  We ended the evening at our favorite after hours hangout: Cafe Swalo, eating cake and being obnoxious.  Delightful.

Friday, during my two morning preps, I had a Thanksgiving skype session with the folks at Kelly and Ed's.  I felt like I was there, except for the part where everyone was drinking Bailey's and I was stuck drinking tea.  Whatever.  It was soooo great to talk to everyone there!  Now I'm even more excited for their visit (as if that was possible...)!!  Yayyyy!

Friday night, we all (12 of us) went to Bundang to celebrate Thanh's birthday.  We ate at a great dak galbi restaurant before Diane, Desiree and I dipped out early to start our preparations for the next day's Thanksgiving extravaganza(s!).  After the taxi ride from hell (in which all of us experienced some degree of motion sickness), I boiled a stupid amount of eggs, burnt some croutons and softened a Paula Deen amount of butter...you know, usual Friday night activities.  No big deal.

The next day, I woke up early and cooked all morning. before heading over to Dionne and Scott's Thanksgiving dinner.  I brought carrot squash soup, deviled eggs, and bread with herb butter.  Diane brought apple garlic stuffing and Desiree made potato salad.  About 25 people gathered at the Husteds for a traditional Thanksgiving feast.  Wowza, was it great!  So many fantastic people gathered with some crazy good food.  I always wonder if these gatherings will comfort me or make me miss home, (it was a curious mix of both) but I think everyone goes through that to some extent, especially during this time of the year.

We dipped out of the Husted's way early because we had another Thanksgiving to attend at Desiree's friend Faith's in Bundang.  Kim and Sunny joined us for Thanksgiving Round 2, which was equally as delightful, though in a completely different way.   Post-Thanksgiving activities involved taking the new train line to Gangnam (in just 16 minutes - Whoa.) to check out a K-Pop exhibit with Diane and her friend Lena and then, noraebong for two hours.  Many middle school dance standbys and creative interpretive dances later, we called it a night just in time to catch one of the last buses back to the Gwangj.  What a Thanksgiving it was!

The next day, Diane, Desiree and I went back to Dionne and Scott's to pick up our Tupperware from the day before and to help them get rid of their leftovers and dessert.  Aren't we pals?!  We sat around there for a couple of hours, recounting our respective Thanksgivings and meeting Scott's new friend Mr. Lee (who is some sort of big deal in the Rotary Club - what a great man - I was laughing like a crazy person, which is obviously WAY out of character for me :) )  After grocery shopping at E-Mart (on a Sunday - bad idea even though it has become a weekly potluck preparation thing - think Black Friday crowds, but every single Saturday and Sunday - Koreans don't mess around when it comes to weekend food shopping), we returned to Dionne and Scott's to help them decorate their Christmas tree (and eat more leftovers!).  What a refreshing, fantastic, put-me-in-the-holiday-spirit evening!  I haven't decorated a Christmas tree in several years so I was so glad to be included!  The Husteds really know how to treat a gal.

Yesterday brought another installment of Potluck Monday.  Last week's (hors d'oeuvres!) was a resounding success so I was really looking forward to this week!  Our theme was Mexican.  My mind was blown.  We had 14 people gathered in my apartment.  Every single surface was covered with food and beverages (we've also expanded from food to sharing beverage concoctions - Thanh brought sangria and Scott mixes all kinds of creative things (honey citron tea, ginger honey tea, hot peppers...) with soju to create new liqueurs.  We are all willing samplers - it's a tough job.) which, along with all of the awesome people gathered, made for quite a delightful evening.  We also celebrated Thanh's birthday with a little pink animal covered birthday cake and a few gifts.  Next week's theme: T Party, in which everyone brings something that starts with the letter T (and also to celebrate Toni's birthday).  I'm really loving the community we've created through these potlucks.  Everyone is so diverse and from such different walks of life that there's never a shortage of stories or laughter - just the way I like it :)

P.S. The best interaction with Mr. Shin just happened.  Somehow, my classroom door was locked yesterday (despite what you may be thinking, Mom, I had nothing to do with it :)) so I couldn't get into my classroom today because I only have a key to open the door to the whole floor and not my classroom specifically.  After Chan Yang gave me the set of keys that should have opened my classroom and none of them worked, I went back down to the office.  I told Mr. Shin my problem:
Noelle: Mr. Shin, none of these keys work!  They all fit in the lock, but none of them turn.
Mr. Shin: Seriously?
N: Yes!
MS: Just wait.  I school McGuyver.  I'll be back.
(not one minute later, Mr. Shin emerged from the teacher's office triumphantly holding two keys in his hand above his head.)
MS: I told you I McGuyver!!!  Follow me!

Delightful.  Simply delightful.

Pseudo Road Trip With Some of my Faves :)

Alright - it wasn't quite a road trip, but it was a trip and we traveled on several roads so that's what I'm calling it.  Since Thursday was the day when every high school senior took their college entrance exam, we all had the day off.  And, since none of the teachers wanted to come to school the day after supervising those exams all day, we had Friday off from school too.  And so, with a delightful four day weekend with no plans on our hands, we decided to take advantage of this nice break and what was left of the gorgeous fall weather we've been having by taking a short trip.  We settled on the east coast of Korea to visit one of Korea's major mountains, Seoraksan as well as the nearby coast of the East Sea.  What a delightful trip we had :)

We woke up hella early on Thursday morning after a delightful non-school-night-Wednesday-evening-in with our pals Kim and Navy.  And, by hella early, I mean earlier than we would have woken up had we had school that day.  Ouch.  We got to the bus terminal and waited about an hour and a half for our bus to leave.  My seat was next to an incredibly friendly middle-aged Korean man who was delighted to be able to dust off his English skills.  After a quick chat, I dozed for the better portion of the two and a half hour bus ride.  As I woke from my most desirable nap, my bus companion slipped me his card and offered to take Diane, Desiree and I to dinner that night.  After having talked to me for less than 10 minutes.  Very strangey.  Ever more strange - I told him my name so that when (read: if) I called him to arrange dinner plans, he would know who I was.  He couldn't have cared less.  So weird...

Upon arrival at our cozy hostel (The House Hostel in Sokcho is highly recommended, people!), we explored the city.  We were eagerly greeted by several locals waving hello, telling us we were beautiful and even welcoming us to Korea in passing.  Being an obvious foreigner is funny sometimes.  Eventually we found ourselves in a shipyard, which, let me tell you, we explored to its full extent.  Fishermen are colorful characters. Next, we made our way to a sea wall where we took several photos - some beautiful, some emotional, some heartfelt, many silly.  We ended our near-the-sea adventure with a delightful chat (over fresh crab) with our restaurant's proprietor.  Homeboy was a real big baseball fan.  Wowza.

Friday was hiking day.  And, by hiking, I mean we took a cable car as high as we could and hiked maybe half an hour total.  Buuuut, we saw some beautiful scenery, ate some delicious hiking snacks and did some high quality people watching.  Then, we took the bus to the fish market and walked around.  Something about markets here just makes me intrinsically happy.  I love the energy present there.  I don't know.

We spent a good amount of childish time frolicking at Sokcho Beach, walking on the boardwalk, and thoroughly enjoying being together in a strange new city.  The rest of the day was spent wandering (literally - we had no idea where we were or where we were going...), eating Chinese food and ice cream and relaxing.  We woke up from early evening naps to indulge in some soft tofu soup, a specialty of the area.  It was delightful, as was the restaurant's proprietor who later called us a cab and invited us to wait for said cab inside her restaurant.  I love people's kindness and hospitality here.  Fantastic.

The next morning, we slept in, took it easy, ate brunch at our favorite chain bakery and caught our bus back to reality.  What a fantastic, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable getaway.  Now it's back to the grindstone for awhile... and, by grindstone, I mean teaching roughly 10 classes this week in which we prepare for a final exam and put the finishing touches on the first grade business play project.  Sometimes this job is painfully delightful.

Also, I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before, but for three glorious weeks in January, my best bud Ruth will grace Korea with her presence!!!!  YAYYY!  (If you can't tell, I'm real jazzed about her recent plane ticket purchase!)  There are grand times to be had.  Grand times, indeed.

Potluuuucks

I'd been thinking about doing something like this for a couple of months, but was always too lazy to put it together.  I finally got my backside in gear (at the suggestion of several pals :) ) and began hosting a weekly potluck for all of my foreign pals in the Gwangj.

Last week didn't have a theme since it was the first one.  I did, however, learn that I have some seriously culinarily talented pals.  Desiree made some of the most fantastic mashed potatoes I've ever tasted, Scott made an amazing dumpling soup (Korean name: mandu guk), Diane made some fantastic kimchi fried rice (kimchi bo-kum-bap) and Kim made brains.  Yep - brains.  In a jar.  The brains (cubes of cake, a berry jam of some sort and buttermilk frosting squeezed to resemble a human brain) were in honor of Halloween (which was about as Halloweeny as I got this year...)  It was so, so fun to get everyone together and share some great homemade food.  I. LOVE. POTLUCKS.

This week, the theme was colors.  Everyone had to prepare something of a certain color.  We had deviled eggs, homemade pork cutlet, tuna noodle casserole, carrot soup, (blue!) vanilla bean rice pudding, banana pudding, a beautiful green salad, a chocolate wafer brittle cake and peach juice.  Oh my wow, people.  Words cannot describe how beautiful this food was and how much fun we had making and consuming it.  Not only did we thoroughly enjoy sharing our food with one another, but the time we all spent together was so fun.  It's such a great feeling to have built such a supportive, interesting, adventurous community of people with which to spend my time.  Awesome.

And, Scott and Dionne brought their adorable dog Lucy to last night's 'luck.  It was so fun to be around such an adorable dog.  I miss Snickers the Wonderdog!  Amid the fantastic conversation was a little knitting party too.  Such creative friends I have :)

Next week's theme: Breakfast for Dinner.  My mouth is already watering.