Happy Birthday Mom!

Sorry I can’t be there to go bowling with you or anything, but I hope you have a great day!.... Though I guess it’s not your birthday there for another 6 hours or so.

I really enjoyed Christmas in Korea. There was still a feeling of good will and friendliness that Christmas should be, but it didn’t have all the hype and insanity. I had random kids I met on the street, cab drivers and my students wish me a merry Christmas, I even got little presents and a card from my students. Unlike home, there wasn’t this huge buildup for Christmas though. Decorations weren’t up in November, in fact, those who put up decorations put them up the week before, and from what I noticed stores started playing Christmas carols days before Christmas… not after Halloween. There’s still a sense of being with your family and friends at Christmas, most of my students were going out for dinner or going to a friend’s house for dinner, but there’s allot less commercialism, not everyone has to buy a present for everyone else. There’s still presents, but I think it’s only for closest friends and family. Erin and I went to E-mart on Christmas Eve and it wasn’t even that busy, and that place can get crazy.

I did miss the family and the excitement of Xmas morning, but we had a god Christmas nonetheless. We started with stockings and presents, then I went to play some ball hockey, and my team came in second (out of three teams…). Later we went to the school’s xmas party and had a great dinner. We had Turkey (which they got from the army base), meatloaf, macaroni, pasta salad, 7 layer dip and pumpkin pie, it was glorious! I also missed watching Paint Your Wagon on xmas eve, but Neal, Whitney, Erin and I had pizza and watched Elf. That movie is awesome, I almost think it should be our traditional Christmas movie, but I don’t think the family would allow it.

Rumour has it we might be getting paid tonight. Very exciting for us! Now we can buy lots of the essentials we have been living without, like blinds and a bedside table and a bookshelf and a hat rack and maybe some more dishes. I’m also going night skiing tomorrow night, and I need to buy snow pants… and pay for the skiing, so getting paid will help there.

I have a friend/coworker who has a friend giving away cats. Naturally, Erin wants them, But I don’t wanna put the cats through an 11 hour flight home and I don’t know what we would do with them when we go away on trips, so I’m not sure about that. A high percentage of teachers we know either have an animal or want an animal, but when you look at the classifieds there’s tons of foreign teachers trying to give away animals… I don’t really understand how people who are here for a year can get an animal if they don’t intend on bringing it home.

I’m still sick, but feeling allot better then I have. I think I could still avoid going to the doctor!

Middle school girls love me. On Christmas I was walking to ball hockey and five girls were walking the same direction. Once they saw me they all started giggling and talking allot (obviously at how dreamy I am). Then one of them said hello to me and shook my hand, which made all the girls even more excited, which led them to all shake my hand. Then one of them came foreword and said I was ‘cute and handsome and gorgeous.’ So yea, I’m pretty awesome. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten attention from the younger Korean ladies; I guess I just have it ;). Jae Won, my Korean partner also said that I got that Xmas card from my student because she thought I was cute, she was also middle school aged.