Christmas in Korea

Christmas in Korea was a very interesting experience. First off, the weather is not very reminiscent of north-eastern Christmases gone by, and neither is the general ambiance. Well, there are a few Christmas trees, lights, and 'Merry Christmas' signs here and there, but the mood was so different that I didn't get a Christmas-related homesick at all.

The main difference between American and Korean Christmas is the holiday's target audience. In the US, Christmas is primarily a family holiday, and in my mind, it secondarily targets close friends. However, in Korea, Christmas is a couple's holiday (and this is not a determination based solely on speculation; I was told the same thing by more than two Koreans). When I walked out of the subway to meet my Korean friend on Christmas Eve, for a moment I was completely convinced that it was Valentine's Day, because he had a bouquet of roses and a gift wrapped in silver paper with pink hearts. Also, apparently it is very hard to get reservations at nice restaurants on Christmas Eve. We went to a pretty nice place and it was already starting to fill up by 6:00p.

Christmas day, however, was no comparison. I went to Seomyeon (one of my favorite places in Busan) to meet a friend for lunch, and it was just infested with people, primarily couples. The subway was packed, the shopping malls were packed, the restaurants were packed, and most surprisingly to me, the streets were packed. My brain did not know how to process this information. My friend Liz, with whom I went out to lunch, and I agreed that it looked more like Black Friday than Christmas. What a strange experience that was!

Back to Christmas Eve for a moment. So after dinner, coffee, and a stroll around Haeundae, C and I departed, because he had to work 7-5 the next day. Yeah, that's right. 7am to 5pm at a pool on Christmas Day. How lame is that! Anyway, I headed off to Seomyeon, because a group of Americans, Canadians and Englishman (one) met at a noraebang (Korean karaoke) to do Secret Santa. We reserved a noraebang because it was one of the only places that we could have all to ourselves and that could also fit about 30 of us (at the noraebangs you get private rooms). It was a lot of fun - I met some people I had never seen before, because I don't see other foreigners much - but we felt kind of strange after an hour and a half because we weren't singing, and the people who worked there a) didn't understand why this was the case, and b) had other people waiting for a room. But overall, it was a great night.

I worked today, but not much - maybe 2.5 hours - but I'm still exhausted because I only slept about 4 hours last night because of my wonderfully-thin walls. The administrator at my school came to my apartment today and had someone fix my stove (which has been out of commission for almost 3 weeks), helped me figure out why my gas bill was 142,000,000 won, about 4 times as expensive as last month, even though I hardly used the stove and didn't use the heat all that much more, and called the TV man to come fix my TV which has been out of commission for about 2 months. We also discussed the noise problem but I fear that that, the most important of the issues about which I complained, will not be remedied much. So I will have to try and figure something out...the solution which I have been resorting to the past 2 weeks are not acceptable.

This is a complete aside, ish, but the TV man just called my cell phone, speaking in Korean...and after we got past the "yeoboseyo" "hello?" "yeoboseyo?" hello?" "yeoboseyo?"...me not knowing who it is, so I just speak English in that case so that I won't have to hurt myself trying to understand someone who has the wrong number...but then he said, TV? So I started speaking a bit of Korean...and he wanted to know where I lived, so I gave him my address... in Korean!!! I was so proud of myself to have had a phone conversation in Korean...although it was probably the simplest phone conversation possible, but still - my address is a bit different in Korean than it is in English because you say things in a different order. Yea I know I am wayy to excited about this but hey this is how I get my kicks.

So he is here now and I have to try and use more of my almost non-existent Korean communication skills, so I should leave it at that :)

Work, Work, Work; Planning Winter-Training Trips

This past weekend was a very interesting one. I hadn't seen my coach in a week and a half and I had to further prolong our next meeting because of the wonderful amount of work that I had this weekend for English Camp. I am a tad bitter about that because due to miscommunication (or just lack of clear conveyance) I had to restructure the lesson plans twice. I spent 15 hours on the lesson plans and hardly did anything else that weekend. Bah. But whatever, it is done - and I think we have a good program for the camp. So that is exciting :)

About 2 weeks ago, I told my co teachers that I was looking for a Korean tutor who could teach me 5 days a week. I love my Korean tutor now, but once a week is not going to cut it for me; I need to start getting serious because I really do want to learn the language, so I need to start investing some serious time. Anyway one of my co teachers told me the other day that she found someone who wants to teach me! So she gave her my cell phone number, and we've texted and emailed a few times and decided to start on Monday! I'm so excited :) :)

I finally saw my coach on Tuesday, after a 2 week hiatus. I went to PNU ready to run (and scared because I hadn't run in almost 2 weeks because of my blisters), but Coach said that he just found out that he had to meet someone for dinner in an hour, so we just went to grab a cup of coffee. We were just catching up for a while, and then we started to talk about training over winter break. He has been planning a 4-day trip to Jeju in February for some quality bike training, and he told me that he was going to make the reservations soon. So he asked for my full name so that he could reserve a ticket for me, and then he tells me that he wants to pay for my plane ticket...!!! I don't know how or why I was given the blessing of meeting this man and being able to train with him and my wonderful team, but I am so incredibly thankful. I'm speechless on that matter.

Christmas in Korea has been a very interesting experience, but I have to save that for tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone!!