Hilary Meets the Land of the Morning Calm

So what is Christmas in Korea? Whatever you want to make of it, essentially. Unfortunately, I lost my "big" vacation, due to the closing of my school during our swine flu outbreak. So instead of having both Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Day off, I only got the latter. (Same will apply to New Years as well).


It started in the beginning of the month, when my co-worker Amber (from Toronto) and I sprinted to Itaewon (foreigner district) after work one Friday to catch the Christmas version of Seoul Standup Comedy. My friend, Rob, was one of the comedians in the show and he invited us. It was hosted at the Rocky Mountain Tavern (RMT) bar, which is the place to go for a happy combination of wings, beer, and watching the hockey/football/etc baseball game from home at an appropriate hour in your timezone on a big screen TV.

The guy above was my favorite. He was mimicking a guy from a small town in Virginia , and his drawl was perfect. He was describing the town and their old home days celebration, and it was making everyone laugh because of how small it was, but for me I was finding a lot similarities with my hometown, right down to the orange blinking traffic light and the tractor pull.

One of the comedians re-wrote the 12 Days of Christmas into an English teacher in Seoul version, and got the entire bar singing. If you click on the picture, it will enlarge so you can read the lyrics.

Here is Amber, singing joyously along with everyone else ---->
I have a short audio clip of the end of the song, but blogspot wont let me upload it right now... I will try and work that out later. I can tell you that it sounded glorious.


A week before Christmas I went shopping at Costco and bought an enormous container of candy canes (350+) and on the 24th, I gave them out to all my coworkers and students. For my boss, supervisor, and four closest co-workers/friends I got them some small Christmas presents. After work, we were invited to a foreigner ugly Christmas sweater party at a barbecue restaurant. I couldn't bear to spend $15 on a sweater I would only wear once a year (that could pay for three meals here!) so instead I opted for a reindeer antler headband that I wore with pride.


Christmas finally arrived...and it rained. But I didn't mind too much, because you know what? Santa came to my apartment too!
Ah yes, the Christmas chair. (Stole the idea from my roommate, Libby. Genius!)
Oh Rudolph, you are so sneaky!




I even got some Christmas lights and a Christmas candle for my room (because it wouldn't be my room if it didn't have Christmas lights. I can't believe it took me 4 months to get with the program!








Despite lack of oven, I slaved over the stove-top in my room/kitchen and made mashed potatoes, salty deviled eggs, steamed veges and a very yummy fruit salad. By the time Sasha arrived late afternoon, everything was ready. And you know what Santa brought me? A can of black olives!








Even though she didn't grow up with a lifetime of practice and isn't particularly fond of the holiday, Sasha was quite a good sport about my giddy festiveness, and opened her presents from the Grinch, Rudolph and Frosty without any protest. Look at her go:
She even made some origami Christmas decorations:






After eating and present opening, we watched Home Alone, followed by Scrooged. Doesn't get much more classic than that!
When Sasha left to catch the last subway home, I peaked outside, and was very pleased to see that the rain had turned into beautiful snow. You're alright Korea, you really are.