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| Christmas Decorations in my apartment |
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| One of many raw fish platters |
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| Fire Shot at Touch Bar |
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| Street Artist in Insadong |
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| Random, singers advertising some food |
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| Seoul: The whole city was overrun by police in training |
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| My Christmas Tree |
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| Some classroom decorations |
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| Snowmen that the students made |
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| Snowmen by the 1st/2nd grade and some stockings |
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| Snowflakes made by the fifth grade afterschool boys |
So Thanksgiving is over and in the Brice household that
means that the Christmas Season has officially started. I have no idea what
Christmas will be like in Korea but am nervous and sad to be missing Christmas
back in the states. From what I have heard about Korea is that Koreans don’t
really celebrate it and instead it is a “couples” holiday (like most days in
Korea). So needless to say I wasn’t too happy about having to be in Korea for
Christmas.
I was
planning on doing a whole month of Christmas crafts, projects, songs and movies
with the kids during afterschool so I figured I might as well start now. This
week during afterschool I had all the first and second graders decorate and
color small snow men and stockings. We also finished up learning all the
movements that go with the phonics song so I was glad that winter started,
giving me something to do with them. I didn’t really incorporate much English
into the snowmen but I did for the older kids. All the third and fourth graders
got to decorate large snowman and had to make a little nametag (My name is XXX.
I am a boy/girl snowman. I like XX). Then they each got to decorate a stocking
where they wrote “My favorite toy is XX.” I was proud that I got some English
in there. We also made Christmas Cards and cut out Christmas trees to decorate
the windows. Plus I found on pinterest a way to make snowflakes from toilet
paper rolls. Only a couple of kids brought in rolls but the ones who did really
enjoyed making them. With the older kids we made little mice from toilet paper
rolls and really complex snowflakes from paper. Again, the English might have
been lacking but at least they had to follow directions in English. They were
so creative with the little mice we made. I hadn’t tried it before hand and was
having problems making them but the students were amazing at it and ended up
making little presents that the mice could hold. I also learned about the 5th
grade boy crushes and which of the girls they liked-so cute.
Along
with the mice and snowmen, each student got to decorate a snowman. One little
boy, Tyler, my fifth grade pupucha was hilarious. He is really artistic and
decided to make a WWE Smackdown snowman. This is also the kid who likes to
steal the signs that say the days of the week and the weather to make WWE
Champion Belts. Anyways, for the past couple of months he loves to walk around
imitating commentators of WWE “And smackdown for landon oliver” and he goes on
and on and landon oliver. So I asked him today the name of his snowman and of
course he goes Landon Oliver, “spelling teacher.” I had no idea who he was
talking about so I google it and nothing. I keep trying different spellings
before I finally find a picture of the guy he likes and his name is ……”Randy
Orton!” “r”s are very hard for Koreans and so it kind of makes sense but it was
so funny. Months and months and I finally understand what the heck he has been
saying. The kids all made their crafts and I said good bye to them on Friday.
Only after saying good bye did I learn that that would be my last after school
class until March. There were still two weeks left of school before winter
vacation so I expected to keep going and had plans made up. It was bitter
sweet. I was really excited that after school was over since I kind of hate it
but at the same time I wanted to have a mini party for the kids and have a
proper goodbye. With my first and second graders I had spent the whole semester
teaching them phonics and I wanted them to do the whole song as I videotaped
them! Darn it!!
Earlier
in the day on Friday, Juny said that the nurse invited her and me to a good bye
dinner for the groundskeeper of the school. So the school is really small but
there are major divisions amongst the staff. There is basically the teachers
and then there is the support staff. The office staff sticks with the nurse,
bus drivers and groundskeeper and the teachers then all stick together and don’t
really get along. Juny fits with both groups but is close with the nurse so she
invited us to dinner. I really didn’t want to go but Juny said it would be a
good experience and I should come. Well, what a night it turned into. There were about 7/8 people; the nurse,
two bus drivers, two office staff, the groundskeeper and me and Juny which also
meant that it was 4 men over the age of 40, one man who was 35 and then two
women who were over 45! Awkward and hilarious. However, everyone was so happy
that I came and welcoming. We went out for raw fish and they brought out two
huge platters of all different types of raw fish and ocean goodies. Everyone
just wanted me to try everything and they kept filling up my beer and soju glass!
The fish was delicious. I got to eat live octopus again, different types of
fish, stingray!! I really hated the stingray. It tasted like you just swallowed
the ocean. I have mentioned the drinking culture a little before but let me go
into it a little bit more. So your glass is never empty! If it is empty someone
will repour it within a couple of minutes, whether it be coke or alcohol. Also
when someone pours you a drink, you take the bottle and using two hands (and
sitting on your knees/kneeling) pour them a drink back and then cheers
together. When you two cheer, many other people join in to cheers. But it’s more polite to turn your body away
when you take the drink. Basically if someone wants to take a shot, they want
everyone to take a shot with them! They then will yell Korean shot and you have
to take the shot glass and turn it upside down on your head to prove that there
is nothing left. Another type of shot-taking is to use the same glass. Usually
at an event the oldest person has a shot glass and goes around taking a shot
with every person. They pour you a shot, you take it, then wipe the shot glass
on a napkin and pour a little for them that they take. And boy this all happens
pretty quickly. They take shot after shot. Needless to say I ended up eating a
lot and having a lot to drink at dinner.
We
ended dinner by around 7 and went for round two at noraebang. By this time Juny
was tired so she left and here I am with 4 ajhussis (old men) and one ajhumma
(old woman) at noraebang (karaoke). It ended up being a lot of fun and I even
sang a couple of kpop songs. They were so great because they asked me what song
I wanted and then went to the man in charge to help find it. It was a lot more
fun and less awkward than I expected. EXCEPT that my dirty old bus driver
friend who speaks some English kept saying that he wanted me to date the 40
year old accountant from the school. The 40 year old is really nice, but
Pa-lease!! After noraebang we all gathered outside and the dirty bus driver
friend’s wife showed up and not only drove us back to school but also brought a
huge box of strawberries for us to eat. Back at school, the 40 year old (let’s
call him Tall Man cause he is like the tallest Korean I’ve seen lately) said he
would take me home since he lives really close to me. At first I was nervous
because he had so much to drink but then I realized that he called a chauffeur.
They have a service where you call a driver who comes and drives your own car
to wherever you want. At this point I hadn’t quite figured out how the driver
then gets home but I later learned that another car follows behind and drives
the driver home. Anyways we get back to Jochiwon at like 11 and Tall Man asks
if I wanted some chicken so we went out for chimek (chicken and beer). Awkward
cause it was just me and him and his English is terrible. I really had no idea
what was going on because of the language barrier but whatever. Before I knew
it we were walking to another chimek place where we met up with some of his
friends. Again, here I am, 23years old and I am with 4/5 ajhussis drinking
together. I wanted to leave but wasn’t really sure how to get out of the situation.
Luckily they were old and tired so two of them had actually fallen asleep so we
all got up to leave. But then as I was walking home I ran into two of my
American friends who were going to the American bar and I figured I was already
out so might as well go. We ended up having a blast and I actually was hanging
out with people of my own age! The bar was a lot of fun and we met some Korean
students from Korea University and I spent a good deal of the night playfully
harassing the bar tender to get him to show me his tattoo. People in Korea don’t
have tattoos and they are looked down upon so I was stoked to see a Korean with
one. Finally by 4am we decided it was time to head home and pass out. One of
the craziest and weirdest nights of my time in Korea so far!!!
After
sleeping in some on Saturday I ended up going to Seoul with another American to
go Christmas shopping. There are a lot of places in Korea that you can go
shopping but Seoul is really where it’s at for souvenirs and American clothing.
I didn’t get everything I needed for people but I did get most of my Christmas
shopping done. I bought chopsticks for my dad, weird food for my brother (silk
worm pupae, dried squid), a donut air freshener for PJ, a toothbrush holder for
Lainie, a weird cat sculpture for my friend Megan, a beautiful scarf for my
friend Rachel, teas for my mom and a whole bunch of odd things. Korea is weird.
PERIOD. Everything here is bizarre so I figured I would buy bizarre things for
my family and friends.
Sunday
was another lazy day. I wanted to finish up my Christmas shopping so I took the
bus to Cheongju which is a bigger city in Korea where they have a store called “Artbox”
that I really like. Unfortunately I get all the way there and I walk back and
forth forever trying to find this store before I realized that it was under
construction. DARN IT! The other plus was that their Daiso (a dollar store
company) had a lot of great Christmas decorations so I loaded up on decorations
and went home to decorate the apartment. I might not have finished Christmas
shopping but at least I have a rocking Christmas apartment!
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