Any western foreign person will tell you that having western holiday time in Korea is a bit tough to work out. Thanksgiving of course, Koreans have no reason to celebrate, and actually have their own version of Thanksgiving in the beginning of October. I was lucky enough to have not one, but 2 Thanksgiving dinners, with turkey. Turkey is all but impossible to get in Korea, very expensive. Fulbright threw a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in Seoul in a folk museum where we had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the American Embassy. I feel like we're on some unofficial team together. When I returned to my cozy city of Daegu I had Thanksgiving part 2 with my church, which was also rather cozy, if a little less formal. That was also a really interesting thing because actually 2/3's or more of my church is from South Africa, but for some reason they were willing to put on this dinner for a bunch of people who don't really know a whole lot about why we have it. A very interesting cultural experience.
After that I made full use of my free time to work hard at school and study. I've been taking my Korean class through the YMCA in Daegu and despite most of the material being repeat material for me, I found out my teachers were very certified high class teachers that only do that as volunteers. I was very taken aback in a good way. I really appreciated my teachers consistent kindness and openness to discussion and questions. I was chosen to make a short 1 min speech for our class and did so. It was kind of exhilarating to do that successfully. I was happy to graduate, I hope the next class I take is more suited to my level.
At school we were preparing feverishly (maybe not quite feverishly) for the English winter camp to go on right before Christmas. It was scheduled for three afternoons, 3 hours a piece. My co teacher had been majorly stressing about it and it made me stress out more than I would have normally, I think. On the first day I was so nervous my co teacher had to hold me up a bit, but we pushed through. I decided to teach the kids about Christmas, I couldn't believe none of the former ETA's had ever taught on Christmas. I taught them about Frosty the Snowman, and the Grinch on Day one. At the end they had to turn a teammate into a snowman using construction paper and toilet paper. It was awesome, just saying. Day two, we talked about Mrs. Santa and her adventures (as seen in the Mrs. Claus movie with Angela Lansbury). They had to make up the end of her story and then I taught them the game salad bowl (a kind of version of catch phrase), but honestly that didn't go over so enthusiastically. I mean they succeeded, but mostly in monotone. Day 3 we did a cooking day, I taught them to cook apple pie and mashed potatoes. I made jello and chicken with stuffing before hand for the whole room. It was an intense day, but that was the end of it. I barely sat down the whole time it was such and exciting time. I really felt like a full blooded teacher running the room that day because none of the other teachers had any idea how to cook of the dishes so it was up to me to instruct properly. Talk about pressure--in a good way. Overall we had a lot of fun! The students were successful and the food was delicious. I couldn't believe it all went over so well.
Then on Christmas day I exchanged gifts with my host family, they gave me the most adorable winter hat that I have worn several times already. I'd been hunting for one, so that saved me some shopping time and money for sure, its really nice and hand made. I loved having presents from my family that had been mailed to me, and above all this Christmas was memorable because I got to talk with my Grandfather for the first time in 6 months over video chat. It was crazy awesome!
I've spent my first week of vacation just resting and catching up on my sleep. This week I will take a trip to Seoul for a meeting. The week after that I'll go to Seoul for a couple days before I catch my flight back to the States to visit my family for 10 days. When I come back from that I'll be living in Seoul for the following month taking a Korean Language class up there. Between now and home, I plan to travel around Korea some more and see friends I haven't seen in a while. When I'm in Seoul in Feb I look forward to more such meetings and a lot of studying! ^_^ So excited!!
