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Published: March 30th 2011
Christmas!
My gifts and cards from home! I'm so lucky!!Christmastime!
Like I said before, when speaking about holidays, it's tough to be away from home, but when you live on an island like Geojedo and have amazing friends like mine, it makes it much easier. On top of that, all the love from home made a world of difference. I was so surprised when I received a Christmas box full of presents, cookies and cards from all my friends and family. It really made my first Christmas away from home a special one, so thank you, thank you, thank you!!
So, a week before Christmas, we all got together for a trip to the local orphanage. There are 50 kids there and we managed to organize a party and presents for each of them. I chose a 6-year-old boy to buy a gift for and I'm not sure whether I was more excited about giving it to him or he was more excited about receiving it! We had a 25,000 won price limit (about $25) and I found a yellow remote control monster truck for exactly that price!!! I had to wrap it immediately to keep myself from playing with it before the party!
The girls and
I brought all of our nail polish with us as well, so at the beginning of the party, when the kids began to trickle in, we had a little nail painting station. I think the little boys were even more into it than the girls were! It's quite common in Korea though for little boys to wear nail polish, especially when they have big sisters! So, we painted nails, played games, ate lots of pizza and chips, then Santa came to give presents. It was so much fun to watch my little guy open and play with his monster truck. I helped him get the batteries in and make sure it was up and running, then we took it outside to play. The best moment was when some of the other little ones came over to see what he got and said, "Ohh choketa!" Which means, I envy you. I was so glad he had a good present and when the other boys came outside to play with it, he gave them all turns, which made me even happier!
So, with the Orphanage Christmas Party a success, I had one more work week until Christmas. I was looking forward
to this week though, because we were having a Christmas party for our kindergartners, in which Tim was dressed as Santa Clause and I just got to sit back and enjoy! The kids parents had sent presents in for them to receive from Santa, but they couldn't open them at school, because the price differences may have been substantial, but nonetheless it was so fun to watch them sit on Santa's lap and get their presents. They'd also been learning Christmas carols, so hearing them sing altogether, as opposed to the snippets I'd been hearing in class for months, was really great!
It was a great Christmas Eve, seeing all the little ones so happy with their presents. After work, I headed out to the local bars for some Christmas Eve fun and had a great night on the town. On Christmas day, Tim and I went over to Holly and Ryan's (their apartment became our holiday home, spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas there!) and we had a very low-key Christmas full of delicious food and Christmas movies.
The next weekend, we had our winter break from work, so I decided to celebrate New Years Eve in a
Geoje-myeon Orphanage Christmas Party
Helping my little guy get batteries in his new remote control monster truck! mountain town called Muju, skiing with a fantastic group of people. A couple of the English guys had friends from home come to visit for NYE, so we had a group of 9 in a big cabin for a long weekend. I hadn't skied since college, so it took me more than a minute to get back into it, but the girls on the trip with me, Sarah and Marlize, had NEVER skied!! So, I quickly became ski instructor for the girls on the bunny hill. We had a blast, then when they were ready for a break I headed off with the boys to the bigger runs. I couldn't quite keep up with the boys, but I could hold my own and the views from the top were breathtaking!
We had a great weekend full of skiing, food and drinks and general NYE celebrations and we decided if we couldn't have a white Christmas, then it was at least nice to have a white NYE! Hello 2011!!
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