Merry Christmas!

Well, I have survived Christmas in Korea. Many of you have asked whether Christmas is a big deal here or not. It's a tough question to answer. In their quest to be consumers and involved in the materialism of the world, Koreans have embraced the gift-giving of Christmas. There are aisles of toys and decorations in the stores, though not nearly as much as in the States. The country is pretty much split between Buddhists and Christians, so the religion behind Christmas is definitely here. However, unlike the massive season of spending we have in the States, Christmas is really only a day. We get one day off work and school, then it's back to the grind the next morning. Though, we do get a week off in 4 more days (Yay!).

The thing I think I miss most about Christmas in the States are the decorations put up in each household. Since everyone lives in apartments around this area, there are no grand displays of Christmas lights on the lawn or Christmas trees in the windows. I did manage to have a Christmas-like dinner tonight. A friend and I successfully attempted to make stuffing and had chicken, stuffing, and veggies for dinner. I must say it turned out quite tasty, even if it was cooked in a toaster oven! I made Christmas cookies last weekend, so I did try to get into the spirit as much as possible. I have some of Tracy's ornaments hanging around my apartment (thank goodness they're cute and compact for packing).

My Tigers' Kindergarten Class before the concert! Aren't they adorable?

My school's annual Christmas concert filled up most of the past month. I was co-creating a concert for about 90 students. Until less than 2 weeks before the concert, we didn't know if we were going to have a venue or if we would have to put the show on in our library. We kept finding out about last minute changes to the time/place/program/resources/expectations until the day of the concert. We had a staff of sick people (including myself with strep throat), people fed up with management (we were unsure if they'd still be around this Christmas), parents who need to hear their children speak and sing in English, broken CD players and no practice space. It was quite a stressful month as far as that was concerned. The concert was a hit, though! My class' parents thought their students were the best. As long as all the parents felt that way, we did our jobs well. We had a combination of big group songs and class songs. The Kindergarten sang "Winter Wonderland" together, and we got 3 rows of kids swaying in opposite directions perfectly during the instrumental section! The whole school sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at the end of the concert, after which we were bombarded by parents wanting to give flowers and good wishes to their students. My kids sang right before those 2 songs, so they'd sat through about an hour and a half of other classes before being able to be stars. We had 2 fabulous songs - "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain." For the latter, the kids were swinging, clapping, doing head-bobs, getting into the full gospel rhythm of the song. All it was missing was choir robes! The audience was in stitches!


"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" Check out the girl with the writing on her shirt in the front. This is Lucy, and she is absolutely adorable in this song!



Unfortunately, I don't have a good video of the actual performance, but I do have rehearsal footage.

Must-See Korean Stationary

In the basement of the building in which I bank is my favorite store - the stationary store. Pens, erasers, pencils, sharpeners, paper, cards, stickers, art supplies, office supplies, notebooks, schedulers.... more than you can ever imagine, and more creative than you will see anywhere else. Some of you have already been the recipients of my love for this store, as I could spend all day there! Many of you will soon receive the world's greatest Christmas cards, all purchased from this store. The best part about it all is the price - Stationary is such a hot commodity, a fashion item, here in Korea that things are incredibly cheap! That makes the shopping more dangerous than you can possibly imagine.

Among the stacks, racks, rows, and shelves are some really great finds, including the schedulers pictured here. Browsing through the English writing on the books makes for an entertaining hour or so! I had to share these two with the world.