Justin and I had a strange Christmas this year, all alone in Korea. Over here, stores and churches love Christmas, but most people don't really seem to put much stock in it. Schools take the day off for Christmas, but Winter Vacation doesn't actually start until next week, so it's only the one day that we get off. Back at school on the 26th, when I asked my students if they'd had a good Christmas, most of them said no-- they'd just stayed home and watched tv all day.
Our Christmas wasn't much more spectacular: in the morning, I went to church with a co-teacher, 최명숙 ("Choi Myoung Sook"). She is one of 100 people in her choir at church, so she wanted me to come and listen to the Christmas music they'd been preparing since August. The music was beautiful, and also very familiar. I could sing with the rest of the congregation for all of the carols -- I just had to sing in English. Usually it's a great feeling to join voices in various languages - everyone singing together, but this time, instead of feeling a global togetherness, I really just felt very much alone and sad. Soon enough though, Myoung Sook's 16-year old daughter joined me, and I felt a little better. Then I hung out with her daughter's friends, and ended up being invited for lunch. I wanted to go home to Justin, but I didn't know how to escape politely: they'd specifically planned and chosen a restaurant with 비빔밥 ("Bibimbap") -- my favourite Korean food. I kept wanting to go home to spend Christmas with the little family that I have here in Korea, but lunch was delicious, and Myoung Sook's family is very nice. For the rest of the day, we mostly napped, played with 창미 ("Chang Mi"), our puppy, ate some ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, and watched part of a Christmas movie while we finished our paper chain for the ceiling before heading out for a delicious Christmas dinner of Indian food.
Actually, Justin has been very obliging about helping me make Christmas decorations, so our place looks fairly festive. When we came to Korea, I brought with me a little nativity set from my aunt, and one string of stars for the window, but I salvaged some evergreen branches from a pile or debris in a nearby park, and we've decorated them with pinecones, ribbons, and paper stars. Justin also helped me make snowflakes for the window, and even though it's all paper and stuff I picked up off the ground, it looks pretty nice.
I've also been listening to Sarah McLauchlan's Wintersong, which is the only Christmas music I have here, and I made several batches of eggnog: with and without brandy.
So our Christmas was incredibly uneventful, and a little melancholy, but it was relaxing and cozy.
We miss you all back home, and hope that you're having relaxing Christmasses too.
No comments:
Post a Comment