christmas day

Christmas in korea. Before I came to Korea, those words were a tad difficult for me to think about but as I have already mentioned in this blog, we have managed to create a good Christmas atmosphere here in the run up to the big day.

team Christmas

After an alcohol fuelled Christmas Eve, Bea and I stayed at Becca's place and we went over to Sara and Aron's to open presents and have a Christmas breakfast. A special mention goes out to Barry for ordering sausages from Seoul!

Jefa, Kim and I began thinking about Christmas Day a long time ago...it was still sweltering in Daegu and post vacation so we wanted to have something to look forward to. We had the idea of hiring out Buy the Book, a second hand bookshop/cafe downtown, so Kim booked the place and we were on our way. After several shopping trips, a few 'Craft Sundays' and many lists produced by Kim, we were ready to transform BTB into a Christmas grotto. With a little help from some lovely friends who patiently endured being bossed around by us, we decorated BTB and I was very proud of the result! After a fab Christmas meal produced by BTB, we did Secret Santa then a quiz created and presented by Sara and Becca. Some of my personal highlights were the demonstration of the cracker (not part of Christmas in America which I never realised but as Sara pointed out...of course it's a British thing...a rubbish gift, silly paper hat and a crap joke!') and the creativity round of the quiz which resulted in Chris being wrapped in tin foil to create 'turkey head'. Everyone was pretty wiped out by Sunday night (after a whole weekend of partying) so most people headed home for an early night before the horror of school on Boxing Day. Lovely to have met so many great people to spend Christmas Day with. My worries of a lonely Korean Christmas back when I was still in England were most definitely unfounded.   

Secret Santa

table decs



we all got a big surprise when santa decided to grace us with his presence



photo booth

beer reindeer

jimmy delighted with his magnetic letters secret santa gift

creative round. Sarah squared producing a true work of art

turkey head: winner of the creative round

my first ever ski trip

Last weekend, I went on an 'Adventure Korea' ski trip...my first ski trip EVER. The chosen ski resort was Pyeongchang which will be the setting for the 2018 Winter Olympics. After a 30 minute lesson about how to put your skis on and how to stop (I must have missed this part!) we were pretty much left to it. I was petrified, especially after my first run which resulted in 3 pretty dramatic falls, one of which completely took out a poor Korean woman! But after a lesson from Janis about how to slow down and stop, things got much better and by my last run in the night session I managed to make it down without falling once! An exhausting weekend but I'm definitely ready to go again. Bring on New Year's Eve!

Gleeful after my first semi-successful run! 

this weeks instagram pictures...

Christmas crafts, gifts, mulled wine, Santa hats, dairy milk, Christmas mittens, letters from students...

games, games, games

After my 3rd graders finished their final exam they still had 5 weeks left at middle school which I find slightly ridiculous. Many of them have completely zoned out so I've had to think of some ways to get them back. So the last few weeks we've been doing Scategories, English Jenga and UNO. Scategories was great fun...and the game always reminds me of my nanna who would play this with us for hours when we were younger. Jenga was chaos but great. I numbered each block so that when the student pulls out a block they have to follow a rule from a rule sheet such as raise your hands in the air, sit on the floor, sing a song or ask sarah a question, cue many inappropriate questions. (images: competitive girls at scategories hiding their answers, jenga being played well, jenga blocks being used badly!)

korean christmas preparations

As a huge christmas enthusiast, I am both happy and sad about this Christmas in Korea. On the down side, I will obviously miss traditions and people from home such as visiting the Christmas markets with friends, trips to Tatton Park and similarly geeky places with my parents, my fellow christmas enthusiast, Katie B, and of course Christmas dinner made by my aunt. But thankfully it seems that Korea embraces Christmas and there is no shortage of Christmas decorations and songs. I've turned my apartment into a grotto and planning activities for Christmas day has definitely kept me in a festive mood. Next weekend, I am going skiing. Me amongst so much snow that close to christmas may send me over the edge! Here are some Christmas preparation pictures...my Christmas grotto, handmade cards and decorations, hospital tree with messages as decorations, an advent calendar from my parents,Terry's chocolate orange courtesy of emily, hyundai department store's lovely decorations, a very surreal christmas parade we saw downtown and Christmas cards from students (it appears they are all very concerned that I will be spending Christmas without a boyfriend).

A photo an hour...7th December

9am: breakfast

10am: Open advent calendar 

11am: UNO lesson! 

12pm: Lunchtime. Hotdog, ginseng chicken soup, sardines, kimchi and of course white rice 

1pm: parcel from ASOS!

Contents of the package!

2pm: 'considerate' christmas card from a student!

Add caption

3pm: impromtu chinese food at school! 

4pm: Deskwarming time

5pm: subway to Manchon

6pm: Bollywood evening at Saras. Curry and Parathas 

7pm+ watching Bollywood movie...over 3 hours later. bedtime