Holidays

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday (to me)!! Its been a month since I posted last time, so a few things to catch up on... S Korea elected a new president on Dec 19th, and inaugurated him Jan 1st. Name is Ee Myung Park. I was talking to some of my students about him; one girl said that on election day, he was elected (by a vast majority), it was his birthday AND he had a wedding celebration?!?! Talk about an auspicious day...

You may wonder, what's Christmas like in Korea? Well for most people it was just another day off, me included. This year I was really missing home, but later after talking to a few other foreigners about it, they were feeling the same way, so I knew I wasn't alone. Basically its just a day off, with fewer businesses open. No snow here in Busan, and just starting to drop below freezing at night. Even though Christmas was on a Tuesday, I had the work the day before to 10:15, and the day after til 10:15!! Not much vacation there.

Fast forward next week for New Year's, also which Koreans don't really celebrate as much as Chinese New Year. We got the Mon and Tues off at work, but I had a few Saturday classes (overtime pay, not bad). A friend had a party at his house-like apartment, with many people showing up. It was kind of funny, most of the people there were white guys and their Korean girlfriends/wives! Sorry, no pics... The ball drop was rather tame considering, but not as bad as my first year here. I felt rather detached for most of the party because I arrived a bit late, but the rest of the night got better, had good times with friends.

Thursday is my birthday, but no holiday at work :-( Made some plans to get together at one of my friend's house on Saturday, cook up lots of food and some wine, should be a good time. And no more Saturdays!! By the way, the cats are getting big now, getting good at climbing everything too. The other day one of them managed to jump on top of my dresser, where I keep cologne and many other small things. Need to keep a close eye on them, they're outgrowing the apartment; or may need to give away one of them... They're a mood booster, but not when they get me angry with their playing ;-)