My Christmas Day!

Hello All!

So I don't have a bunch of presents but I did have a good adventure out in Korea today.  Hopped on the subway with my friend Angelica and we traveled about. I don't do very well with constant walking, so I'm super super tired!

Went out early in the morning to Hongdae and got my hair cut at Juno Hair.

Juno Hair is a place many foreigners all said "if you get your hair done you MUST GO here!!" Back home, to get a haircut can be pretty expensive. Here in Korea, it can be super cheap (like 8,000) or super expensive. At Juno I got a free drink (lemon tea soooo good) consultation with a stylist, shampoo, head massage, cut, and style, for 25,000. That would have cost me WAY more back home. Also, you can't tip. So there is not an extra cost to this, that was the cost.

The exact location I went to was
Mapo-gu, Seoul, Seogyo 358-2 brisket Building 3rd floor Juno Hair
Now, they didn't speak the best English at this location, but they were very nice and took good care of me. You may want to look at the site to check out different locations (helps if you read Korean, or look up a translation of city names) and call them to check if they have someone who speaks English if you want something very detailed.

We stopped briefly at a coffee shop afterwords, I needed to relax. Getting my hair cut makes me tense cause I can't see without my glasses on. 

Next we went out and got a very good soup! I really liked it. Sadly, while I would recognize the name if I saw it again, I cannot for the life of me remember exactly what it was called. Started with an S.

After that we headed out to Myeong-dong.  Here we visited the Myeong-dong Cathedral. There are different ways to get there, we got off at Euljiro Ipgu Subway station and followed the signs, it was labeled in the subway. There are more directions listed on the Korea Tourism Website. It was a beautiful Gothic church, I enjoyed the simple Gothic architecture and its Latin cross from. The detail work in the glass windows was beautiful. The brickwork is very well done as well. The floor tiles are ugly and don't match, I assume there must have been an update too them. They are hideous. However, It is a beautiful place to worship. They have an English mass at 9am on Sundays I read on a pamphlet while I was there. However, that could change so if you want to find out more you should go to their website .

After that it was more subway, another coffee shop, a ride out to Apojong and then seeing some Christmas lights. I also broke my Ipod touch! soo... yeah that sucked a little. I knew I should have got a new case, but... it is too late. So I am looking into getting that repaired.

here is a small video I made, and everyone, have yourselves a happy holiday of your own!

Christmas Eve in South Korea

Hello everyone!

Christmas in South Korea isn't the same as Christmas back home. A lot of Koreans don't celebrate Christmas. While it is celebrated in Schools like mine which focus on learning about foreign cultures and languages, it isn't everywhere. That said, it is still marketed and there are sales and decorations for the holidays. Just not to the degree I am used to back home.

The Christmas season so far hasn't really been a huge season, not a lot of build up. So it felt like it just sprang upon me in the middle of work. I knew the holiday was almost here, but BAM here it is.

This makes me feel bad because all my presents are still sitting down on my windowsill and not... in boxes shipping to or already with my friends back home.  However I blame the postal office for only being open exactly when I am at work. Also my lack of desire to skip lunch. I like lunch.

We had a lot of fun at school today, taking pictures, having "Santa" visit, giving gifts, a music contest. Sadly, I don't even have one picture because I was too busy the entire day to use my camera. I didn't have one break, hardly even ate my precious lunch. Just go go go. Then it went strait into Elementry which still had full classes plus we had to squeeze in time for a snack party so that was also just go go go.

Afterwhich, I treated my lovely friends to delicious, delicious Galbi as a christmas present, and then we all went out to Noribang and sang Christmas Carols. It was super fun, and relaxing. Especially after all the hard work of the day!

So now I snuggle into bed, refusing to turn on my heater because it costs too much (woot 3 plankets and sleeping in pants and 2 sweaters.)

I have plans to have a great Christmas tomorrow, and will bring you more pictures!


Merry Christmas! Or happy holidays. 

Catch up on everything!

what I've done since I last posted

Halloween:

For halloween in South Korea, they don't really celebrate it for kids. It's more like a giant party out at all the bars and clubs. However, I did dress up in costumes and go tricker treating at some of the kids homes, which was work!

I was a fairy godmother, and my kids where a bunch of different things

Couple of picks, Album Link

Nami Island: 

Album
Nami Island is a really fun, cultural place to go. It has fun events, when I went it was a music festival. The entire island had music being pumped through a speaker system. There was both live and non live music. My favorite part was a picnic listening to the full Orchestra play underneath the turning leaves. Well... maybe my favorite part was the squirrels. Boy was it nice to see something approaching wildlife.

I've had more friends birthdays, and Students birthdays, and we've had drawing events out in the park
We had Pepero day, which is 11/11 and you give Pepero.
Assorted stuff album of misc adventures (ASAMA)


Annnnddd My awesome super amazing friend Jess came to visit me! Strangely I took almost no pictures though. I think its cause we just kept walking and walking and doing things.
We did get pictures in Hanbock though, traditional Korean clothes.

I was in a Royal gown, and she was in a traditional wedding gown.

Two of my students moved so I'm down to 10 students.
And today there was a bunch of snow and we all went outside and had a snowball fight!

And that catches you guys up.