Videos from the Nutcracker!

So, Michael thinks it is illegal for me to upload these videos and says his wife is a criminal--they had told us not to take any photos at the show, but I just had to sneak a few videos (no flash involved!).  I just had to have a little sound to remind me of The Nutcracker and our first Christmas in Korea! :)  Enjoy.

~Leslie

Merry Christmas! (a few days late)

 Merry Christmas from Korea!

No, that is not our Christmas tree.  It would have been lovely if it was!!  However, our Christmas tree is pictured below:

Ha ha.  It is a little table-top tree that the guy who lived in the apartment before us left here, and we decided we could just use it instead of buying a better one.  Our apartment is tiny, and there was really no point in decorating, as it was just us and we only had one day off of work to celebrate the Christmas holiday.  Christmas in Korea is just not a big deal.  Michael says it's kind of like Valentine's Day in the U.S. (except it is a National holiday so most people have the day off).  Honestly, people here really don't exchange gifts for Christmas--most people just spend the day with their significant other and enjoy a day off of work.  Since it isn't a big deal here, it made it less difficult for us to be away from family, since it's not like everyone around us was!

We did receive some packages from our parents with some goodies inside.  Here is me opening up the package from my parents.

My mom sent us some of her homemade pecan balls and spiced nuts.  They were so yummy!  I took them to work and shared them with my co-workers and some students, and they were all impressed that they came all the way from California! :)

I also was very excited to get a whole pint of vanilla extract!  I bought a 2 oz bottle of vanilla extract a few weeks ago from an import grocery store, and it cost me 11,000 won (over $8 US)!  So, now I should have enough to satisfy my baking habits for a little while!  I am loving being able to bake things in my toaster oven!!

Here is a collection of all sorts of goodies combined from both of our parents' packages.  It seems silly to get excited about Pasta Roni and Jambalaya mixes for Christmas presents, but honestly, it made us happy!  We really don't need anything, and as we have such a tiny apartment, we don't have room for much either.  We figure it is better to not accumulate a lot of stuff that we will just have to move later.

On Christmas morning we got up and went to eat brunch with some of our friends from church, Brad and Belle.  We went to an American style diner in Jeongja called Butterfinger Pancakes.  I had been there once before, but it was everyone else's first time.  This place serves breakfast/brunch foods all day long.  It is a bit pricey, but mashisoyo (delicious)!

Mmm!  I had Pecan gingerbread pancakes, with honey butter and apple compote, scrambled eggs with cheese, and rosemary seasoned potatoes.  What a great meal!

Here are Brad and Belle.  They are a great couple from Australia who are living here in Korea on their second go-around.  They both teach and are really involved with our church and head up the missions team--they are taking a group to the China/N. Korea border in February for a week.  They are actually the couple that picked us up and gave us a ride to church our first weekend here!

Then we came home for a quick chat with my family on Skype.  It was Christmas Eve in the U.S. still so my mom and dad and brother Andy were over at my grandparents' house.  Usually there is a houseful, but this year was the year for everyone to visit the in-laws, so they were the only ones there!  Kind of sad when you are used to having 30-40 people around.  Anyway, they all fit on the couch and we video chatted with them for a few minutes.  It was nice for my grandparents to get to see us, and I had Michael take a photo of me with them on the couch. :)  Papa is wearing his cap that we sent him that says Korea on it.

Then we had to rush back out because we were meeting some friends in Bundang to go see The Nutcracker ballet.  It was playing at a place called the Seongnam Arts Center.

The venue was very nice, but the lady told us we couldn't take photos.  We continued to sneak a few though, without the flash on.  Oh well!  Here are a few of us--there were three others that went and didn't make it into this photo.  In the front row are Brad (Michael's co-worker), Michael and me, and in the back row are Darrick &  Krista (some friends from church who just recently got engaged!) and Belle & Brad.

I really liked the backdrop that was up before the show started.

With the Nutcracker guy.

We got a photo of the ladies, but somehow the guys managed to avoid having one taken of them.  Here are me, Krista, Belle, Shannon, and Inhwa.  They are all friends from LifeChurch.

The show was great.  The funny thing was, though, all of the ladies seemed to fall asleep at times during the show (myself included) while the guys were all awake and really enjoying it!  We ladies enjoyed it too--we were just all really tired from preparing for Christmas!! :)

After the show, we walked around a shopping center and ate Vietnamese food with some of the people that went to the Nutcracker.  We love Vietnamese food!  I also managed to get a photo taken with the signature Korean headdress of winter.  haha As soon as it starts getting cold, all of the kids walk around with these animal hats on their heads.  They are cute, and some of them are so awesome that they are a hat, scarf, and mittens all in one!  That's what this one is, I just didn't take the time to wrap it around my neck.  If we stay in Korea long enough to have some kids, we are definitely buying these for our children.  They are hilarous!  Korean's love cheesy things, and I love that about Korea!  

Where's the waegukin (foreigner)?

It kind of cracks me up how they go all out and decorate for Christmas, but then no one really celebrates it.  They did the same thing for Halloween.  Kind of odd.  

All in all, our first Christmas in Korea was a good one.  It was very strange working every day except Christmas, especially for me, since I've always had nearly 2 weeks of vacation from teaching.  However, I have decided that very few other jobs require the time and energy of a teacher in an American public school, and therefore don't require the vacation that an American school teacher needs.  Teaching at a hagwon here in Korea is nothing like the amount of time and energy and stress that went into teaching in the U.S.--I've been basically working 7 months straight, and I don't feel like I am going to go insane!  I could barely make it more than a month without a day off in the past!  It's kind of nice to see how the rest of the world lives, and to be out of that bubble of an American teacher's life for a little bit.  I'm sure all the teachers out there can probably relate to that.

We hope and pray that you all had a wonderful holiday season.  We love and miss you all very much, but we do feel blessed to be where we are right now (even though we are so far from family and loved ones).  The wonderful thing is that God is the same no matter where in this world we are, and we are still able to serve Him and trust in Him even when we miss our families and friends!  Praise God for sending His son to the earth to save us.