Christmas in Korea

And so this is Christmas. . .

This is how it started, my little Christmas coffee table.

Really cute, right?  :-)

One of my little students made that little rainbow wreath for me.  So cute.

Then!  Lindie Grace got me this lovely Christmas tree and everything started to look a lot more like Christmas :-)

None of us were sure how we were going to be able to get through it, but we knew that we would get through it together.  We all had Christmas parties at work on Christmas Eve, and we decided, Lindie, Albert, and I that after we got done with our parties, we would meet up, get some yummy chicken, and head to the singing rooms.  Nothing like singing your heads off and hearts out when you're feeling blue.  And that's exactly what we did.  Ate some chicken and went to the first singing room and sang ourselves silly for two hours.  Then we went to Haze, which is where all the foreigners go all the time, to see who we could find and listen to a little Christmas music, and then change it to different music and make everyone dance.  Good times.  Then it was off to another singing room for more singing.  It was a lovely way to start the season.  We were out singing until about 6am, so we needed to get some McDonald's before getting some good shut eye.  Lindie and I crashed at my apartment with the plan to meet Albert the next day (or later Christmas Day, to be more exact) to get some food and Lindie was going to start cooking our lovely Christmas dinner.  There she was saving the day again.

But first, Christmas Eve morning.  Lindie and I went to our Korean lesson.  My Korean teacher, David, had told me the day before that he wasn't going to be able to make it, but I went along with Lindie because we were going to stay for just an hour and then head off to Samsan to find a present for Mr. Albert Ham because until this point we were drawing a total and completely blank.  When we got to our Korean lesson there were surprises waiting for both of us.  Apparently David was going to have an on-going schedule conflict, but I didn't find out about it until that morning when Jonah told me that I would now have a new teacher.  Namely, Lindie's former teacher, Jean, and Lindie would now be studying with the exquisite Ted/Harry.  It's a huge bummer that I won't be studying with David anymore, but hopefully things with Jean will go really well.  We do have the same name, after all.   He didn't know either, and neither did Ted/Harry.  But we sat down with our new partners for an hour and then headed off to Lotte Mart to get some food and figure out what to get Albert.

We walked around for a while trying to figure it out.  We came up with the perfect plan.  A beta fish.  We can't have pets in the apartments, but fish aren't really pets, right?  So we picked out the best looking one, found a bowl and what we were pretty sure was the correct food, got some care instructions from someone who worked there (Konglish, always the best!) and decided this was the absolute best decision.  I hopped in cab to take Frank Sinatra home (we named him. . .it was non-negotiable :-) )  and Lindie headed off to work.  I got to my job just in time to start the Christmas celebrations.  I'll blog about the Christmas party at Yes later I promise.  Anyway, we had a gift for Albert and he was doing swimmingly when I left him and when Lindie and I got back from the singing room.

Christmas "morning" we woke up, of course, starving, and hit speed-dial #2 to get some McDonald's delivered to our hungry selves.  It was FREEZING outside.  We would have died of exposure before we could have walked down there, I promise.  The sweetest delivery guy came.  Usually our delivery guys can't speak English, but he met me at the door "hello!  How are you doing today?  I'm doing great!  Here you go!  Merry Christmas!" too cute.  And this was Christmas breakfast.  A far cry from strata and sausage balls, but still fun.

Christmas breakfast.  On the warm, heated floor.  What a life saver.  See Frank?  Doing alright!

Breakfast of Champions, eh Lindie?

Merry Christmas!

 Usually we order food and usually only part of it actually gets to us so by this time we've just learned to let it go.  Our two combo meals arrived as one, and it was no big deal.  But about ten minutes later my cell phone rang and our delivery guy was back.  "I'm so sorry!  It was my mistake!" and he brought us another Coke and extra fries (no fries than we could finish) totally unprecedented.

Look at all the food!!  Crazy!

 Then this crazy little thing happened.  No hot water.  I had water, but no hot water.  Water was coming out, but when I turned it to the hot water side, nothing happened.  No laundry, no shower, no dishes, so crazy.  So, I decided to boil some water to at least get some dishes done so that poor Lindie could have something to work with in my tiny little kitchen.

Nothing I haven't dealt with before!  We've boiled water for dishes plenty of times, right family? :)  good times.

 Lindie and Albert went to get the food and I stayed behind to clean up the place.  This was the lovely Christmas coffee table then :-)

Frank still doing just fine.  Doesn't it it look lovely?  :-)

Look at all the Christmas cards!  I am one lucky girl!

Christmas table.  Complete with Christmas chocolate from my lovely cousin Sarah.  :-)

 Then it was time to get down to business.  Lindie and Albert brought home a whole chicken, potatoes, and all kinds of goodies.  And Lindie got right to it.  Here was what the poor thing had to work with.

Chicken in the toaster oven.

Potatoes in the micro.

Pretty Christmas :)

Albert made chocolate mug cakes :-)

This was step one of Christmas dinner.

Merry. . .

. . .Christmas!

Lindie working hard!

with absolutely no help from us . . . 

Time to eat!!  Doesn't it look wonderful??!  Lindie even made her very own sauce to go on the chicken and roast potatoes.  

And Albert cut the bird.  :-)

Then lovely Terry stopped by for a while!  :-)  He's going to take us skiing, he told us.  Won't that be awesome??

Then after dinner it was time to open presents.   It was very late now, we had already skyped with our parents,  talked a lot, ate a lot, and had a wonderful time. The only bad news was that poor Frank didn't make it.  Crazy Frank.  Oh well, we'll pick out another one.  We tried so hard to make him better, but, he just couldn't hold on.

All in all, it was a lovely little Christmas.  Thank you Lindie!  Thank you Albert!  And thank you EVERYONE who sent me cards and presents!!  It was the best possible Christmas on the other side of the world.

Merry Christmas!!