Christmas in South Korea

Merry Christmas!
It is our first Christmas in Korea.  It was our first Christmas being teachers and working the Friday before and the Monday after Christmas.  It was our first Christmas where the commercialization of Christmas that happens before Thanksgiving in the Western world barely made a scratch in the world over here.

This is a long one with lots of pictures so settle in.  :-)  



The best news (to us) is that we had a White Christmas, of sorts.  It snowed the day before Christmas Eve and stuck to the ground and was beautiful.  Joseph and I were awake about 1:30am when it began coming down pretty heavily and we decided we had to go walk in it.  We met up with a few friends while we were out walking and taking pictures and stayed out until about 5:30am talking and watching movies It was a great time.

This is parked outside our apartment building everyday.
Miss you Billie Jo!

Our street

Main street by us

Pretty, right? 

Josh, Colin, Joseph and Jeff
Found them while taking pics

Nice-uh!

Snow Kitty  :-) 
He loved  it...

Where is the litter?

Um...chin- cha? 

One of the very few Christmas trees we saw.

Speaks for itself, right? 
Good times!

Part of the river is frozen

The lovely couple

The next day Joseph and I got up and decided we needed to go for a walk.  We took the bus to an area of town we hadn't really explored yet and all along the way is snow covering the ground.  Small piles glittering on the ground.  I made my first snow angel next to Joseph's.  Ate a delicious tuna lunch and met up with our friend Lee Ann.  A few snow piles caught me as Joseph pushed me into a snow drift (as I have never done that before and Joseph didn't want me to miss out) with all of us laughing.  It was awesome and we loved it.  We ended up walking along the river and taking pictures of the ice floating along the surface then going back to our apartment and watching a few Christmas movies and eating delicious Korean BBQ.

My hubby taught me how to make the perfect snowball: ouch!!

We're off to see the wizard!

My [first] Korean snow angel

That was our Christmas Eve day.

The next day we opened our Christmas presents.  There isn't much Christmas here so it was exciting just to see the Christmas wrapping paper!!  Went for a walk to find some food and Joseph took us to this Chinese place to have jah~jahng. It is noodles in a meaty thick sauce and is so delicious. The cool part about this place is they have a noodle man who hand makes these noodles.  That in itself isn't so exciting; it is how he makes them that is the exciting part.  A huge piece of dough that he whips over his head, slams down on the counter and before you know it the dough is 5 feet long and in strands.

Our delicious noodles: Jah-Jahng

Magic!

Next, we walked to a new bus terminal which also sounds way boring but it is the bus terminal that rivals the International Mall in Tampa, Florida. Six floors connected by a over the road walkway to another 5 or 6 story building with book stores a movie theater, high end fashion clothes and accessories, a pet store, E-Mart (think Costco) and the actual bus station on the first floors (both buildings) along with cafes, pharmacies and food eats all on the first floor. The place was packed to the rafters because it was the grand opening.

After that, we met up with Lee Ann, ate Korean BBQ and went back to our place and watched 2 Christmas movies.  A phone call later and we were meeting up with a small group at the pub around the corner from us for a Happy Christmas toast.

Best BBQ cook ever

Korean food is delightful! 

We really miss our family and friends in Florida, Tennessee and Maryland, Chicago, Georgia, California and New York.  We love and miss you so much and wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

*Hugs and love to all of you!*

Merry Christmas!!

Love, Joseph and Elizabeth