Thankgiving

Well, I apologize for the lack-there-of with my posts lately. I fully intend however to remedy that shortly. I have a few fun things to mention today so I guess I will start with my Thanksgiving festivities. David and I have decided to remain here in Korea for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not wanting to compromise on the holiday fun we have made some other plans. On Friday evening David and I decided to go to our NZ friends house for a somewhat Thanksgiving style meal with some other American teachers. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, non-homemade turkey with stuffing as well as some Korean-style sweet potato casserole and a salad. The food was pretty good actually and I managed to make both Apple and Pumpkin mini pies. We even had Pillsbury biscuits, thanks to some army connections! Overall we had a really great time celebrating with our friends. Now, David and I were a little unsure about how the holidays would be celebrated here in Korea. We didn't think many people would have Christmas decorations or trees with ornaments or any of the other must have traditions. Much to our surprise though we were very wrong. Right before Thanksgiving hit the entire city of Seoul slowly began to cover itself with Christmas!!! All the restaurants and stores have trees, the building have bushed and trees decorated, even our favorite shopping area has loads of light up reindeer and snowflakes. It is absolutely wonderful! I managed to get a small tree at the Lotte Mart and we have it nicely decorated in our apartment along with some exciting stalkings and a red poinsettia. So needless to say, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Another really exciting thing to report on was our last weekend. We managed yet another trip to Buchansan mountain with David's colleague Michael. This time however he brought along his female language instructor and another Korea friend named Victor. While the company was fabulous, the mountain was another story. I always enjoy a challenging hike but every time we venture to this particular one it manages to kick my butt! This time was no exception. It was a very muggy day and a little cold at ground level. The weather didn't stay like that for very long tho. After about two hours we made it to the top and in was below zero degrees Celsius, absolutely freezing and the winds could have blown me away. I was so happy to finally make it back down the mountain, but I will say I got a wonderful view and a great workout from the trip.

 

After our hike on Saturday we then went to church on Sunday, the first Advent. The week prior however, David and I were asked to do a short script in front of the congregation and to light the first Advent calender. Well, come Sunday morning we both got up there and really had a lot of fun with it. I was able to light the candle without burning down the church and I managed not to stumble during my speech, praise God!

Now it is Monday morning and I am sitting during the lunch period at Seoul Foreign School. It is my first day substitute teaching here and I love it. While waking up at 5 am was not real fun, I have enjoyed being back in a school setting without actually having to do school work. Today I am with the sixth grade teaching a humanities class. Mainly it is just reading and assigning book work but the kids are a lot of fun and I have met some wonderful American teachers that have been here for over five years. I will be posting more updates on my subbing but until then, its coffee time for me. We miss you all very much and hope you all send us Christmas Cards.

Many Blessings