Nearly Christmas
And so this is Christmas- or is it? Doesn’t feel much like Christmas. Tried to get into the spirit of it but I think that maybe I peaked too early when I hung up my Christmas lights when I arrived in March. My mother came through with a sterling effort when my Cadbury’s advent calendar came in the post on the 1st December exactly- did she plan it that way? Hard to say but high drama to the end regardless. So Christmas for me this year has been mainly trying to get to the calendar before the kids each day for my daily chocolate- why don’t I keep the calendar at home in that case?? Well, we don’t get good chocolate here and all it would take was one PMT gorge and all the fun would be over. I made a calendar for the kids but they don’t seem to get it as every day I walk in and glue shut the 24 door again.
Ah well, keeps my interest anyway.
In case you haven’t guessed, or received a grumpy email from me to this effect, I will be celebrating Christmas in Korea this year. Hagwon (private language institutes) are not renowned for their generous vacation allocation. I have managed to get the week leading up to New Year off and maybe I will go to Japan if the money holds out, I have to admit that Seoul is pretty Christmassy overall. I went there a couple of weeks ago to the large Shinsegae department store and for a moment or two I was in a surreal world that transported me back to Selfridges in London but where all the staff and customers were Korean. They even have proper shop windows complete with incomprehensible Christmas scenes. There is a large tree outside where I spent a happy couple of hours before it got too cold drinking beer and filling in the time until I could get a bus home to Gangneung.
It is worth remembering that Korea isn’t a Christian country and the Christians that are here tend to be of the moron persuasion so any Christmas celebrations tend to be a triumph of marketing over tradition. We have a small Christmas tree in the school and many of my students have been caught recently singing ‘Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer’ though in Korean to be honest. A lot of the stores have Christmas lights and carols blaring out but I miss the street lights and the carol singers at Trafalgar Square. I miss looking forward to the Eastenders and Coronation Street specials and even just looking at the Radio Times Christmas edition. All those annoying Christmas jingles that most of you are fed up with on TV are sadly missing from Korea.
Still, holding it together. I have a solo Christmas card on my desk from home (though more have been promised) I have a Christmas present in my drawer at work- though the customs declaration does take a touch of the excitement off it since I know what it is and how much it is worth! I keep promising myself that I will decorate my classroom but always end up being distracted into a pub rather than the decoration shop. I had my most unsuccessful day Christmas shopping ever when I went to Seoul two weeks ago and ended up buying my whole family pints of beer which I drank myself. In my defence, it was very Christmassy in the pub (Murphys!), much more so that the streets outside. It was a good day for me but a bad day for Christmas shopping!
Not sure what we are doing next week. This is only my second Christmas away from England so I still firmly have my training wheels on how to handle it. The last one was five years ago and in the Southern hemisphere where everything was so different as to make one forget that it even was Christmas as we slapped on the sunscreen and danced on the beach. I do have hopes of a white Christmas and we have been forecast snow over the weekend so fingers crossed.
I am sure that whatever transpires next Thursday it will be a memorable day. I will be leaving a glass of soju and a piece of kimbap out for Santa anyway.
Not sure when I will be back in the UK as I am thinking of staying here for another year. I always feel such a fraud when I get emails from anyone telling me how brave I am to be here. The truth is, and don’t tell anyone and ruin my secret, my life here is so easy! I have a nice apartment which the school pays for, I consider it a hard day when I have to start work at 1.30 rather than 3.30- either way I am out before 9pm. I get taxis everywhere- day or night. I eat out more nights a week than is sensible. I have a wider social circle than I was used to in London because I can walk up to pretty much any foreigner I see here and ask them to join me for a pint. I know most of the foreigners in town- and certainly all those in the bar. If I need the bright lights and big city, Seoul and my mate, Sam, are just over three hours away by bus - which is actually not a bad place to sleep off a hangover, I have found. I get paid a lot and taxed a little. I enjoy the kids and even if I have a bad class the little sods are only there for 45 minutes.
There are problems, of course, and frustrations- sometimes I just don’t want to be stared at or welcomed to Korea by high school kids but I can’t really complain about it either. I don’t get much vacation, it is true, but I still get more than my bruvver in the States. The only problem with staying on next year is that most of the national holidays fall on a Saturday which is a normal working day for Korea so they don’t get moved onto a Friday or Monday. I have great mates here and a lot of great mates back home and in other countries to email me and make future plans with. All in I have to admit to feeling pretty lucky in life most of the time.
Anyway, it is only just after 9am and not usual for me to be up this early. I have put on the floor heating and am waiting for it to heat up so I can lie on the floor for a while and chase away those chills. Then I am meeting a mate for lunch before work. Let me know what your plans for Christmas and New Year.
Love
Helen
xxx
Ah well, keeps my interest anyway.
In case you haven’t guessed, or received a grumpy email from me to this effect, I will be celebrating Christmas in Korea this year. Hagwon (private language institutes) are not renowned for their generous vacation allocation. I have managed to get the week leading up to New Year off and maybe I will go to Japan if the money holds out, I have to admit that Seoul is pretty Christmassy overall. I went there a couple of weeks ago to the large Shinsegae department store and for a moment or two I was in a surreal world that transported me back to Selfridges in London but where all the staff and customers were Korean. They even have proper shop windows complete with incomprehensible Christmas scenes. There is a large tree outside where I spent a happy couple of hours before it got too cold drinking beer and filling in the time until I could get a bus home to Gangneung.
It is worth remembering that Korea isn’t a Christian country and the Christians that are here tend to be of the moron persuasion so any Christmas celebrations tend to be a triumph of marketing over tradition. We have a small Christmas tree in the school and many of my students have been caught recently singing ‘Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer’ though in Korean to be honest. A lot of the stores have Christmas lights and carols blaring out but I miss the street lights and the carol singers at Trafalgar Square. I miss looking forward to the Eastenders and Coronation Street specials and even just looking at the Radio Times Christmas edition. All those annoying Christmas jingles that most of you are fed up with on TV are sadly missing from Korea.
Still, holding it together. I have a solo Christmas card on my desk from home (though more have been promised) I have a Christmas present in my drawer at work- though the customs declaration does take a touch of the excitement off it since I know what it is and how much it is worth! I keep promising myself that I will decorate my classroom but always end up being distracted into a pub rather than the decoration shop. I had my most unsuccessful day Christmas shopping ever when I went to Seoul two weeks ago and ended up buying my whole family pints of beer which I drank myself. In my defence, it was very Christmassy in the pub (Murphys!), much more so that the streets outside. It was a good day for me but a bad day for Christmas shopping!
Not sure what we are doing next week. This is only my second Christmas away from England so I still firmly have my training wheels on how to handle it. The last one was five years ago and in the Southern hemisphere where everything was so different as to make one forget that it even was Christmas as we slapped on the sunscreen and danced on the beach. I do have hopes of a white Christmas and we have been forecast snow over the weekend so fingers crossed.
I am sure that whatever transpires next Thursday it will be a memorable day. I will be leaving a glass of soju and a piece of kimbap out for Santa anyway.
Not sure when I will be back in the UK as I am thinking of staying here for another year. I always feel such a fraud when I get emails from anyone telling me how brave I am to be here. The truth is, and don’t tell anyone and ruin my secret, my life here is so easy! I have a nice apartment which the school pays for, I consider it a hard day when I have to start work at 1.30 rather than 3.30- either way I am out before 9pm. I get taxis everywhere- day or night. I eat out more nights a week than is sensible. I have a wider social circle than I was used to in London because I can walk up to pretty much any foreigner I see here and ask them to join me for a pint. I know most of the foreigners in town- and certainly all those in the bar. If I need the bright lights and big city, Seoul and my mate, Sam, are just over three hours away by bus - which is actually not a bad place to sleep off a hangover, I have found. I get paid a lot and taxed a little. I enjoy the kids and even if I have a bad class the little sods are only there for 45 minutes.
There are problems, of course, and frustrations- sometimes I just don’t want to be stared at or welcomed to Korea by high school kids but I can’t really complain about it either. I don’t get much vacation, it is true, but I still get more than my bruvver in the States. The only problem with staying on next year is that most of the national holidays fall on a Saturday which is a normal working day for Korea so they don’t get moved onto a Friday or Monday. I have great mates here and a lot of great mates back home and in other countries to email me and make future plans with. All in I have to admit to feeling pretty lucky in life most of the time.
Anyway, it is only just after 9am and not usual for me to be up this early. I have put on the floor heating and am waiting for it to heat up so I can lie on the floor for a while and chase away those chills. Then I am meeting a mate for lunch before work. Let me know what your plans for Christmas and New Year.
Love
Helen
xxx
posted by Helen @ 11:12 AM
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