Christmas 2009

I was looking through some pictures from Christmas last year and came across Santa Klaus.

Stig and I had a great Christmas dinner at the rib place and were enjoying scotch and a Churchill on the benches across the street. The bar had someone dressed up as Santa. One of the friendliest Koreans I have ever met. He was handing out candy to kids, and women, passing by. His English wasn't that great but he got by.

It turns out he was the manager of the bar. The owner ended up coming up out. (I may have it backwards ... manager came out and owner in costumes. A little help Stig!) His English was great. We talked with them a bit and extended Christmas greetings.

It made for a nice interlude in a great evening.

Christmas Memories

One of the best Christmas' I had in Korea was in my 5th year. Dinner with friends at Riccone. Great food and company. Then we went to Albatross for scotch and cigars. We wound the night up at Road King with more friends and drinking.

The atmosphere at all places was good. Christmas music at Road King ... not like in later years when it was some type of screaming music that just didn't fit a Christmas Eve.

Good times.

I always enjoyed Christmas at my hagwon the last 4 years or so. We would always do some kind of Christmas activities with kids and watch a Christmas Movie. I bought Jim Carey's version of the Grinch with Korean subtitles so we could show it to the students. I would always have the Santa hat and beard, no suit though unfortunately.

Good times.

I find I miss some of that right now. Mind you it is very nice to be with family for a change. It has been 5 years since I was home for Christmas and it feels good.

I hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

To the mooks ... may you get your Season's Beatings. :)

Oh Christmas Tree

I wonder if the Korea Times will try and push the claim that the Christmas Tree is Korean again this year.

The (Korean) National Institute of Biological Resources did threaten to "recover" their rights to the Christmas tree this year. The right being the right to scam money out of their claim. That seemed to be their big bugaboo last year ... they wanted their share of the Christmas Tree pie.

No follow up on that crusade yet. I wonder if the Korea Times will have a follow this Christmas Eve?

Year 1 - Seasons Greetings

Season's Greetings, again!

When I last left off it was the day before the night before Christmas.

Christmas Eve caught me at my best and worst. I had supper with Don and Mary, the owners of the hagwon as well as the 2 South African teachers. We went to a meat and side dish place and hade Galbi. Galbi is beef on the bone. Actually a strip of beef attached to the bone, which you grill up in front of everyone with garlic, onion, Korean sweet potato, and mushrooms. Plus you have a plethora of side dishes. Several types of kimchi, duenjoen chigae, oysters, miniature clams, large peppers to dip in a bean paste, sweet potato noodles, daikon radish, things like that. It was a pretty good time. Even with a bit of a suck up fest I had to put up with from one of the other teachers.

The night took a downturn after dinner. Hilda and the gang who went to Cheju Island called. After talking with them I started getting depressed. All my friends in Korea were either on Cheju Island or off snowboarding. All my family and other friends are in Canada and the US, far away. Yeah, I got a case of the "poor me's". So, I promptly smacked myself one and decided to go out. It turned out that a teacher (Patrick) from another Hagwon and his brother Gordon were still in town. He had hurt his ankle so the snowboarding trip ended up being one night. I ended up joining them at a nearby bar.

Along comes Flint, with his Santa Hat on, and the festivities began. There was a table with 7 Korean women at it. They kept looking over at us. So, mainly due to Patrick, we ended up joining them, and picking up all 7 of them for most of the night. :) What can I say, it was amusing to see other guys try to come over, and the girls send them away to stay with us.

It turns out all 7 of them had been in Canada. They had each spent time, some a year, in British Columbia. Several even sported Canadian flag decals on their phones. They also all spoke English fairly well. We ended up at a nurae-bang (karaoke room) with 4 of them. I got home after 5AM Christmas morning. It was a great night. Odds are we will be getting together with them tomorrow night, New Years Eve. ;)

Mind you it is pretty much impossible to have a social life right now. Actually for the next month. It is winter break here, so all the parents send their kids to private schools. My January hours will be 11 hours a day teaching. 6:30-11:00Am and back from 2:30-9:00PM. Weekends are free, and we have a four day break at the end of the month. Which we will definitely need. I am thinking of spending some time in Seoul.

New Years Eve should be fun. Mind you, it will also be a little sad. It will be our farewell, again, send off for a teacher, Dave. He will be leaving January 2nd for Prague to take a course, and teach. He is a pretty cool guy, one of the better teachers, and people here. We will miss him.

Tonight we took him to the same place I went to Christmas Eve for a send off dinner. Damn it was good. :) Here is a price comparison for you. For 7 of us to eat it cost a whopping 43,000 won. Lets say $43 CDN. It cost 4 people $120 CDN to have a similar, but smaller, dinner at a Korean restaurant in Halifax. Quite the difference.

I hope everyone has a great New Year!

Take care

Flint

*****

I will have to devote a post to the other 2 teachers at the school. I don't really mention them because they were assholes. (Done.)

Heh ... the 7 girls was ALL Patrick's work. Not mainly due to ... all due to. One of the most outgoing people I have ever known and just a great person over-all.

Christmas Memories

Ok, enough maudlin complaining. Maybe it is the booze, A Colbert Christmas, or it could even be starting to feel like Christmas. Ok, it is the booze. Sitting in my postage stamp drinking and thinking and writing about how last Christmas Eve sucked made me think of the good ones.

One of my favourite Christmases was when I was in High School. My Great Aunt had a cottage on the ocean and it was winterized. The plan was to spend a Christmas there with her. Around 10 AM Christmas Eve day Dad packed mom and I, along with 3 dogs, into the van and off we drove.

Normally it was about a three hour drive to get there. Of course the fickle finger of fate would make it more of an adventure for us. It came in the form of a nasty snowstorm with whiteouts at times. Luckily, dad was a trucker and a great driver. It took us about 5 hours of so but we made it there.

It was surreal at times though. Driving through small towns with no one in sight. The swirling snow distorting the lights and creating visions of a magical wonderland outside the van. Or just how beautiful the woods looked when there were breaks in the storm as we drove through uninhabited areas.

We stopped for a break at a truck stop (the dogs needed a break too ... damn they had good bladder and bowel control!). Mom stocked up on munchies and something hot to drink while I walked the dogs. Dad called to let my Great Aunt know we were still on the way and checked out the road reports. He said "Bah, I have driven through worse storms" (and he had) so we pushed on.

We made it to the cottage safe and sound. The storm had abated and it looked so beautiful. The only sounds we could hear was the waves lapping up on the shore in front of the cottage. The dogs made a B-line through the snow to the beach.

Inside it smelled like .... heaven. My Great Aunt had done a lot of baking. Bread, cookies. Plus she had started dinner. The air was filled with so many exquisite aromas. I am drooling now just thinking about them.

I played with the dogs in the back. Or was it side? Never could get it straight. The part facing the ocean. :) We had a ball. I lost track of time. Next thing I knew it was getting dark. The yard looked beautiful. There was a huge window in the living room, looking out towards the ocean. The lights from the tree were shining through and reflecting off of the snow. What a sight.

Dinner was fantastic. Afterwards we sat around talking. I loved listening to their stories about life. We each opened a present. It was a great night. Plus I wore myself out with the dogs. Slept like a log listening to the wind and the crackling of the fire.

Dad cooked Christmas breakfast for everyone. Sausage, eggs, toast, coffee, tea. Of course we opened presents first. The storm had finished during the night. It was a sunny and very white Christmas. Late in the morning we drove my Great Aunt to her home (in town about halfway from our place to the cottage). Then we headed home.

One of the best Christmases I have ever had.

Happy Ho Ho to you and yours.