It's a new year with new opportunities and new possibilities. 2014 ended
on a low note but I do not believe that foreshadows how the new year
will be. I was blessed enough to spend Christmas with my friend, Suzie
and her friend Holly. We talked, listened to music and watched what most
would call a chick flick, Love Actually. It was so nice to just chill
out with other girls and not in my room like I usually do. Later, I went
to this fancy mall with Anakaren where we ate at a newly opened P.F.
Chang's restaurant. It was delicious and it was the first time in a long
time where I was stuffed and satisfied.
Back at school we even had some
Christmas celebrations in my classes, mostly because one of my
co-teachers gets really into the Christmas spirit. I threw my after
school class a Christmas party where we had cake, opened presents and
played some games. I tried to let them pick a Christmas movie to watch but they didn't
enjoy that so much since the movies were all in English. I still hope
they enjoyed themselves but I can never tell. One thing about the
holiday that makes me sad is just how little spirit people have here.
One of my co-teachers is really religious from a studious perspective
and doesn't have any kind of joyous spirit. He doesn't do presents or
decorations...he only goes to church...but more out of duty than for
fulfillment. It may also be his excuse because he often says he struggles with money? I experience that with a lot of Korean Christians where they
study Christianity and approach it as a subject to master. They have low energy and are very matter of fact. If you don't follow
the Bible exactly you can't be a Christian. I was sad thinking of how my
co-teacher's little boy will never really know the joy of giving or the excitement of Christmas.
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| Korean New Year Soup, Tteokguk with Mandu, for lunch |
After Christmas, I was pretty much on my own. I even fell
asleep early on New Years Eve and woke up at midnight only because I
heard fireworks going off outside. Well hello 2015! I finished classes
and started concentrating on my winter camp and winter vacation. My
winter camp had a stop motion animation theme which received a majority
vote from my students. It's funny because it was actually my first time
doing stop motion animation and now I was teaching it to others like I
was a pro or something. No one knew the difference and it was actually
fun. Except for the script writing part because my students are not very
creative storytellers and find it to be a chore. They loved making the
characters and filming though. You can watch their videos
here. The day after camp I was off to Thailand
for a week! Just in time too because I was starting to feel sick.
P.S. - I was able to attend the k-blog awards to support some of the expat bloggers in Korea. Simon (I met at the Andong Festival) and Charly were nominated and winners of some awards. It was nice to be in a room with so many creative expats that found a way to share their message or art in Korea.
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