Holidays in the new land...

I love the holiday season! As much as I used to be a humbug (such a moody teenager was I), I now love everything about the celebrations running from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day! Not working in retail anymore, I don't spend the height of my holiday excitement too early and that makes the season even better!

It's a little strange to live in a country that barely blinks at Thanksgiving and doesn't revolve around the glitz, trees, and sacredness OR commercialism of Christmas-- even New Year's day isn't as big as the lunar New Year celebration (February, I think). BUT there is one thing that is wonderful about being here: I won't have to hear that overplayed, cheesy song Christmas in the Northwest!

Today it snowed during first period and melted by second period, the workers are beginning to deck the halls around school and the Christmas socks found their way to the front of my drawer. This is all encouraging after battling the flu on Thanksgiving and some kind of parasite earlier this week. It's good to be alive and listening to holiday music streaming online!

click on the carolers to see the stations I found

We'll celebrate around here, but a little differently than the all-encompassing way that the holiday season takes over in the states. The PTA will give us a Christmas party and dinner, I'll ship gifts home to put under the tree (or maybe they will get there in time for New Year's Eve), and Sylvia will be with me in Thailand to deck the beach and hang stockings from a palm tree

May you all re-discover the joy of Christmas in surprising ways this year!

... and to all a good night!

Giving Thanks with a Jeju Getaway

Jeju is a dormant volcanic island off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula where a separate Korean province grows amazing tangerines, shows off its art and lava tubes, grows black pigs, and caters to tourists with museums, parks, and shops.
They even shrink all the wonders of the world into a mini-park so we can pretend to be world travelers! Again, many of the pictures can speak for themselves,

so I'll let them

Folk Village and funny folks

In Korea, EVERYTHING is the "perfect" place to take everyone's picture, but if there's a whole in it, you CAN'T pass it up without sticking your head in and saying "cheese!" (or kimchee!)

The coast!

Black lava rock instead of granite or sand!

The Flora and Fauna...

palm tree blooms!

Jeju Man is a symbol of the island from a more tribal time...

and his goofy brothers?!?

Thanks for coming on a little tour of my vacation-- there's more I could tell you and more pictures to see, but it's time to get back to the real world

Marriage Made in Korea

Ms. Chong, our lovely office manager who is (as all school secretaries are!) often the one thing standing between us and total chaos, just got married last week and we were all invited!

In many ways, it wasn't too much different than a Western wedding-- except for the fact that I couldn't understand a word of it. When we arrived (all dressed up and on our best behavior, of course), I was surprised to see the bride all decked out in her beautiful gown in a room right off the front lobby-- we all took turns taking pictures with her!
Then we went into the ceremony hall and it was set up as a banguet room. We found a our tables and watched the bride and groom grow up before our eyes in a slide show while munching on fancy rice cakes. After the mothers were announced and seated, the groom was announced and walked down the aisle, and then the bride and her father. After that, it was pretty hard to follow as I was seated behind a pillar, could only see part of the screen in the back where the ceremony was projected, and can't understand the language-- so I munched some more rice cakes and soda.
Actually, Korean weddings don't require full attention from even the guests who speak the language! Cell phones were ringing, conversations continued at normal volume throughout the ceremony, and the attention of the guests was rarely focused at the front. But when they were introduced as man and wife, everyone turned their attention to the proceedings again to clap and cheer!
The happy couple had hardly left the room when the servers began bringing out the food. It was all very yummy and quick and before we knew it, dessert was finished and people were beginning to leave.
So, just like that, my first Korean wedding was over and it was time to look forward to next morninging's departure to Jeju Island for Thanksgiving break!

Hakuna Matata!

This show was incredible! My friend down the hall was given 2 tickets to see The Lion King and we've spent the last 2 weeks looking forward to it. As it turned out, these were prime tickets: middle of the 6th row! It was all in Korean, but it was so close to the Disney cartoon (I watched countless times while babysitting over the years =), following the dialogue was no problem.
I wasn't sure how great it would be since the whole animal kingdom would be played by people, but the costuming and sets were so creative and realistic-- I was wowed and amazed! The music was beautiful and perfectly matched in the choreography-- I actually teared up a few times at the sheer power of it (and if you know me well, you know this is quite out-of-my-ordinary reaction!). The logistics of putting on this show are tricky and I can't even begin to imagine everything that has to happen perfectly to make it work, but one thing that is obvious is the unique character roles. These performers worked some complicated life-size puppets while they were inside of them-- even more, each actor/actress played the character with facial expression and everything WHILE working the puppets. It was like a morphed character where the person and puppet are one-- seamlessly playing the part-- completely lifelike and every emotion/action/mannerism perfectly communicated.
So this is my ringing endorsement: if you EVER get the chance to see a performance of Disney BroadwayThe Lion King, take it! Who knows, maybe you'll have a friend down the hall who knows generous people who have connections... it could happen =)
I'm still on the really-good-art-performance-experience high, so I'm not sure that sleep will come, but It's a long day at our speech meet tomorrow and I gotta go to bed =)

O, I just can't wait to be King!!!

Funny thing happened on the way to class....

I was walking up the last flight of steps to get to my classroom when I tripped (with my hands firmly and warmly in my coat pockets) and hit the top landing chin-first. My head was ringing quite nicely and I thought I would simply have a headache until I touched my chin and found blood. Luckily, the science teacher next door was already in his classroom and wasn't too squeamish to look-- he said it was more than just a scratch and might need stitches... Well, after resting through the shock and dizziness, arranging for class coverage and writing a quick sub-plan, I was taken by one of the bus drivers to the local "hospital" (clinic). When we arrived in the parking lot, my driver looked very concerned and started to apologize (I didn't even know he spoke English!). He said that the school had wanted me to go to the better hospital a little further away, but it wasn't open this early I said that was fine-- he thought maybe I didn't understand "this one is not, ummm, very pretty." and I had to insist that I had been to this hospital before with another teacher and it had been fine.
All I needed was a trained and sober person with a needle and thread to sew me back together. What I got was even better; a doctor who knows some English fixed me up with some numbing shots, a few stitches, a bandage, and some prescriptions (pain relievers and antibiotics--I think) Not the start to the morning I was expecting!

For the last 3 years, I commuted almost 100 miles a day without so much as a scratch, but now, I can't make it 500 feet and 2 flights of stairs without needing stitches! Oh well, I can now say that Korea has left it's mark on me =) There's a little whip-lash to go along with the sore chin, so I'd say I did a pretty good job.

As injuries usually do, this one came at a rather bad time-- speech meet this weekend hosted by our school, I'm attending a performance of the Lion King in Seoul, our English ministry at church has a presentation before the whole church body on Sunday for a Thanksgiving celebration, and evidently it's hard to concentrate on English when your teacher has a bandage protruding from her chin =)

When in Rome...

What a day we had!

The social committee at my school (a group of fun-loving, creative party folks) put together a relaxing day trip to places nearby. We first explored a traditional tea ceremony, then wandered through "Herb Island," had the ultimate spa experience, and finished off with a local BBQ place we all love.

The traditional tea ceremony was really educational and made all of us realize that America just has a different kind of history than just about every country in the world! We don't have ceremonial traditions that are unique to our country. Sure, we have certain traditions for weddings, graduations, and holidays, but they are mostly stolen from the respective countries of our ancestors-- we don't have uniquely American traditions that we could hold a class and excitedly share with foreigners to show them the ways of our people. Of course, the melting pot mentality of America which leaves this tradition-void more easily allows for social progress and change (which is a clashing point for families here as the Western mindset takes hold).
We learned to take our shoes off properly at the door, wore the hanbok robes, and had the chance to practice hosting a green tea party! After we clumbsied our way through this ceremonial tea service, we got to munch on tons of little Korean finger foods and delicate snacks!

Then, it was off to herb island where the scent of herbs greeted us as soon as we stepped off the bus. After a quick herb salad (really yummy-- nestertium flowers and all!), we wandered the greenhouses, gardens, and shops. I got enough candles, lotions, and teas to keep me calm for the winter, I think!
Just walking around this place reminded me again how acute and effective the sense of smell can be. It was like smelling soothing music, or inhaling beautiful art, AMAZING.

The relaxing wasn't done yet because we still planned to head to the spa. We ended up going to one just down the street from the local grocery store (a viable option for future visits since it's so close!). This was definitely an experience I hadn't expected! In the interest of mixed company, and the Western insecurity with group nudity, I won't go into great detail; however, I must say that "when in Rome...
the Roman cultureal norms do not offend the the non-Roman's mind as the same practices would in his homeland." Basically, in the gender segregated areas, it's completely a birthday suit affair with washing as a community task and in the mixed areas, the standard issue shirt&shorts gym uniform allows families to hang out together and relax in a community. It's like nothing I've seen or experienced before. The atmosphere was great and in the absence of a bathtub or shower stall in my own bathroom, I'll be visiting the spa again during the long, cold winter months!

After bathing, relaxing, massages for some, and body scrubs, we were all so relaxed we had to work really hard to decide on a dinner plan. We ended up at the BBQ restaurant grilling our own meal and devouring the beef-and-leaf "taco style."

Good times!!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

The cutest little kids in the world are growing up in Oregon!

my niece and nephew: (3 months and almost 4)