Meh-Li Keuh-Li-Seuh-Ma-Seuh

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I wanted to get this blog down before heading off home..uh let's see...TOMORROW MORNING!? I can't believe I counted down the days from 70 (a bit too soon? no.) and now it's time! Half of my suitcase is Christmas presents. I'm so thankful that Beth, Alex, and I can share clothes, because I definitely don't have room for much. My flight leaves Incheon at 1:15pm on Friday, and I get home at 3pm Friday...oooOOOoooo spooky stuff huh? I'm basically a time traveler.

Before I head home, I should catch you all up on happenings here over these last few weeks! Little America has been doing a lot of Christmassy activities, preparing for the big party day where Santa would ultimately visit the school (the real Santa...not me dressed in a red suit with pillows stuffed under a jacket) The students created crafts and sang carols to prepare for his arrival.

 

 

And then the moment came. I tried to capture the surprise on the students' faces when Santa came and it wasn't one of the foreign teachers trying to trick them. Some of them truly believed that Christina's boyfriend (Rij) was the real Santa Clause. Others remained unconvinced, mainly due to the poor beard quality...understandable.

 

 

He had a list and everything! It was a great touch. After getting their pictures with Santa, the students spent the rest of the day playing games and getting hyped up on Christmas spirit (could have been sugar..)

 

As this day was my actual birthday, the teachers pitched in as usual to get a cake from a coffee shop nearby and the students sang me happy birthday! This year however, I was incredibly lucky to have Kaitie and Alex make me one of the most delicious cheesecakes I've ever eaten in my entire life (THANK YOU KAITIE'S MOM!). It was so much better than any cheesecake I've had in Korea since I got here, and nothing will live up to it now...sorry Korean cheescake...

 Birthday Cuddles

Here are my students performing their Christmas song! I apologize in advance for you getting this song stuck in your head for forever...

As usual, they did a great job singing loudly and acting their parts out perfectly! Can't believe I only have 2 more monthly songs with them before they graduate to first grade! Feel like I just started teaching them...

After the wee-ones were sent off home with their Christmas goodies, the elementary students arrived to compete in their song contests. My classes both did great! One had an absent student...happens to me every song contest, but they still performed really well and received second place! Katrina and I combined classes and they got first place with their rendition of Nsync's "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays".

Despite being utterly exhausted after this long day of holiday festivities, it was time to go to our work dinner to find out our Secret Santa from the past week! It is always a blast to guess who you think your Secret Santa is as well as your other coworkers'. I was lucky enough to have Shine Teacher who gave me a super fuzzy sweatshirt to keep me warm as the winter gets colder...and it will...*shiver* As always, the dinner is entertaining and full of laughter as we enjoy each others' company in a less stressful environment. Add good food and some soju and we are all set to go!.....to a norebang...

This weekend, Kaitie and I met our friend Dan out to check out a Body Museum at the war memorial in Yongsan. Expecting something like the exhibits I have previously seen, I was super excited! If you haven't been the the body exhibit in Philly or Baltimore, basically cadavers are set out in different positions were you can see the inside of a human body (and sometimes even a camel...if you're lucky). They also have incredible ways to isolate other body parts such as bodies made of only the blood vessels. Needless to say, I was expecting something mind-blowing.

 Due to a lack of proper advertising on Korean tourism websites, it turned out this exhibit was not exactly the same thing...Basically take out everything I just mentioned and add cartoons, no English translation, and a trippy, microscopic film about the creation of cells in the body. We learned a lot through less-than-stellar translation attempts and pure guesswork. Some parts were actually pretty awesome! For example, there was one interactive screen that showed actual photos of cross-sections of a human body. Sounds gross eh? Hope you aren't eating. Sometimes you just have to roll with it here and things turn out okay. We wandered around the war museum for a while, then headed off to grab some Arabic food at Petra in Itaewon. For those of you who haven't been- you owe it to yourselves to check it out! Get the falafel...and the hummus...and baba ghanoush...let's just say everything is good!

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, where Andy was gracious enough to invite a rather large group of us to her house to celebrate the holidays together with delicious food and a game of Santa Swap. Some of the gifts are not appropriate for this blog, while others were pretty tame...take these pink fuzzy slippers for example...

thrilled to bits

As the evening went on and the food started to disappear we headed out to carol sing (aka terrify local Koreans) on our way to the bar. What better way to spend Christmas away from home than with a huge group of jolly friends looking for an evening to spend together. Add some pretty amazing singing voices and you've got yourself a cheesy Christmas movie!

Kaitie takes on the duck

 

Speaking of cheesy Christmas movies...Christmas morning, Kaitie, Angela, Tarah, and I gathered in Tarah's apartment to have a stocking opening/delicious breakfast/Love Actually watching time together. We each wrapped up some gifts to exchange and spent the morning cuddled up on the heating blanket (the best invention ever) chowing down on some incredible eggs benedict and chocolate-chip-banana pancakes. Can't get better than that right? Sneak some Liam Neeson and Colin Firth in there too....

Our hauls

I love these girls and am so thankful I've met them here. They made my second Christmas day away from home so special! Who could ask for better friends <3

Now...I've procrastinated long enough...I should probably finish packing and get all set to head to the airport tomorrow morning. I will write a post while I'm home (hopefully) so keep an eye out!

xoxox

Korean of the post:
"손가락으로 그것을 느끼고,  나의 발가락에서 그것을 느낄"
(sonkarayeuhro keuhkeoteul neuhkigo, nawi balkarakehseo keuhkeoteul neuhkil)
"I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes"