Santas, Sledding, and Surprises

Lots to catch up on in this post! I'll start from the event two weekends ago. For those of you who have been sticking with me throughout my blog posting, you might remember SantaCon from last December. To participate in this event, people (mainly foreigners) dress up as Santa Clause or other related Christmas icons and spread holiday cheer around the town of Hongdae, this includes wandering the streets as well as taking the subway for one stop and scaring the daylights out of the Koreans trying to take a peaceful ride home. Kaitie and I met up with several other Bucheoners to join the rest of the Santa Clauses. Last year was twice as cold, and yet I feel it was much more jolly! This year not many people were caroling or wanting to go as a large group. I felt bad for the leader of the event who was putting SO much energy into getting us all pumped up and moving from place to place. So overall, it was fun! But not as Christmassy as last year. Maybe it wasn't close enough to actual Chrismas...

crowded subway

fearless leader

 

Fast forward to the next week, where at Little America we are preparing for our Christmas celebration. Beginning with a very winter-appropriate field trip to the indoor sledding park, the students arrived to school all bundled up. Last year this field trip was absolutely freezing. I over-prepared this year, sticking myself with adhesive heat packs as well as hand warmers in my pockets. You might think I went a bit overboard but I assure you I was the warmest one in that entire place. My students kept sticking their hands in my pockets to steal my heat packs. Not happening little ones! This sledding trip involves standing in a very long windy line until it is your turn to sit in a triple tube and fly down the hill. The waiting takes about 10-15 minutes and the ride down takes about 5 seconds. It is actually a bit scary going down. As a larger individual (than my students) I did not fit inside the tube so well. Whenever we flew over any bumps I was a bit afraid that I would fly out into the next lane.

"How'd she die?" 
"Oh, she became the first human sledding ramp." 

We did the waiting-sledding routine three times before my girls were just about finished with the whole thing. After a cheesy dancing magic show (of course Korea) we headed back to school, not before running around in the newly falling snow outside!

 

 

Back at school, the students put together some cute reindeer to write their wish for Santa. The overall theme for my students were animals of some sort, whether it be a puppy, a kitten, or a squirrel, they all long for some cute fuzzy thing to play with at home. Not sure how pumped their parents would be to get those wishes, but it's for Santa, and he will try his best!

"I wish for a kitten"

"I wish for a dog"

After school on Friday, Kaitie and I headed off to Tarah's place for a peaceful girls night of drinks and chatting. Walking into her apartment I saw two friends sitting on the couch, nothing out of the ordinary, but then saw a few friends, who usually don't come out to Bucheon, standing in the kitchen, one of whom had a camera pointed at my face. Suddenly the lights turned on and people popped up from around the apartment yelling "SURPRISE!". Apparently, Kaitie had returned the surprise-party favor and planned a birthday celebration behind my back! Touche Kaitie Teacher! I had no idea the whole time she and Katrina were planning this...not even a hint...They are very sneaky.
We spent the evening taking pictures and commenting on how oblivious I was before going out on the town in Bucheon, eventually making it to a norebang to lose our voices for the next day. Thinking back to the party now it just amazes me that I've met these people in the past year and they put so much effort into planning this incredible evening for me! It meant so much to me. Kaitie had put in weeks and weeks of time into creating a photo album of our friendship thus far including trips we've been on and memories from throughout the year. I can't wait to show everyone back home! It is sitting in my apartment and I can't help but open it up every time I see it. Thank you SO much everyone xoxo

my view as I came into the apartment

"super confused"

the pup came too!

The fantastic photo album

My beautiful friends

Thank you both!

Props to Brent- the photographer! <3

That next evening, I had another holiday celebration down at the Osan Airforce base with a friend, Dan. I had only been down there once before, and I was looking forward to going again to meet new people and see where Dan works! After a few...minor delays... in getting to the base (I'm keeping my promise of secrecy), we walked into the party room, greeted by a sea of people in various degrees of holiday outfits. I saw some incredibly-awesome ugly Christmas sweaters, as well as women dressed to the nines in heels and everything. I was able to meet several of Dan's coworkers who were so welcoming and all had really amazing stories to tell! In their line of work, travel is common. One girl is heading off Australia, another couple to Germany, and more to Japan. I loved talking to others who share my love and excitement for traveling. After spending the evening at the party, we left to check out a few places in the town outside the base. The main difference between Bucheon and this area down here is the amount of foreigners. At home I can maybe see one other foreigner walking around during the day, but down in Osan there are so many military families that it might actually be more common to see someone from the US than a Korean. Just felt like I wasn't in Korea for a bit. We grabbed some amazing Thai food and lazed around watching Elf, getting in the Christmassy mood!

Photobombed

Cute Korean face

Overall, it has been such a fun past few weekends. Sorry for the long delay in posting, but I'm sure you enjoyed the quick recap as opposed to short boring ones. The countdown continues until I head home! 11 days today. Slowly losing my ability to focus for long periods of time. Writing this took a lot of will power...

Until next time! xoxo

Korean of the post:
엄마 산타는 소주가 좋아?(eoma, santaneun sojuga joha?)
"Mommy, Santa likes soju?"