Christmas Eve occured a little earlier in Korea. Seeing as it hit on a Friday, I had to teach, but I loved every minute of it. It was basically a big party with kinder. We decorated cake and sang songs. I gave them little gifts that they marveled over with such appreciative smiles. I love them. They were so happy over something so small. I couldn't stop beaming.

They started to stir a little as the day went on. but thankfully Korean Santa came to visit! Korean Santa happens to be a good friend of mine, Canadian Joshua Rae. I had to contain my fits of laughter as he acted the part so magically for the kinder bunch. Again, did I mention? I love them!

Then, we had to perform our dreadful play and song. I was worried because they honestly act like zoo creatures when we practice. Aidan acts like a weird jumping zombie and Danny does flips, flailing to the floor. They pulled it together so beautifully for Jingle Bell Rock. They really, truly "rocked the night away". They were a big hit!! I couldn't have been prouder. I had the biggest smile on my face all day. I love my little Gemini class! They graduate and leave in February... I can't fathom the idea :(


I got quite a few Christmas cards. Of the bunch, some were too priceless not to mention. One from Emily, " Emily teacher you are a great teacher. at first you were not like a great teacher, but you got better and better. and you are a great teacher right not." WOW! such honesty! thanks Em. Also... from Sharon, " Your not alone. You have a snowman your not alone." Thank god for that snowman. I'm not alone this holiday season!

Again, I couldn't love them more!

Off to Singapore! Merry Christmas!

I'm slacking on the writing because there are a million things to do over Christmas season at SLP. I'm currently preparing another dance for our Christmas play tomorrow. I am in my prime for teaching child dances. We are singing Jingle Bell Rock. The class all insisted we do the "sexy dance" from the movie, Mean Girls, that they'd seen on the internet. Innapropriate to say the least, so I decided to stick to my more childish moves. Besides that, a million crafts and projects are in order. And presents.... I have to buy a little something for them, but it's been taking some time putting each little bag together and writing an individual card for every little one.

Christmas season has been making the kids very giddy. Like Halloween, Christmas is a big ordeal at SLP. Our friend Josh, who does not work at SLP, will come as Santa and deliver presents to the "good" children, while we decorate cupcakes and sing carols. I'm just as excited as they are!

All week long we've been doing Christmas related activities. Suprizingly, I had to teach the story of Jesus. It is a Christian school afterall. At lunch we always pray, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food plate. Thank is what we say for the food we eat today. Amen." Still, there is not a huge emphasis on Christianity and a lot of students are Buddhist, so I was a bit taken aback by that lesson. A lot of the Christmas activities bring out funny answers from the students. I think some of the bad little boys are getting nervous becuase in letters to Santa, they've been fessing up to being little nightmare babies. Some of the things they ask from Santa are so amusing. One of the worst, but funniest and most creative students, Jeff (in Aries class) has repeatedly told me and Santa that he wants "a baby Jeff". When I asked if he wanted a little brother, he said no, really, a little baby version of himself. My head almost exploded with the thought. Santa better not be real because I could not handle two baby Jeffs!!

Aside from the Christmas hussle, I'm preparing to go to Singapore on Christmas day. Beautiful 85 degree weather compared to Korea's 28 degrees!!

Weeks ago I went on a blind date. It went well and I had a great time. We saw each other once more, but I guess I just wasn't interested. I never called him and rarely sent him messages, but I wasn't so ruthless that I wouldn't answer. I kept a conversation going ( after all, I did inheret the gift of gab from my family, not the mention any specific names... grandma Ellen).

Anyways, two Saturdays ago he invited me to the movies. I wasn't sure how I felt about the invite, but I said yes. Saturday came and went and no date. I honestly didn't even want to get out of bed that morning, so it barely bothered me, just confused me. I got stood up so it seems. Stood up, but I was happy about it... so does that count? I guess it still does.

We haven't spoken in two weeks and what do I do? I accidentally text him to get dinner, all along meaning to text my friend Daria. He responded enthusiastically and agreed to get dinner Wednesday night (this happened on Tuesday). I was at the gym when I was making this grave mistake. I stopped the treadmill mid-run. I freaked a little bit, laughed a lot, hopped back on the treadmill and kept running. I figured I'd have to suck it up and go to an awkward dinner I definitely didn't want to go to at this point. Here's the real kicker... Wednesday night came and went and again, no date. Once again, I was relieved and happy, but once again I got stood up by I guy I didn't mean to message in the first place. Maybe getting stood up is the Korean way... I'm learning Korean dating culture at a very slow pace.

It's snowing in Korea and I'm having trouble figuring out this heated floor system. So I've decided just to sit on the floor instead, crouched in a tiny little warm spot between my chair and refrigerator and hope it figures itself out by morning. I thought I got the hang of the heating system until I turned my heat off the other day... trying to save energy and the earth (plus my floors were scalding my bare feet). Now I'm back to sqaure one...watching the thermostat go from 12 degrees to 14 in the past 4 hours. It's going to be a cold winter...

My hair is finally an inch shorter and my pocket 12$ lighter. I've been saying I'm going to get a Korean haircut and I finally did. I went with Jenny, Krystin and Rose. All the hairstylists were wearing beautiful, tight black clothes and high glam heels. I felt like a total frump. Frumpy or not, they treated us very well. First, they took our drink order (coffee, juice, tea, etc.) while we waited. We hardly even waited 5 minutes before they called our names. I didn't get my hair shampooed because my hair was already wet :( That was my own fault. My hairdresser cut the inch off my hair, but then she dried it and gave it perfect waves and style while another woman gave me a hand massage. All this for a few bucks. Sure beats Great Clips.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, appearance is everything here. Hair salons and beauty stores are on the block by the dozens, open all hours of the day and usually full of people. I've had many students (the baby 6 year olds) get their hair dyed a lighter color brown or show up with a perm. Actually, many of them are the boys. It's wild. They all notice and critique appearance at a very young age here. I know a few older Koreans, such as gym god, that have gotten botox before age 30! And double-eyelid operations are also very common to create a bigger eye.

I didn't get a pat on the back, but open class went well, with one exception, the new little girl, Gabe. She has only been at the school for month and she is behind. Her mother is just extremely worried about her and a few of the other parents don't appreciate her addition to the class. It's all about success and competition here and she's behind the curve. But it's over, and I haven't been fired. I can't complain.

Last night, I was more than ready to get out. My new friend, Juhee invited me to get dinner before we went to the bar. We got something called jjoda I believe. It was basically just spicy chicken and vegetables. Very mashiso (delicious). Juhee and I get along very well. She's six years older than me, but she's still single and acts very flirty and young. She's very beautiful, but always tells me how Korean men don't find her attractive because she's not stick-thin. She's in no way big. She's about 5'1 and in perfect shape, with a few perfectly proportioned curves (but curves are considered fat). Most American men would find her very desireable. She says men pick thin women over thicker women no matter other factors. Of course, this cant be standard for all Korean men, but for most. She's ready to marry and have children, and her mom sure puts the pressure on her as well. In Korea, your days are numbered. At 30, you're past your prime. Good luck getting a ring on your finger because most everyone is already paired off by 30! Her mom is even wiling to settle with the idea of Juhee marrying an American! (She told me this as if it's such a last resort, but in Korea, I do think there is a strong sense of pride in having a homogenous race). Juhee's always been intrested in American men and thinks she may marry one some day so let the American man-hunt begin :) I'm more than thrilled to be her wingman!

Daria and her friend also met us later. They all work at Samsung together. I'm glad to have Korean friends outside of work that I feel comfortable with.

We all went to Boom bar and my coworkers met up wth us there later. There is a new bartender, Beagle. They all have silly nicknames like that. We also call him nunchucks and rambo because he does this bar show where he takes his shirt off and does weird nunchuck entertainment. Beagle and I are the same age so recently Juhee has been trying to insinuate a little something between us. I'm a huge flirt face as it is, so of course I don't mind. But I'm also a huge babo (Korean for idiot) and get shy sometimes. He makes these balloon figures. He made me a flower last night and not knowing what to do, I shoved an orange into his hand like it was a freaking barter. A balloon for an orange. Done. Shake on it. I guess it's harder to flirt when language barrier comes into play. Ah the woes of an American girl in Korea :)

Tomorrow is that dreadful thing called open class that I've mentioned before. Parents sit in a circle in the classroom and analyze you teaching. Wacky. Anyways my open class is tomorrow (with crazy little kinder) and it could go a number of ways depending on the kinder's behavior infront of their mommys. We'll see. It will either end in no repsonse/feedback from my boss (meaning no worries), a call to the office (if something went wrong) or literally a pat on the back (meaning well done). I want that pat on the back, but I'm not counting on a miracle here. Praise only comes once in a blue moon.