I'll be home for Christmas?

As of the 15th, I have been in Korea for three months. Wow! It feels like I have been here forever and only a week all at the same time. I haven't found myself homesick really, because I am in close contact with my family at home. Especially my sister, we skype every week for at least 2-3 hours. December is now upon us and this is a hard month not to miss home for me. I have so many traditions happening without me... This is something I think I knew would always happen, but not it is real.

It finally felt like December here on the 7th, because it SNOWED!!! I felt like a child the whole day at school waiting for the moment when I could leave and spend the afternoon enjoying the beautiful scenery. My students were also quite excited, because in Changwon apparently we don't get much snow due us being farther south and right off the coast. I looked away from my students for one second at school and they had flocked to the window to watch the snow falling down. My first reaction was to get them back into their seats, but instead I let them stay there for a minute before we began class again. Sadly, the snow only last for about 24 hours, but there were a glorious 24 hours.

Snow coming down over my lunch break.

In my attempts to make it more like home here, I had my dad send me some of my favorite Christmas music from home. Those albums have been on repeat on my iTunes and will continue to be until January. 

Another thing I am missing during the holiday season is the Concordia Christmas Concerts. It was easily one of my favorite concerts every year during college. Now this year, I not only would not be participating, but I could not see the concert. When skyping with Marta, I asked her so many questions about the concerts to try and imagine the experience for myself. Luckily while I was packing for Korea, I made sure to bring my Christmas concert DVD from 2009 when we filmed for PBS. I haven't watched it yet, but I think Christmas eve might be the perfect time. 

I know I will be missing my traditions from home, especially Christmas eve and day. I suppose this is part of growing up right? Making your own traditions or something like that. I will have to see if I can come up with something clever with a Korean flare for this Christmas. Something am taking comfort is the wonderful foreign community here. People will plan things together for Christmas eve/day, so we can be a family for each other during the holiday season. I do not know about other expat communities across Korea, but I have been and will continue to be so thankful for the one I belong to. I run into people I know all around town, and when you enter the bar it is really like "Cheers" where everyone knows your name. 

Well, perhaps I won't be home for Christmas, but I do know that my heart will be "home" with my family sitting around the tree on Christmas eve.

 

An island, a pig, and a bunch of foreigners

What happens when you put 30 foreigners on an island with a giant pig to roast? Well... many, many wonderful things.

This weekend I was invited to go with some people to Namhae. Namhae is an island just a two hour bus ride away.

You can see that Namhae is just west of Changwon, where I live. I met up with a couple people on Saturday at the bus terminal and we were on our way. It was so lovely when we arrived on the island, because the was shining, the ocean smelled lovely, and of course (as per usual in Korea) there were gorgeous mountains to look at. 

We stayed at a pension for the night. A pension is Korean, community style accommodations. This means you will sleep on thin mats on the floors with a small blanket and pillow. I know sleeping on the floor sounds awful, but Koreans have heated floor systems, which make it quite nice to stay on the floor. Also, since there were 30 of us, we had the entire pension to ourselves.

The pension was located right on the ocean with a beautiful view.

Being blessed with a beautiful day like this did not make it feel like December 1st at all. I just stood there on the beach enjoying the sun and taking in what a marvelous experience it was to be there at that moment.

But of course I had to take some pictures...

Just as the sun was beginning to set, the pig arrived and we were ready to grill.  I was so excited to have this roasted pig and just enjoy good company. This weekend was also a potluck, so we all stuffed ourselves with some good home cooking that tasted nothing like Korea. Some of the lovely dishes included: baked beans, potato salad, stuffing, baked ziti, bean salad, pineapple, bananas, pork of all sorts, and apple crisp.

I felt very "new" at this gathering, because most of the people there have lived in Korea for at least a year and many for multiple years. It was interesting to hear their stories of Korea and how it has shaped their lives or what role it played. I especially enjoyed talking with these people about their travels outside of Korea. I left this weekend with an itch to just hop on a plane and see the world right now....

Unfortunately, we woke up Sunday morning to some rain, which motivated us to leave quicker than we expected. By noon we had reached the bus station, bought tickets, and were waiting to return to Changwon. Finally around 3:30 we were back home and ready to relax some more before the week begins. This was when it hit me that Changwon really DOES feel like home. I was looking forward to being in my apartment and cooking dinner. Also, I knew exactly how I would get from the bus stop to my apartment and didn't have to question which bus to take or how I might tell a taxi driver to get to my apartment. I don't think Korea will ever be my true home, but for now it is feeling like a place I can call home.