Downtown Gwangju with my good friends, Jenni and Laura. They love Christmas songs as much as I do, so we combined all our music and sang Christmas songs wherever we went (Kathy, I hooked Jenni on the Band aid Christmas song! ha!) Oh, it was a blast! Down the streets, Korean people would wish us a "Melly Chlistmasu" (Merry Christmas, but "l" and "r" are very difficult to pronounce).
Our first snow lasted five days! It was awesome and kids here LOVE it! They loved it so much, they would bring snow balls to class to show me! It was hard to teach because of all the energy, but I adored their excitement and we had a lot of fun playing in the snow after class. The classes loved learning Christmas songs such as, "Feliz Navidad", "We wish you a Merry Christmas", "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", "Jingle bells", "Silent Night", and many others. Many of these songs have been translated into Korean so they already knew the tune. It was so much fun!
At our school's Christmas party, some of the kids dressed up and wore santa hats, red, and other Christmas stuff. I about lost it when Seong Hoon came in dressed as Santa! 
Mesmerized by "Home Alone 2".
After church on Sundays, we would have a snow fight! The twins in blue are so cute. These adorable little boys would come up to me when I had a snowball and say "chusayo" (please give me!). How could I refuse?!
The Christmas tree, Sophia and I decorated at school.Christmas time without family was very difficult, but I am so fortunate to have many loved ones here. It was such an eye-opener spending christmas outside of the US. Koreans only started celebrating Christmas about thirty years ago and it still isn't a huge holiday here. It was hard to explain how big it is back home with family and traditions. To North Americans, it isn't one day, but a season.
On December 24th, our school had a huge Christmas party. We sang Christmas songs, ate sweet tteokbokgi, played games, gave away awards and certificates, and watched the fun "Home Alone 2" movie. Sophia made the tteokbokgi. Basically, it is rice cake pieces mixed into a red pepper sauce that has been sweetened by brown sugar and corn syrup. It was pretty good, but such a unique taste to me.
In the evening, Jenni and I went to mass at my church down the street. It was so fun! Everyone got up and sang their favorite Christmas songs. Jenni and I sang "Joy to the World" in English. After mass we ate food (rice cake, sweet potato dishes, tangerines,...) and then we had an intense snowball fight. I'll never forget the surprise on the kid's faces when Jenni chased them down with snowballs. They never expected that and after awhile, all ended up wanting to be her allies, ha ha!!!
Christmas day was spent with a few other foreigners in Sangmu. It was so international with friends from Canada, Israel, Germany, Scotland, Poland, and the US. It was awesome hearing how everyone traditionally celebrated the holidays. Christmas is so amazing!!!
"Some people weave burlap into the fabric of our lives, and some weave gold thread. Both contribute to make the whole picture beautiful and unique." -Anonymous
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