Alright already...I'm posting, Iiiii'm posting!

I seem to be able to fill my time with a lot of other things besides blogging but since mom's laying on the guilt trip...

"there are a lot of people who love reading what you write"...I'll write.

Let's see...Christmas was spent here in Seoul. Christmas Eve was the most fun I've had in a long time! Following a candle light service at the church I've been attending, my friends Ashley and Caleen (sisters from Idaho) and I went caroling down the streets of the most westernized part of Seoul, Itaewon. (This is where the foreigners congregate and ironically where the most crime occurs.) We walked down the streets and sang at a few businesses. Occasionally someone, or a few someones, would join in. When we sang on the patio of Dunkin Doughnuts the employees gave us a free cake and when we offered to sing at the Italian restaurant we ate at we got free pizza, bread, cocktails, shots, and dessert. The workers at the Italian joint kept telling us how they were so sad they had to work Christmas Eve but how happy we had made their holiday. It was so much fun and such a great evening!

Christmas morning I took my first train ride to Cheonan, about 30 minutes outside of Seoul via the fastest train. I spent Christmas day and the day after with friends Larry and Martha. We went to a Christmas church service and then had a big feast with quite a few people from the area. It's amazing how all foreigners tend to flock together in a strange land...you really get a feel of family! Also, people tend to go the extra mile to try and create food like home...being creative is key when cooking in foreign places!

Five days after Christmas I hopped on a plane for home. It was so nice to spend the next two weeks relaxing and enjoying family and friends! It was also nice that I only gained a pound and a half while there...hahahaha!!! (But seriously!) I just so happened to miss the foot of snow that was dumped on Seoul, but we did have snow at home AND there was 2 inches that fell before I left...leaving my first flight from Korea delayed 2 hours.

I thought returning to Seoul would be hard...and the actual leaving the comforts of home, friends, family and my sweet dog, Annabelle, was a little tough but coming bad wasn't as bad as I imagined. Thankfully I had virtually no jet lag coming back and I literally walked up to see two of my precious students standing on my door step who helped me carry my 60 pound bag up to the 4th floor. Praise God!!! I am glad to be back to my babies and I really have been blessed with wonderful friends here.

The past few weeks I've been teaching winter camps...specifically I'm teaching dance which is fun and helping to keep off the massive amount of food I seem to be putting away currently. I've been to a benefit concert raising money for North Korean orphans trapped in China without parents. *Side note: (When officials find NK women refugees in China they often sell the women to Chinese men. If the man decides he doesn't want her anymore she is sent back to NK and typically tortured and killed. The children from those unions often end up orphans with absolutely nothing.) I've also been to the Korean War Museum (which is cool since my grandfather was in the Korean War), an Andy Warhol art exhibit, and done some general hanging out with old and a few new friends.

This is becoming tragically long. If you made it this far, bravo! If you're reading, send me feed back...you don't need an account to comment. It will encourage me to keep writing!

To be posted in the future: Fashion Korea (I did some espionage in a department store until I got caught), Issues of North Korea...the unheard voices, and if you're lucky I'll write about kimchi!!!

Stay tuned...

love from Korea :o)