Christmas in Korea

Christmas day started out with going to Liezle's to help her carry the food to the church. When I got there, Anna was already helping her and our friend Nick was there too and actually drove us to the church. We had a regular church service and then had a potluck dinner. There was a lot of food and it was extremely varied. There was Mexican, American, South African, English and obviously Korean. Luckily it all blended together quite well. After everyone ate, we did a gift exchange. We drew a number and when our number was called we got to pick a present out of the pile. No stealing. We had to open the present up front though so everyone could see. It was fun. I got these push-up handles and I swapped presents with Dan so I ended up with a pair of slippers. They're pretty nice but I like my other ones better. The church also gave everyone a tin of Danish butter cookies which for some reason really reminded me of my grandma's house, so we must have eaten them there, but I don't really remember doing that.

Buffet. Yum. There was another table with almost as much food on it behind this one.

Ilani's present - fleece crazy pants. She gave them to another friend to wear as pj pants (or not...)

After food and presents Anna, Dan, Liezle and I went to a coffee shop. We didn't really have plans, but none of us really wanted to go home. We stayed at the coffee shop for at least an hour (possibly longer) just talking. Then we went to Rock Bar where we had a few drinks, played some pool and some darts. Hardly anyone was there (then again it was around 7pm) so we had the place basically to ourselves which was nice.

Guy on the street dressed as a reindeer. Nobody really paid attention to him because people dress up like this all the time. I wanted to get a better picture, but when I got closer, a friend of his was sitting on him.

Anna, me and Liezle after playing pool

Group darts shot. Not sure why Dan is down so low. Later that night we got a call from the bar owner (who knows Dan) because someone (who gave his number to Anna) left without paying. The owner wanted the guy's number so that he could call the cops and find the guy. I don't know what happened after that.

Us around the Rock bar tree

After that we met up with Mike, Caleb and Eoin for dinner. Mike's parents sent him money for Christmas and he decided that he wanted to buy everyone dinner. We went to a bbq place and stayed for a couple of hours eating, drinking and playing games.

Bbq dinner - pork and kimchi bean sprouts. There was another grill with a different kind of meat on it too. Plus we had rice and some other veggies.

Caleb and Mike playing "chopsticks" which is basically this pointing game

Pretty sure this is blood sausage of some type. I know it's made of intestines. I tried the black one, it doesn't really taste like anything, but it's very chewy. I couldn't try the other ones because they looked too much like intestines.

Anna and Eoin in a shoot out during "Hoe-down"

After dinner we all went to another bar and played some more darts and just sat around talking to each other. It was a really fun night. Totally not a "normal" Christmas, but fun.

Anna, Dan, me and Mike at Beast Bar. 

The group at Beast bar right before we all went home.

Me and the tree from Beast bar

When I got home, I skyped my siblings and talked to my aunt for a bit. I had Monday and Tuesday off, so I slept in and did some laundry and skyped with my family a couple of times. I was able to watch some present opening, but nobody could hear me so it was very awkward. It was nice seeing everyone's faces though. On Wednesday, our winter "camp" started so my hours are now earlier in the day and I have extra classes. M,W,F I have 8 classes and T,Th I have 9 classes. It's very busy, but I actually like camp because the kids are a bit better behaved and the class sizes are a bit smaller, so classes themselves are more fun.

I'm actually starting to get nervous that I won't have enough info after all my holiday posts to actually keep up with my resolution. But I will try.