Five Golden Lings

In the name of being a cultural ambassador (and getting out of dealing with the increasingly thin lesson material provided for the end of the year), I taught my 3rd grade students to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas". It's a classic (at least from my childhood), and it can't be found on the Korean Top 40 holiday songs that seem to play all year round, including "Last Christmas" by Wham, and "Santa Baby", which routinely blast out of speakers in cell phone stores and coffee shops.

To keep the kids engaged all the way through 12 days - a daunting feat for this iPhone4/angry birds generation - I made a little dance to go with the song, and taught it in 3 installments.

It's pretty hilarious.

It's hard to keep myself from laughing when the kids say "golden lings", "tuttle dobs" and garble the word "partridge" out of the side of their mouths, but add in the fact that they're only 3rd graders, and tend towards all around silliness in general, and I decided it would downright grinchy not to film it and share the Christmas cheer.

I have LOTS to be cheerful about this season, because I am coming home! I will touch down in Detroit, Michigan for the first time in over a year, this Friday.

So here it is. From my classroom, from my students, to you.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Seoul: Lantern Festival on the Chunky-chunk (청계청로)

There is a small river that runs through the center of Seoul. This river is called the Cheonggyecheong. But, through an odd brain quirk, I seem to be unable or unwilling to pronounce it, so I call it the Chunky-chunk. 

It makes me laugh. Chunky-chunk river. Sounds like a cookie with chocolate and walnuts. 

Mmm...walnuts.

ANYways. The Chunky-chunk was once paved over for a highway, then later uncovered and restored to a rather unnatural, paved, but beautiful flowing splendor. Now, it's a wonderful place for the brave to dip their feet in and cool off, or just sit next to and enjoy the company of friends. And in November, there is a brilliant lantern festival. Here are some pictures from my frigid night capturing the river lights.

Making a holiday

Thanksgiving started with everything being about an hour behind schedule. In true holiday form, my careful plan to cook, clean and present myself as the American version of June Cleaver posing for the Korea addition of House Beautiful was smashed into panicky "get out of my cooking space, I'm wielding a carving knife" mode by one malicious, unpredictable element: 

Traffic.

In order to pull off my Thanksgiving ex-pat party, I ordered a pre-cooked turkey with trimmings from the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul.

Of course...I don't live in Seoul.

So after pressing myself with unexpected intimacy against the strangers stuffed in the subway more tightly the stuffing in a turkey cavity, and waiting 45 minutes for a friend to help me drag the 17.5lb turkey I order back to my apartment in Bucheon, I climbed into a taxi, expecting him to zip of to the nearest highway and whisk me home.

You're a smart cookie - you know that's not the way it went down.

Instead, the cab crawled through the city to another highway, took a scenic detour and finally slow dragged his plump and pissed off fare (me) to Bucheon, disgusted, seething, and late.

Don't get me wrong - the turkey? done. The mac & cheese? Done. The rest? Being brought by friends. What had me in a utter panic was that I had less than 30 minutes to pull together what I considered to be my coup-de-gras this holiday season: the appetizer.

I had my party completely mentally mapped. I would pull the roasted-tomato bruschetta out of the oven just as the first guests arrived. We'd crack the wine and conversation would flow, keeping everyone mellow until dinner.

The reality was much less elegant. I was still chopping when the first guests arrived. I had a friend in the kitchen being my sous-chef as I fixed my hair and make-up and had nearly outrageous fits of OCS whenver an unauthorized guest stepped into my cooking space. My guests popped on my laptop and played my music, which was completely embarrassing - who wants friends and guests to know that you sort-of-accidentally uploaded your Aqua CD onto your new laptop so that could dance around to "Barbie Girl"? 

Thank goodness for wine!

We cracked open the first bottle and magic happened. People relaxed, stopped paying attention to me and my OCS antics - or "trying to help" as they put it - I served up my appetizer with a secret ingredient (bacon), and my friends tucked in with gusto. 

Then the real food came out. 

When you're living away from your family, the people you share the holidays with become a close substitute.  So to see my friends comfortable, shoes-off, chowing down in true turkey day style was the best holiday gift, despite the fact that I wasn't nearly as coordinated as I had hoped to be.

Towards the end of the night, a guy who had tagged along as a friend of a friend pulled me aside and said:

"Thanks so much for letting me crash your party. I've been feeling really homesick lately, and I thought it wouldn't be possible to have a real Thanksgiving here. But you're an excellent cook, and an excellent hostess. You actually made Thanksgiving."

If I had to say what I was most grateful for, it was that moment.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Boracay: Frendz Resort - The place, the people

The wonderful owner

The common area where they served breakfast, beer, and good times

my ever-sandy bed

The stairs o'death - WAY to steep for midnight bathroom trips.

Betty (from Singaore) and Jen from Korea

Rory from Hong Kong, Lisa and Maria from Korea

Stian from Norway, and me!

Coco Mangos - a scene of incredible infamy! Great party place on the beach, not too far from Frendz.

Boracay: Boat ride around the island

Ice cream boat!

The off-coast island where we stopped for lunch.

Alex, me and Alice

lunch: grilled lapu lapu, pork chops, prawns, clams, and chicken

...and mangos! I asked them to grill a few. The shook there heads at me, but agreed. The result was a warm,  mango pudding, scooped directly from the skin. AMAZING.

Our guide, Norman, who kept insisting that Boracay rum doesn't get your drunk. You check out his eyes, and guess why I wasn't buying that sales pitch.

off shore rocks where we went snorkeling.

Boracay: Welcome to White Beach Off-Season

Wind guards had to be placed to keep us from getting sand-lashed during high tide.

These guys walked up and down the beach, selling a sweet tofu dessert. As you can see, has has no spoon, and no containers for distribution. I don't like sweetened tofu enough to discover just how you could actually  eat it.

Pearl Sellers.

Teeny tiny sandcastle. My best handiwork since the 2nd grade.

Mmm...mmm! Ice cream!

Many of these little shops lined the beach, tempting me to buy a ukulele. Sadly, my suitcase was too small....