Honestly, now.

So in the past month, I’ve been extremely busy.  (However, I’m still holding out on sending four people their Christmas packages.  Shipping is expensive and I wanted to eat this week.   But I promise they will soon be on their merry way. )

On December 16th, we had the Avalon Christmas party.  There was a talent show (we got third).  Most of the pictures I took didn’t turn out that well.  And I’m not terribly sure I’d post of them if I had any of me.  It was fun for a while, but the show ran long (really, really long).  Most of the skits were either dance numbers (which were fun to watch) or in Korean (so I didn’t really understand).  Probably the funniest part of the night was the fact that Justin had Sandy (new guy) running and fetching him beers.  He wasn’t even drinking them.  Well, it didn’t take long for Justin to have a nice stash of beer squirrelled under the table.  

Later that week, Eric and I went out for galbi.  It seems that every Sunday night, Eric and I end up eating dinner together.  (The first two times, it was just happenstance.  The third time, it was funny.)  Sometimes it’s Italian.  Sometimes it’s Korean, but either way it’s a nice way to unwind.   Even if he is Canadian. 

After that, the shopping for Christmas Eve dinner began.  I made a double batch of beef burgandy.  I was worried that it wouldn’t turn out that well, but it did.  Yeah!  In Korea, grocery shopping is a social activity (at least for the forigners).  So Chris, Sean, Matt and I all ended up at Homever.  (And thus Sean ends up posing in front of the wall of soju.)

The party went well.  It was held at Chris’s place (because I didn’t want to clean).  I made beef burgandy.  Sean made some wicked eggnog. (There was a lot of eggnog.  I thought there was way, way too much.  However, it was all gone by the end of the night.  It was really good.  However, it was also extremely strong.)   Rachel and Heather brought mashed potatoes and veggie curry.  It was nice to spend time with people during the holidays.

The next day, Sean made pancakes for brunch.  Ahh…….pancakes.  It’s been such a long time since I’ve had them.  We (Rachel, Chris, Sean and myself) ate breakfast and watched old Christmas cartoons.  (Horribly politically-incorrect cartoons.  One of the cartoons was about a bunch of children wanting to help Santa.  So, of course, the black child was shining Santa’s shoes while the Chinese kid was doing his laundry.)

Later that day, Chris, Rachel and I took a walk down by the river.  The weather was wonderful and it was good to get outside after eating so much.

I was concerned that Christmas would be a let down this year.  However, it turned out to be alright.

I didn’t even have the usual post-Christmas let down.  Partly because on the day that I got back from work, I had a Christmas package waiting from Kristin!  That made my day.

The next day, I found out that I got the vacation request I put it.  (Yeah!  If all works out well, qkslvrwolf is coming to visit.  Here’s hoping.)  Earlier that day, I tested for my yellow belt in TKD.  Granted, it’s still a really low belt, but progress is still nice.  I’m going to try and go more often, but I don’t know when I’ll find the time.  I’m not expecting to get my black belt any time soon, but I’d like to have my red belt before I leave Korea.)

Again, I’d like to warn everyone that I’ll be extremely busy during the month of January.  Usually, I teach about 17 classes a week (each class is 80 minutes).  However, during intensive, I’ll be teaching between 20-25 classes a week.  I’m trying to pick up some overtime.  I’ll probably be at the school all day (well, from noon until 10p.m.).  I don’t know how I’m going to fit in a lot of things (such as TKD).  However, I’ll try and post a few times next month.   Have a good one!