Somehow I can't seem to stop saying whatnot. I'm not sure whether I just like the word or I simply can't be bothered to think of additional examples for whatever I'm talking about. Probably the latter.
Christmas time was an odd one for me. It was my first Christmas away from home, and in a foreign country, and consequently it didn't really feel like Christmas at all. I had a Christmas meal at an American missionaries open house buffet thing in Seoul, so I got a fix of some home-cooked food. Merry Christmas' were said, but it felt more like a get together than an actual Chrismas meal. Very nice of them to open their house like that, mainly to other displaced western English teachers like myself.
Korea itself doesn't celebrate Christmas on the whole. There is a growing amount of Christians in the country, and they celebrate of course, but mostly Korean's embrace the commercial and decorative side of the holiday. Shops, particularly in Seoul, have decorated their outsides lavishly and one of the bars I often go to in my little town has had a brightly lit Christmas tree standing in thr middle of it for a month. It's right in a perfect position for tipsy customers to fall over it, however I've never had the luck of seeing that. The large malls in Seoul decorated mainly with electronic decorations, not surprising really, and some of them were really great. A little church in my town also decorated the trees in it's front area and there were enough lit trees to give Trafalgar Square a run for it's money.
Still, there are some definite differences. Probably the biggest difference is music. Though there was a carol contest (with money prizes!) at school the songs were mainly pop Christmas hits and ballads. The singing wasn't all bad, but listening to 40 entires with only about 12 songs was rather repetitive.
The other thing is Christmas songs in shops and bars. They all seem to want to play them but mostly they were Korean covers. Koreans particularly like Feliz Navidad (a song I know but hardly love) and I heard it far too much. In a bar in Seoul my colleague and I got serenaded by three costumed people, probably from the local university, trying to raise some money. Feliz Navidad clearly didn't work with us so they tried The Beatles' Let it Be. It wasn't their night though. I did finally hear Last Christmas, but on Boxing Day so it doesn't count. I haven't heard any actual carols like God Rest You Merry Gentlemen and Silent Night. Ah well.
Christmas is over now, though the school and my little apartment are still decorated. Beginning tomorrow we have our winter holiday, for a week, and I'm highly excited. Here's hoping for some good stories to be telling! Happy New Year to one and all!
P.S. I've added some more photos to my 'South Korea' album, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042337&l=c3609&id=16105286 so check them out. Me in a santa hat is wonderfully festive. It's two pages, so click on the number 2 near the bottom to see the rest of the photos.
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