"Dancing in the Dark"

I am still a rookie at this living abroad thing, but I would hazard a guess that, for an american, the roughest part of the year might very well be the Thanksgiving-Christmas corridor.  If I wasn't missing the home-front before it would surely show now.  As it would happen, the Christmas weekend would be slightly heavier than the others.  Last thursday I made it official, I inked my contract extension.  I had thought about this extensively even before I had filed the paperwork for the extension, this was/is the right decision, I have no doubt about that.  It just happened to occur a day before I would have to say goodbye to 12 of my fellow EMU peers were finishing up there teaching and leaving Korea to go back home.  Saying goodbye to these friends was bittersweet, it was a great experience to have shared with them but sad to see them go. I have solace in the fact that I will, eventually, see them again.  This was just the first round of goodbyes that I have had to say.  The goodbyes were said on the 24th, and on the 25th I had a conversation with my English friend, Dave...  He remarked on the realization that this would be the first Christmas that he was not spending with his family, an obvious but profound statement.  Together we spent Christmas youtube-ing our favorite songs (holiday and otherwise), having some delicious korean food for lunch, then meeting some Korean friends for dinner.
In all honesty, the dinner pulled everything back into adjustment and focus.  Christmas in Korea more resembles Valentines Day (socially) than the western take on christmas with spending time with families, diner and the like.  Here, it is a true couples holiday and that is about it.  A friends Co-Teacher, Jinny, had planned a 싱길 크리스마스 파티, literally "Singles Christmas Party".  It was a true experience, the food was great, the place brews their own beer (dare I say the best I've had in Korea), all you can eat and drink for 20000 won...  I plan on going back.  Soon.  As it were, Dave, HeeSung, and I were the only guys at this "Singles X-mas", with 7 ladies.  Dave remarked later saying, "it's not everyday where I dine with 7 other ladies, less often when they are all that good looking".  I paraphrased that last quote, but Dave had said earlier that day about how he wanted to start sounding wiser, like Ghandi.  Whether or not that was "wise" remains to be seen.

I have to say I botched a skype date with my family that was supposed to happen after dinner in Michigan (5am in Korea).  I had set my alarm to go off the day prior at 5:00am instead of the day following.  This is not how alarms work, in this dimension at least.  What added insult to injury was that when I rolled over to check and see what time I actually woke up I saw that it was 8:50am, too far past to be fashionably late, and 10 min before I was supposed to be teaching my 1st day of English camp.  I broke some speed records getting into my classroom with 2 min to spare.  Luckily, my 5th and 6th graders were as apt in their punctuality as I was, and my rush into school was not overly apparent.

I've glossed over a few minor adventures, I went on a ski trip the weekend before.  The whole of my ski experience can be summarized with saying that I am from Michigan, I learned on snow covered mountains of trash, and coasted down a few bigger hills up north in the Lower Peninsula.  Korea on the other hand is a country of mountains.  Not exactly the Rockies or Alps, but deffinatley bigger than any bump the people ski down in the Mitten.  It was a great time, and I hear the mountains in the Northeast are even better!  I will definitely go again.

A month ago I had a grand plan to go somewhere over new years for my vacation, that plan fizzled out because of procrastination and a hundred other things.  I had accepted defeat, and resigned to realize that I would be spending New Years in Korea.  It was on Christmas day when a final push was set into motion...  Anywhere cheap, this was the only stipulation.  Not 12 hours ago did I book our tickets, and in 36 hours we will be in the air flying to Taiwan!  This is the sort of last minute planning that would make Chris Moeller proud.  Different country, different language, one American, one Briton, what is the worst that can happen?  Don't answer that.

Here is to a new year, a new chapter in an increasingly dynamic saga, a new ring of growth, and maybe, a bit more knowledge as well.