Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas greetings from Korea. We had snow yesterday, two days shy of Christmas but we are enjoying it. (view is from our window)
It's funny to see people deal with the snow because it is not that common here to have it stay around. Last night out for a walk we saw some one who had chains on their vehicle for 2 inches of snow, quite funny.
So our holidays started on the 24th and we have been enjoying ourselves ever since. Definitely a very different Christmas but a memorable one for sure.
We were invited to a couple of Christmas parties by friends we made through church. Definitely a fun time playing games and eating an amazing pre-Christmas meal on the 19th. It is wonderful that Korea has Costco and that you can get so many familiar foods. We didn't have turkey because most of us don't have ovens that we can bake in. All we have is a natural gas 2 burner stove top. But we made the best of it. We did eat well meat balls, chicken, and Korean bulgogi. With our Bible study group we had a carol sing night and shared what Christmas meant to us. It was very encouraging.
On the 25th Chris and I spent the morning together, talking with my family and opening a few gifts. Then we prepped for the dinner we hosted. It turned out to be a wonderful time. We had people from 5 different countries represented. A couple we met at church (Australia and US), my Korean friend Christine. Claire (New Zealand) a girl who lives in the same building and works for our company. We enjoyed playing games and a great pot luck dinner. Unfortunately we didn't take a good picture of the meal. But, we do have a great shot of the Christmas cake. I must say Koreans are good at decorating cakes.
Here we are feeling good after lots of yummy food. Definitely a Christmas to remember.
Just wanted to mention that Christmas is not really celebrated here in Korea. It's more of a day that friends and couples get together and do things. I think some families celebrate with presents and decorate their houses but extended families don't get together. Also the market and businesses by our house were just as busy as any other day.
This is Christmas morning and out lil gift table.
So it's actually winter now we are having weather around 0 to -15. I am not complaining because I know many of you are having much colder winters there in Canada. We have also been watching NBA over the Internet which has been great. So this has been a bit of a scattered blog of thoughts. I cant seem to get it flowing at the moment. I will be back after the new year and after we spend sometime at our winter break get away in Asan Korea. One other thing is that we can not believe we are already down to 5 months left here. Well until next time!~

Some Interesting Facts about Korea.

Happy Sunday to you all. Chris is out for the day playing in a bball tournament at the US air force base. So I have decided to write to you a bit about the interesting quirks of Korea. Some, or most of the comments will be biased by yours truly of course!
Firstly transportation and traffic. There are 46 million people in S.Korea (third most densely populated country in the world) and half of them live in the Gyeonggi Province and Seoul (605.39km2) where we frequent often. So you can imagine the traffic congestion. I am always surprised at how much Korean drivers use their horns. Really it's not going to get them anywhere faster, maybe that extra car length but I guess you have to get ahead somehow.
Pedestrians do not have the right of way at any time it seems. You have to always be on guard lest you get hit by a car, motorbike, taxi or bus. Even the so-called crosswalks you need to look both ways to check if a bus or taxi is running the red light.
I seriously don't know how there can be traffic rules here because they don't seem to ever be enforced or regarded. People stop and park their cars wherever and whenever they want. It's nuts, there really aren't any parking spots available except for major department stores or famous restaurants. So people just pull over even if it's a busy road and run into the store or wherever it is they need to go. Then there are the (Korean fast food) delivery guys. They ride around on motorbikes with no helmets and sandals. Weaving in and out of traffic going on sidewalks, or wherever there's space to squeeze through. I call it reckless abandonment, we are surprised we haven't seen an accident yet.
Also for a country with so many people it's amazing how many people don't watch where they are walking on the crowded streets. Everyone is in their own little world and it isn't rude to bump or push someone out of the way. This is something I still find really hard to get used to, I always get my back up thinking they are so rude for not saying excuse me. Really though excuse me is not in their vocabulary. But I guess they would constantly be saying it if it was so makes sense that there's a general understanding.
In our city foreigners are not always so common so sometimes you get children staring and pointing at you as if you are some kind of circus act. They point and say oh waegukin. Which means look at the foreigner. It's weird that the parents think this is okay. We find it annoying, sometimes I point back and say oh hangukin. Which means oh look at the Korean. Then they get more excited because I spoke some Korean. Could you imagine if kids in Canada did that to Chinese or African children. There would be consequences!!
So the H1N1 flu has been a really big deal here over the months. A lot of people wear masks to help prevent contracting it or spreading it. Okay so this confuses me so much. Not everyone but many people put their masks on when they go out side and then once they are in the store, bus or subway they take them off!! Aren't you chances of getting the flu much higher in a place that is not ventilated and where every one is pretty much breathing on each other. I am still wondering about that.
OK I am going to stop there I could go on for a long time. I am thinking about doing this more regularly so that you can get a glimpse into everyday life and the culture. Which I am finding this time around is a lot different than I thought.
Chris and I are doing well, looking forward to Christmas holidays starting on the 24th to Jan 4th. Of course not being with family this year is not pleasant but we will enjoy what we have here and this time in our lives. Oh and we only have 5 months left, sometimes it feels as though we just got here.
Well that's all for this Sunday afternoon.~ Thanks for reading my rants and thoughts.~