My Christmas in Korea

One thing about Korea that I really don't like is the fact that Christmas is not a big holiday here. It's hardly even recognized as even existing, unless you go to church. Sure you can find some things in E-Mart or other stores, but it's not much and pickings become slim. Last year I was able to buy a small Christmas tree and some nice ornaments to decorate it with and so I put that up this year again.
This is my Christmas tree with a couple of presents under it.
So Christmas Eve was a pretty big deal at church. In the evening there was a special service around 7:00. We sang Christmas songs, there was a little sermon, and there were a couple of performances by different groups.
After the main service there was a young adults fun time. We were to each bring a small present for a gift exchange. I got some chocolates and a bookmark from the Christian bookstore. The time was filled with all sorts of games. The first one was a game where we were put into 4 different groups. We chose a leader and then it was a sort of rhythm chant were you would say a group's name and how many times they were to say their name and then pass it onto a differnt group. For example, if my group was chosen then we would say our name 4 times and then the leader would say someone else's group name and how many times they were to say their name, 1 up to 4 times. The game stops when someone messes up the rhythm, then it starts over again. It was very interesting.
Another game that was played was persimmom seed spiting. Each team group chose one person to represent the team and they each had to spit the seed as far as they could.
Another game was where the team had to try and have so many people stand on a piece of newspaper. The first time was a full sheet of newspaper and 10 people standing on the paper. Next the paper was folded in half and it was 8 people, then it was folded in half again and 5 people had to stand on it. Then it was folded in half again and 4 people had to stand on it and then it was folded one last time and 3 people had to stand on it. My team got the first 2 and then we couldn't do it. Some of the teams had some really small girls and so they went on people's shoulders. It was a fun game.
Finally, after the game was the gift exchange. It was nice. I got a foot scrub thing, very useful. After that the young adults had a traditional Korean food to eat and then they went caroling to Christian's houses. I left before the food because I wasn't going to be able to eat it because it had seafood in it. I was also tired.
Christmas day I woke up and opened my presents and Snowball's presents and then got ready for church. It felt pretty much like every other Sunday, except for opening presents. Chruch service was okay, nothing too special, except for singing Christmas songs. I was going to go home after first service because I wouldn't have been able to eat any of the food at the church for lunch and I didn't feel like being depressed over not being able to eat the food. I was just going to go home and not eat anything special, but one of the people at church, English name Johnny, asked if I would like to go for lunch because he had to talk to me about something. So we went to a Japanese restaurant and I had a pork cutlet with cheese and some nice soup. After having lunch and talking Johnny and I went back to church. I was going to go home after lunch, but Johnny said that there was going to be special music in second service, so I stayed.
Second service was good, though I didn't know most of the songs. The group that sang were very good.
After second service I went home and watched some of my new Lost season 1. I got a phone call about 2 hours later and Johnny asked me to come to the church for a special meeting for what we had discussed. I was a little reluctant to go because I was tired and just wanted to stay home, but I went anyway.
It ended up being a dinner out to discuss the up coming year of what would be happening in the church. I didn't eat very much because the food wasn't exactly what I like. It was a shabu shabu sort of idea only with duck meat. I found it was a little spicey and there were too many little bones in the soup. The vegetables that were added were pretty much leaves from different plants and I didn't really like them that much. So I ended up sticking with a couple of side dishes that were offered and ate only a little of the soup. After eating the meeting started and I pretty much just sat there for about 2 hours and didn't understand anything. It was a little boring and went on for too long. After the meeting ended I went home.
So that was my Christmas. I have to work on Monday, no extra holiday here in Korea. It's a little disappointing, but next year will be better, I'm sure.