Christmas is not as big in Korea as it is in the states. In fact, most of my students had no plans for Christmas day because the national holiday is for couples and Christians rather than families and heavy commercialism. JiHey told me a few times that no gifts would be given on
Christmas, but I couldn't imagine a Christmas without gifts. So I made it my mission to play
Santa Clause this year and spent Christmas eve shopping along Youngdae for the Kim family.
Within ten minutes, I readily committed to a scarf and two matching fleece pullovers for Hyunsuk and the girls. However, despite having five brothers, I've always been terrible at picking out gifts for male recipients. It's not that I have any sort of major failure on my record to crush my confidence, but I just can never seem to think of a super gift for the men in my life. Add in a few cultural differences and the task becomes even more challenging. Luckily, my coworker Patrick introduced me to a few of his Korean friends who had the afternoon off and were able to help me out a bit. With the help of HyungWoo and ByungMoo, I found a scarf and tie in KyungSan suitable for both MinWoo and Moxanim. (Yes, men wear all kinds scarves, and it's totally masculine and stylish!) Meanwhile, Patrick's chingus (friends) taught me several Korean idioms and cultural rules. For example, a comic book is an inappropriate Christmas gift because it doesn't promote studiousness. I taught them the expression "out of my league," and they returned the favor by teaching me "keurim y duk," or painting of a rice cake--an idiom used for a person who is unapproachably attractive.
On Christmas morning, I laid out their gifts anonymously before anyone was up and about, then I coached myself to plead Santa, should they try to thank me. I think they were on to me anyway. Hyunsuk was the first to notice the gifts and thanked me right away. When I acted ignorant and suggested Santa Clause, she said something "yea, ...ok, thank you!" JiMin laughed at my Santa excuse and asked me, "Are you Santa Claus?" Then she wrote a thank you note addressed to "Sally Santa." It was fun playing Santa! I look forward to doing it again someday with my children.
Beautiful Busan
At noon, I met Gloria, one of my Korean friends, at Dongdaegu Station to take a KTX train to Busan for the day. Couple with linked arms were everywhere, and to be honest, it made me want to cry a few times. (At one point, I was on a busy subway in the middle of three different couples, cuddling and flirting with each other. I had to keep changing my gaze to keep from staring and missing that sort of affection.) It was a good day to be in the company of girls and experiencing new aspects of Korea. A good day to want to be in Korea. It was also a good time to come visit my friend Heidi because we're both in serious relationships but away from the person we love. Heidi's boyfriend is working in China until February.
Gloria and I met up with another Korean friend, Linda, who is from Busan and knows her way around pretty well. We went to Jagalchi Market, which is basically rows and rows of people selling different kinds of fish. Linda taught us the Jagalchi Market expression "Come and see and buy!" After avoiding eye contact with several aggressive merchants, a trustworthy fish merchant put a live flounder and two other unknown fishes in a deep red basket and then directed us to the dining area to eat our purchases--fresh and raw--and served with rice, stew, and sides, of course. I surprised myself. Delicious!
After eating our fill of sashimi, we squeezed our way through the crowds to browse through other market items, including socks with Obama, Starbucks and Korean won bill prints for 1,00o won each ($1.) It takes a long time to get through the crowds. It's exhilarating for the first hour, then it's tiresome. Heidi finished work and met up with us for dinner, coffee and a movie in her small studio apartment. We watched "Four Christmases" on her laptop computer and enjoyed the warmth of being with friends on Christmas night.
On Saturday, Gloria, Linda and I went to Haeundai Beach, which was beautiful beyond words. My favorite part was the seagulls. Take a look at the video down below.
We also visited Nurimaru, the site of the 2005 APEC summit, an event which put Busan on the world map for global tourism. It sort of baffled me how the building was made for the sole purpose of a single global leader meeting, but is now being used as a tourist attraction. Anyway, here's a picture of George W. Bush in hanbok. I wonder if he was wearing traditional garb as he discussed WTO negotiations with other foreign leaders.
After walking around the beach for a while, we rushed off to a subway so that I could catch a train with enough time to get back to Jilyang for my Saturday class Christmas party. All in all, it was a good time and a merry Christmas, indeed!
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