Entry 34: Rockin' Around No Christmas Tree

It was strange waking up in Korea, let alone it was strange waking up in Korea on Christmas day in Korea. It was a different feeling to be away from my nuclear family on my favorite holiday of the year. Even last year, which was most likely the most miserable Christmas of all time because I had caught the flu and was bed ridden the entire day, still felt like Christmas. Don't misunderstand me though, it was a great weekend, but it just failed to feel like Christmas.

I did get to spend Christmas with a family, just not my own. It was a blessing to say the least to be able to meet Eunice's Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, other Uncle, and cousin in one weekend full of food, laughter, and GoStop. To the best that I can tell, the weekend was an overall sucess and I definitely enjoyed the company. I must have gained 5 kilos, just due to the constant eating of AMAZING food. Her family showed me great hosipitality, and I think that I can explain it by emphasizing one aspect of the trip: the FOOD. Christmas Eve, they took us out to her Uncle's restaurant where we ate some pretty awesome, high-quality, 상겹살. Christmas morning we had bread (Korea has the best bread, it is heavenly), coffee, roll cake, and milk. It was good stuff, but it was just getting us ready for lunch. We went out to eat sushi at one of those restaurants where you pick your food from a conveyor belt. It was impressive. I was able to be witness and experience the glory of eunice's grandma's 비삔밥, it was the most majestic combination of taste that I can remember. Lol. It was pretty awesome. The motto "in order for the whole to be good, each ingredient has to taste good on its own" seemed to rock my world. Their hospitality was wonderful and made my weekend that much more fun.

But it was bitersweet. I tried calling my family the day after Christmas here in Korea which is Christmas day back in the states, but due to bad cell phone connection, my lack of an internet connection, failure for me to check my email to get the phone number to my grandmother's house back in LA, I was unable to contact my family... on my most cherished holiday. I tried calling early this morning, but still no answer. I have work, so I am not sure when the next time will be for me to be able to contact my family. Being thousands of miles away is a drag during the holidays.

But I had Eunice. The sweetest part of the entire weekend was being able to do the things that we've been wanting to do for a long time, the boring things. There was a lot of down time being at her grandmother's house, and so we spent a lot of that time watching "Dexter", a pretty ingenious TV show, and going to watch movies together like Sherlock Holmes. We spent lots of times just walking around random shopping malls, sitting in coffee shops, eating good food, and just being ourselves. We played some GoStop which was pretty fun, even though I wasn't being a very good student (but in my defence I was tired and just wanted to start playing and learn from the playing, but I was being a bad student). It was fun riding the subway for literally HOURS together, laughing at the silly faces that we both make unintentionally and the most RANDOM people on the subway. The games of scrabble (Eunice LOVES scrabble) we played in random places on our iPods is going to be a part of the long list of memories that I have of my time here in Korea. It was nice having at least one loved one during the holidays.

No Christmas tree this year, but that's okay. It's about being with the one's you love.