Angela Pastorello: What Are Christmas and New Years Like?

Many people have been asking that. It’s somewhat reverse of the U.S. because on Christmas we spend time with family and New Years is for friends, while in Korea Christmas is for friends and New Years is for family. Christmas marks the first day of winter vacation and is a day to sleep in. Most academies don’t have classes, but mine is one of the few that still do. Christmas is a day to hang out with friends. The kids know a little about Christmas, but not very much. I tried playing a game at the end of class with Christmas words in it and they had no idea what frosty the snowman, ornament, wreath, rudolph or anything like that was.
What did I do? At work we had a secret santa. We came in early that morning and exchanged gifts before class. My boss brought food in and we had some laughs. That night we went downtown to this western restaurant (owned by 2 Canadian guys). They had a turkey dinner with all the sides. The place was packed with westerners from all over and the whole place was filled with people speaking English. That was kinda weird. Even though we didn’t know anyone else there, everyone there sort of felt like one big family. Different tables started talking to each other like it was a cocktail party. They had a Christmas trivia game that everyone played and our table won. The next morning I got to see my family on the webcam… I always love that!
Koreans don’t celebrate the calendar New Years, they celebrate lunar (Chinese) New Years. So the date rolling over to January 1st doesn’t really mean much to them. To make us feel like we still had a holiday my boss planned a New Years Eve party and bought tons of American food from Costco (yes, we have Costco here) and we turned on American tv to watch the ball drop. It was fun hanging out with the staff. They are all so nice. Lunar New Years is coming up in a week and I will finally get a day off. It falls on a Monday, which makes for a nice long weekend. I will be going skiing with people from my church. I can’t wait!
As you know, schools in the U.S. get 2 months off in the summer and their Christmas break is a week long. Here they get 1 month off in January (for snow storms) and 1 month off in the summer (for rainy season). This “vacation” is hardly that for most kids. Their lives during these months are busier than usual. Most kids are sent to 3 academies a day; one right after another. My head instructor calls us a babysitting service… watching the kids while the parents are at work during their vacation. We call this month “winter intensives”. So what this means for me is that I’m teaching extra classes and have lots more preparing to do these days. Luckily I get paid extra for this too. That’s why I’ve been so M.I.A. lately by the way. I’ve gotten used to it now, but at the same time I’m glad it’s almost over.
On a totally different topic, I’m starting to get to know people at church and I am hanging out after church with them. To me that is what makes me feel comfortable somewhere. Today we went to one person’s apartment, made pancakes, played cards, laughed, watched some tv. It was the most comfortable I’ve felt since I’ve been here (outside of hanging out with work people).
And now for my random thoughts on Korea:
I’m so amazed that everyone here knows so much about Obama and Bush (even my students). (Koreans are very pro-Obama by the way.) The day after the election I was with my coworkers and a man on the street asked us if we were from America. When we told him yes, he shook our hands and congratulated us with a huge smile. It got me thinking about how it seems that much of the world knows things about other cultures and countries, but the average American doesn’t really know all that much about other cultures. It saddens me. That’s just my take on it anyway.
I’ve been trying to get used to the “look up culture” as I call it. I’m so used to everything being at eye level or on the first floor. Here it’s all about saving space and so things are built up. When I look at stores walking down the street I tend to just look at the first floor shops and look in the windows, but I’m missing about 1/3 of the world. There’s so many great restaurants, billard places, salons, etc. that are on the 2nd or 3rd floor. They are not as well marked, but when I am more conscious about looking up I see the signs.
Most people don’t have coffee pots here. Most people drink those individual cup instant coffee mix packets. It’s got the powdered cream and sugar already proportioned in it. At work we have a coffee pot. I can’t find cream anywhere (except for powdered cream which I don’t like). So I now drink black coffee with sugar. I’ve gotten used to it. I never thought I could like that.
On a related note… do you know how at Starbucks when people are adding their own cream and sugar they will dump out a little of the coffee in the trash to make room for the cream? If you’re a Starbucks fan, then you know what I mean. I always feel bad for the worker who has to take out the trash because all that liquid makes the trash bag heavy I’m sure. Well, the Starbucks here actually has a drain right there for you to dump in. I just think that’s so smart. Ok, you’re probably not as interested in that as I am, but that’s ok.
I really like the process for paying bills here. All you have to do is bring your bill to an ATM, you put your card in, then you put the bill in. That’s it. Bills have a bar code on them that the ATM reads and automatically deducts it from you account. No stamps, no envelopes, no post office runs. It’s so easy.
My coworker thinks the driving here is crazy. I don’t think so. On the one hand, I have been to some countries where the driving REALLY IS madness and it seems there are no rules to the road. All this is to say that the driving is pretty normal here except that cars drive up and park on the sidewalk all the time. And I don’t mean they just turn from the street and pull right in. I mean they DRIVE on the sidewalk sometimes. It’s weird, but I got the hang of it somehow and it doesn’t faze me so much anymore. What still blows my mind on the other hand is the motorcycles. I don’t think they have any rules at all. It’s mostly delivery boys from restaurants on bikes. One minute they are driving on the streets like cars and the next minute they are dodging people left and right driving all over the sidewalk. They seem to never stop for red lights or people. I can’t complain too much about that though because any place I call to order food, 15 minutes later it arrives piping hot. By the way, I can call all by myself to have food delivered. The first time I did that was a month ago or so. I felt so accomplished and so much more independent. Enjoy the pictures...

teacher picture- secret santa