Holiday Time in Korea

Well as usual the holidays blew by again this year. I'm sure you all had great ones and they went by just as fast. This year I got to play Santa for my Korean students and hand out presents for them. Only about 25% of Korea is Christian, so it is not quite as large a holiday here. Nonetheless, I still got a few days off and went out of town for a couple of days. I stayed at the swankest hotel I will ever stay at and splurged a little. What the hell, it was Christmas. It was a resort hotel on the beach. It was complete with an underground water park and mall. It is located in the North East part of Korea, very close to North Korea. It was a good experience.

For New Year I went to the Korean Bell Ringing near the city center. It is similar to our experience with dropping the ball, except they ring a bell on New Years. There was a stage and Korean performers. Unfortunately it was overtaken by Protesters who want to oust the president. During the count down my friends and I were part of the few who counted down while the others chanted "Lee-Myung-bak, get out!!!", in Korean of course. It was quite an experience, and I'm just happy the protests were peaceful. One of the main reasons the Koreans were protesting was the attempt to pass the Free Trade Agreement with the US before the New Year. They feel the agreement would cost Korean jobs. Good thing I didn't were my US flag T-shirt. :)

I definitely missed home during these holiidays and am looking forward to seeing you all next April!!


Holiday Photos

-LR