Dear Friends and Family, Unhampered by a Thanksgiving celebration, the first signs of Christmas in Daegu cropped up mid-November. Fully decorated and lit (plastic) Christmas trees appeared in the subway stations, the Nordstrom-like Lotte department store became bedecked with gigantic shining snowflakes, cheesy Christmas music blared from sidewalk speakers, and the chill in the air deepened.
Daegu took on a festive appearance but I did not or could not detect a noticeable change in the air. No Christmas parties were imminent, in the school halls there was no chatter about what would appear under Christmas trees, no free wrapping was offered at the big stores, there were no brightly decorated cookies in bakeries, and no beaming Santa Clauses with children perched in their laps. As the holiday itself approached, I began to inquire into how the 3-day weekend/holiday would be celebrated. I learned that children receive gifts from their parents, that having a boyfriend or girlfriend was the social equivalent to Valentine’s Day (with Christmas decorations), and that singletons often headed downtown to eat cake or go to the movies with friends or family. It didn’t take me long to realize that while the trappings of Christmas have been adopted and while the holiday is celebrated in the multitude of Christian churches; in
Nonetheless, Christmas and the coming close of the school year was the busiest time yet for me. First came the afore-mentioned troublesome planning + manuscript, then hurried Christmas shopping, bit of a struggle to reconcile Korean Christmas customs with my own observations, as well as preparations for my sister’s arrival. At school, I was determined to end the school year on a fun note and prepared a secular American Christmas celebration for my conversation classes by setting up 3 stations: at one station my students followed English directions to cut snowflakes, at another station they sat at computers and watched the beginning of "A Charlie Brown Christmas Special" on YouTube, and at the final station, they were given candy canes and instructed to discuss what they’d do over the Christmas/3-day weekend. Overall, this worked although I did often find myself barking “English Only!” to the conversation table. At the end of each class period, I thanked the students and read them my favorite Christmas story called "A Year without a Santa Claus." Although my classes found the vocabulary antique and story long, they seemed to enjoy the reading itself. I sent each student away with a copy of the story, a list of favorite music/books/movies, and a fond farewell.
My last group of students before the Christmas weekend came rushing into the classroom and one by one began to hand me beautifully hand-written Christmas cards. And as the day wore on, other students would shyly advance on me in the cafeteria, at my desk or in the halls and hand me sweet Christmas cards. In return, I could only give them my brightest, sincerest smile. The appreciation in each card was an invaluable gift and I was utterly touched.
Soon I found myself waving “Merry Christmas” to my co-workers and the much-anticipated weekend had arrived. I spent Saturday spending an indecent amount of Korean Won on bedding and food and taxi cabs and cleaning. My sister arrived Saturday night bearing two stuffed bags – the vast majority of which was for me. That night, I fed her a traditional bean Korean soup and we slept, kind-of. Next, after puttering early on Christmas Eve, my sister and I hailed a taxi and the streets of Daegu flashed by on our way to my friend Kirsty’s place. When we arrived, we did our best to compile 3 plates of Italian anti-pasta and as the day progressed, Kirsty’s place became packed with “native English teachers” of Australian, Kiwi, Irish, British, Canadian and American descent. We all chatted (savoring the English), ate, drank mulled wine, snapped pictures, enjoyed a Secret Santa gift exchange, ate more, and enjoyed.
Finally, Emilie, me and my friend Jules snuck away and while Jules headed away to pour her heart into a microphone, Emilie got her first glimpse of downtown Daegu while I did some last minute shopping. After thoroughly photographing the decorations, we took the subway home, opened a few presents, looked at some funny pictures that my sister Sara had thoughtfully sent, and chatted as long as we could hold our eyes open.
My sister Sara called to wish us a Merry Christmas – at 4:30 am - and as Emilie put it “was wished as merry a Christmas as one deserves at that time of night.”
After sunrise on Christmas Day, after a few more presents, hunger stirred us into thoroughly wrapping ourselves and walking down to Dunkin’ Donuts – for bagels – although we were too easily tempted into donuts as well. We popped into Sleepless in
After more presents, some good-bye hugs, and lots of clean-up, my sister and I settled onto my warmed floor to exclaim over stockings, piece together my next day’s lesson (a game), and watch our annual Christmas favorite: Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.”
Closing our eyes on Christmas that night was sad – as always – but it had been a wonderful celebration – made especially so for me by Emilie’s company. The anticipation of her arrival cheered me through my rough Thanksgiving and her presence deepened the holiday celebrations with my friends. In fact, I daresay that our celebrations lasted the entire week.
Love,
Laura
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