Highlights of my Sunday, December 23

1. Woke up and rushed off to Seoul for my Korean language tutoring. I spent Wednesday with Giggle Girl Jr. and so that class got moved to today.

2. Got totally drilled at tutoring today and, I admit it, I wasn't so prepared for class today having just spent the week interviewing almost 300 students for their final exam. This week was definitely a week of low motivation and even lower spare energy.

3. No sooner had I boarded my bus for my ride back to Cheonan but someone called out my name... it was Ki Dong!!! Wow, cool. I love talking with Ki Dong. He's always got some far-fetched strange idea to talk about and well, he's not exactly the average Korean guy nor is he very secretive about things... really!

4. There's a new wine/candy shop that's opened up recently in the Yawoori Shopping Mall and so today I went to go check it out. And what should my little eyes see but candy canes!!! I love candy canes. I don't know really why, after all, it's just a stick of candy with strips and shaped into a cane.

5. In my attempt to find Q a good Christmas present, I must have spent 2 hours at the mall with no real success. What do you buy a guy who's made a life out of living as simple as possible?! I mean, he doesn't wear jewelery or cologne, he doesn't collect anything, he prefers sweats and t-shirts over jeans and dressier shirts, he's not really into name clothing, his house interior is super simple... he's got drawers with nothing in them and doesn't even have a couch! He spends his time either working, playing soccer, boxing, eating, or hanging out with friends or his grandma.

6. Lately Q's been hinting at the fact that he thinks I should learn how to cook. It's not that I don't know how to cook though, first of all, I don't even have an oven and secondly, his referring to Korean dishes as suppose to the western dishes I can cook. Tonight I thought I'd show him that I can cook some foods Koreans like and so I made him boiled eggs and steamed sweet potatoes. I know that's not exactly what he was implying but none the less, he loved the unexpected treat I made him!

7. I on the other hand have some how convinced Q to cook us a Korean Christmas meal. Not too sure what it'll consist of cause the only "cooking" (if you'd even call it that) has been making me cheese kiwi cracker sandwiches and popping mandu in the microwave.

8. Had a post-Suk Jae Party tonight... hehehe. Q worked on learning Excel on the computer while I continued working on my student marks.

9. While I was working away on my student marks, Q interrupted me by presenting a bag to me. Inside the bag was a box... my Christmas present. My reaction wasn't what he expected though, I could tell. He was expecting me to be happy that he wanted me to open it up early but, if anything, it just really killed my Christmas spirit. If I opened it up now, so early, it'd mean on Christmas morning I'd have nothing to open.... that's rough. That's really rough.

10. And so on that note, I pushed the present aside and continued my work. I really should have gone to Canada for Christmas cause Christmas in Korea just ain't the same.... no snow (I've only seen snow for about an hour this winter), I have Christmas ornaments but I can't find the tree my mom sent me, no cabbage rolls or turkey, no sneaking of mom's Christmas cookies, no Jesus' birthday cake, no sound of mom in the kitchen, no playing of the piano from my dad, no brothers telling me to come help them with something, and no tree or fire place to decorate. Having said all that though, the one thing that I AM excited about this year is it'll be Mi Nam and my first Christmas together... that's pretty cool. It doesn't beat mom's cabbage rolls but it means I'll celebrate it for Mi Nam.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Will someone sit in my seat at the table this year?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Desire, ask, believe, receive.
-- Stella Terrill Mann