Decked out Halls

Well, a couple weeks ago, before the big Christmas weekend.  Some friends and i trekked to Busan because we heard they had a huge display of Christmas lights.  I found this out after getting sentimental from an episode of "New Girl," realizing i'll be missing all the houses decked out with crazy Christmas lights.  No more motor home full of friends "Ooohhhing" and "Awwwwing" at the spectacularly dressed houses and lawns.  However, Korea did not disappoint me in their display of lights.  They went all out.  It might have been incredibly cheesy, but hey, go big or go home, right?!

So here's our adventure:

saxophone playing santa?

Christmas awesomeness 

We love Christmas.

Theres a statue under there somewhere.

hideous gold tree

all of the trees in Korea have a "Merry Christmas" sign, just in case people had no idea what on earth was going on (as if they could all read English)

canopy of lights for days

Garrett and Kyla

It snowed!  

Not really, they were like bubbles.  But it sure was cold enough for it to snow.

giant spectacular Christmas tree.  And by it was the first Nativity scene i've seen all season.

They had a concert.  They sang some English Christmas songs. 

My personal home decorations:

yay!  Happy Christmas!!!

Oh my (rein)deer!

They were kissing with their noses. :)

Too much cuteness for one post!

Botanical Garden

Last week our school went on a field trip to the botanical gardens.  It was nice and pretty but so so cold.  We all walked around for a little bit looking at different plants and such.  Many of the plants are the same as CA in the mountains.  We then headed over to a green house like building that had many different animals in it.  They had a number of different birds from parrots to canaries.  They even had a cute little love bird.  Then they had a bunch of glass cages with snakes and such in them.  They took out a bermese mountain python and they guy asked the kids questions.  if the kid got the answer correct he'd let them hold the giant snake.  I was impressed how calm the kids were with holding the snake.  We took some photos as a class with the snake and then they asked me if i wanted to hold it.  I said, sure, why not.  So the man started wrapping the snake around my neck!  Eek!  Then they go a quick picture and he took it off.  I think i would have been a little more scared if i didnt see how good that snake was with all the children.  But it was still a little weird.

this ferret was passed out.  His arm was sticking straight up in the air. So funny.

Theres a bearded dragon, a turtle and an iguana all sitting on the table.  Most of the kids and teachers were a little scared and acted like they have never seen these animals before.  Most of the animals that we saw our family has either had as pets or i know friends who have had them as pets.  But in Korea you either have a fish, a hamster or a little ugly dog as pets.  There's not enough space for much else.  

I think these were flying squirrels, but i could be wrong.  They were so cute and really scared of everything.  

My school has the photo of me with the snake.  So it will becoming soon.  :)

Korean Christmas

What's better than a real Christmas tree??

Soju and beer bottles.  Of course they did that.  

Love and Chopsticks

My boss had brought some food in our kitchen at school.  It was the one year anniversary of her father's death, or of her father in law's death.  So in Korea, i guess they celebrate that day with a lot of specific types of food.  One of them is octopus.  My co teacher then proceeded to tell me that octopus is really really expensive.  Like 100,000-200,000 won.  Which is like $100-$200.  Whoa.  So i tried some, it wasn't raw, it was just a little bit cooked, or boiled.  Its wasnt too bad, tasted fine, the texture is really chewy and that part was more difficult to deal with that the taste.  It must have been a decent sized octopus because the little suction cups on the tentacles were about as big as a penny.  So, incase you were ever wondering.  Octopus is in fact a delicacy.  


Before we started eating, i grabbed some chopsticks for Joanne and I.  We have a container of chopsticks and spoons in our kitchen at school. I went to get some chopsticks for her and I. She said, "Are they matching?" "Uh, no." So she went to find its match. She then said that it's bad luck to use to different chopsticks. You'll be married many times. I looked at her and said i'm a whore.  I don't think i've ever matched my chopsticks before.  

Merry Christmas From Ulsan!

So awhile ago when we had our Thanksgiving dinner, we also had our Christmas "card" photo shoot.  It was pretty fun and made for some good laughs.  So this year, Have a very Merry Christmas!"  

some nice genuine smiles

This is only because we are in Korea.  And this is always a go to pose here.  

We <3 Korea!

Later we made little foot paintings.  Probably would be cuter if we were like 5 years old, but hey why not?  

Paint the foot green, paint the toes red and stamp.

Ta Da!

Our trail to the bathroom

Tis finished!

Then we thought we should "bedazzle" our photos to give them more of a punch :)

Love, "The Happy Campers"