Snowy seasons greetings!

Today Mark and I went to Coex Mall to buy each other Christmas gifts. And walking into the mall, we finally got our (albeit somewhat belated) white Christmas.

Big, fat, fluffy flakes... loved it. Since this is Seoul, it'll all be melted/gray slush by tomorrow, but definitely enjoyed the beauty today!

Christmas in Korea, Round 2

Though we missed our family and friends back home, Mark and I had a really nice second Christmas in Korea.

Our last day of class before the holidays was on Thursday. After that, we get a week and a day off for the holidays. So we won't be back in class until a week from today! To celebrate, we brought Dunkin Donuts to class.

Then, since we were off for Christmas eve, we set out early in the day for some 떡복이 (spicy Korean rice cakes). I had read about a place that serves the best ones in Korea online, so since we had the time, we decided to make the trip. Totally worth it, plus the little old lady there is really adorable. It was SO cold, so when we arrived, she had us sit on a heated seat and pointed her little space heater directly at us. And then she went out in the cold to make our lunch.

I mean, seriously look at it. Obviously the red ones are spicy and the other ones are glazed with soy sauce. The green things are tofu wrapped in green leaves and pan fried. Amaaazing.

The 떡복이 restaurant is actually located off the the 경복궁 exit, and there was a big tree in the station. So I made Mark stand in front of it totally against his will. (Can you tell by his body language that he is not happy with me at all? Haha.)

After our lunch, we went to a "sweet cafe." Basically it is a private room where you can watch movies, listen to music, play Wii (if you pay a little extra--we didn't), and drink coffee. I am convinced that teenagers go there to hook up, but Mark and I being almost 30 (wah!~) instead opted to rent a movie. We watched Salt and (again proving that we're officially an old married couple) dozed off halfway through it. :)

Then later that night we met our good friends, Kerry, Ryun, and Ellen at Noryangin for some sashimi, shrimp, scallops, and soju. Then we headed out for some 막걸리 (Korean rice wine) and more.

On Christmas morning when we finally woke up, we opened some gifts from our parents. It's so much fun having packages to open! In these pretty packages were clothes, a pretty toiletry organizer, books, gym memberships, and key chains.

We also got some home-made Christmas cookies!

Hope your Christmas was such as wonderful as ours!!!

Christmas Day in Korea

K: This, by far, was the quietest Christmas we've ever celebrated. While we missed spending the time with family, it was kind of nice to have a relaxing holiday.

Mark's mom had sent us some Christmas morning pancake batter and syrup. (The syrup was MUCH appreciated... syrup is ridiculously expensive here for some reason.) So we got up, had some pancakes and opened some presents my mom had sent in the mail.

It's kind of strange in Korea... Christmas is nowhere near as commercialized as back home. And Christmas day isn't for families -- yeah, kids believe in Santa and get gifts, but once you get older -- the day is for couples. So the big thing to do on Christmas day is make reservations at a swanky place with your date.

So only SangKwun flew in for the day. He told us the only reason he came was because he knew that Christmas is for families for Americans... which made his special trip to Korea even more special. We met him for bulgogi and bowling. (Not very Christmassy, but a lot of fun.)

SangKwun and Mark made a bet about who would win the bowling game. The loser had to drink a bottle of soju. Here they are looking perky before beginning.

It soon became apparent that SangKwun is a much better bowler than Mark or me. Mark will be drinking a bottle of soju at a rapid pace soon. :)

We gave SangKwun a sweatshirt for Christmas and he presented us with this bottle of cognac and chocolates. After SangKwun headed home, we drank a little cognac... it made me feel warm and tingly, but it's definitely something to be drunk slowly.

Hope all of you had a very merry Christmas!