Merry Christmas!

Well...it's almost December 24th here in Cheonan and so I figured I'd go ahead and wish all of my friends and family MERRY CHRISTMAS since I might not have a chance to get back on here before it's actually Christmas.
This has been an interesting holiday season...my first time out of the States for Christmas and it has kind of just snuck up on me. As I said before, I haven't really done much this year; I've let my kids at the hagwon color some pictures and we've watched some Christmas videos on YouTube, but I just haven't gotten "into" the season. It did snow last night which made it feel a little "Christmas-sy" so I feel a little more into the spirit tonight.
Maybe one the reasons I feel like this is because I can somewhat relate to Toby (from The Office) so just watch this clip and get a good laugh. The first 20 seconds are why I've posted this, but you can watch the whole thing if you just need a good laugh http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=VO87KW-jM9A Sometimes being single this time of year is kind of a bummer and being 7,000 miles from my family also makes Christmas seem a little less exciting.
Anyway...I don't mean to sound like a bum and honestly I feel ok, just haven't really had much of any feeling about Christmas. I have thought a lot about some of the past Christmas' I've had and some of the wonderful memories I have. One of my first recollections is that my Uncle Bill used to go and cut a Christmas tree for all of the families when we were kids. I remember one year he brought ours and we didn't cover it with a tarp and I think it had snowed a bunch, so there was snow and ice all over it. Well...I had really wanted to put the tree up and I remember coming home from school and asking Mom if we could put the tree up. The problem was we had to wait a day or two with it in the garage to thaw out so we could take it inside and I remember how bummed out I was. I remember how excited I was on several occasions when Gram Langston would come stay Christmas Eve with us and how fun it was to have her at our house on Christmas Day. I miss her! I remember all the time we'd open our presents and then go over to Shawcroft's house and see what they got, and then make the scary trip up to Somerset to Aunt Laura's house. I always just knew we were going to slide off the road and into the river and die on Christmas Day! HA! I remember how slow my dear sweet Mother would always open her presents (and still does) as all of us kids were waiting to rip open another present. Mom has always been so sweet though, and I've never met anyone who could seem more genuinely happy about receiving a home made soup in a Mason jar from her visiting teachers. I remember she would always write down every gift she got and from who...she might still have those lists, so if you're interested in what gifts she got in 1986, just ask her...she could probably tell you! HAHA...I just have to pick on my Mom. I remember the first year I was in St. George and I got fly home all the way to Grand Junction. I thought I was such a big boy back then...18 and all. I remember how sad I was when I had to leave to go back to Utah and as always many tears were shed at the airport. Back then remember your family could sit and wait for a plane with you and of course say "goodbye" and "I love you" 53 times before boarding the plane. I remember stealing candy from my Mom's glass Christmas tree containers one at a time and hoping she wouldn't notice. I really loved those Reese's mini cups and I'd eat as many as I could until I started to notice that you could see there was some space in the little tree. I'm sure Mom always knew it was me! I remember the little tiny Santa boots that we set out each year...with the marked "M", "B" and "R" so we could tell them apart. I remember the year Mer and I were bound and determined to catch Santa Claus and we were going to set up fishing string by the front door with some bells on it so he would get caught up in it. We planned that for a few weeks, but never did have the guts to do it! I remember getting up with Mer at about 4-5AM and putting together our Cliffhanger race car track...that thing was so cool with the cars climbing the wall. I remember drawing names each year and hoping I didn't get my Dad...I never did know what to get him! I guess I still don't and once Julie joined the family I think she's had him several times and he's always loved her gifts, so thanks Julie! I remember last year making a quick trip to see my family and then being stuck in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport all day!
I think the thing I think of each year though was how sad my Mom always is when the season is over. I remember she hated to take the tree down and put all the stuff up. As I got older I felt the same way, and I think I've got a lot of my Mom in me. All of the fun and food and friends...and it seems sometimes once the tree is down, and the lights are all rolled back up and put in the garage...well, people sometimes just go back to the daily grind and forget all those good times for another 11 months. Plus, the poor tree always looked so sad sitting there by the trash can with silver icicles on it.
As you can see...I have so many awesome memories of Christmas, and I'm thankful for wonderful friends and family that I've had to share them with. I pray that each of you remember that the birth of Jesus Christ of really the reason that we celebrate this time of year. I know it sounds cliche, but it is sooo easy to forget.
So...Merry Christmas to everyone and have a happy and safe New Year. I'll post some New Zealand pics when I get back in 2009!

I'll leave you with the lyrics to "Here was a Man", one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs:

Here was a man a man who was born in a small village the son of a peasant woman
He grew up in another small village
Until he reached the age of thirty he worked as a carpenter
Then for three years he was a traveling minister
But he never traveled more than two hundred miles from where he was born
And where he did go he usually walked
He never held political office he never wrote a book never bought a home
Never had a family he never went to college and he never set foot inside a big city
Yes here was a man
Though he never did one on the things usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself he had nothing to do with this world
Except through the devine purpose that brought him to this world
While he was still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him
Most of his friends ran away one of them denied him
One of them betrayed him and turned him over to his enemies
Then he went through the mockery of a trial
And was nailed to a cross between two thieves
And even while he was dying his executioners gambled
For the only piece of property that he had in this world
And that was his robe his purple robe
When he was dead he was taken down from the cross
And laid in a borrowed grave provided by compassionate friends
More than nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today he's a centerpiece of the human race
Our leader in the column to human destiny
I think I'm well within the mark when I say that all of the armies that ever marched All of the navies that ever sailed the seas
All of the legislative bodies that ever sat and all of the kings that ever reigned
All of them put together have not affected the life of man on this earth
So powerfully as that one solitary life
Here was a man

Random thoughts...

I can't believe it's only 10 days until Christmas...this year has flown by and I think back to the times when I was a kid and older people would tell me that each year goes by faster...well I think I have to agree with that. Hard to believe that just a year ago I was sitting in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport all day Christmas since there was a massive snowstorm in Denver (which delayed all of the flights into Dallas-Ft. Worth). I'd had a great 24th with my family in Prescott, AZ and was heading back to Charlotte...what a boring and horrible day that was. Well, this year I'll also be in the airport most of Christmas, but probably a little more excited...I'm so excited to be going to Auckland for Christmas this season. I have wanted to go there since I was just a little kid, and so this is sort of like a dream come true...I'll try to take plenty of pictures and add them here for everyone to see.
The weather here has been weird...it's really really cold for like 4 days and then it gets nice and is pretty warm for about 3 days and then continues the cycle over again. It's not bad except for the nights I'm riding my bicycle back from the hakwon (Kids College) at 8 PM...then I do miss my Maxima and heat! Other than that...I've had a pretty good relationship with my bike. My tires had about gone flat the last few weeks, and I finally got some air in the tires, which has made riding back and forth to school ridiculously easier...amazing what some air in a tire can do. I had meant to get them pumped up, but the tire stems here are totally different and I couldn't figure out really what to do...so I just kept riding as they got lower and lower. I finally went to the bike shop where I bought the bike and got it aired up and the lady checked out my tube for any leaks...the cost was a whopping 3,000 Won, (about $2.25)...so I've been riding around on nearly flat tires the last two months to save $2, pretty smart! HA!
So I finally tried oysters the other night...not the best thing I've ever had. They were on top of some kimchi when I went out to eat the other night and I thought "well, I've never had oysters, so why not try them?!" It tasted kind of like how it smells when you go near a lake after people have been fishing and gutted the fish and left a few hours prior...at least that was my take on it. Almost all of the Korean food I've had here though has been awesome and I really love it all.
So as much as I love Korea there are a few funny things I've noticed here:
People love to honk their horns. I don't really know why or what causes it, but I can be riding my bike crossing the street 50 yards in front of a car, and I can guarantee that the car will honk their horn at me. At first it really would tick me off...now I just kind of laugh and think it's ridiculous.
Koreans love "fake brands." When I first got here I was baffled at how many women had Louis Viton hand bags...they were everywhere! I knew that they were expensive and so I couldn't really understand why I saw so many of them. Well...in the Seoul subway you can buy anything, and I mean anything...well, I finally figured out why there were so many "Louis Viton" bags, they were fake! They're like 10,000 Won ($7.50) for a purse, and so it all made sense then. I bought some really nice "handmade silk (wink, wink)" ties, 2 for 5,000 Won! HA!
Koreans love microphones and blaring their voice to everyone. It's nothing to hear the the apple or tangerine truck rolling by at 8AM on Saturday with a recording just blaring over and over, giving the prices for the fruit. I go to the local grocery store and there is a dude who just walks around with a headset on, talking non-stop about all of the different sales and pricing...I think a nice sale flyer will suffice! HA
Anyway...as most of you know I love Korea, and those are only a few funny things I can really find here. Most of the people here are very kind and appreciate foreigners who try to struggle with some seriously broken (maybe busted is a better word) Korean. I have had a lot of fun learning Korean, but I'm always so hesitant to actually speak anything since I think my pronunciation is so awful...but every once and a while I'll try to break out some new Korean I've learned from my book!
So...anyway, I just had a few minutes tonight and wanted to just say some random stuff...I don't even know if any of it made sense, and althought I usually give in to my OCD and read, then re-read, then re-re-read my post, tonight I'm just going to post it and forget if there are any grammatical errors, or things that just don't make sense!

Korean basketball

Sorry I've been SOOO horrible writing, I always have good intentions and then just don't write and then the days go by and then I just kind of forget or figure the stuff I was going to say is old news now. So...I'll be honest, these pictures are a few weeks old, but I guess they're still new, right?! HAHA

I had the chance to go to a Dongbu Promy basketball game a few weeks ago. I was actually pretty impressed with the skills the guys had...we're not talking LeBron and Dirk here, but still they were actually pretty decent. I have seen some of the guys balling at the playgrounds here, and I can say in all honesty that as much as I love Koreans...they are awful at basketball for the most part. They can certainly kill me in badminton though. Anyway...my friend bought some tickets for the game for 6,000 Won, which is about $4.50 and we actually had some pretty good seats. As I said over the summer after going to the Doosan Bears game...Korean sports fans are amazing. There is never a dull moment and they had a dude out leading people in cheers about 20 minutes before the game even started! In Charlotte we were lucky if there were fans 20 minutes AFTER the game started. They had balloons for everyone and they waived them around and cheered like crazy. Dongbu is by far the best team over the past 6 or 7 years, they had like 4 championship banners up in the rafters. In the Korean Basketball League each team is allowed 2 foreign players, I guess so the league isn't over run by foreigners. There were two really big dudes from the US and then some speedy Koreans. The game was pretty fun to watch and Dongbu pretty much dominated the game and destroyed K.C.C.

As I said, these pictures are a few weeks old, so I'll also include some pictures of the leaves changing.

I promise I will do better with this thing...that's one of my resolutions...so I'll do better for a few weeks and then not write again, kind of like my journals! HAHA

Thanks for reading!