크리스마스*

* = "Christmas"; pronounced Keu-ree-seu-ma-seu.  Yes.

Merry Christmas from me, Taeyeon, and Tiffany!  Taeyeon's video is a particularly hilarious abuse of English pronunciation; I think the best was "Jack Frost," but I'll leave that up to you.

Today was a whopping 14 degrees Fahrenheit in the good ol' ROK, and it felt every bit of it.  I took a walk up to Ewha Womans University (about 15-20 minutes from my apartment), and my ears hurt for about 2 hours after I got back.  This is not entirely my fault; I have been trying to buy a winter hat for at least the past two and a half weeks, but my head is literally just too small.  My friend Jungran Unni tried to solve this problem by sticking a pair of earmuffs on my head, only to have them slide down to my neck because they, too, did not fit properly.  I guess proportionally, I am just not right for this country; small head, huge eyes, larger-than-A-cup chest, butt.  At least I can always find a size 6 shoe...

This is my first winter in Korea, and even though it is mighty cold, I already like it better than summer - but then again, I'd like pretty much anything better than the Korean summer (except maybe the Southeast Asian summer, although I've never been, so I can't say with 100% certainty).  The air is dry, the sky trends from very clear blue to gray-looks-like-snow, and the streets abound with piping hot fast food stands to fill your belly.  All of Korea's natural splendor (snort) is also dead; I was actually surprised to see all the dead grass at Ewha, and then I realized that it's been a while since I've encountered grass of any kind.  City life.

I have been keeping my apartment at a (perhaps unreasonably) toasty 24 degrees Celsius (75.5 in Fahrenheit), abusing my freedom from my father's oppressive 65 degree limit with reckless abandon.  Turns out that my heating bill is separate from my monthly utilities fee.  Wish someone had told me that sooner; but   I like the heat too much to sacrifice my comfort for a few extra bucks (I tried lowering it yesterday and put it right back up to where it was within 2 hours).  Also, I've discovered that having 온돌 (ondol, or heat that comes through my floor instead of through vents) has encouraged the unhealthy habit of flinging clothes that I wear often around the house (socks, pajamas, sweatpants/shirts) onto the floor so that they'll be warm when I put them on again.

My plans for Christmas involve church, cake decorating (I got a message from a church friend telling me to bring cake toppings with me tomorrow - she suggested canned fruit, which implied, as she later confessed, that she has never baked a cake before in her life), and dinner with friends afterward.  This year is a weird one - no tree, no cookies, no seafood on Christmas Eve (actually, no nothing on Christmas Eve, because the most I did today was eat 라볶이 twice), no family, and people that I have only known for a couple of weeks.  But there have been smatterings of loveliness and no doubt there will be more.  I'm looking forward to celebrating with my friends at Somang, and to giving JM's family their gifts - I got her dad a tie!  It felt like the fulfillment of something all children should do for their father(figure), but because my father wears ties like twice a year, it was never a proper gift.  I also got her mom a pair of earrings, which involved enduring the stares of no less than 11 jewelry vendors at 신세계 department store, an agonizing decision between obsydian and white stones, and two female vendors holding both pairs up to a picture of JM's mom on my digital camera to see which pair would match better with her hair, skin tone, and clothing color palate.  I feel like this would only happen in Korea.  And then they asked me if I was from France.

Best part of today: I waited in the frigid cold for about 15 minutes for the 호떡 stand (hoddeok, Korean street pancakes filled with cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts - a fabulous winter snack)  to get set up and going, but had to give up because my nose felt like it was gonna fall off.  I stumbled into my apartment building feeling slightly dejected, only to be greeted by my landlady's husband, who presented me with half a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, promising more food later.  LOVE.

I am on school break now, so if you're in Seoul and bored, holla at yo girl; I have literally nothing to do for the next 10 days.