Christmas, China, and the New Year!

Christmas and New Years has come and gone. With it came much fun and enjoyment here in South Korea. All throughout Korea there were (and still are!) Christmas decorations up, celebrating the holiday season. It was nice to see these things, and it helped us to feel more in the Chrismtas mood. We had the chance to spend our Christmas eve with some close friends at a nice dinner buffet. Although it wasn't quite home, we felt happy that we were able to celebrate with our new group of friends. We did a secret santa gift exchange, and had a lot of fun! Christmas day was nice, but it was very difficult to be away from our family. We spent a lot of time on skype, saying hi to everyone and trying to be a part of the celebrations! It's comforting to know that we will be home soon, and this helped to ease our home-sickness. Sadly, there were many moments throughout the day where we stopped and reminded ourselves 'Oh, it's Christmas day today!' There was too much missing from this special day, but we did our best to be happy. This was certainly not our favourite Christmas, but as always, it will be one to remember.

A few weeks ago we hoped on a plane and flew to China! Since we are living so close to this famous country we thought it would be crazy to not take advantage of our proximity, and off we flew! We left on the 26th of December, and returned on the 30th. We packed a busy schedule into our four days, and did our best to cover the entire city of Beijing. Our first day was spent walking and exploring the area around our hotel. We were surprised by the cold, and felt like we were right back in Canada! Although it was a different country, being in China still felt like Korea. We didn't have to worry about adapting to the Asian culture and, truthfully, it felt just like were in a different part of Korea. Some differences we did notice were that Chinese people seemed to stare a LOT more than Koreans. We felt uncomfortable many times on the subway and streets, as people would stop and stare without any subtlety. We were also surprised with the lack of common sense used when crossing the streets! Regardless if the light was red or green, people were wading out into traffic and dodging cars to get on their way. It was ludacris and insane (in our opinion), and we saw many close-calls. This was surprising to us since Koreans will never cross when it isn't their turn. The two cultures are the exact opposite in this matter.



Our second day we ventured to the great wall. This was the most important part of our trip, so we were very excited! We took the subway, a train, and a bus to get there! We were proud of ourselves for accomplishing this without the need for a tour guide, so it made the experience all the better. The section of the wall we visited was named 'Badaling'. Although this was considered to be a fairly easy portion to hike, we found it surprisingly tiring. There was never a section of flat terrain. The path was either going up, or coming down. We spent almost three hours walking and taking photos/videos. What a great experience!
The next few days we visited the Forbidden city, Tianamen square, the Olympic park (2008 Olympics), and we tried some famous Peking duck! These were all fun and interesting to see, and we had a great time taking in the culture.
On our last day we visited the Silk Market. This is an indoor shopping centre which is essentially six floors of packed sales, knock-off merchandise, and aggressive sales people. As we travelled through the aisles we were constantly harrassed and grabbed at by the workers, typically with the same *clever* sales pitch: "Hey you Lady/Mister, you want this purse/scarf/bag etc,etc. I'll give you special price, come on"



We bought a few items, and had a fun time haggling down the asking price. Here is an example of the markups we saw: A purse was initially quoted to us at 900 Yuan (roughly $130), but after only a minute of haggling, the price magically dropped down to us only paying 55 Yuan (about $8). Luckily we had read up on how to haggle with the workers, so we were able to get some nice deals! All in all, we enjoyed China (and yes, we could tell the difference between a Chinese and Korean person haha), but we both agreed that Korea feels much friendlier. We were happy to be home, and back in familiar territory.



Our New Year's was spent with the same friends we had visited on Christmas. We went to a big party in an area of town which the Korean's referred to as the 'Korean Times Square'. It was packed beyond belief, and we barely were able to squeeze off the subway stairs to shout the countdown. Rather than having a ball drop, there was a bell which sounded to represent the start of the New Year. Another quaint and fun experience! Although there was a big celebration, the actual New Year's Korean's celebrate is the Lunar New Year, which is at the beginning of February. We get three days off for this celebration, so we are very excited!

As well, at the beginning of February Mireille's parent's are making the big trip out to Asia! We are very excited to see them, and have lots of great things planned. We will feel like true tour guides as we show them around the city which we've called home for the past year. We hope that they get the most out of this experience!

As time ticks down we are growing more and more excited to come home. Six short weeks is all that remains in Korea. It's hard to believe how quickly this time is approaching, and we look forward to sharing our stories and memories with our friends and families back home!