Chipmunk Christmas

Cassiopeia's big stage debut was met with disaster as they were first up and sang White Christmas with no voice and gumption- ahhhh stage fright! But boy were they frisky before hand in their winter red and white garb ...
Maybe they just needed to be chipmunking out already?












The girls were the chipettes with color coordinated hearts whereas our four boys were: Dave (yellow and played by Gi Hyun), Simon (played by my Jong Ha with the blue 'S'), Theodore (green and played by Min Hyuk of Draco class), and of course, the notorious Draco cutie trouble pie Young Woo was Alvin, Alvin... ALVINNNNNNNN!



They came to life as the chipmunks at the winter concert and were so awesome, all their lines memorized and delivered! And Christmas wasn't late! ;-)

Decembering

Moved to speak... moved to write? Not so much these past months, well, outside of the magazine that is.

It's bizarre the way I'm beginning to regard Korea at the moment. I'm seeing through a mixture of exhaustion, cold yellow dust air with snow, and nostalgia. Nostalgia? Nolstagia and tenderness for the speed in which I've spun through my time here. Will I miss it? Miss is a strong word. Like all things, they have their moment in time and then they pass but impressions and memories stay true.

There are the tuna and pickle sandwiches at my local jjbang that I will miss along with the amazing massage chair. Getting to soap, soak, and scrub at a Korean spa for the equivalent of $4 is hard not to love- especially when there's no time restriction.

The overall cheapness of basic things would make anyone smile. The transportation (3o minute cab rides only cost the equiv. of $12), housing (equiv. $200), seasonal clothing and gadgets on every corner, private karaoke rooms complete with beer for only $5- these things will effect my transition back home most assuredly. I know the value of things and it will be hair raising to pay triple the price back in the states. The friends that have survived their prison sentence who I've shared close quarters with as well as my heart, I will miss them but there's a strange veil there, too.

Korea has been my home for almost a year and it has flown by... not soon enough. The economy crash has hit hard and made money wires back home laughable with the exchange rate. Ouch! The teaching is wearing on me as is the overall winter thing.

I'm holding my breath until Bali! Yay warm and tropical Christmas!

Still, it is unnerving to be leaving so soon, knowing I will never again be in this proximity with people I've grown to call good friends. Over the course of one year, I've said goodbye to atleast 40 Seoul souls. My star pupil is leaving at the end of the month and it feels like a pecking order at the school as the school year comes to a close. I suppose it's a reflection of what we do as move on and down any path but this one has always been terminal, as one friend puts it. It's just so exponentially terminal that you can't help but be un-phased and then be perturbed by the un-phasement.

Asia is checked off my list, South America is next for March. Who knows what 2009 will bring?