Day by Day with Gina

A Korean Christmas

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Saturday, December 24, 2005

After lunch was over, several of us took a turkey nap and then got ready for Christmas Eve Chapel Service on base. I have never been on a military base before, so it was interesting to be signed on, have to leave my driver's license held, and walk into an American city that is in the middle of Korea. It looks just like a small town or college campus- lots of buildings with housing or offices, then also an elementary, middle, and high school right there on base. We found out that this base (Osan Air Force base) has about 8,000 men stationed there, so it's really its own little community. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the base, then about 15 minutes to get to the high school auditorium from the gate. It was about, oh, 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were pretty cold by the time we actually got to the high school. The Christmas Eve service was really nice. There was a Korean brass ensemble that accompanied all of the Christmas carols. The group had actually driven all the way from Seoul (a couple of hours away) to play on the base, which was really nice. The opening act, though, was this really cute group of children who ranged in age from five to ten. The little ones were extremely cute, of course. They sang two songs, both of which illicited cute hand motions and other humorous behaviors. The third song, though, took the cake. The kids had these color-coded hand bells, and the director held up these colored cards that showed the kids when to play their bells. It was really cute. This one little guy got really into shaking his bell back and forth.
There were many other special music presentations, Christmas carols, communion, and the classic pass-the-light-of-the-world candlelight ending with the little paper wax-catchers. The service was really more like a Lutheran or Methodist service. We did the kind of communion where you walk up, get a wafer, dip it in the cup, and eat the soggy wafer on the way back to your seat. We also did several responsive readings and scripture "lessons," so it was pretty liturgical. It was also really warm in there, which you know I like, but I got kind of drowsy. I was glad there were special music groups to keep us entertained.

When we left chapel, we had to walk all the way home, and now it was about 10 degrees. We all had trouble feeling our faces and talking without slurring by the time we got home. It was super-duper cold. We (Ben and I) realized about halfway through the chapel service that we had forgotten to eat dinner. We are sleeping pretty well at night and seem to be adjusted to the time change, but we still kind of get confused about eating times. I don't realize it's time to eat until way too late and my stomach says, "Hey, what about me?!?" Anywho, we got home and ate some long-awaited leftover pizza, watched some more Arrested Development, and went to bed.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!!1!l!1l!
We took it pretty easy on Christmas morning. We spent a lot of time on the phone talking to the Deatons (Ben's family), the Mooneys (my family), and the Schneiders (Becca's family). After spreading our Christmas wishes around the globe, we opened some presents. Well, I say "we," but I really mean Becca, Britt, and Micah. You can guess who got the most presents. Ben and I didn't actually have anything to open on Christmas day. We got each other the trip to Korea, and Britt and Becca are getting us our tailor-made Korean shirts for Christmas. It wasn't a big deal not to have anything to open, just a bit weird. Didn't really feel like Christmas. We both kept saying over the last couple of days that it didn't feel like it was really Christmas. I don't really know why. Maybe just being halfway around the world and away from most of our family and friends is part of it. I don't know. But we are glad to be here! Okay, enough rambling. Time for what you really came here to see: pictures!!!
We watched some more Arrested Development to waste away our afternoon. We are one-third of the way through the second season, so we're really booking it! We tore ourselves away from the beloved show to get ready for the Christmas Day chapel service on base. We all tried to dress up a bit more, but no one looked cuter than Micah.

The walk to base and then to the chapel was really cold- about 15 degrees- and we were cold all the way through by the time we got to the chapel. The chapel service we went to was the more contemporary one with a praise band and power point slides and all that jazz. After the service, we went to Checkertales, a burger joint similar to Johnny Rockits. Many people from the chapel joined us, including several people we had already met at the Hospitality House. After hanging out and eating some good food, we took a taxi to the gate, got signed off, and Becca, Micah, and I rode with Kenny and Nicole home because it was- you guessed it- super duper cold! Ben and Britt braved the elements, allowing the gentler gender to enjoy the engine-induced heat. Oh, yeah.

We got a few Arrested Developments in before bedtime, naturally. Thus ends our Korean Christmas adventures!
Coming soon...Micah's hair adventures.

posted by Gina @ 7:55 PM