It’s two days before Christmas. It’s difficult to get into the Christmas spirit when the city you live in hasn’t found the spirit itself. Hardly anyone it seems, celebrates Christmas. If you are scheduled to work Sundays, you would still have to work this Sunday, even though it is Christmas. Koreans don’t celebrate Christmas like we do in the west. We have no extra days off. Some other schools seem to have Monday off though.
Our school is gay. There are no decorations or anything. Neil decorated our office and we are a little Christmasy, down in our corner of the school. I gave some of my students some chocolate, and cookies to the Korean teachers.
On Wednesday night, Neil and I decided to have a few Christmas drinks at O’Briens. We invited the Korean teachers along but only Wayne, Celine, Narah and her friend came. Nonetheless, it was fun. Neil got hammered and I felt good that night. The next day was another story. Neil has the good sense to go home before I did but he was completely out of it. I had to work earlier than he did but I stayed out much later. Last night I went to bed at 8:30 because I was so exhausted.
My last class today was an essay class with two university girls, and one boy who had studied in New Zealand but is here for his winter holidays. At one of our classes earlier in the week, I jokingly said I would bring some wine to our Christmas party. I didn’t, of course. But the boy, who is about 16, brought some beer to class. I couldn’t believe it! Not only is he underage by a good 6 years but he is very smug. I had to laugh but I allowed them to drink them in the classroom. I took a sip. I had to be an adult. I wonder how much trouble I could have gotten into, if Jake or Mr. Jo walked into the classroom. I didn’t want to be part of it had any parents gotten wind of this.