Merry Christmas Baby

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!! This year has FLOWN by and it just keeps getting better and better!

I'll admit, I had a little break down earlier today because being away from family on Christmas is hard. I love it here but my family is not here and it hit hard today. After a nap and some candy canes, I'm feeling better and am now excited because I leave for JAPAN TOMORROW!!!! AHHHH!!!!

Woooo, life is so damn awesome. Plus, the last few days have just been so great. We had our Christmas party with the kids on Thursday and Santa came! They were so cute and excited! One of my girls whispered to me, "Jacky teacher, Santa is soo cute!" Love it. I told her to tell him and maybe he'd give her some extra presents. She was too nervous, but it was still funny. The kids also said goodbye to our elf, Patty and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which they loved! It was an extremely hectic and tiring day, but they were all so excited about Christmas, it was cute. I'm not going to lie, though, I was a bit on the sad side because I only got a Christmas card from one student! Maybe some of them aren't big on Christmas, I don't really know..but oh well. My one card was lovely, so at least I got that.

Friday was our teacher's Christmas party and that was a lot of fun as well. There were no students there Friday so at lunch our principal ordered pizza and had wine for us. My friend and I declared ourselves the party planning committee, so we decorated and organized a white elephant for the lunch. It was actually a lot of fun and everyone had a great time! I am was very happy because I get upset when people aren't enthusiastic about things I plan, but this worked out great! There were some sad and awkward moments though. All the assistant teachers at our school left (long story, contractual disputes) so it was sad to say goodbye to all of them...they are all so nice and the whole situation was just a mess. Also, the new assistant teachers that are taking their places were all there, which was awkward. Mainly because no one told the party committee so we didn't have enough gifts for them to participate in the white elephant exchange. It would have been really easy to grab extra gifts for them (they were all from the dollar store), but we didn't know so they just has to sit and watch. Weird, right? Oh well. I just hope they don't think it was my fault and all hate me now since I was the one running it.

That night was a special friends birthday so about 12 of us celebrated with sushi and soju. I finally got rid of my huge bottle of soju!! I was petty happy. I drank a little too much of it, but nothing too crazy happened. Some of us went to noreabang (karoke) after and it was a blast, as always. I'm just going to assume that it's a requirement to sing "Creep" at every norebang session because someone always sings it. It's a downer, but I guess I'll have to get used to it.  On the way home I tried seeking revenge on my apartment complex by yelling in the courtyard, but that is about as crazy as things got. I am always getting woken up by people yelling and carrying on at random hours and even more random days. Hopefully I woke up one of the people that has woken me up before...that was my logic anyway. I'm sure I just angered random, very polite residents. Sorry Acrotel!

Well that's that. A good holiday season so far. Although I am just about out of Christmas spirit. School was just Christmas craft, stories, movies, songs, everything overload. I love Christmas more than the average person, I think, but I think I'm at the end of my holiday cheer rope. It was also a very DIY Christmas this year and I don't think I have it in me to make another card, craft or ornament. Just can't do it. I'm hoping someone can send me some Valentine cards because I'm not sure I can handle making those either. I don't know if I'll be able to cut paper again for quite some time.

Ok, JAPAN TOMORROW!!! Got some Yen yesterday and I'm super excited because it's really cool looking! Also, one bill s worth like, $12. Trying to convert from Won to Dollars to Yen is going to be interesting, but good thing I have my handy dandy smart phone!

Dream big people!!! And MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!