Busiest Christmas and New Year's Ever

It was nice to have the entire week off between Christmas and New Year's. I had some big plans, but didn't know just how busy I would be.

First, Jeong Mi helped me make Christmas cookies. It is one of my mom's recipes, and one of my favorites. They're Christmas Wreath Cookies and they're corn-flakey and marshmallowy and awesome. We whipped up a few batches of those, and I gave them to my friends and co-workers as Christmas gifts. Homemade? Check. Tasty? Check. It's pretty much the perfect gift.

The celebrating began during the week at Hambak. We made Christmas cookies with our fifth-grade class, and gave stockings to our afternoon kids. It was a nice way to wind down the work week and prepare for the break.

The real started off on Christmas Eve at Go Bar, my new/old favorite place. Jeong Mi and I met Bryan, Geoff and Alex as well as a bunch of our other friends, including Chelsea, her boyfriend, Dorian and Andrew. We all had a really great time. I even got to introduce my new friend, Jingis, to the world. I think he had fun, too. You'll see him in a lot of the pictures.

On Christmas, I took Jeong Mi and her parents to a fance-shmancy restaurant on the top of the mountain next to Yeonsu-dong. I'd had a drink there once before and knew it was a little bit expensive, but it was a special occasion. We had a nice time during the meal, and I used the opportunity to ask Jeong Mi's parents for permission to propose to her. 

Thankfully, they were thrilled with the idea. I haven't proposed yet, but the first step is out of the way. So Christmas of 2010 marks a very special time in our lives.

On Sunday night, I stayed at Jeong Mi's place because we got up bright and early for our trip with her parents down to the south coast of the country. We drove on down to Busan. Jeong Mi had never been there before. This was my second time. 

When we first got there, we went on a boat ride around the coast of the city. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and has the largest port. So it was a cool perspective to see it from a boat. 

Next, we tried a Busan-style hotcake. It was pretty good, but I prefer the ones up here in my neighborhood. We then headed over to one of Busan's many fish markets. It was absolutely terrible. I like fish sticks, and fish and chips style of fish. But I don't really like seafood. And this was just a tightly-packed kilometer of seafood. Just brutal. We even ate in one of the dirty little restaurants. Needless to say, I didn't eat too much there.

After that, we drove over to some of the beaches, where we got a view of a fairly recently finished bridge that connects one part of the city to another across what is now a bay-type inlet. It was really lit up beautifully, and the beach is nice during the winter without millions of sun umbrellas and even more millions of people.

After that, we went to another oyster place because the first place got her mom's order wrong. The grilled oysters are not too bad, but still not really my style. It was nice to sit with her family and hang out though.

A Korean trip wouldn't be compete without heading to a jimjilbang. So that's where we went. I wasn't super excited to shower and sauna naked with her dad, but when in Korea ... Jeong Mi and her mom got some special salt scrub, so I waited two hours while her dad dozed off in the sleeping area with a THOUSAND Koreans. When going to a public bath house becomes a weekend trip in America, that's the day I change my citizenship. Fortunately, when Jeong Mi finally finished, we went to a motel to stay, while her parents stayed at the jimjilbang.

The return trip was an entirely different path home. We went east first and curled up around that way. We went to a famous battle site where one of their admirals became the most famous Korean naval officer ever. It was a nice monument and park area. We also checked out a really windy fishing inlet with a windmill at the top of a small hill. We almost got almost blown off of that hill when a huge gust came in.

Then the snow came. Thanks to that and our pit stops, it took us about 12 hours to get home. When we finally got there, I was dead. But her parents wanted to get dinner, so we went to the local galbi place I liked. I went to bed and thought all was well.

Well, it wasn't. Whatever I ate there made me so sick that I couldn't even drink water the next day. While I didn't want to leave, Jeong Mi's dad took me to the hospital, where I spent the next two days recovering. I was probably ready to go after getting a shot and an IV, but they wouldn't let me go. So I was just stuck.

My roommates and the nurses and doctors were all very nice, but I still was just dying to get out of there.

I was released on Dec. 31. I had basically zero time to recover, but still met with my friends at Go Bar. Unfortunately, I couldn't drink. Jeong Mi and I only stayed a couple hours and left right after midnight.

I suppose that's not too bad. Winding down the week slowly and getting ready for two weeks of work. After that, it's vacation once again, when I get my eye surgery (hopefully).

As always check out all the pictures from Christmas here.

And check out the New Year's pics here.