Christmas!

I had pie and coffee for breakfast. Day old pie, a day later, to be exact. I'm milking this Klosterman novel, going for the slow read because I don't know when my book supply will be replenished. Finding a book in English is like finding a pot of gold in these parts. I heard that Amazon ships to South Korea, so that's encouraging. This week was the week of friends, limited sleep and Christmas. The Seosanites came down to Daecheon to spend Christmas with me, but mainly to use my oven. I didn't mind. Brenden and Carissa got a care package from home with corn syrup (nonexistent here) and we decided to make pie, cookies, chicken and marshmallow covered yams. Delightful. In all seriousness, I had a blast. It was nice to share my apartment with some fellow mee-guks (Caucasian people in Korean) and have conversations that moved beyond my age and MLB teams.

This was a carefully coordinated effort, involving several trips to the grocery store, an hour long bus ride, every pot and pan that I own, and another hour long bus trip home to Seosan. This was my first white Christmas and my first Christmas without Mom, Dad and Angela. Well, almost. We skyped Christmas morning at 7am, but my pirated reception vanished about fifteen minutes into the convo. Anyway, B, C, and Will came up at about 11am with pie tins, sugar and corn syrup. We dashed over to E-Mart, which is a stone's throw away from the bus station, bought about 100,000 won worth of materials (we had just gotten paid) and cabbed home to my meticulously clean apartment. See, we had had these plans for about a solid week and this was really the first event I had hosted at my apartment, so about 24 hours before their arrival, my cleaning neurosis kicked in. I was a man obsessed; the windows were smudgeless, the bathroom was well-ordered, my bed was made, the floor was swept--there was no room for criticism in this apartment on this day. No, no, no. I believed the word I used to describe it was "baller."

So, apart from Operation Spotless, I really had nothing to do with the actual production of Christmas dinner. I remember at one point being asked to mince garlic and I stood there with a kitchen knife and a vacant look and I think they got the message that I hadn't done this before. Brenden and Will's comments were far from gentle, but in a trial by fire, I minced my first clove of garlic (seeing as I didn't have a garlic press). We showered the bird with copious sage and rosemary and stuffed the insides with onions, potatoes and more garlic. On to the yams. Will, apparently, is an avid yam enthusiast. But the vindication was in the pudding--the yams were delicious. Something about orange zest.

Carissa made the walnut pie from her mom's pecan pie recipe (Pecans are like nut-shaped diamonds here; they are about double the cost of walnuts. Teachers on a budget opt vote for walnuts.) The walnut pie turned out really well. Kudos, Carissa. And the peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies held the same merit. Brenden and I enjoyed our cups of home brewed Starbucks coffee--I think self-imported by Brenden--and we feasted. Now, some of you might think to yourselves, Drew? Eating chicken? Yes, I have conceded to carnivorousness. Everything here, and I mean everything, has meat in it. Vegetables? How about some cow's blood on top of that? Sauces? Let's put a healthy portion of pig's blood in that! And for the main course, why not make it meat. Just meat. Maybe throw some salt on it for flavor. But, for those who believe I'm absolutely soulless and hypocritical, (a) I don't fault you and (b) when I'm cooking for myself, I'm strictly veg.

Moving on, I can't say enough about this Christmas. Despite the absence of my family, I'd say this was one of the most memorable Christmases I've had. As a bonus, I got to share some leftover cookies with my co-teachers--who, in all likelihood, had never had peanut butter before (George Washington Carver didn't winter in SoKo.)--and they absolutely loved them.

Unfortunately, I had to go into work on Friday. After only a few hours of sleep, I had to throw together a lesson plan--something about the countries in the world--and search for hours on end for an online stream of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" with Korean subtitles. Oh-fer-headache. Five classes later, I grabbed dinner with my co-teacher and we went down to the icy beach for some coffee. It was fun. Today is laundry day. Wish me luck. I'll need it.