An Orphan Thanksgiving

Yesterday (Saturday) Sherry and I hosted our first, as I like to call it, Orphan Thanksgiving. Originally we had 12 people lined up to come but it turned in to only 9. Which was a bit more manageable.
I've never really hosted a party before...well, not an adult party. I was pretty excited, but really busy all week!
Starting last Saturday I worked my way toward baking a total of 4 pumpkin pies. This isn't difficult, but it is rather time consuming. Especially when you consider that I have Taekwondo from 7:30-9 every night, plus lesson plans to prepare every day. So I had a lot of late nights waiting for pie to bake. On Wednesday Hannah came over after work so I could show her how to make pumpkin pie, since I gave her a piece on Monday and she loved it. But first we went to Kimbap Changook for dinner. So we didn't have time to actually bake the pie before we had to go to TKD. So we did everything but pour it into the shell and left. Then after TKD my friend Keith came over so he and I could bake a pumpkin pie together, since he had an extra pie tin and likes to bake as much as I do. So we were up until almost midnight when the pie was finally finished.

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course, but it felt like just any other day. I brought some of my pie in for the kindergarten class to eat for their snack. Then at Taekwondo I brought more pie to share with my class and of course the Masters. I found that Korean people either really love pumpkin pie or really hate it.
One of the Taekwondo girls, 윤주, was really excited to try it because she had learned about American Thanksgiving that day in school and had been curious about what pumpkin pie tasted like.

She is my favorite. It's fun that the kids in TKD don't go to our academy so we can kind of be friends with them. 윤주 always is excited to see me and holds my hand or leans on me, like she does with her friends (it's common for friends in Korea to hold hands, even among boys). It's sort of a strange situation because of course I can't speak Korean, and they don't really speak English but we're still friends. But it's also strange for the kids in TKD because on one hand, I'm a teacher so they are supposed to show a certain level of respect, but on the other hand I'm their fellow student so our relationship isn't as formal as it normally would be for them with a person my age. Plus I'm a foreigner. It's funny when I see the boys out in Janggi, they always seem so unsure what to do, and look really surprised. I can see them working through their heads how they should greet me, and then they default to the formal deep bow. It makes me laugh.

So anyway Friday night we had a teacher's meeting set up for 7:00. But Hannah and I have TKD at 7:30 and since we had a kup test we insisted that we be able to leave early, so we did, promising to meet up with them after class so we could all eat and drink together, an important event for Korean co-workers. So we went to TKD and I was really nervous for my test. Because It's really kind of formal. They have a table set up at the front of the room with the World Taekwondo Federation insignia on a velvet cloth over it. And 사부님 (sabunim) sits at the table with a clipboard and pen and dictates instructions to you and you have to do them, and he makes notes and gives you a score.
So I was nervous because 1)I wanted to do well of course. And I for some reason struggle with remembering the poomse sometimes (poomse is a pattern of kicks and blocks that is central to learning TKD). 2)Of course this is all conducted in Korean, obviously. Usually there's no problem in TKD but usually I can watch Chang Bae and I figure out what I'm supposed to do based on context and seeing other people's reactions. But for the kup test, I'm by myself. 3)Since we were given our Green Belts simply because we are adults, the test tonight was to basically earn the green belt. So if we failed, we would be demoted to yellow belt. And he had brand new yellow belts sitting on the table just waiting for us to fail.
I was hoping that at least Hannah or the other teacher would go first so I could watch them and take some cues as to what to do. But I lost Rock Scissors Paper so I had to go first. Luckily it went pretty well. I understand key Taekwondo terms so when he gave commands I knew what they meant. But if he said anything else I had no idea. Like at one point I used the wrong arm in a block and he told me to switch arms but I didn't understand so I just stood there and felt like an idiot. Finally Hannah called out in English what he said so I could do it. I really hate when that happens. I feel so stupid. But I recovered and the kids were all impressed thinking I could understand Korean. ha. Then the last test was to punch through 10 boards. And I did it! It was exciting.
And I passed!

So after class they disassembled their table so I could borrow it for my Thanksgiving party. I impressed them with the ease in which I picked up the table by myself to carry it out. It's just a coffee table made of particle board so it's really light. Anyway I took it home and met up with my coworkers for drinks. I didn't really want to but it's an important thing in Korean culture to drink with your coworkers so I had to go. It was fun, but it just wasn't good timing for me.

Saturday I woke up early to skype with my family for Thanksgiving. Then I had to clean and make several runs to all the different grocery stores in the neighborhood, to prepare for our party. It was windy but not too cold, so it was a nice day to be walking around. I saw a lot of my students, and I always find that fun to see people I know and to talk to them in the street. Makes it feel like home!

So around 2 I went to Keith's to help him carry his supplies over to my house and we met Nadia on the way. And we started preparing the food and setting up the room. Like I said we ended up with 8 people (1 joined after dinner) and we had a lot of really good food and cocktails. Luckily there weren't any crazy people here so no alarms went off and nothing bad happened. We just had a good time eating delicious, homemade food, drinking wine and playing party games. We all sat around the coffee table Korean style and enjoyed the holiday. There's a new guy in the neighborhood so it was nice meeting him, I think he had a good time. I'm sure it was somewhat overwhelming for him, because the core of us (Keith, Kevin, Nadia, Reed and I) are pretty boisterous and have a, shall we say, unique sense of humor that really feeds off each other. But like I said it was just a good time.

Between dinner and dessert we broke out a bottle of REAL champagne that Keith's French friends had given him for hosting them while they were in Korea. So we popped it open and served it in paper cups around the coffee table. We gave a toast to our little family we have created and had our little kumbaya moment. Then we went back to playing charades and laughing our asses off at each other.

Here are some photos of our party.













And here we all are (well, except Sherry who's taking the picture)
It's Hee Joong (Keith's friend), Kevin, Derek, Me, Nadia, Tony (the new guy), Reed, and Keith in front.




and in case you were wondering...
Everything is just fine here. Yeongpyeong island is a good 40 miles from Janggi. And from what I have gathered, the American Media is really having a hayday with this whole thing. Here, people aren't concerned about it. You have to understand that North Korea does this kind of thing from time to time in order to get the money and resources they need. Of course people aren't completely unfazed, but i haven't met anyone who is worried that there will actually be another war. Don't believe everything you see on TV! American Media outlets are using some pretty strong rhetoric I believe. It's all good.