Living in Seoul has brought a new perspective on our lives in countless ways and celebrating Christmas here certainly made us all reflect on the traditions we’d come to expect and take for granted at home. Generally speaking, Koreans don’t consider Christmas an important holiday, despite the fact that nearly 20% of the current population is Christian. Christian Koreans go to church services on Christmas and share a family meal together, but here the holiday is certainly not a big occasion to exchange gifts. My tutor, Eunsun who is Catholic, for example, told me her family has never put up a Christmas tree or decorated the house for the holidays. Department stores try to advertise the commercial side of Christmas and there were decorations around the city and in storefronts, but the lead-up doesn’t begin to compare to what occurs in the U.S. and we found many stores open on Christmas Day when we ventured out.
For Koreans, the New Year calendar holiday and in particular, the Chinese Lunar New Year (early February this year) are far more important holidays and many companies, clubs, alumni associations, and friend groups have parties during December to mark the end of the year. Though they are often called by “Christmas parties”, these do not bear any resemblance to what we know as holiday parties and we found ourselves frequently reminiscing about all the annual gatherings at home that we have been so fortunate to attend over the years. Bill attended several Christmas/end-0f-year events with work colleagues and I joined him for one that included spouses. It was a lovely evening and festive, but only myself and one other American spouse wore red. Though admittedly it was a welcome relief not to send out our annual Christmas card, we did love receiving cards from the U.S.
Needless to say, we Stantons made every effort to keep up our Christmas traditions and robust present exchange! We were thwarted in our efforts to find a live Christmas tree, wreath or any greens for that matter and finally ended up acting on Zoe’s suggestion and bought a woodsy/evergreen smelling candle to burn in the house since we desperately missed the pine tree scent. Gingerbread was also absent and candy canes very hard to find. Thanks to decorative sugars Claire procured from the States, we did bake a batch of Christmas cookies and scarfed them down in 2 days. As you can see below, we donned our traditional Santa hats while we trimmed the sang along to songs on our Christmas playlist. Upon reflection and with this new Seoul perspective, we decided plastic pine is not that terrible looking after all and cutting down live, mature beautiful trees as decorations actually seems like a tremendous ecological waste! 
The colour scheme of Korean Christmas is more muted than the traditional American red and green one and most ornaments are round in shape. We had to work hard to gather an assortment of non-spherical, non- pastel ornaments and found ourselves cherishing the wonderful assortment of eclectic (e.g.old dog toys from Bill’s childhood, my homemade needlepoint ones) ornaments we have at home. 
Eloise was the first to arrive on December 15th and we were SO HAPPY TO SEE HER! Her energy was just what Daphne and Zoe needed to push through their last exams and Christmas concerts. For the first few days while Daphne and Zoe still had school, I took Eloise on some nearby hikes and she was amazed at the size of this enormous city. We walked and talked and caught up after being apart for four months and it was really fun to see her reaction to our surroundings. She was surprised by the friendliness of all the Koreans we met hiking. One day, two hiking buddies offered to take our picture and then shared their extra bread with us. Crazy generosity and very humorous.
Eloise jumped right into the bustling city, riding the subway, practicing her “Ah-nyeong-ha-sae-yo” greetings (the long, difficult way Koreans say “hi/bye”) and going on shopping excursions with me as I hurried to gather up the Christmas presents. She got a big kick out of many of the items and familiar characters we now take for granted such as Kakao Talk and “Line Friends”.
It was so nice to have her company during the day and she was amazed by how well we all have adapted to our new world which was a welcome perspective since the four of us still feel quite overwhelmed and lost at times.
Claire arrived 5 days later and finally, we were all together as a family. The dinner table felt “right” again, as I produced more robust fare and we lingered over the meals, joking, arguing and bonding. Both Claire and Eloise were amazed at how beautiful and unique our Hanok house is. We are very lucky to have found this special Korean home that is a peaceful refuge from the bustling city. Here are a few shots of how pretty it is when snow falls…or when one happens to wear a “matching scarf”. 
Claire is training for the Napa marathon in April and so she really explored parts of Seoul, especially along the Han River, that are still foreign to us, especially when she had to do her long 17 mile runs in the 30 degree cold weather with no wifi for directions!!!!! Brave, brave…slightly insane…child.
Below are some winter scenes of Seoul that I took as we moved around before Christmas. The Cheongyechong stream near Bill’s office was brightly lit for the holidays and a lot of the trees and shrubs around the city have been wrapped in straw to protect them from the winter cold, though who does this meticulous, caring job I’ve yet to discover!
Amazingly, winter is strawberry season in Seoul and they are DELICIOUS! Hydroponically grown, strawberries abound right now and Daphne goes through a pack a day, at least. Another item, “Potato Tornadoes” are also very popular on the street right now and Zoe is dying to try these pretty fried potato chips.
I’m still hiking with friends and have made a new Norwegian friend who also lives in Seongbuk-dong and loves to trek around as I do. Here we are all bundled up on a cold, clear day.
We’ve come across these striking mounds of stones several times in the forest. Based on the Buddha figurines, I believe they are some sort of grave but I’m still gathering information on this, so please don’t quote me! 
I even introduced Lise to The Foot Shop which is a local massage place that Bill and I frequent some weekends. While you wait in your special Korean outfit for your massage to begin, you are allowed to put your feet in the tank with fish who love to feed on dead skin and thereby perform exfoliating services for brave customers. This is quite popular all over Asian since we saw similar establishments in Thailand. The sensation of the biting fish is rather disconcerting to say the least and they LOVE Bill’s feet! Just a few fish ventured near mine. Bill is appalled that I brought Lise to this joint, but she’s very game and laughed alongside of me as the fish tickled our toes!
Lise was formerly the Ambassador to Estonia, but is now here “just as a spouse” to her husband, the Norwegian Ambassador. As we walk and talk, I’m learning a lot about the history of Norway and its Scandinavian neighbours and gaining a perspective on the current immigration crisis facing these countries. Lise and her husband Jan came for dinner last weekend and we enjoyed learning their perspective on many things, especially American politics these days!
I only planned two formal activities for the family before Christmas: a visit to the furniture museum near our house and the evening dining tour I did in October with a friend and thought our family would enjoy. Both outings were great and lent a nice perspective to our traditional home and the cuisine of this country. We learned about the construction of Hanok houses, which have no glue or nails, but are simply fit together akin to tongue and groove furniture. Here we are facing south in the courtyard covered with gravel so as to make intruders’ footsteps easy to detect. The girls also posed near the Gate of Immortality for me and you can bet I walked through it afterwards!
I didn’t know what the “troops” would think of the dining tour, especially since Daphne doesn’t like spicy food, Bill has already had his fill of Korean fare after just 4 months of Citibank lunches/dinners and newcomers Claire and Eloise were still reacting to the ubiquitous smell of fish and garlic on the streets of Seoul. I knew Zoe, our adventurous foodie, would love the outing, but I was apprehensive about everyone else, myself included since I had already visited these typically Korean establishments, in much warmer weather to boot! WE HAD A BLAST! Our guide was chatty and full of food facts to accompany each new dish we tried. She became particularly animated when we stopped at the tent restaurant for pajeon (a variety of Korean spring onion pancakes) and makgeolli (a cloudy fermented rice wine) and she taught us several Korean drinking games. Everyone participated and I was the worst so had to take far more sips of this odd drink than I wanted. Fortunately, there was an agenda and another stop on the tour! As you can see below, we devoured the Korean BBQ but were a bit wary of some of the other fare. We would love to take anyone who comes to visit on this culinary adventure!!
On Monday morning after our week in Thailand (see other blog post) Bill reluctantly headed back to the office while we went to a cooking class. Again, I wasn’t sure how this outing would be received since the menu I chose…and it was the safest option in my opinion…was “Soft Tofu Soup and Seafood Pancake”. My four girls rose to the occasion and we spent 2 hours, each at our own cooking station, learning how to prepare these traditional Korean dishes. The soup base is a stock made with dried anchovies and shrimp paste and vegetables. To that we added kimchi (of course!), fresh clams, garlic, dried chilli peppers, fish and soy sauces, dried kelp, soft tofu and a few other very “foreign” ingredients. We learned how to soak the sliced fresh chilli peppers in ice water to remove the seeds and lessen their heat, a great tip I wished I had learned long ago. The chef who demonstrated and her two helpers provided great instruction and humor, especially when Daphne had trouble flipping her pajeon. 
Notice the use of scissors which is a common tool used to portion out pajeon, pieces of BBQ meat and other Korean fare. Very handy and one wonders why Westerners haven’t adopted this practice. When we all sat down to try our culinary creations, I was fairly certain several of us would take the token bite and then find a “real” lunch elsewhere. To all of our amazement, and especially Daphne’s, the soup and pancakes were absolutely delicious and we ALL ate everything.
We celebrated Bill’s 53rd birthday with lots of presents and a traditional Stanton cake decorated with buttercream frosting and “O-Pa” (Dad in Korean) written on top. Bill was so happy to have all his girls here to help him celebrate.
We goofed off the last week together in Seoul and did a bit of sight-seeing including a visit to the Seoul Tower one very clear day. I’d been saving this item for the kids’ visit and the view did not disappoint….360 degrees all around Seoul! The best part of the outing, however, was the random martial arts ceremony that was in progress at the base of the Tower. We stopped briefly to watch and then before we knew it, Claire and HER HAIR, which is so striking in this city full of pin-straight, black hair, was pulled out of the crowd along with a few others to attempt to strike a standing bamboo pole with a long spear. She was game and then bravely and patiently waited while other participants tried (and failed for the most part) to perform this task. Each time it was her turn, she was passed over…again, we think because of her HAIR and it’s stage value…such that she was the last one to attempt the feat. SHE DID IT PERFECTLY much to our amazement at it wasn’t easy!! We were so proud and yet laughing so hard the whole time.
We went on one final group outing before Claire and Eloise headed back to the States and saw “Nanta”, one of several non-verbal Korean drama shows that are popular here, especially with tourists as we soon found out. The show was set in a Korean restaurant and was completely non-verbal, but full of percussion as the actors played various kitchen pots and pans. Talented musicians and actors, the troupe was entertaining and we enjoyed the crazy show, particularly the moment when Bill was chosen from the audience to “help out” with the dumpling production! Here’s a picture they gave him afterwards and video of the action Daphne surreptitiously shot. Bill took his acting role seriously despite not quite having one of his shoes on properly. We were in ABSOLUTE HYSTERICS!!
Here’s Daphne’s short clip of our Billy Boy on stage!
The day Claire left, we snuck one more bit of culture in…a traditional Korean tea ceremony. Mimi spend two hours dressing us in the traditional Hanbok robes, meticulously explaining the steps of preparing and offering tea to a guest and then had us pose for a few pictures. Despite her weak language skills, she was able to convey the significance of the tea ceremony: by losing oneself in the steps required to make tea properly, one forgets everything else and is entirely present, in the moment. All else is forgotten except the tea and moments shared between the (usually) two individuals. Mimi’s ability to articulate this concept and to convey the importance of taking this time each day to enjoy the “here and now” was remarkable and both Claire and I will forever remember this tea ceremony. As a special treat, Mimi allowed us to try on traditional wedding robes and hats as well. I think you’ll agree that we look very SPECIAL!.
When their month long stays in Seoul came to an end, both Claire and Eloise felt they had a much greater understanding of our lives here, the incredible new experiences and daily challenges we face so very far from home. Eloise is hoping to get a summer internship in the medical field here this summer and Claire stays “in touch” by watching a Korean drama I sometimes watch as a means of keeping up with my Korean. (I passed my big test by the way and have just started level 2 classes!) Having their sisters visit and seeing/hearing their admiration of how well they’ve each adapted to life in Seoul, gave Daphne and Zoe a new perspective on their adventure as well.
We hope to share our life in Seoul with more visitors in 2016 so please don’t be shy about dropping by! Off to Vietnam tomorrow for the Lunar New Year holiday…..
seoulfulsojourn.net 