 |
| Guess that makes me Mrs Claus |
Merry Christmas
2012
Having to work on Christmas Eve is usually unpleasant, but not in Wonderland! Ric dressed as Santa and gave presents to all the children, and we had games and films and carol singing competitions. I could feel the buzzing excitement of the kids and they were so happy and loving it was really heart warming to be around them.
 |
| Tender hugs for Santa |
 |
| Santa and his class |
 |
| My kindergarten class enjoying a festive teacher pile on |
After school we checked into a hotel in Cheonan, Hotel Tirollia. We wanted to do something a bit special to compensate for being away from our friends and families. The hotel is made to look like a traditional lodge in the Swiss Alps, it's decked out in wood and antique furniture; fittingly Christmassy.
On Christmas Day we woke up in our luxurious suite and opened our presents that we'd bought for each other and some that had been sent from our friends and family. My presents included play-dough, wool, a highlighter pen and gin tonic flavoured soap! We then popped in to visit our friend Sydney, for morning coffees and more present opening.
 |
| Christmas morning |
Unsurprisingly, we had a white Christmas. It snowed throughout the night, adding yet another inch to the already deep layer of snow covering Cheonan.
 |
| From the hotel window |
In a sense, our Christmas Day ended at 12 noon, when I ate a snowman shaped doughnut. After that we were in holiday mode. We took the bus to Incheon airport (which was beautifully decorated and had an orquestra playing), checked in, and ate McDonalds for our Christmas dinner and then played scrabble until it was time to board the plane.
 |
| Festive and calorific |
 |
| Incheon airport, looking down on the orquestra |
Christmas was a bit on a non-event in Korea, all the shops were open, people we out shopping, drinking coffee and generally going about their everyday Korean business. A contrast to England where it's the one day of the year that everything truely stops. Even pubs only open for an hour or so.
Six hours later we landed in Bangkok airport. Amazingly, in our taxi ride to our hostel, the Queen's speech was on the radio! We found our hostel, ate supper in a roadside cafe and made calls home to wish our families a merry Christmas. It was surreal speaking to my family at 12pm Thai time (2am Korean time) when it was only 5pm in England and they were still waiting to eat their Christmas dinner!
For my first Christmas away from my family, I'd say it was pretty good.
