Anyoung, my chingus. I hope you've all had a good time celebrating your respective holidays with friends , family and other loved ones. My Christmas was sadly not filled with family, but it was chock full of other stuff.


Here's a little photo from the UNICEF Benefit Concert dress rehearsal. I can be seen on the left, lifting up and dropping back, getting ready for ended up being my solo(!). The show went well and lots of money was raised for the kiddies, so that's good news.


The following day I headed to lovely Ilsan with my friend Rachel to do some shopping (as well as eating and talking, I think we spent the majority of the time talking). I was thankful to this Christmas tree for explaining itself to me, as I was slightly confused by the manikin inside it.

Rachel and I also decided to do some crazy bungee bouncing while we were out. I had walked past this place countless times and wanted to do this for ages. On that day for the first time, the gods smiled upon me and I was wearing pants. Basically, you are connected to a bundle of bungee chords, and you jump on a trampoline, thereby soaring into the sky. I recommend this activity. It made me giggle an unreasonable amount. The harness starts to hurt after a while though, so be warned. Another recommendation goes out to the black sesame gellato that we ate. Sounds weird--is amazing. Eat it now.


I spent much of Christmas Eve cleaning and preparing my apartment for the following morning's breakfast. Here's my little Christmas Tree all trimmed up.


I did take a break from my preparations to attend the English Village Secret Santa unveiling and final gift exchange. Here are some people enjoying themselves at said event. It was really nice. My Secret Santa got me awesome stuff, such as fuzzy socks and a fleece blanket. The best part was giving my gift to the person to whom I'd been assigned. For two weeks, my friend Mary told me all about how awesome the gifts from her Secret Santa were and I smiled and laughed and pretended to read the cards and handle the gifts for the very first time. Naturally I threw in lines like "Wow, you're Secret Santa is pretty much the coolest person ever to exist." For two weeks, I was terrified that she had guessed that it was me. As it turned out, it was a total surprise, and she was thrilled, and I was, too.


Here I am, making merry with another friend of mine in her festive, yet tasteful Christmas sweater. I left the soiree early, so as to finish getting ready for breakfast. I succeeded, mostly, though my night ended up involving a little more partying and a little bit of oops-I-slept-in-until-the-friends-who-wanted-to-help-arrived Eeeeeee! We managed to mostly get everything under control, and though I would have wished for less chaos...


Folks had a good time and enjoyed their eggs, hash browns, toast and fruit salad. People sort of came in shifts, which was nice. All told, about 20 people came at various points. We also had a Yankee gift exchange, which was fun--if slightly drama-inducing.


Here I am, scrambling those eggs like mad (and looking slightly mad... in the British, Cheshire cat sense, that is). While I cooked, two of my fellow Village-dwellers recounted the tale of how they had burgled every last present of another couple (at 4 o'clock that morning); leaving only a DVD taped to the door, whose contents showed footage of the various phases of the prank's planning and implementation. Such grinchery!


Even Charlie, the adorable neighbor dog was hoping for his piece of the Christmas pie. I had a lovely morning, and then proceeded to get crept up on by the cold that had been hovering around me for the previous two days. Doing the three shows I had that day was rough, and the next day I ended up having to take my very first sick day this year due to the craftiness of this particular virus. Still, it was great for a Christmas that I had to spend away from home. Between my parents and my brother and sister-in-law, I was spoiled rotten present-wise and felt like a little princess. I really missed the family and all of our traditions, as well as that intangible feeling in the air that you just don't quite get here. Still, I felt happy to be part of the close-knit, if at times temperamental community here in this little theme park.

Happy Christmas to all and to all, a good night.