Snapshot of stuff I missed in 2010, Part Dugay: Christmas and NYE

My fingers are a little sore from cranking out that last sucker but hopefully I can type through the pain.

This installment will include our Christmas get together in Guri and New Year's Eve in Hongdae. If the tone is a little bitter I apologize, I just streamed the Badgers throw away a 9 point lead with 2 minutes to go against Michigan State. ashkjdhakjdhsdjhdkjlasdhkjadshkjhv

The week leading up to Christmas (9 points!!!) did not really feel like a jolly saint week. I've been conditioned to expect all-nighters, College Library, and coffee the week leading up to Xmas. Fortunately, I didn't have to lose sleep over finals this year (am I really not in college anymore?) but I did have to watch "Shrek The Halls" 20 times. Was it an upgrade? It was if you like hearing the painstakingly piercing shrill of Ginjy the Gingerbread Man's voice. "Shrek! Shrek! I have an annoying voice! Shrek!" (There was only 2 minutes left in the 2nd half!!!!).

After "teaching" on Friday the 24th, Julie and I ditched our pad in Yatap and head to Guri where our friend Eric lives. He's got a pretty nice place and kindly agreed to host a shindig. Speaking of Guri, this reminds how difficult it is sometimes to say Korean words in front of Koreans.

One would think saying ger-ee would get the point across, but no way jose. I tried telling my coworkers for about 5 minutes where I was going to spend Christmas. It wasn't until I spelled it (because I was losing patience) that they understood. "Ohhhh Good-ee!" The smallest change in pronunciation and they have NO idea what you're talking about. The exact same thing probably happens with non-native English speakers in America, but like I said before, I'm in a sour mood and don't really care for sensibility right now (they were 34-1 when leading/tied with less than 4 minutes to play!!! Ughhhhhhh!!!). Other examples of this pronunciation failure includes: CostCo (Ohh Coosco!), Lotte World (Ohh Lotte Whoaa-rld!), and coffee (Ohh copy!)

But alright I'll try and keep the ranting to a minimum from here on out (9 POIN.......rants to a minimum). Being Christmas, I figured I needed something to help get in spirit. So what better way than drinking spirits! We had the secret santas, the ugly sweaters, the paper snowflakes, the awesome Christmas songs...

...all we needed was eggnog! Since you can't really find eggnog here you have to make it from scratch. I looked at a couple different recipes online and learned that it's pretty simple: milk, raw eggs, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and booze. And being Korea, why not throw a little makgeolli (milky rice wine) in there too?

My trusty Sous-Chef (Scho) and I whipped up a batter back at Eric's place and it turned out pretty decent. The girls who showed up late because of The Nutcracker even got to try some. Unfortunately for Eric's kitchen, making eggnog was not a clean affair. And unfortunately for the eggs, we didn't turn down the burner in time. Fortunately, everyone was able to get at least one round in before the nog started to scramble. Aaand that was the end of that. Just like Arrested Development, it was good while it lasted.

The next day (Christmas morning!) we opened our secret santa presents. It still didn't really feel like Xmas, but that's ok, it was still a lot of fun. I had Nate, who unfortunately (or awesomely rather!) went snowboarding. The one and only Sammy Lazar had me. She got me a sweet tail (long story), a cool green tie, and some other goodies. I know I'm getting old when I get excited over a tie, but what can I say, it's a great tie! Other gift highlights include Eric getting a Ne-Yo (or Neyo, maybe Ne Yo?) CD, Justine getting her own Youtube video (a la Joanna), and BG getting a......"sweater".

After lounging around, playing a game called Superlatives, and munching on some delish Chinese food (great call Jewish community!), Julie and I headed home to Skype the fams during the American Xmas morning. It was great to finally see my family, albeit on a computer screen, but it felt weird to not be there. Don't get me wrong, I love my life here in Korea (I'm getting paid to study abroad after all!), but during the holidays there's no place I'd rather be than relaxing at home with my family. And since my Pops is amazing and brought over gifts when he came to visit, I was able to open presents right along side my siblings just as it has been for years and years and years. Those gift highlights include a new backpack for my trip to SE Asia (!!!) and a Nook, Barnes & Noble's e-reader. I wasn't crazy about jumping on the e-readwagon, but I'm starting to come around to it. I send my thanks. No really, I just mailed them this week.

Photos from Xmas.

On to NYE...

We had heard New Year's Eve was best spent in Hongdae and, after doing some research, it turned out to be true. A major plus for that weekend was all the guests in town. We were graced by the presence of Nate's  girlfriend Dori, Mo's brother Jack, and Olivia's boyfriend Sal. It's always nice getting the chance to meet the people who make up such a large part of our friends' lives back home.

As for the evening itself, we started with a noraebang pregame (noraegame) to give the visitors a taste of how our nights in Korea go down. After belting out some notes, taking a bunch of pictures, and listening to a couple Scho speeches (or Squotes), we headed out to catch the countdown. We said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011 at a bar called Mama Gorilla (Papa Gorilla is just down the street.....no really!), mainly because it had no line to get in (it was already like 11:45 at that point).

After a quick celebration, some NYE kisses, etc. we tried taking the crew to a club, but they all had massive lines out the door. So we instead turned to our old friend Oi, the bar that looks like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. It ended up being a great night. We finished it off by getting food at our fav late night food spot which goes by the name of "Noodles" because we don't know the name of the restaurant.

Almost done...

New Year's day was spent lounging around and hitting the links. I may have already posted a little bit about this when Julie and I went in September, but screen golfing is one of the best things that's happened in Korea since Lee Hyori. It's Tiger Woods on the Wii, actual golf clubs, beer a telephone call away, and huge couches all wrapped up in one room. You pay around $10 (depending on day of the week) for 9 holes to play lazy man's golf. No getting sweaty chasing your ball around (or the bev cart), no losing your ball out-of-bounds, and no 4 hours of frustration and mosquitoes. It's quick, it's easy (scratch that, it's hard as hell), and it's fun. The States, specifically where winter golf is non-existent, need this game. When you're asking about me 20 years down the road and say "How did that Quinn guy make so much money?" The answer will be 2 words: bathroom gloves......no no no, that's a different idea. The answer will be: screen golf.