Merry Christmas from overseas!
I hope you have a great Christmas. I realize that for many of you, as I write this, Santa has not even arrived to deliver presents and eat his cookies. For us, Christmas Day has come and gone.
It was a rare holiday off here and we spent it in Seoul at, of all places, Costco. The school takes a regular trip to Costco and E-Mart (Korean Wal-Mart). It was very productive since we needed both food and stuff for our home. We are provided things like linens for the bed but we aren’t given towels so we needed general items like that and E-Mart is the place to go. Four levels of shopping bliss. Everything from electronics to groceries to beds and couches. Most people here swear by it and the groceries are cheaper than what we pay locally.
So after a day of shopping and traveling what do we get? An hour of traffic getting out of the city. While we were stuck in bumper to bumper I noticed things about the city of Seoul and the efficiencies of the Korean people.
The first thing is the utilitarian nature of their architecture. Boxes. Boxes everywhere. All the stores have multiple levels which are bridged by escalators and elevators. The thing that is genius about the escalators is that they are ramps, not stairs. And the baskets in the store are made to go on the escalators. The wheels lock so that the carts cannot go forward or backward, depending on which way you’re headed. It’s a beautiful system and one that beats the US system hands-down.
Another thing I noticed is that instead of having real highway construction people out in road construction zones, they place very believable mannequins who are dressed up with the hats, clothes, everything. It’s a little freaky at first but I’m sure that it saves tons of money. We can’t think of this? Do you think it costs more to put up a mannequin or those “Don’t hurt my daddy” signs that are all over the States? Save lives and save money — seems like a no-brainer to me.
Another thing we came across is that the people driving scooters and motorbikes would jump up onto the sidewalk and pass all the traffic on the sidewalk. I’ve already written about the taxis and how you’re not safe crossing the streets. Sounds like walking on the sidewalk isn’t too safe, either. In some ways, our time in Chicago prepared us for being cautious pedestrians here.
When we got home we had a little time before heading off to a small Christmas party intended mostly for the foreign teachers and their families. It was some Christmas music (including a song from South Africa), food, and fellowship.
It was a long day and we’re tuckered out. The best thing to come out of the day is that K had her first white Christmas. On the way home into the mountains, it started to snow and when we got back, about a quarter inch of snow had fallen. Now everything is graced with a beautiful coating of snow. One of the teachers from South Africa also got to experience his first white Christmas.
The Lord is answering our prayers all the time. We appreciate your prayer for our family and ask that you continue to do so.