Cheers!

Happy Christmas y'all! Instead of being smart and picking a tropical southeast Asian destination for Christmas, I decided to go to freezing, fogged-in London. So far besides the freezing factor, I'm quite pleased with my choice! One of my friends from school has her family here, so we have a lovely home (actually 2!) to stay in. So we arrive in London on xmas eve, get fed, settled, and a nap, and of course had to make our first outing to a pub. It was such fun! Great beer and loads of English eye candy. Her mother has been spoiling us rotten with lots of yummy food, and we all pitched in to cook a huge xmas meal yesterday. mmm. Her father is the pastor of a church, so we went to the xmas morning service and sang carols, and they were so sweet to put together stockings for all of us so we would have presents to open on Christmas. Today is boxing day which is like their day after Thanksgiving equivilent of shopping. We are headed out to Covent Garden for the theatre tonight, and then of course back to the pubs. We have been told that local pubs are kind of like a community center. Everybody goes there for all big holiday occasions, family things, and of course to relax after work. It's where you interact with your neighbors. We have been frequenting the Donkey, which is near the country house. We have plans to go to Stonehenge and do some sight-seeing in the city. I'm quite proud that I actually remembered my camera this trip, so there will definitely be pics to follow.

I hope everyone is having a smashing holdiay wherever you are, and I send you kisses for the New Year.

I'm too sexy for my Hanbok!

This unfortunately catchy song was stuck in my head on Saturday as I went to strut my stuff on the catwalk Korean-style. The city of Daegu put on another culture day for the foreigners, and this time they offered us the opportunity to wear traditional Korean clothing. What is traditional Korean clothing you ask? Well, here's an internet excerpt on the subject:

Traditional Korean clothing has its roots extending back at least as far as the Three Kingdoms Period (57 B.C. - 668 A.D.). The Korean hanbok represents one of the most visable aspects of Korean culture. The top part called a jeogori is blouse-like with long sleeves with the men's version being longer, stretching down to the waist. Women wear skirts (chima) while men wear baggy pants (paji). Clothes for the upper classes were made of bright colors and indicated the wearer's social status.

So you can tell by the hot freakin pink they put me in, that they think pretty highly of my social status. :)

So we arrived at the local beauty college where we became guiney pigs for the students: full make-up and fabulous hair-dos were provided. Then we went downstairs where they had a real, elevated, light-up catwalk. It was awesome. The modelling students (who were gorgeous) taught us how to walk, turn, and gesture. (Even with lessons, I managed to wobble in my heels and make faces at the crowd...you try keeping a straight face on a catwalk!) A woman who does hanbok design brought in a bunch of her merchandise and dressed us up accordingly. And we really did a fashion show! We took turns strutting our stuff down the runway, we did a grand finale where we all filed down together, and of course we took our bows at the end. It was so much fun! I ended up on the news in a completely staged interview...I didn't see it, but I heard some of the teachers caught me and taped it. oh dear.

I came to the conclusion that one should be of the proper culture to wear that culture's clothing...otherwise you just look silly. The women who were of Asian descent looked so much more gracefull and appropriate in their hanbok. I decided that I looked like a moose: striking yet odd. The outfits were gorgeous though, and I certainly had a cultural experience that would be hard to replicate.