Zofona > Zofona Seoul > Stories: English and Dutch > Our Korea stories > December 25: 2002

December 25: 2002

Hello everyone,

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Christmas South Korea for the first time. We were missing the Christmas feeling even yesterday because we did not buy a tree. Fortunately the weather forecast was right and indeed when we looked out of the window this morning it was snowing. Exactly today so we do not have to dream about a white Christmas anymore and it is Christmas for sure now.

Last week we received our second car. Only one month after ordering the hyundai arrived with a delay of just two days. No problem, we were happy that they could deliver it so fast. And of course we tested our new car last weekend, a trip outside the city. This time it was not a problem to get out of Seoul. We used a very cheap map instead of the very detailed map we normally use. In fact, the map we used is one you can get for free everywhere. But at least this one has the right road numbers on it. With our other map we always had problems because it appears that they changed road numbers recently (or our map just sucks). Our destination was Bears Town (www.bearstown.com) a ski resort just outside Seoul. With some luck you can reach it in one hour. Because winter is here we wanted to now the fastest way to get there (for Jitze and his famous ski obsession). We are not sure we found Bears Town or Chonmasan (www.chonmaski.co.kr) but it was a ski piste and more or less easy to find. In a small restaurant we had our lunch, good Korean food. Although they had a menu card we could only choose between two things, probably they had too much in stock. During the trip Yde behaved very well, from his seat he looks around like a real driver and every time when we are slowing down or waiting for a traffic light he is trying to make eye contact with drivers next to us. Very funny to see how the average Korean is trying to entertain Yde while we are waiting, anyhow, they make us laugh.

We are now living here for almost 6 months and so far we like it. Although we miss the adventure of Kazakhstan there are other things which are better over here. Good medical health care, really a lot of shops and great food. We did not discover much but so far it is very nice. Just like Kazakhstan this country is not really a tourist paradise but if you live in a country you always discover more than if you just visit it on a holiday. We still think it is a great experience, living in another country.

From a snow covered Seoul we wish you all merry Christmas and a happy and exciting 2003.

Jitze, Christina and Yde