First December Holiday Away from Home

I check the last post that I wrote in here, and I thank myself that I have actually put a couple of updates on what I have been doing in this supposedly perkiest month of the year. It’s so ironic to think that it’s that time of the year in the office when the workload is not that many-- for anyone to do some extra things, yet I have never really mustered myself in filling this blog with updates. I mean, come on! It is December. It’s the time of the year when people get a bit lax with the serious stuffs that have pre-occupied them the whole year long-- and in turn get rowdy with all the merry-making activities of the season.

It would of course be a lot better if I were back home, for I’ll sure be getting more kicks to get oh-so jolly for the holidays. I sure missed home and my family whom I prepare the gift-giving practice with, as well as my friends whom I pig out and practically share the lovely season with. But hey, stop the longing. Fact of the matter is, I am in another place, and I ought to do the merry-making in my own independently creative way.


Okay then. As for me here, December has more importantly been transitional. For one, I have moved to a new place. I am now sharing a house with three people, which I personally think is more fun and will be such a learning experience for me. There is technically more people inside the house, but I got a personal bedroom (and not just a portion of a whole space), which gives me the privacy that I clamor, while I go and reach out to live with my other housemates. I must say that I am actually proud of how I have accomplished this task that I have ever since been longing to do, that I feel like I can be anytime thrown off to any place like Timbuktu and would still be able to find my way around. What is just important is for anyone to be with people whom they can deal and jive with. If you cannot, and are not willing to even try, one can always have the option to stay away from them. Personalities differ, and so you work on sticking with those that has the same personality, or at the very least bear with the kind that you have. Some may insist that a greater test of one’s personality (and therefore one’s character) is when it is able to adjust to even the most adverse type, but sometimes, it is simply a lot better to back it off when you just cannot. Not everybody can please you, just as you cannot please everybody. It’s the same logic in romantic relationships that need to be ended, when there is no other recourse but to separate.

I was lucky to get a 3-day holiday vacation from work, which I used to move out and transfer. Prior to the actual transfer, date of which is December 30, Christmas Day was spent outside with fellow Filipino friends I have found here, where we went theme-parking. Teehee. South Korea has their own version of the Philippines’ very own Enchanted Kingdom— Lotte World (Jamsil station of the Seoul subway). Since the group was male-dominated, I went ahead and let myself be overly swayed, tumbled, and thrown off, with the extreme rides that we took. The whole day was fun, though. It really was. :-)

Here, here. Take a look at some of the pictures!

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Dinner with my Sisters ;-)

Now I just want to tell everyone how my current stay here in Seoul has allowed me to create such surprising friendships that I could just hope will last even if fate will someday direct us to paths that won’t let us physically see one another. I mean, I consider this life that I trod now as temporary. I got here with a future that says I will go back to my birth country. But hey, I can never really tell.

I had dinner with wonderful sisters tonight— Lemons, Cha, and Park. The idea sprung from a cancelled dinner that was earlier called by another new friend, Karyn, who unfortunately couldn’t cook dinner for us tonight in her house because she was helping somebody transfer to another place.

I met them tonight at the Exit 2 of Seodaemun station, which will forever be a memorable place for me, for this is where and how I met the sister trio. Okay, a short backgrounder.


There was this particular Sunday when I decided to check out Seodeamun Catholic Church, which I found out via the internet to be holding English masses at 11am. I got out of Exit 2 and started my search fifteen minutes before the said time, hoping that it would be just very near and easy to find. I then noticed two men, an American and a Korean in formal clothes, which I immediately recognized as the style a Latter-day Saint would be in. I have a cousin in the Philippines who was a missionary, and wore the same ironed, formal clothes. They looked at me as if hoping that I had been the one they have been waiting for. I answered with a quick look, but passed by them, since I was there to find something else.

I then realized how I seem to have made a full 360 degree walk, when I again saw the two men, in the same spot where I first saw them. My church was still unfound. When they noticed me just the same, the American finally approached me and asked, “Hi! Are you Samara?” So that’s it. They were really waiting for someone for the first time. I of course said no, and told them what I was looking for. What was just so touching is they helped me find my church, to think they were from a different one. Before I left them, the Korean gave me his calling card, which I used in the afternoon of that same Sunday to again give my sincerest thank you through a call. I was just so touched. After several weeks, I got this call from a certain Ms. Lemons who said that she has gotten my number from Mr. Choi, the Korean whom I met at Seodaemun a few weeks back. I met Ms. Lemons for the first time in Sinchon for lunch, and we’ve been contacting ever since.

After our scheduled dinner tonight, the trio gave me a Christmas tree-shaped card that wrote a quote. By the way, we had kimchi jjigae as our main dish. :-) We also took a picture, which I am showing to you now.


Awww, they sure have no idea how much I appreciate them when they dragged me for some dinner tonight. A hearty dinner with friends after work is what you just sometimes need. They were just so great.

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Snowy Christmas Party with Geniuses

It was snowing a great deal when I woke up with a pair of heavy eyes this day, getting ready to meet up with a friend at Itaewon for a Christmas party. I obviously slept late the night before, and my friend has apparently been sending me text messages a few hours before ten in the morning, when I forced myself up.

I then just remembered. A few weeks prior to this, an office colleague shared to me how the first snow of the winter season is a special day that most Korean couples look forward to, for they treat the first great snowfall of the year as THE giant mistletoe where they can “kiss”, and spend such sweet moments together. FINE!


As for me, it was just another Sunday to fill with something to do, and I must say it’s a pretty jam-packed day today. My friend and I actually planned for our participation to the Third PIKO General Assembly. PIKO stands for Philippine Iskolars in Korea, and it is a major gathering of Filipino geniuses at the Philippine Embassy. My friend is a certified masteral student here, and I just squeezed myself in, as an “honorary member” and accompanied here there.

I never really realized how big the community of scholars are getting here in South Korea. Most of them are in the field of engineering, though there are a number of social sciences and business courses that have been granted, anyway. This is plain testament to the Filipinos’ competitiveness in academics. We’ve always been great school freaks! Haha.

The event started with a mass at eleven in the morning, followed by a hearty lunch that we paid 5000won for. Induction of the officers and distribution of certificates of members were then conducted, in the early afternoon. The fun games then ended the day.

Here are some pictures with scholars who attended the party:

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