I only came here to do two things man. Kick some ass and drink some beer. Looks like we're almost out of beer. ...

Greetings

One of the major highlights of the holiday season is the Christmas Party and we've been looking forward to throwing one for months. In my mind Christmas is synonymous with bad parties, relatives who have had too much to drink, and endless hours of Jingle Bells and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer playing in the background. Being so far from home this year, traditions mean even more than usual and we were determined to let our Korean friends experience the joy of the Christmas party for the first time (Christmas is celebrated here but it means about as much as Valentine's Day does back home and is basically only for hardcore Christians and small children).

When we first began imagining our Korean Christmas party, we thought that it would be best to go all out. A few kegs, a couple live bands, and enough candy canes to stuff a few dozen reindeer.

In fact, our first plan for the party looked something like this:

Ah, the classic keg stand. When I was a child Christmas just wasn't Christmas without my mom doing the traditional keg stand. I'm getting misty eyed just thinking about it. We envisioned each of our Korean friends and co-workers doing the Keg dance Canadian-style. Then we realized a few things:

1. At best we have ten or twelve friends in Ulsan. We simply didn't have the manpower needed to throw such an event.
2. It probably wasn't in our best interest to have our Boss see us wasted and hanging off of a keg.
3. We just aren't that cool anymore. Our idea of a big night now is some Star Trek and a bowl of popcorn.

Of course there was also the fact that good parties often result in things like this:



Haha, our place might not be Trump Plaza, but the last thing it needs is a dozen Ex-Pats getting all riled up and knocking a few holes in the concrete walls.

So we switched gears from an"Animal House" style party and started thinking of having a "grade nine" style party. A PCP party, you know - pop, chips, and parents.

Something like this:


After some consideration we realized that we didn't want to forever tarnish the good name of Canada by having Koreans think that we couldn't throw a decent party. So we decided to aim for something in the middle and have a Christmas party that had some drinks, some quality western food, and enough people to fill at least one room. We'll save the keg for next year.

We did a wack-load of baking and shopping in order to get ready for the party. It felt like we had to go all over Korea to get enough food . It was worth it though because some of our friends had never tried some of the Canadian Christmas party staples.

As you can see we had everything from cheddar cheese, to Danish butter cookies, to pretzels, to licorice, to nutz n' boltz (all rarities in Korea) and about a zillion other treats.

One of our Korean friends had never tried cheddar cheese before and thought it would be a good idea to try it with some of the herb cheese log and some Camembert all together on a cracker. Haha, the poor guy was so put off from the disgusting mix that no matter how much we coaxed him he wouldn't try any of the cheeses again. I feel bad; it was his first and last time eating cheese and somehow it's probably our fault.

The party turned out to be pretty good overall. Due to internet copyright infringement survival policies of the seventh court of Amsterdam we cannot show you any of the wild and crazy photos that we took during our party (cough, cough), but we can show you a photo of the get-to-together before it got crazy.

Several of or co-workers and friends managed to make it out despite the fact that one of the two English bars in town was throwing a Christmas party on the same night.

Half of our co-workers aren't fluent in English and all of our friends are either from Scotland or Australia, so more or less nobody could understand each other. When I wanted one of our friends from Australia to pass the chips I would simply beat my chest and shout "C-H-I-P". After the seventh or eighth attempt they would usually understand what I wanted. It was a good lesson in international relations.

The last of the partiers didn't leave until three in the morning and the Koreans seemed to enjoy themselves. They did note, however, that in Korea parties are a lot shorter because people come, get hammered, and then either pass out or leave. Something to keep in mind for next year I suppose. Good times indeed.

Cheers

Shayne

P.S. 5 days 'til C-Day.