This will be a different Christmas for me.  I remember Christmas as being with family, playing hockey on ice or a road, finding and decorating the perfect Christmas tree, being reminded of what Christmas is all about, an extra church service or two, and generally lots of love.  But this year it will be different.  The biggest difference of course is that I'm not with my family, and that does make me sad.  I have not been a stranger to homesickness while I've been here.
  But different doesn't have to be bad.  On Christmas day, I will be flying to Vietnam, and that's exciting.  I'll be going with Natasha and her family, which is great for me because they've done all of the planning; I just get to enjoy it.  I've heard good reports from others who've travelled to Vietnam, so I am definitely looking forward to it.  It's not every day you get to see a whole new country and culture.  As of now, I don't know the first thing about Vietnam, but I hope to remedy that by researching before the trip and by learning all I can while I'm there.
  Since I'll be gone next week, I won't be writing my blog - but I promise to bring back a long report and lots of pictures.

  On another note, I promised to talk a little more about crime in Korea.  One of the first things I learned when I came here is how little crime there is here.  And I've come to see that it's true.  On many occasions I've walked by a vehicle parked on the side of the road with the engine running and no one in sight.  Also, police play a much smaller role in Korean society than in North America.  The only time I see police officers is when they are conducting drunk driving checks, or at the buffet down the street from the school.  I don't really know, but I think the low crime rate is largely due to the role that Confusion values and the importance of respect has on Korean society, historically and still today.  These values are seen in many other areas of Korean culture as well, and I'd say they are a major difference between Korean and North American cultures.  But that doesn't mean crime doesn't exist.  I miss that scooter.

Finally, here is a picture of my new roomate.  He's pretty quiet and not too bothersome.

He might be a guppy.  He looks like a goldfish with a long tail.  I think his name will be Sharky.

Thank you for reading.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Michael