Christmas Eve Misadventure

I got to Korea the night of the 23rd. Immediately went out to have Ssam Gyup Sal dinner and coffee and pretzel hangout with four of my donggis: Cha, Mica, Jila and Kim. All of them were flying out on the 24th so only Cristia (arriving on the morning of the 24th) and I will be at the hotel on Christmas eve.

As mentioned on the previous post, I was unlucky trying to find a church. Well anyway on the morning of 24th, I still tried to call up churches and searched the net. I found an internation Catholic [something] and they have English mass but I'm not sure where it was (directions were so vague), but anyhow I kept that option open. I asked the front desk to call up Hyehwa, the church with a Filipino mass every Sunday, coz I just know na ang pinoy--in Mica's words--hindi papayag na walang Christmas eve mass.

Indeed there is a mass, just that the Filipinos have to relocate coz the church will have a Korean mass for the parish. I didn't know where the new location was but according to the Filipina I talked to on the phone, everybody would meet up at the church and altogether go to the venue.

Anyway so Ms Crystal (my senior), Cristia and I went to the church after we had dinner at Han's Deli. We arrived early so we were wondering where all the people were. It turned out there were no Filipinos there (the meetup place might have to be someplace else) and we tried going to the direction that the priest told us to go to, but ended up going into the church anyway. Yes, the Korean mass.

Besides the fact that everything is in Korean, the sequence is quite different. I would have stayed if the Christmas carols were in English man lang but they were also translated: Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. So I just prayed and told God, "It's the thought that counts." And then we head back to the hotel after praying. I was able to pray well though, as the Koreans were really solemn when it comes to their masses.

Subway human traffic was enormous especially at our stop, Hong Dae, because our area is where a lot of bars and clubs are and it's where young people go to. And it being a holiday eve, people were heading our way.

Anyway, what turkey is to Thanksgiving is cake to Christmas here in Korea. Just a useless info. :)