To be honest, I've always felt quite hesitant about celebrating festive seasons away from home. Being a student living abroad-- the twinkling lights of celebrations made me miss my family even more.
This Christmas though, I was really happy to have been able to spend it with laughs & love! I can't say I didn't miss my parents & siblings-- but I can say I found the christmas spark despite the unfamiliar distance~!
These might be some fun ideas for your own Christmas as a foreign student~:
1. Hold a Cozy House Party & Bake Gingerbread Men!
I actually celebrated christmas TWICE this year.. and it's because my housemates (closest friends!) were leaving the day before christmas, so we decided to also celebrate once together a few days earlier~!
Holding a house party bubbled me with excitement. We hung sparkly lights, bought a cute red bow to hang by our door, and set up a tiny christmas tree in the corner (psst, we bought everything from Daiso so it was very cost-friendly hehe; But in my case, I live near Inha University’s Backgate and its Daiso ran out of most decorations nearing the 25th of December. So try to get them early!). Dimmed our lights, set up the bluetooth speaker– and voila! It was a perfect homey home~
We baked a tonnn of gingerbread cookies, and had prepared chocolate deco pens (once again, they sell them in Daiso!) so we could decorate them! If you’re curious about the gingerbread recipe we followed, here is a link :D
2. Say Hi to Secret Santa
We also did Secret Santa, and this was surprisingly quite the fun because as housemates, we were always playing detective around the house, trying to find out who our secret santas were before the day of our exchange xD.
Not long after, my housemates had all left Korea for the winter break, and I was left to celebrate the. real. christmas. day..!
3. An Escape to Forest Outings
One thing I didn’t want to do this Christmas, was to go to Seoul’s hotspots because I felt that there would be too many people; & I would be busy trying to even maneuver around, let alone enjoy the festive streets.
My mistake? I went to a hotspot in Incheon instead, thinking everyone would be pulled to Seoul– but it was still indeed very busy. HAHA
A friend and I went to Forest Outings, which is just about 25 minutes away from Jangmi Apartment (the bus stop near Inha University’s 2nd Dormitory) by one direct bus, or about 28 minutes from our backgate with 2 bus rides!
It was super convenient going there, but I was shocked by the number of people visiting this place.
Forest Outings is a decorative cafe with THREE floors. I repeat, this cafe has three floors– and it was still filled with a hefty amount of people on every floor.
