My Korean Thanksgiving...

Sadly, we did not celebrate American Thanksgiving at school.  I was really hoping that day a turkey and mashed potatoes would miraculously show up and we’d be able to feast.  Sadly, this didn’t happen.  To be honest, I kept forgetting it was Thanksgiving.   When I did remember though, I was a little sad.  It was one of the first times since I’ve been here that I wish I was home.  Or I wish I could teleport home for 3 days and then come back.

To ease our depression, all of my friends from school decided we’d have our own Thanksgiving on Saturday.  We’d all cook something Thanksgivingish and bring it over to our friends’ (mom did I put the apostrophie in the right place haha!) Cassie and Adam’s place.  With my limited space and accessibility to foods, I ended up making pasta (and way too much pasta at that).  But we had pot pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pies, wine… the works! 

It was so fun and nice to celebrate in the best way we could.  Although I think I want to be home next year for a real Thanksgiving with my family!

My trip to the lantern festival...

I’m not exactly sure how many years the lantern festival has been going on for, it seems relatively knew- but seriously what do I know?

My friend Kissairis and I have been trying to “do something fun” on Wednesday’s to split up our week.  No, we don’t hate our jobs… it’s just nice to have something to look forward to every once in a while. Usually our Wacky Wednesday’s as we like to call them involve just treating ourselves to dinner.  But one week we heard about the lantern festival we decided to take our Wednesday’s to a new level. 

The lanterns are in Seoul, of course what isn’t in Seoul, so we took the subway after work for about an hour.  After a few transfers we had made it.   I didn’t really know what I was expecting. I thought it might just be beautiful lanterns… boy was I wrong.  These lantern’s were the size of floats in the Macy’s Day parade.  They were huge!

It was really cool to walk along the canal and just see these giant lanterns.  They were very beautiful!

My Korean Halloween...

Halloween.  A day of fun, candy, trick or treating, costumes.  I was so happy that in Korea we go to celebrate completely at school.  I couldn’t wait to see my kids all dressed up in their cute costumes.  The week before we practices all the words associated with Halloween- cat, witch, monster and of course- candy.  The kids all told me what they were going to dress up as- princesses and power rangers were the top choice (also convenient because we were learning about the letter P that week too!).

Before the actual day, we had lots of preparations to do.  We wanted to make it special and fun for the kids (or special and fun for us?).  There were many games to be planned, activities to be done and of course trick or treating.  Finally we came up with these ideas- face painting, a “Frankenstein” show with a mad scientist, haunted house, and relay games.  Each classroom was designated to a different activity and the kids ran around all from room to room playing.  And once all activities had been finished- it was time to unleash the beasts and let them trick or treat in each room. 

Candy in Korea is not the same.  Since I’ve been here I’ve yet to see a Reeses Cup.  Although disappointing, it was probably best I didn’t have access to those- a minute on the lips is forever on the lips you know?  The candy here is pretty much all hard fruit flavored candy.  Obviously that didn’t stop my kids from going to town on those little bad boys.  We had decorated candy bags earlier, so each kid had their own bag to put all their treats in.

One final note on Halloween, I was very surprised and proud of my kids throughout the haunted house.  It was pitch black, there were teachers popping out and scaring kids at the end of it- but none of my kids cried.  I guess they’re just used to having scary Anne Teacher all the time nothing else can scare them? Hmm…

 These princess girls are 7 years old, I teach them science on Tuesday

My first SLP trip...

Once a month my boss, Mr. Jeong, likes to take all the teachers out on a Saturday for a day trip.  It’s a really nice thing that we do at SLP.  It allows us to spend the day together and just relax.  Oh, and there’s always lots of beer involved.  Some might think this is crossing the line… that your boss provides you with drinks and good times, but in Korean that’s what they do.  And when in Rome…

The first trip I went on was to an Island not too far away.  We had to take a ferry ride that was about 1.5 hours away.  We had planned to go on a “small hike” on a mountain and then sit, relax and drink on the beach.  Once we got to the Island, and found a guide to take us on the hike there was the option given to skip the hike.  Now don’t be me wrong, climbing up a mountain sounds cool and all; but if given the option to sit on the beach and drink beers instead- I think we all know which way I’d go. 

So a few girls and I skipped the hike, took the cooler, and made our way to the beach.  It ended up being a beautiful day, we went swimming in the shallow water, basked in the sun, and enjoyed the moment together.  We had brought snacks and had our own little picnic.  And we also had some well deserved “girl time talk”, it was really great.  Later when we met up with everyone we ate Korean BBQ (cooking meat on a personal griller) and then went home.  It was really fun, and really nice of Mr. Jeong to pay for all of his staff to just be able to enjoy a day together.  Can’t wait for the next trip!

My sports day...

Every year at SLP for the kindergarten classes they hold a day even t on a Saturday.  Sports day is kind of like a giant color war.  Two teams- blue and white- competing in silly games for no real prize.  However, this fun idea is taken to a new level.  Not only do the kids compete, but their parents (who have been drinking all day) are competing too.  Let me just say, Korean mothers are quite competitive!

It ended up being a beautiful day for sports day.  All the teachers showed up wearing black (although we were on respective teams but I honestly can’t even remember what team I was on).  We rented out a schools soccer field for the day.  Competitions included- mothers racing trying to grab the “prize” at the finish line (prizes included- toilet paper, toothpaste, zip-lock bags), tug-of-war, and other relay races.  It was so hilarious to see these women, who might have trained for this, race and push each other to win!

I have to admit I was a little nervous that day, it was the first time I was going to meet all my children’s parents.  I put on my cute face, was nice and polite.  I had nothing to be worried about considering we don’t speak the same language.  We were happy to meet each other, they laughed at my attempt to speak in Korean, and they were happy to see their children love me.  All in all, it was pretty good.

Of course my 5-year-old babies could care less about the competition parts of the day.  It’s always fun though to have a day off from teaching and just be able to play together, without the pressure of “learning” involved. 

Let the games begin!

My trip to the farm...

Hello everyone!  Sorry it’s been a very long time since my last post.  However, we can all agree that sometimes once we put something off for long enough we feel silly going back to it.  But I’ve really been meaning to post… so now everyone can enjoy a few posts!!

JeJu farm is a farm owned by my school SLP.  Once a year in the fall we take the kids there to have a “farm day experience”.  I’m not going to lie, I went in very apprehensive.  I was just imagining there to be something weird going on at the farm.  Yes I was judging the Korean farm before I had even seen it.  But, let me tell you, Koreans know how to farm just like Americans do!

*Here is the inside of the buses we take anywhere... its like a 70s disco party in there

It was a dairy farm so there were cows like everywhere (my dream come true).  The farm was small, but there were so many activities for the kids to do.  We “made” ice cream by whisking milk over ice until its frozen and adding chocolate syrup, we milked a cow, we fed cows, went on a hayride, and had a picnic!   Although, the picnic was filled with kimbop and dumplings.  Yes, I’m still in Korea.

Overall it was a great day.  Everyone had a great time!  Oh, and all the kids wore their green and black SLP jumpsuits… enjoy….

 

<-- This is YeSeo, she is one of my favorites.  She’s hilarious and her English is pretty great.  She is super creative and always has an elaborate story to tell me.  And she tells me every day that her dad is fat.