My First Thanksgiving (in Korea)

This is my first Thanksgiving in Korea. It was different celebrating it here. Since Korea doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, we worked on Thursday. It made it feel like it was just another day even though your head is telling you its a holiday. It was kinda of a strange feeling. I did talk to my family back home though. But we couldn't just let Thanksgiving pass by without celebrating in some way. So a group of us went to TGI Fridays. It guess that was as American as we could make it. It was a fun night.

But the Saturday after Thanksgiving was our real celebration. Our church had a big dinner for everyone in our English church. There are a lot of foreigners there and Koreans too. We even got to eat Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and Popeyes mash potatoes and coslaw. There were even some Korean food like Kim-bop (which is rice and meat wrapped up in a seaweed) and spicy rice cakes. For dessert we had pumpkin pie, cheesecake, apple pie and lots of other stuff. There was so much food!!! But the fun thing was we ate with chopsticks. Let me tell you, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauces and coslaw were not made to be eaten with chopsticks.

Like I said before, there were lots of foreigners there. A few go the church but others were just invited but people from the church. We had Jenny and Robert's friends up from Daegu (which is about 2 1/2) hours away) there too. It was fun to get to meet fellow teachers and find out how long they had been in Korea and where they taught. There is something about being strangers in a foreign country that creates a comraderie. Its like we understand the frustrations and joys of living away from our home countries. We also have stories to share about things that have happened or humerous things kids say. It was nice to enjoy that company tonight.

I have to say that this felt more like Thanksgiving than the actually Thanskgiving day did. Our pastor even talked about doing a Christmas dinner for expats since this one went so well. We will have to see. But enough about holidays and food for now.

LotteWorld

So we had another fieldtrip at the kindergarten today. We had originally been told that we were going to a farm. But it turns out that plans changed and we went to Lotteworld. Lotteworld is a huge amusment park. We traveled by bus about 45 minutes to get there. The kids were super hyped about going. Once we got there I was totally amazed. This place was huge. It had three levels below the main floor and three levels below. It also had three different nice sized rollarcoasters, a waterride, a 3-d theater, all sorts of kiddie rides, a Viking Swining Boat Ride, restaurants,a  huge stage and an ice skatting rink to name a few.


Once we got there, we rode a few of the kiddie rides with the kids. There were alot of other schools there too. Everyone with each school group had a matching (very bright) outfits on. It was crowded but we had passes so we got on the rides pretty quickly. The kids were hilarious to watch. They are so dramatic anyway but on these rides they were overly dramatic.


Then lunch time came. The kids brought thier lunches just like any typical fieldtrip. Except, here in Korea, kids don't bring sandwiches they bring "kim-bop". Its like the Korean version of a sandwich. Its actually seeweed with rice and a variety of other things in teh middle. So you can have kim bop with ham, or cheese, pineaple, shrimp, veggies etc. And guess what? The teachers had kim-bop too for lunch. It might sound weird but its actually really good.  But one thing doesnt change about lunches. The kids brought their desserts. Soon, the kids were trading snacks and arguing over who won rock-paper-scissors to get the last snack,


After lunch is when the fun began. We we got to go on the fun rides like the Viking Boat (which a gigantic boat that swings like a pendulum pretty high in the air), a 3-d movie ride through a Pharoah's tomb, a spinning cup ride and several others. I wanted to take some of the older kids on one or two of the bigger rollercoasters but Hannah veto'd that. Too bad, though. I think the kids would have liked that.


It was a fun day. One things, I was was really shocked at (and happy to see) that kids never once begged for treats, candy or toys. (And there were plenty there). They didn't complain about not getting to ride something and were very well behaved. I was pretty proud of our kids.


But we did wear them out. On the way home, a lot of the younger ones fell asleep. I think I even saw some of the teachers nodding off, too. I took some pics of all the sleepers but unfortunately my picture card was corrupted and I only saved a few pics. But it was fun but I am exhausted from all the fun of today. I think I'm ready for bed.

Pics of Family Hiking Day with the Kindergarten

 This is our English Friends Banner. We had a bit of trouble getting

a spot because lot of other Kindergartens had the same idea

we had. But we got a spot and the day went well.

We brought projects from each class and hung them 

up for everyone to see 

The kids and there parents were split into teams. Each team

started up the mountain at different times. The hike was split into courses.

At each course the team had to do an activity such as play a game,

recite a tongue twister or sing a song. This game was "dibi, dibi dib"

which is like our Rock Paper Scissors. 

Eric, one of my fellow teachers, being his usually

self- a clown....

We let the kids in several songs.

The kids singing

Jenny Black and Ben ready to give the speed quiz

at the 3rd course

Noah wearing a leaf crown that he made for one of the courses

Molly just resting

Alex and his grandma writing an acrostic for the

word Hiking for one of the courses

Jack is just adorable and full of life. He was grinning

after getting his face painted

The end of our hike was at a large open area where

we had a picnic and games. Here Jack is attempting to

hula hoop. He was so funny because he didn't know how. He

would just wiggle his body like a snake.

Can't say I would do much better, Jack!

Picnic Time! Korean picnics are great! The food is wonderful

and nothing like we would have in the states. We all laid out

these mats to sit on. Then we took off our shoes and sat down to eat.

Taking off the shoes is common here in Korea. We had beef bulgogi

(a beef mixture with spices and onions) over rice

which was wonderful!!!!

Game Time! This was a true or false game. The teachers

would read questions and the team had to run to the X if the anwer

was false or O if the answer was true. The questions were about the teachers.

For example, I think one question was "Are Jenny and Kristin sisters?"

A balloon stealing game

For being so little, Mel was sure good at

stealing balloons

I think this was the game that two people had to pop

a ballon by hugging it between them. The team that popped

their ballons the fastest one.

The teachers and Rainbow Class

Yellow Class

Red Class

Ocean Class