Chu-Seok Weekend

This week I only worked four days this week due to the Chu-seok holiday, which is the Korean Thanksgiving here. In celebration to our three day weekend, Thursday night I went out with a co-worker of mine and I had my first pizza here since I have moved here. It definately wasn't Papa Johns, but it wasn't too bad either! There were still potatoes on it which always comes as a suprise to me but ends up not tasting too shabby!

Friday, my co-workers set up a pot luck dinner where everyone had to bring in their own homemade dish to celebrate the Chu-seok holiday. I made my infamous chocolate chip cream cheese ball which ended up being the only dessert there. Thankfully I think everyone liked it! I was a fool when I signed up to bring a dessert because I forgot to rememeber that I don't have an oven in my apartment! I managed though! The dinner was amazing. Everything everyone brought was DELICIOUS. There was sheperds pie, pesto, kimchi chiggae (gotta have some korean in there too!), curry, chicken rissotto, salad, beef stew, and a soju punch! Haha, needless to say we all overstuffed ourselves. Unfortunately I couldn't stay long. My relatives were coming to pick me up in Ilsan to celebrate the Chu-Seok holiday with them for the weekend.

I have officially experienced my first traditional Chu-Seok. I also found out that it is not too much different than the American Thanksgiving with lots of food, family, and the infamous mid-day nap. Saturday is usually the official day of Chu-Seok. The day started at 6 AM!!!! Yes 6 AM! They woke me up to begin the day with the traditional ceremony. When I woke up they had already been up setting up the table into this nice spread basically for the ceremony. The ceremony basically consisted of all the men in the family standing in a row and each one had to take turns bowing and doing a little ritual with the korean wine infront of them. There were a few other things entailed such as pounding chopsticks in one bowl and sticking a new spoon in the rice everytime it was someone else's turn to bow. I couldn't make sense of it all but it was neat to watch. This is the ceremony spread, basically for show. Afterwards, they clear the table to set up the edible food. This is my grandfather on my mother's side.

This is all the men minus my grandfather. From left to right, My little cousin Sung-ha, my youngest uncle, my older uncle, and my other little cousin Sung-hu.

All the men in the process of bowing during the ceremony.

After the ceremony it was time to start the first meal of the day. There was definately no stuffing or turkey, but plenty of rice and rice cakes! Of course my whole family wanted to make sure I was full enough I wanted to about cry. During breakfast, they told me that it was tradition for me to do three saki shots which I thought was a little odd but the answer "no" was not an option as they shoved each one in my face. Mind you, this was before 8 AM in the morning. After breakfast, I was so tired and full and that drowsy feeling was taking over. I took a long nap and woke up to more family members and more food. I even managed to take another nap later on in the day! (hehe)

The moon is very bright and full on Chu-Seok. So as a korean tradition, Koreans walk outside of their homes to look at the moon and make a wish. One of my aunts took me outside to make my first Chu-Seok wish. It is basically a time to pray and say thank you for everything that you have and love.

My relatives took me back to Ilsan Saturday night after sending me home with LOTS of fruit and some noodles called chap-chay (one of my favorites). I really enjoyed the experience and am glad I got to experience a traditional Chu-Seok!

Update in September

Sorry it has taken me so long to write in my blog recently. Things have been kind of hectic around here and I have found myself to be very exhausted throughout the week.

School has been ok. I find myself unmotivated at times to teach because they kids can take so much out of you. There has been a lot of stress to just try to get the kids to listen at times. I am just sick of yelling all the time basically. As cute as the kids are, I wish I was more informed on the ages because I would have chosen an older age group to teach. Two weeks ago, I got to go on my first field trip with the kids to a botanical garden. The garden was gorgeous and the kids loved it. Their excitement over a flower, or a dragonfly, or even a little frog makes it adorable to watch them run around.

The past weekend, my co-worker, Karla and her co-korean teacher, Rebecca went clothes shopping. I loved all the different Korean fashions even though some are odd. Unfortunately, since everyone is so petite here I couldn’t find a lot in my size, but the experience was fun! Rebecca had invited us to dinner because her mother wanted to meet us Americans. Her mother loves when Rebecca brings home English speakers because she enjoys hearing Rebecca speak English to them. Dinner was amazing, her mom had prepared season meat and had a little miniature stove on the table for us to cook the meat and talk. She spoke a little English and was very sweet.

This weekend I got invited by one of the guys I work with to a touch rugby tournament they were playing in. I had never watched touch rugby before and knew nothing about it. The rugby tournament was held at the Korean Military Academy and was quite the event! There were tons of teams that had come from all over Korea as well as teams that flew in from China and Japan. We watched the boys play and I realized I really liked watching the sport! It is kind of like soccer… but playing with your hands with a difference in a few rules. Our boys didn’t end up winning the tournament but were in the semi finals! They served free wine all day and there was a buffet later on that had burgers and other bbq food! It wasn’t amazing tasting, BUT it was good to have some traditional American food still. After the game, there was an after party held in Itaewon at a place called The Bungalow. The place was really nice and had tables and couches set up on these sandy areas. Great atmosphere. We had a good time and ended up having to take a 40,000 won taxi ride home because we were too late for the subways. Eek!

Today co-worker, Karla and I went to Insadong. I was a little skeptical at first because she told me that it is this really fun place that sells traditional Korean things like papers, and souvenirs, pillows, scarves, jewelry etc. My experience with places like these has usually been a result of Koreans just trying to sell junk. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case! There is a long street that basically sells nice things that are mostly all handmade. It was such a cute little area. We stopped in at a tea house where we both got a cup of tea and shared some homemade Korean ice cream which was delicious!

I ended up buying a scarf. There were also stands that were set up to make your own crafts. You can paint mugs, plates, bags, make beads and jewelry, and even your own light lantern! We ended up making our own light lantern which I was really excited about! I loved this little shopping area and plan to go back for some gifts possibly! :-)

Next week will be a short week since we do not have to work on Friday due to the Korean holiday, Chuseok. Chuseok is the Korean Thanksgiving here and I guess one of the busiest times for traveling. Next week we will be doing things in class that are related to Chuseok which should be fun and interesting! Next weekend I will be visiting my Korean family in Seoul to celebrate the holiday with them. I am interested to see how they celebrate their own thanksgiving. All I know is there won’t be turkey or stuffing which is a sad, sad, sad thing for me. Haha

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I had to blog about this. During my afternoon elementary class last week, we had read a book about a moth that was a pet friend to a little boy. We had a do an activity with it so I decided to have the kids make cards to someone they love or is their good friend and decorate it with a moth theme. (I know it is a little odd, but the kids enjoyed it!) I have the kids freedom to do whatever they want with their card and use whatever they want as long as they wrote in english. This is a card one of the students wrote to her mom. I had to share. It reads:

"Dear Mother, Mother I love you but you are too scary. But I like you. Do you like this card? I'll give time one month tell me what this card is good or bad. But you love me too. And I like play too so play with me one hour. And I'll sleep with you. And I don't like to do homework. That is cecret (secret)"

I couldn’t stop laughing. I wanted her to read it while I recorded but she refused and about broke my camera. I guess you guys will have to only enjoy the visual for now!

My First Food Delivery

I have faced one of my challenges I thought I would have while I was here in Korea- getting delivery for Korean food. Just about anywhere delivers here and I have been having a craving for bibimbap. I get tons of fliers on my door advertising delivery for certain locations and I finally decided to try one today. My fear was that I was going to sit on the phone for a good 15 minutes trying to tell the man what I wanted and where I lived and then end up getting hung up on because he didn't understand me. Luckily, that wasn't the case. The first thing I said when the man picked up the phone was, "I am very sorry but I speak little Korean". He went silent and then I went ahead and just said "Bibimbap". I told him my address and after a few minutes of making sure he knew what I wanted and where I lived, that was that! Easy! My food was delivered in no joke- 5 minutes. SUPER FAST! and SUPER CHEAP! This is all I got for 4,000 won which equals roughly around $4!
The restaurant delivers your food in real silver and plate dishes so after you are done with your food, they give you a little bag that you put all the silverware and dishes in and leave it outside of your door. In a few hours the delivery guys comes back to pick up your dishes.

Great food, fast service, super cheap, and they save you from washing dishes... Oh you amaze me Korea. :-)

My Montage of Kids

Hello Everyone! I have finally made a video on you tube that shows some random clips of my class as well as some of the other students I have been teaching. Enjoy! Copy and paste this clip in your web browser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl2wsMwO34Q

DVD Room

Today my Korean cousin, Minhee, came to Ilsan from Seoul with her husband to spend the day with me. I was actually not too excited about having them come only because neither of us can communicate the other language very well, but the day ended up being really fun! They took me out to lunch and then I showed them some of the shopping areas in Ilsan. We wanted to see a movie in the theater but there was nothing that we wanted to see, so we settled for a DVD room. This is SO awesome. It is a place where you go and there is a wall that is lined with DVD’s (mainly American) and you choose the DVD you want to watch. The DVD room we had went to had a good selection of DVDs. The movies were mainly all new releases and oldies but goodies. They then take you to this hallway that is lined with little closed off rooms. Inside the room are a large comfortable couch that you can lay on and a large projector screen. You can also buy snacks and refreshments before you go into your room as well. It was extremely nice because it was just very comfortable and had no distractions. My cousin and her husband really wanted to watch a horror film so we chose to watch Hostel 2. The movie was a disappointment but the experience wasn’t. DVD rooms are ALL over Korea so it is very easy to find one nearby. This is the first one I have actually been in. The price for the DVD room all together was 17,000 won. It was a little pricy but cheaper than three tickets to go see a movie at the movie theater.





Afterwards, I took them to see Lake Park in Ilsan. Lake Park is a man made lake and is absolutely gorgeous. It has a large path that runs all around it and the water is crystal clear. This is a picture of my cousin and her husband at Lake Park.

Hiking in Korea

The English couple that I work with, Karla and Josh, invited me to go on a short hiking trip this Saturday in Ilsan. Since I had wanted to try hiking in Korea, I took them up on their offer. Hiking is probably one of the most popular hobbies that Koreans have (besides drinking massive amounts of soju). We went on a short hiking trail in Ilsan which took us about 20 minutes. My first thought was “Oh wow, hiking is a piece of cake.” Then the couple suggested going to a bigger hiking mountain in Seoul. Thinking that I had this in the bag, I was proven wrong as I stood their heaving and panting after about 5 minutes going up the second mountain. The hiking at this mountain consisted basically of an hour worth of going up semi-vertical steps.

Josh and Karla had gone hiking plenty of times before, so needless to say, I was lagging behind most of the time. Besides the never ending burning sensation in my butt and legs, I was enjoying the beautiful scenery! This was a picture of Seoul just halfway up the mountain.

Luckily, the weather was nice and not Korea’s normal 90 percent humidity! Once we finally reached the top, the scenery was all worth the pain and struggle. Once you get to the top you can see all of Seoul all around the mountain. They have a HUGE boulder at the tippy top of the mountain so you can stand on it to get even more of a better view. The first picture is of me enjoying my success. Karla told me it was only necessary to scream “I AM THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD!”. Haha!

Karla and Josh have told me that there are other mountains that are 7 hours hikes and ones that even have ropes for climbing. I told them…baby steps first. The experience was definitely all worth it and am kind of looking forward on claiming my next mountain!

After hiking, we decided to go to Itaewon. Itaewon is one of the most popular foreigner tourist sites in Korea and also has a military base. I loved Itaewon! Itaewon is known for the best western (American) food in Korea. I saw more foreigners in this city than Koreans—which is a rare thing to see! The city seemed so exciting and it was just nice to be surrounded by things I could read. We chose to eat at a Mexican restaurant for the night called Los Amigos. The food was DELICIOUS. I got a baja burrito smothered in cheese. Yum! The restaurant had live music and at one point I almost felt like I was at home in the states just having dinner at Don Pablo’s or somewhere like that! Korean food in Korea is generally pretty cheap, but when you are craving for more food found in the states, you are generally going to pay more for it. I didn’t mind because I felt like it really hit the spot! After dinner we hit up a local bar called Woodstock. We were still dressed in our hiking clothes so we felt a little out of place and self conscious that we smelled of sweat but we still wanted to have a drink. The bar had a live band that was made of 3 Korean men but they sang good American rock’n’ roll. I was impressed. It had been a long day for us so we didn’t stay long. There is still so much in Itaewon that I wanted to explore so I am anxious to go back.