When in Korea: September 2013

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Chuseok Day at school

Chuseok is the Korean holiday that is similar to Thanksgiving... On the lunar calendar, Korean thanksgiving is on August 15 and on the solar calendar, it is on September 25. 추석 (Choo-suk) is one of Korea's biggest holidays. This holiday is different than the American Thanksgiving. On the American holiday, people traditionally eat turkey. In Korea, people eat rice cake called 송편 (Song-Pryun). On Choo-suk, people celebrates and enjoys harvest. They pick new crops and fruits and give an ancestor memorial service in the morning. Then they visit their hometown to see their family and relatives. A long time ago, on Choo-suk, in the village at night when the moon was bright, girls played a game called 강강수월레 (Gang-gang soo-wall leh).

At school we celebrated by having the kids dress in their Hanbok (which is a traditional Korea outfit that they wear on holidays) they practiced bowing to receive presents, and we played two games: one like hacky sack and the other one you throw sticks into a basket.

I even wore a hanbok and received some baller gifts from my students.

Jay and I

Emma and I, she changed right away.

Amy and I

Brian and I

Justin and I

Christine and I, shes holding her gifts from the teachers.

Genuine class, my Korea co-teacher Anne and I making a heart. AWWWWE

and again but this time a serious one.

Here are the kids in the gym learning how to bow... these are a bit backwards. But you get the idea. SUPER CUTE.

Lina, Justin and Emma

Sophie and Brian

Amy and Caden

Christine and Jay

Here is Elegant class, Anne and I

Fred receiving his gifts

Elegant in action... I didn't get any of them bowing

Anne and I

Caden and I

Playing hacky sack

Lina and I... shes so cute.

Audrey and I

Ashley and I

Here's some of the teachers in the teachers room.

Yajairha and I looking fancy

Jennifer and I

Maria and I

Annika and I

Justin (always being silly) and I

Alice (my diva child) and I

Justin and I

My sweeties, Elegant class being awesome.

Andrew and I

Jennifer and I

They look so cute.... I cant get over it... I had to add all of these cuz they are so flipping cute.

My day at the Soyang Orphanage

I went to the Soyang Orphanage on Gadeok Island with the Busan Volunteer group.

Yajairha and I woke up early and took an hour long subway ride, to get on a bus for 40minutes, to then climb a mountain to make these little kiddos happy for the day! Not only did we make them feel good but they made us feel good in return. There's nothing better than doing some good in this world! Here's our wonderful day!

Is this monkey pooping out blood or is it just me?

Here's a picture of the island.

We were out of the city! Here is the Korean country side!

Here is the mountain we had to climb.

lol, watch out for the cliffs!

Here is the fountain entering into the orphanage's grounds. The father of the orphanage explained to us that they spend a lot of time trying to make it a beautiful and comfortable place for the kids to live. I think it worked because it was a very nice place!!

Here are some of the buildings and the basketball court

The stairs to the dormitory.

Tricycle parking and the library.

These are pictures of the kids throughout the years, the orphanage has been around for a very long time.

Yajairha in action painting kids hands with face paint.

I decided to bring nail polish to paint the kids nails but they were MUCH more interested in painting my nails. This little girl was pretty good and very concentrated on what she was doing... but when she was done she took it off and did it again... and again... and again.

At this point a kid had my camera so you will see the volunteers in action playing with the kids.

Doing origami

Climbing and wrestling and riding on the volunteers backs. For real, one little girl was screaming all day because she was so excited about the piggy back rides.