Happy Birthday Buddha!

Friday, May 21st was Buddha's Birthday, which meant we got the day off! Thank you Buddha, for being born.  The Sunday before the holiday, there was a Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul to celebrate the holiday. The festival was fantastic. There were a million booths full of free activities. We made lotus flower lanterns and candles, watched free performances, and got free books about Korean history. In the evening, there was a lantern parade, which may have been the longest parade in history.

The beginning of an entire street of booths.

We were shocked to see that, unlike most the festivals at home, most of them were not selling stuff.

 

Lanterns at the Jogyesa temple.

Clayton meticulously creating his lotus flower candle.

 

The lantern I created at one of the booths.

Lantern Festival Banner!

  There was a false ceiling of multi-colored lanterns throughout the entire temple. 

 Lunch/massive feast time in Insadong!

The street right before the parade. 

 Elephants and peacocks and fire-breathing dragons... Oh, My!

This lantern was given to us by one of the people in the parade!

Sometimes it pays to be the loud, cheering foreigners in a crowd.

Since the actual holiday fell on a Friday, we had a lovely three day weekend. We joined a group of friends for a trip to Deokjeok-do, an island off the west coast. The island was beautiful.  We stayed in a little pension about a half-mile from the beach. We barbequed and hung out with friends. And even though it rained on Saturday, we had a great weekend.

The beach in the afternoon. The water was fairly warm, but it wasn't really swimming weather.

Sometimes you just have to play in the sand!

The view along the road that lead from our pension to the beach.

Field Day!

It is the end of the semester at Grace School, which, for us mostly means extra paperwork. But the end of the semester also means that the kids get a field day! Our resident PE teacher, Clayton, was in charge of organizing the events on field day, though he did get some help with a few ideas.  We held field day in central park, which is a few subway stops from where we teach. We piled the kids on the bus, drove to the park, and spent the day playing! It was a wonderful break from the heap of paperwork that is May.

After a few games, including a three legged race, the human knot, salmon-bear-mosquito and the classic orange-in-the-neck relay, we had a picnic. Our wonderful lunch lady made all the teachers gimbap (think California roll only made with pickled radish, carrot, and ham). We discovered at lunch that Korean kids are excellent sharers.  We were given all sorts of random snacks by various students.  After lunch, we just let the kids run around. While most of the other teachers sat in the shade, Clayton and I took the opportunity to have some fun. By the end of the day, we were as tired as the kids!

The Informer shows her gangsta side on the way to the park.

Clayton works with his group on the "human knot."

Some of these kids were a little young for the game, and despite the "magic glue" that held their hands together, they let go... making it impossible to untie the knot.  It was at least entertaining.

Mad hula hoop skills and an awesome ajumma (aka older lady) visor.

Poking bugs with sticks is serious business.

Ok, so I know we aren't supposed to have favorites, but if you knew this girl you would understand. :-)

The hula hoop was at least 2 inches taller than she was, and she still did it!

And the lesson of the day is:

 It doesn't matter where in the world you are. Kids will always be fascinated by ant hills. 

The Great Korean Cumin Hunt!

Last Wednesday was Children's Day, so we had the day off work.  Since Wednesday also happened to be Cinco De Mayo, we thought we would make a Mexican feast on Tuesday after work.  We found tortillas, salsa, Tillamook cheese, and even some ridiculously expensive refried beans. However, we had a slight problem... we couldn't find cumin. Anyone who has ever made Mexican food from scratch knows that you absolutely need cumin and chili powder. We looked at our local grocery store, Costco, and even the specialty foreigner store, "I Love Cookie" (yes, that's the name of the store), but we could not find it! Instead, we had to settle for pre-packaged taco seasoning. It worked for the purposes of our feast, but we were still determined to find some cumin for future cooking endeavors.

On Wednesday, we decided to take a trip into Itaewon, which is the area near the military base.  I needed a haircut, and we had heard that there was a salon where the stylist spoke very good english. We had also heard that you could find cumin there.

 

Welcome to Itaewon! Who needs to take the actual picture when  you can take one of a wheely-cart on the sidewalk!

  

Itaewon, aka foreigner central, comes complete with  street vendors selling strange sunglasses. It is really unfortunate that we didn't purchase these.

 Gotta love living in a country where anything above a size 2 equals "big size"

 Cheap shades + sepia = Cool

After having some delicious Indian food for lunch, we found our way to the random foreign foods store.

Success! Bring on the mexican food, curry, and other cumin-y delights!

Hiking!

Last weekend, we went hiking with a group of people behind the president's house which is called "The Blue House." The first mountain, aka, the "warm up" mountain, was called Inwangsan. The "hike" was less like a hike and more like a stairmaster on steroids. The path up the mountain consisted of a zillion stone stairs, followed by a zillion more leading down the other side. However the view was beautiful from the top. You could see all of Seoul. It made the city look a lot smaller than it feels like when we are stumbling around trying to find our way.

After the "warm-up steps," we climbed Bugaksan, the peak behind the presidents house. To be allowed to climb the mountain, we first had to show our alien registration cards and get a special pass. This increased security is apparently due to past attempts to assassinate the president from behind the house. Thus, the hike was a little less natural than mountains we are used to hiking back home. This time there were not only man-made steps, but wooden steps with handrails. There were also motion sensors just outside to insure that no crazy foreigners leapt over the railing and made a run for it.

Once we made it to the top of this second round of stairs, we had a little lunch and enjoyed the view for a while, before heading back down the other side. At the bottom, we walked over to take a look at the president's house. We weren't incredibly impressed, but it could have been due to pure exhaustion.

After a nice little nap on the bus ride home, we had some dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Holy Chow. It was definitely no Seres Restaurant General Tso's, but it hit the spot after the long day. Plus it gets points for having an entertaining name!

Before the hike, we wandered around for a while.  This guy was so random, I had to take a picture.

This guy invented Hangul, the Korean written language.

At the top of Inwangsan.

Seoul.

So...many...stairs...

This is the biggest magnolia tree I have ever seen!

At the top of Bugaksan.

Random doorway on the way down.

Cherry Blossom goodness!

Garden Goodness!

Once a month we go on a field trip with the kindergarteners at our school.  This week we went to a botanical garden.  We piled the kids into two vans and drove 30 minutes or so to a garden in the country run by a university.

Clayton's homeroom on the way to the garden.

Getting all the kids in one place is, as our favorite PU prof would say, like herding cats. However, their interest and attention span seems to increase exponentially when on a field trip.  A future study, perhaps?

The entrance to the garden.

The garden was lacking in flowers.  We both agree that we visited the garden a few weeks too early.  Had we waited, I think there would have been many more flowers blooming. But, it was a warm enough day, and the children enjoyed it anyway.

We call this girl the "Informer." At any given moment, she will to rush to the teacher's room, giggling and speaking so fast that the Korean teachers can't even understand her, and then run away.  She's like five kids packed into one.

How they say Root around the world!

After looking at flowers, they brought the kids to catch tadpoles! This is a right of passage as a child, if you ask me.  There were quite a few tadpoles for them to catch and release. There were also dragonfly nymphs to hold and observe.  We had never seen a dragonfly in that form before, and they were really cool. They come complete with detachable jaws!

We were a bit worried that one of the kids would take a swim. Luckily there was no need to revive the lifeguard skills.

After the tadpole expedition, they gave the kids capes with pictures of different insects on the back, and had them pretend to be bugs (super bugs, perhaps?).

After saying some things we didn't understand, the ladies who work at the garden made Clayton wear this sweet bird hat and chase the super bugs around the deck, trying to eat them.  

One of the perks of Clayton being the token male working with the kindies is that he gets roped into wearing the silly hats, and I do not. Instead, I get to take pictures for the world to see. Tee hee.

Arrrrgh Matey!

Thursday was Pirate Day at Grace School. Since pirates are pretty much the coolest thing ever (check out 'The Pirate Movie' if you don’t believe me), we were pretty excited. Plus, it meant that we did not have to teach classes for most of the morning... a definite bonus. The kids were divided into three groups, the "Green Skulls," the "Purple Skulls," and the "Pineapples." The Pineapples, of course, were the fiercest pirates.

We had three stations for the pirate groups. In my room, there was a giant Treasure Map for the kids to assemble. The pieces were hidden throughout the school. Their task was to find the pieces and put it together without killing each other. For this, they received the most valuable treasure of all: stickers.

Now, I am not sure if this is something common to all ESL schools, but at Grace School the sticker is a staple disciplinary method. It is policy that the kindies earn them at the end of every class (whether or not they deserve them).  And to coerce the children into behaving, teachers threaten to take stickers away.  We have yet to see how this is an effective form of behavior modification, in fact our backgrounds working with children suggest otherwise, but what do we know? We're just psychology majors...

Now, normally the kids receive one sticker at the end of each class, but on Pirate Day we gave away FIVE stickers for completing the puzzle. Needless to say, the kids loved it. In the next room, another native English teacher at our school was in charge of dressing the kids up like pirates. They made bandanas with skulls on them (cute, non-threatening skulls of course), eye patches, and telescopes.

Once they were fully pirate-ed up, they went to Clayton's room... the Treasure Hunt! Because what Pirate Day is complete without a good treasure hunt? Clayton painstakingly created a grand treasure hunt, complete with an overhead image of a giant treasure chest, and a pirate song. He even talked to the kids using his best pirate voice the entire time. He pirated his voice right into oblivion, but the kids thought it was great fun.

All in all, I think we would agree that it was a good time had by all.

   Here are some of our little pirates:

Ahoy! Pirates ahead!

Two of our youngest kids after putting together this amazing treasure  map.

It is unfortunate that stealing adorable children is frowned upon at the school. 

This little guy is one of the sweetest kids ever!

This week, it is back to our usual schedule, but we do something special the third week of each month... so stay tuned for more pictures of cute kids!  Go ahead... roll  your eyes. We're used to it.