Well, today was the day before the start of the annual Chusuk, or Chusok celebration week(end) here in Korea. Chusuk, or Chusok, is the yearly version comparable to Thanksgiving back home. Everyone goes to their families homes, usually their parents, and everyone brings enough gift packages to hold you over for a year. This year, us foreigners lucked out. Starting Tuesday is "National Foundation Day"; its intended purpose withstanding, its a national holiday, so we don't have to work. Wednesday has been pretty much declared a national holiday as well, becuase Chusuk is on the Thursday, and everyone gets the Friday off as well. Yes, we had to work today, but we got to see all of the children get dressed up in their traditional hanbok's, and make their own songpyun cakes (as far as i can recollect, a rice snack that's steamed). The kids were incredibly cute - not only did they look out of place trying to do the normal kids stuff in their nice outfits, but they also seemed to be on extra good behavior. The songpyun cakes were supposed to be in the shape of a crescent moon; the kids saw their cooking material as edible playdough. They made shapes out of this stuff that looked like anything from dinosaurs to as you can see below; a starfish. The festivities at our institute also included games very similar to hackey-sack (only with a plastic tip to hit instead of plastic beads,) and a game similar to lawn darts (with rubber tips) except that your object is to land the darts into a bucket. The kids had fun with all of the activities, and enjoyed the change, even if for most of them, they had no clue what the actual activities were, or why they were dressed up.
For the kids, the hanbok's just slowed them down from doing what they normally want to do (which ammounts to making the pre-school teachers earn their paycheck.) They did love however the extra attention they got, and all the compliments that they got from the teachers. The kids were more than glad to get out of their outfits after lunch. As beautiful as the hanbok's looked on the kids, they only wear these outfits twice a year; Lunar New Years and Chusuk.
Overall, the day was a great success. I was glad that I had remembered my camera, as I was able to take a lot of really nice photo's of the kids. The rest of my week is looking pretty blank. While the rest of the teachers at my institute are off visiting foreign lands, I decided that its probably in my best interest to take this holiday off, get some rest, and clear my mind. Whenever I travel, I usually go solo, which makes me more tired when I returned. Staying in Seoul however, saves me a lot of stress, and I'm hoping to catch up on some lost reading, devotions, and maybe a little shopping. I hope that all is well with everyone, and that you're all enjoying the fall weather; its gorgeous here right now!
Take care, and God Bless,
me