Chuseok = The Best Day at Work Everrrrrr

Yesterday marked the last day of work for a whole week! We have an entire week off to honor the Korean "thanksgiving" called Chuseok. I have never been more excited to sleep and do nothing in my entire life. Yelling at kids and making their lives miserable eight hours a day, five days a week, really takes it out of you. I really have no plans this week except to sleep late, read books, and eat dok bo ki everyday (which I've recently become obsessed with due to the fact that I'm trying to train my taste buds to like spicy food, and it's insanely cheap).

I may try to make it out to a nearby island or beach coast for a day or two in the middle of the week. There are some pensions that you can rent right on the beach for fairly cheap, and it sounds like a good day or two trip. When I sat down to think of what I wanted to do for a vacation, I realized I haven't really seen much of Korea. So that will change, soon I hope.

Anyway, back to Chuseok. All the children came to school in their traditional Hanbok outfits, which were the most beautiful things I have ever seen. They were all hot as hell in them and dripping sweat, but they looked too cute to boot. The Hanboks were so colorful and really well made, and most of the Korean teachers wore them too. Of course since I have a Chinese co-teacher, we were pretty much clueless the entire day.

Each period we brought our children around to different stations and traditional Korean games. One period we made rice cakes, and one period the children were allowed to play on this human teeter totter. This human teeter totter was the most dangerous thing I have ever seen, but the Koreans insisted that it was a traditional game and I shouldn't need to worry. So I just put the schizo kid on there and let him have at it. It was actually quite hilarious, dangerous, but really really funny.

I also got plenty gifts from children's mothers, which was not expected but very much accepted. The end of the day ended with a huge staff party with wine, cheese and crackers, candy and music. It was literally the best day I have ever had at any place I have ever worked. I took as many pictures as I could with my camera, but I was also trying to take pictures with the schools camera and juggling two was really difficult.  Hopefully the pictures will do some justice to how cute the kids looked, but probably not.