Happy Black Day!!!

For those of you who aren't Korean holiday savvy, April 14th is Black Day. It is a day for single people that missed out on Valentines Day (February 14th - girls give chocolates to the boys) and White Day (March 14th - boys give candy to the girls). It is a day to go out and stuff yourself with jjajangmyun, a Korean 'Chinese' food that consists of super long thick noodles with a black bean sauce.

gifts

I got a couple of gifts this week, both from the same student!Yesterday I got a nice gift for the Lunar New Year or 설날 (it is Romanized as Seollal, but the Korean is actually written as Seolnal), one of the most important holidays in Korea.The paper Hanbok (Korean dress) is a card from Kerry. A letter from the mom is in the envelope. The purple ribbon gift contained a business card holder. The red bag wrap had a fancy cloth bag and a note book. I guess Kerry picked out a book for me that had a butterfly because she likes butterflies.Then today, it was Kerry's birthday party at school (and her sisters, but I don't teach her) and the gifts she brought for her classmates and teachers (goodie bag type gifts) was fancy soap. The students all got one bar. The main teachers each got two. They smell so nice!!!
One thing I find interesting in Korea is how everything is always wrapped. Even simple things are often wrapped very extravagantly.

Chuseok and Namsangol Hanok Village

October 4th, 2009
Since it was Chuseok I decided that I should do at least something Korean, as opposed to spending the entire weekend out all night and sleeping all day, which is what I did Thursday night, Friday night and part of Saturday night - not that that isn't a very Korean thing, as they seem to do that quite frequently, even on week nights (the drinking part, at least). So Sunday I got up at a fairly decent time and dragged my friend Revo to the Namsangol Hanok Village (남산골한옥마을), at the base of Namsan (san is mountain), near Chungmuro station. [hee hee. made him pose for me]The Namsan Hanok Village is comprised of 5 traditional Korean homes from the Joseon period that were moved there in 1998 when part of the army base was moved. [a kitchen][a kimchi hut - a kimchi pot is buried up to the lid and covered with this hut to keep it cooled]There are always traditional Korean activities to partake in but since it was Chuseok, there were even more. Revo wearing a Jige - a traditional Korean device for carrying things (wood, etc).A throwing game - throw a bean bag like thing through the hole.[making traditional Korean shoes/slippers]There were Korean crafts and games such as kite making, paper doll making (well, the painting part and giving them clothes, at least), fan painting, [Revo's fan][my fan :)]

mask making (using crepe paper on a pre-formed paper mask of varying designs such as traditional, cat, butterfly), and solpyeon (rice cake) making. [pounding the rice to make rice cake]There were plenty of other activities as well: trying on traditional clothes, ball tossing, and see-saw jumping (nolttwigi), which is typically a women's activity or sport. It is similar to the western see-saw only a bit longer and they stand on it rather than sitting, jumping in turn. The women literally fly and often do acrobatics while in the air. It is quite impressive, actually. Others are swinging (kunettwigi), which is also done standing up, spinning tops, arrow throwing, hoop rolling, demos of traditional Korean bow making and other such things.[kimchi etc pots and a persimmon tree][making dubu (tofu) I think]Of course, as well as the activities there are the homes to check out, some of which contain examples of the costumes that they wore.There are also traditional Korean characters to pose with. View of Namsan Tower from the Namsan Hanok Village:

Chuseok

Last weekend was Chuseok (추석 /Korean Thanksgiving). Chuseok, which I have posted about before, though with pictures and not as much detail, is one of the most important holidays in Korea (along with Seolnal, the Lunar New Year) and is a 3 day holiday. The main day (the middle of the 3) is August 15th on the Lunar calendar so it changes every year. Unfortunately it fell on a weekend this year, which meant only a 3 day weekend rather than a 4 or 5 day weekend that it often is. For Chuseok, Koreans (especially children) often dress up in their Hanbok (한복/ traditional Korean clothing) and visiting family is the norm. Women aren't always fond of these holidays because they are required to cook so many things. A big Korean dinner is not a simple affair and can take days of preparation due to all of the side dishes and such. During Chuseok, children bow to their elders (well, more of a prostration with the forhead touching the hands on the floor) and often get money in return. One of the most common special foods for Chuseok is songpyeon (송편), a rice cake stuffed with a number of things from sugar, sesame seeds, chestnut, and other such things. For the occasion, Thursday at my kindy was 'Hanbok Day'. The kids dressed up in their Hanboks (which seem to be getting fancier every year) and got to do several Korean activities including making songpyeon and playing jegichagi, a simple game similar to a hackey sack. The game is generally played with 4 people, passing it around trying to keep it from touching the ground.For the kids, the thing is tied to a string to help them keep it from going everywhere.I had my 6 yr old students for 30 minutes that day (each class 30 minutes). We didn't know until pretty much the day before that it was even Hanbok Day and were not told that we were expected to teach the kids something Korean (without any info or help), I had them coloring some simple pages I found on the Net. The kids didn't mind!! Hanok - Korean traditional house with a persimmon tree [coloring page]Hanbok - Korean traditional clothing [coloring page]
I colored along with them and most of them were trying, at least partly, to copy what I was doing.
If I didn't have other work to do that day I would have more pictures of the things they did.
more to come about Chuseok...

Happy Pepero Day!!! :)

For those that don't know, November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada. Here in Korea, it's a very different type of day. It's Pepero Day. They figure 11/11 looks like Pepero sticks, hence the day. It is basically just a way for Lotte company to make more money (along with all of the other brands with similar snacks). Pepero is basically bread sticks dipped in chocolate. There are several other varieties of Pepero: [1983-chocolate Pepero; 1984-almond Pepero; 1994-strawberry Pepero, flake Pepero; 1995-cheese Pepero, coffee Pepero; 1996-peanut Pepero, hazelnut Pepero, bulgogi Pepero [really??? sounds gross... bulgogi is meat!!]; 1997-peanut butter Pepero; 2000-nude Pepero [basically inside out with the chocolate on the inside]; 2005-black Pepero; 2006-Cocoa Pepero; 2007-nude Pepero, lemon cheese Pepero]
And of course anything here in Korea wouldn't be complete without characters, e-cards, a song and animation.
I posted about Pepero a couple of years ago, so if you are interested in finding out more, check out that post.

Chris's Christmas Party 2007

On the 15th I went to the eagerly anticipated party hosted by Chris. Last year's Halloween and Christmas parties, and this year's Halloween party were so great that it was hard to imagine he could make it any better. He never disappoints! Always the host with the most.His entire home was wrapped up Christmas style. Several activities were planned.First up was the tree trimming. Of course, most of the decorations were made by Chris - pictures of himself and friends.And of course, the star has to top the tree!Then there was a bit of a game of paper bag pinatas, using a small wooden sword that Chris had on display in his room. The game evolved a few times:soft ball styleT-ball styleA little later, once the mess of shattered candy was cleaned up, we played a game of pin-the-candycane-on-the-elf. Since the blindfold was no-where to be found, we had to settle for just closing our eyes. It worked well anyway.Then came the Christmas Story and carols. Every Christmas, Chris writes a story and carols for his friends.What is a Christmas party without a visit from Santa?Or a customary photo with the Man in Red.Everyone participated in the White Elephant gift exchange. There was a wide range of gifts from just plain useful to the useless, the funny to the questionable, etc.gameswinter hatsSPAM, toilet paperAnother thing that Chris always plans is a variety of contests such as naming a character or coming up with a caption for a picture. I won one of the caption contests, but won't tell you what it was.