Trick or Treat

While Halloween is hardly celebrated here in Korea, we had a great time making it a special day for the kids this last Friday. We fourth grade English teachers each had a different game/candy and the kids spent the whole day rotating through each of the 4 classes for musical chairs, word scrambles, movies, etc.

Koreans do not trick or treat, nor have most of our students ever worn a costume for this holiday. We found that teaching them the concept of trick or treating was a little more exhausting than we were anticipating. It soon led them to storming into our classes and demanding for candy with their little candy bags, "Give me candy now, teacher." Ha... riiiight.

The day was a hit for the kids and I'm sure we sent them home to their parents on a sugar high. Here's a few shots I snapped during their mask making time and working on their pumpkin scramble worksheet.

Happy Halloween!

Drama Festival

After a long and hectic week, the drama festival we've worked hard with the kids on has finally come to an end. The last few weeks have been spent practicing their English drama script and choreography for 5 different songs (Uptown Girl, Hey Mickey, Lion Sleeps Tonight, Happy, Dancing Queen). In one way it was nice to have a change up in our normal schedule; however, teaching drama/dancing takes it to a whole new level. It definitely made us appreciate our evenings to relax much more!

The fourth grade performed an adaptation of the a popular Korean 'Cinderella' story called "The Clever Kong-Juwi". It feels good that it's over now, but I couldn't help but feel so incredibly proud of our little students when I got to sneak out from backstage and watch a little bit of the play. It was also fun to meet some of the parents. Well, seeine them, smiling, and thanking them in Korean was the extent of our communication.

Now with the festival behind us, we now only have a little over a month of normal teaching, then vacation, and winter camp!

Backstage waiting for the parents to arrive

Nathan's star role ;)

Dancing their hearts out

Group shot with one of the classes

Holidays are a Comin'

Happy early Halloween! With me (Chelsea) being on the events committee at the school, we get to plan fun little get togethers. Since our apartment is one of the larger units near the school, we are more than happy to host! They never seem to have much of a turnout (case and point), but it was a great time to spend some time with our coworkers. Little events like this gives me an excuse to bake my little heart content, try new recipes, and give our apartment a good cleaning.

We celebrated in style last Friday by decorating sugar cookies, drinking apple cider, eating caramel corn and other treats, listening to music, and just shootin' the breeze. I did my best to make it festive with very little available.

Friends gathered around a table of sugary food... what could be better ;)

The holidays are well on their way. We've already celebrated the Canadian thanksgiving with some friends here, we just had our work Halloween hoopla, next is Halloween in the classroom. Before we know it, it'll be our 'real' Thanksgiving, which Nathan and I still don't know what we'll do for Thanksgiving and Christmas yet. We'd love to travel somewhere for our Christmas break, but the goal of saving money kind of gets in the way. We shall see.

I'm finding it difficult to be excited about the holidays since we're so far from both our families and the comfort that comes during this season, but we'll do what we can to make the best of it.

Hope all is well on the 'other side'. Keep us in your prayers as we are both feeling awfully lonely away from the support of our family and friends during this time. About 4 months to go!

More Fieldtrips

Last Thursday was our monthly fieldtrip. It felt like we JUST went on our September one to the 'Dream Forest' and here we are embarking on an hourish trip to a science museum in Seoul with our little kiddos. We had a great time wandering around the rather large and impressive museum, watching a space video, and spending time with the little ones.

These fieldtrips are rather stress free for us English teachers because the Koreans prefer to take it into their own hands as far as scheduling/keeping the kids in order, which is OK with us. Makes our time away from the classroom a little more enjoyable!

This is just one of the 4th grade classes (there are 4 total). The two teachers in the back left are Jay (Korean homeroom teacher) and Steph (obviously a fellow English teacher). I'm there crouched down on the right.

Wedding Bells in Korea

Nathan and I went to our first wedding together just this last weekend since we've been married. One of our Canadian coworkers here married a Korean lady. It was a great day and a much different style wedding than I've been to before.

Here in Korea, most weddings take place at designated "wedding halls" that supply you with EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. Cake, dress(es), suit, pastor, get away car, food, etc, etc. There's even a narrator (apart from the pastor) during the ceremony that tells you when the bride and groom bow to each other and to the parents, when to exchange rings, when to clap, etc.

Since the wedding was about half-filled with foreigners, there was a Korean pastor and an English pastor who both did separate sermons. Everything else was done in Korean with a little bit of translation.

After the traditional "western" ceremony, the bride and groom changed into traditional Korean garments for pictures, which to my knowledge is symbolic for fertility. During that time the rest of us went through the buffet line for kimchi, dak bokki, sushi, and more Korean delicacy.

During the English sermon at the ceremony.

'Hanbok' is the traditional clothing here in Korea, which is often sported at weddings by the women in the two families.

Havin' a good time with friends.

Following the ceremony we waited a couple hours and then went to a nearby pub for the reception. It was great to spend time with our other coworkers outside of work and to experience a wedding here in Korea.

Fieldtrip to Dream Forest

One of the joys of teaching is going on fieldtrips. While it can be quite stressful to herd around 140 4th graders, it's so great to get out of the class and have a little extra time playing with the kids. We hit up "Dream Forest" for our Sept. fieldtrip. While it may have been dreamy, it was certainly no forest. Seoul+Forests=False. It was a great time hiking up to the observatory to check out the surrounding "mountains" and leading games for the kids to loosen up and get out some energy. I know these pictures mean nothing to any of you because you don't know any of the kiddos, but I've still gotta show 'em off. :)

Can't go on a fieldtrip without a visor!!

Denny is special. He refused to take his jacket off due to the "invisible" bugs that might bite him, while also wearing a visor that shielded his entire face. Love this kid.

The girls practicing their jump rope skills.

Taking a breather after hiking up to the observatory.

Mischievous little boys.

Cute girls.

Careful of that sun Billy.

Francis Chan in Seoul

We had the honor of seeing Francis Chan speaking at a church here in Seoul this week. For those of you who don't know who Francis Chan is... he is a very well-known pastor and has also made significant impact through a handful of popular books (Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell).

Nathan and I made it to the service exceptionally early, which is very out of character for us, but we even still struggled to find a seat in the HUGE sanctuary. Thankfully we were able to swipe some seats.

Since it took place in a Korean church, the only English spoken throughout the service was Chan who stopped at every phrase to wait for the Korean translator. I don't know how they do it. If I had to stop after every few words, my brain would be a complete train wreck. I'd be writing down notes just to remember the rest of my sentence.

Chan certainly does have a gift and it was awesome to see him speak live. He tends to give very simple, yet powerful sermons loaded full of stories. Nathan and I both walked away feeling encouraged.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

NP#16

Nathan's recently joined a new team here, which has turned out to be a great switch. It's been awesome to see him back out on the field scorin' goals.

His very own Korean jersey... Nay-ee-tuh

Camping in Korea

This post is a little delayed, seeing as though our camping trip took place last month. My picture options were limited, but here you have a little taste of our "roughing it" here in Korea.

It started off as an epic trek. The 6 of us were quite pleased with the city of Inje and the more secluded feeling it gave us. We all bused about 1.5 hrs with all our tents, coolers, and all the other essential camping gear. After sending the boys off to find us the perfect home base, we finally found just the spot to set up camp, build a campfire, and start up the electric element for some coffee and banana bread. Little did we know that nonstop rain was in store for us as the evening progressed.

We stuck it out through the night. Some got more soaked than others. :/

The next morning we hiked up onto the main road and found a tented area. We weren't sure if we'd get yelled at for taking over, but we brought a good supply of food and games up to our dry area and decided to wait out the rain while our camping spot continued to get poured on. Needless to say, the rain never let up so we had to cut out trip short. We still had a great time in the 'depths' of Korea, but it only inspired us to do more camping back home. There's just something about it.

Mark and Meighan relocating all our gear

Marie and Joe keepin' dry

Hitting rocks with a mangled bat

Relieved to have us home ;)