American Thanksgiving in Korea

Korea has it's own Thanksgiving, it's called Chuseok, I added a wikipedia explanation below.

Chuseok, also called Han-ga-wi (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar Korean calendar. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.

Of course no one celebrates American holidays in Korea, except for people on the military bases. I was invited to go to a friends house on a military base in Daegu to have dinner with them on Thanksgiving but since I had to work that was impossible. So I ended up not doing anything for Thanksgiving, the American one, I ate some potatoes and corn but that was it. I have never been a person who really got all that into holidays so for me it wasn't a big deal but it was strange that a week before Thanksgiving I didn't even realize that it was coming up. It wasn't until I was watching the Buckeyes beat Michigan that I was told it was just around the corner. If I hadn't have had a video call to my family I might have forgotten about it completely. I also got a email from my friends in Daegu with a picture of their baby in a Thanksgiving outfit, so that would have reminded me too.

I guess this blog is pointless,its just about how easy it is to forget about American holidays when you are on the other side of the world. Christmas is celebrated here so I will be able to celebrate it with the rest of the country and my fellow teachers. Businesses and Cities have already began to decorate places with Christmas decorations. I was in Seoul last weekend and we saw a public square being decorated with a huge Christmas display and what might have been a skating rink or large stage.
I also ate at Bennigan's and they had their Christmas decorations up and were playing all Christmas music. SO I guess even without a Thanksgiving they put the Christmas decorations up the weekend after it regardless.

Halloween in Korea

Halloween is not celebrated in Korea but many kids go to English schools or have English teachers at their public schools and they celebrate the holiday there. At my school some of the teachers dress up and we take the classes to a room where we scare the kids and give them candy. I dressed up as the scream killer and another teacher at my school was a goblin nun.I scared the kids on the walk to the room by hiding around corners and jumping out at them, a few even fell over they were so scared(in the US this wouldn't be acceptable but it was expected of us here and the kids loved it,the more scared they were the happier they got) then we lead the classes in a pitch black room where the other teacher was hiding behind a table. Then I shut the door and waited until the hidden teacher was by the kids, then I turned on the lights and we screamed. The kids are scared and they love it. We then give them candy and had a brain box(pumpkin guts in a box that says brains on it) that the kids can stick their hand in, also there is Halloween music and the teachers have special lessons about the holiday for class that day. Other schools have similar celebrations. The English teachers at public schools even dress up.

At some schools all the teachers both Korean and Foreign dress up, pre-schools and daycares also celebrate the holiday. Most Korean kids are exposed to Halloween. They love it, they get candy and get out of their normal studying routine, so whats not to love. Many of the kids also dress up and they love this too.

I also know that many of the US military bases open their gates on Halloween and allow Korean and Foreign kids to come on base and go trick or treating. In Daegu their was a line of over 1000 kids a half hour before the event started.

6 Months in Korea, half way done

On November 15h I finished my 6th month in Korea. Time has gone by quickly but it also seems like I have been here for years. I have gotten to travel to Thailand, China and see quite a bit of Korea. It has been a great experience and I have learned a lot about myself and about people from other countries outside of the U.S. Most of the English teachers here are from Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and of course the U.S. Before I came to Gumi I new a lot about Americans and Canadians but I have gotten to learn about the other English speaking people in the world. I have also gotten to learn about Korea, it's culture,customs, history, people and even a little bit of it's language. Koreans are very different from Westerners and I have learned a lot about myself through them. I have learned that I love some of their foods, especially their Kimchi. I have learned about their kindness and their tempers. I have challenged my vegetarianism, my patience and my intellect. I have gotten to make many new friends that have and will continue to change me for the rest of my life.

If anyone is thinking about teaching abroad for a year I highly recommend it, sometimes it sucks, but overall it is a great experience and at least in Korea you can make a lot of money and pay very little in taxes to Korea(less than 10% for pention,health care and taxes). I am very happy to not be supporting the U.S. Government right now, I don't agree with their policies and I am happy that none of my money will go to support needless wars. So far Korea has rocked and I look forward to the next 6 months, I plan to travel to another country before I leave during the Lunar New Year in February and I will be spending 5-6 weeks in Australia after my contract is finished.

Pepero Day

On the 11th of November in Korea they have a holiday that is similar to Sweetest Day in the States. They celebrate Valentines Day here but it is also similar to Valentines Day. The day is called Pepero Day. Pepero is a cookie stick that is dipped in chocolate in its most popular form, sometimes it has sprinkles or nuts on the top too. Also some of the smaller forms have the chocolate on the inside of the cookie. The idea is that you give your boyfriend or girlfriend Pepero on the 11th and/or flowers or other romantic gifts. As with Valentines day in the States school children exchange this candy with their classmates regardless of their romantic involvement. As a teacher I was given a ton of these sticks. The day was most likely started by the Lotte, the company that makes the original form of this candy. There is a story that it was started by young girls in Busan, Korea's second largest city, it's said that they exchanged the candy and wished that they would grow up tall and thin like the candy. Regardless it started back in 1994 and has been copied in Japan with a different candy called Pocky.

Sangju Mountain

This past Saturday all 21 teachers and staff from both the schools I work for went to Sanju Mountain for a group hike. We all left at 9am on one of the buses the school owns. We traveled a little over an hour to get to Sangju Mountain. I don't know the exact length of our hike but it was around 8km. The mountain is very beautiful. It is surrounded by a small town, I am not sure of the name of this town. The hike was mandatory which pissed me off, but it was fun. My school tries to get all the teachers together every month or two for bonding. I find it a bit draconian to tell people what they have to do on non work hours but at least we get free meals out of it. It's better than the ridiculous trainings we also have to attend on our time, those really piss me off. But TIK (This Is Korea) most management decisions here are not based on logic but are rather based on trying to control people, which is about 40 years behind the US style. Anyway, the hike was cool, a few of the teachers struggled on the hike, our owner took more than an hour after the rest of the group to finish the hike but everyone finished eventually. The top of the mountain had a temple, most mountain peaks in Korea have temples, a solar power array and a helicopter pad. There were also a few spots were you had to use a rope to go up or down. After the hike two of the teachers and I got drunk while we waited for the owner then we went to a duck restaurant, I had cod. It was a fun and scenic forced hike.