Chusok!

Happy Chusok? Merry Chusok? I'm not really sure what to say... But it's Chusok!

Chusok is Korea's version of Thanksgiving, which means we get a 4 day weekend! Friday at school we had a couple of Chusok events to celebrate. First, all of the students wore the traditional Korean Clothing, Hanboks (spelling?). In the morning we learned how to make our own rice cakes, which is a kind of Korean dessert I guess you could say (they're almost indescribable...) and in the afternoon the Korean teachers did a presentation on why we celebrate Chusok and what Koreans normally do on the holiday (go and visit relatives and pay respect) and then we played a traditional Korean stick game (that I still don't understand...)

 Gemini!

 Vivian

 Faith

 Micky

 

Paul

 Christine- She's in the 5 year old class

 Making rice cakes- First we squished and squeezed the rice part and formed it into a ball. Then you made a little hole in the middle to add a nut or some sesame seasoning. Last, you closed up the rice around the nut or sesame and formed it into a half moon shape...

 Mickey and Paul came up with a little rhyme for when they put the nut inside the rice and then close it up- Rock a bye baby, up to the moon, kill the baby....

 The girls were much nicer to their rice cakes

 Grace Teacher explaining how to play

 The 6 year olds giving the game a try

Brian and I don't have any BIG plans for our Chusok.... We're hoping to tackle some of the big cleaning and packing items on our list for our last month here! We've only got about 2 and 1/2 weeks of teaching left! Time is going so quickly! With some early preparation and packing I think we'll be ready to go at the beginning of October!