Good evening to you all - it's Monday morning here, and I absolutely cannot beliveve it's already November 1st.
Around 10 we headed to the bar, and walked into one of the most fun Halloween parties I had ever been to. The entire event
was actually a benefit for the Mokpo orphanage, and the volunteers pulled it off extremely well. The decorations were excellent, the venue was large enough to host all of us foreigners, and the fundraising was done by selling delicious baked goods, hosting a pumpkin carving contest, and entering the costume contest. (Note to all of you scheming entrepreneurs: if you're going to have a bake sale, have it at a bar. It was pretty much the best thing ever.) It was a fun night of dancing, chatting, looking ridiculous, and enjoying our foreign holiday. If we couldn't be at h
ome for Halloween, we certainly brought Halloween to Korea. The winner of the costume contest was "K-Pop" - can you see her? (K-Pop stands for Korean pop music - lot of boy bands and girl bands - every single one of my middle schoolers knows the hit new K-Pop songs, along with their music video dances.)
As I summed it up to my co-teacher, last week "every day Halloween." I taught a little bit about Halloween to every class last week, concluding with making each student pretend knock on my door and say trick or treat to get candy. (I asked them if they knew the three magic words to get candy on Halloween, and the majority of them guessed "give candy please!") Though most Koreans are aware of Halloween, they don't celebrate it or go trick or treating, so I taught a bit about the history and some key vocabulary terms (jack-o-lantern, haunted house, etc.) On Friday I busted out my awesome witch's hat that I picked up in Seoul to add to the festivities, but the students ended up wearing it more than I did during class. It was a fun week, but tiring as usual, so Friday night I enjoyed a relaxing evening 'coffee shop hopping' downtown - I ended up going to three different coffee shops to read my book (I just finished Born to Run - I recommend it) and write in my journal, simply because I was having so much fun and I wanted to try out some new coffee shops. The weather was brisk, and I went to some of the quieter streets (aka the non bar streets) in between my coffee shops and enjoyed walking around, window shopping, and having the majority of the sidewalk to myself.
Saturday morning I hit the gym, then around lunchtime, Halloween costume in tow, I headed downtown with my friend, where we split a delicious plate of pasta for lunch, and then headed to the orphanage for volunteering. It was one of the most fun orphanage sessions I had been to - one of the volunteers had organized a Halloween paper craft to make our own jack-o-lanterns, so we all had fun helping the girls make theirs (my table, however, ended up playing table dodgeball with our jack-o-lanterns...) I haven't written about the orphanage yet, have I? I'll have to post something soon. It's been a fun Saturday afternoon activity for me, and I am really enjoying getting to know the girls and the other volunteers.
After the orphanage I headed for the bus terminal, where I caught the next bus to the town of Mokpo, where the foreigner Halloween festivities were going to take place. I was staying with some friends of mine who joined us on Jeju Island, as well as stayed with me in Gwangju a few weeks back. When I got in they directed me to their apartment, where we got ready in our Halloween attire. I had a bit of a slapshot costume, but the actual title was "Migliore hip hop street dancer." Migliore is the name of a 
department store in downtown Gwangju, and right outside of it there is a small stage, where there are street dance hip hop perfomances every Sunday night. The performers are mostly teenagers, and they and their crews take turns showing off their stuff. They are quite impressive dancers! The usual attire is a mixture of 'street clothes,' which I chose to represent with black Spandex leggings with gym shorts over them, tennies, a brightly colored t-shirt, and a track jacket, topped off with a backwards baseball cap. I decided to emphasize being comfortable this Halloween...making me a winner even though no one really knew what I was.
department store in downtown Gwangju, and right outside of it there is a small stage, where there are street dance hip hop perfomances every Sunday night. The performers are mostly teenagers, and they and their crews take turns showing off their stuff. They are quite impressive dancers! The usual attire is a mixture of 'street clothes,' which I chose to represent with black Spandex leggings with gym shorts over them, tennies, a brightly colored t-shirt, and a track jacket, topped off with a backwards baseball cap. I decided to emphasize being comfortable this Halloween...making me a winner even though no one really knew what I was.
After getting ready our small group of four headed over to another friend's apartment where people were gathering before heading to the bar. Groups of people kept showing up, and I was amazed at some of the extremely creative costumes, such as "bad yearbook photo," "leaf-blower," and "Korean farmer." 
Around 10 we headed to the bar, and walked into one of the most fun Halloween parties I had ever been to. The entire event
was actually a benefit for the Mokpo orphanage, and the volunteers pulled it off extremely well. The decorations were excellent, the venue was large enough to host all of us foreigners, and the fundraising was done by selling delicious baked goods, hosting a pumpkin carving contest, and entering the costume contest. (Note to all of you scheming entrepreneurs: if you're going to have a bake sale, have it at a bar. It was pretty much the best thing ever.) It was a fun night of dancing, chatting, looking ridiculous, and enjoying our foreign holiday. If we couldn't be at h
ome for Halloween, we certainly brought Halloween to Korea. The winner of the costume contest was "K-Pop" - can you see her? (K-Pop stands for Korean pop music - lot of boy bands and girl bands - every single one of my middle schoolers knows the hit new K-Pop songs, along with their music video dances.)
The next morning my gracious hosts fed me breakfast, and then I was privileged enough to receive a guided tour around their part of Mokpo. It was a beautiful day out, so we went hiking for about an hour or two one of Mokp
o's many peaks, and were rewarded at the summit by beautiful views. Mokpo is a coastal city on a peninsula in the West Sea, and it is surrounded by tiny islands, so everywhere you turned 
you would see city, then ocean, then islands (the islands were so close, however, that it didn't even seem like the ocean!) Because of it's location, Mokpo has been a key player in Korea's history; mostly by fending off foreign invaders. It was a great hike, followed by a walk through the 'old downtown,' which had a lot of cute little shops and restaurants.
o's many peaks, and were rewarded at the summit by beautiful views. Mokpo is a coastal city on a peninsula in the West Sea, and it is surrounded by tiny islands, so everywhere you turned 
you would see city, then ocean, then islands (the islands were so close, however, that it didn't even seem like the ocean!) Because of it's location, Mokpo has been a key player in Korea's history; mostly by fending off foreign invaders. It was a great hike, followed by a walk through the 'old downtown,' which had a lot of cute little shops and restaurants.
We planned to go to the 'new downtown' area after lunch, but decided we would save it for another day, as I still had to get back to Gwangju, and we all had things we wanted to get done for the weekend. I'm sure I will be in Mokpo many more times, especially during the summer months when it is easy to hop on a ferry and head to some of the nearby islands for exploring. But, as always, the weekends have to come to an end. Back to Gwangju and a new week at school.
With that, I have to get some lesson plans into gear here, so I will let you go. I hope you all enjoyed a fun Halloween weekend, and now I wish you all a Happy November! Take care, shoot me an e-mail if you feel like procrastinating on something this week :) Bye!
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