Christmas Cheer

Hello everyone – a belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year to you all! Now that Christmas is over, my second round of Korean classes are over, and I’ve wrapped up my third semester of teaching, I have a little more time to relax.

Not too much time though, of course, as I start teaching winter camp tomorrow – at least I had a few days with no responsibilities. I’ve had to be at work the past three days, but just four hours a day, and then I had the rest of the day to do as I pleased. I started swimming again, now that I have the time, so I’ve enjoyed getting in longer afternoon workouts and then still having an evening of productivity when I’m done.

Unfortunately, I got hit with a cold this week, so I’m afraid that will limit my New Year’s plans – I was supposed to go hiking on New Year’s Eve, but I don’t think that will happen, due to the chilly winter weather. As of now I’m not sure what I'm doing for New Year’s, but a Korean tradition is to wake up early and see the sunrise on New Year’s Day – it sounds like a neat idea, and I have definitely never gotten up that early to see the sunrise in the past, so maybe I’ll give it a try this year.

Backing up a bit to the end of the semester, this year, since I had a bit more free reign with my lessons, as a result of actually knowing what I was doing this time around, I decided to do a few extra weeks of Christmas, as it is my favorite holiday, and there are so many fun Christmas activities and ideas for lessons. My extra classes had a day of Christmas decorations to spruce up the English room, which proved to be so popular that my other regular English classes wanted to make decorations too, which Mrs. Lee acquiesced to once their exams were finished. Between making Christmas cards and decorations, playing Christmas trivia games, teaching Christmas vocabulary, and for their grand finale class (my last class of the semester with them) I treated them to mini candy canes (in order to teach them what ‘peppermint’ tastes like) and some Christmas cookies, while we watched a Mr. Bean Christmas episode during which I quizzed them on the vocabulary I’d dutifully been teaching them the past weeks, such as ‘ornament,’ ‘stuffing,’ and ‘reindeer,’ we all had a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed introducing the word and concept of ‘mistletoe’ to my kids, courtesy of the new Justin Bieber song. I found some fun YouTube clips (check out Kisseltoe on YouTube) that depicted exactly what I wanted to convey, but I’m afraid that despite my efforts, some of them may believe that all we do in December is kiss each other every time we walk into a room. Hence, the third grade boys loudly exclaimed that they wanted to move to America for the month of December. At least now they understand the reference. The conclusion of the semester the day before Christmas Eve was fitting, and we ended the week with a fantastic teacher dinner at a seafood restaurant. It was sad saying goodbye to my third graders, however, as I likely won’t see them again except for random meetings in town or at the bus stop. I got pictures with each class and gave them my e-mail address – hopefully I can receive a surprise e-mail here and there in the future. It will be strange to not have them around next year, but I suppose that’s just part of being a teacher.

Outside of the classroom, I attended my second round of Korean class this winter every Saturday morning, which was a lot easier than my first time around, even though I was a level ahead. All the practice and listening exposure I get at school has paid off over the past year – I’m really enjoying learning and using the language, and hope to continue taking classes after vacation. During the week, I kept up with my usual routine of swimming, going to the gym, going to book club, and studying at the local coffee shop. Once the cold weather started though, I started staying home more often, taking advantage of my cosy warm floor and floor mat, where I worked on Christmas presents and cards while catching up on American TV shows and movies on my computer.

This past weekend all of us expats gathered in Jangheung for Round 2 of Korean Christmas. Like Thanksgiving, we had a good crowd of about sixteen people, all who brought obscene amounts of food, along with a White Elephant gift which we used for a fun gift exchange. We played games, ate lots of food, chatted, played football, and had an all around good time enjoying the festivities. It was great to have so many good friends in my adopted home country to share Christmas with.

If you’re wondering what Koreans do for Christmas, it’s go on a date. Christmas = date day. They treat it like a couple’s holiday, so basically if you’re young and single, you don’t get to celebrate Christmas. The young children might receive presents from ‘Santa,’ and most Christians will go to church on Christmas Eve, but for the most part, it’s shopping, going to the movies, and going out to eat for Korean Christmas. Some families will have a tree, some families will make cookies, and it’s popular to buy a ‘Christmas cake’ from a local bakery and eat that with your friends and family for Christmas – kind of like a glorified Valentine’s Day. If you think about it, there weren’t even Christians in Korea until the late 1800s, and during the Japanese occupation (until 1945) most Christian activity was underground or secret, so the concept of Christmas has really only been around since the 1950s. Since then, it’s been commercialized, largely by the USA, but also Canada and Europe, so that these days it’s mostly a holiday for show. But hey, most of the kids have a basic understanding of what it is, and it makes me as a Westerner realize how deep the roots of our culture run, which is all the way down to knowing Christmas stories, movies, and origins.

That about covers what I’ve been up to this past month. I have about three weeks of winter camp – four hours a day, about 12 kids each day – to teach, and then I’m off to Seoul to start my vacation. I’ll be flying around Malaysia and Indonesia, concluding in Bali where I’ll be meeting up with my best friend from college. More on that later – I’ll try to update again before I leave for vacation, but if not you’ll be hearing from me when I get back. In the meantime, you all stay safe and warm, and have a fantastic new year! Miss you all!

Above - a snowy Christmas Eve morning, downtown on my way to Korean class. 

A Season of Blessings

Hi everyone! I hope this finds you well and recovering from your week of holiday eating and celebrating. Speaking of holidays, I've got two coming up for you - not to worry, even though I was missing home I was still able to celebrate.

My year has come to a good end, filled with lots of festivities and fun. When November hit, and the leaves exploded into a beautiful

array of fall colors, there was excitement in the air – namely for two end of the year November events. You know what one of them is – can you think of the other one? When I asked my students this, they all answered: School Festival! Then they racked their brains trying to think of the second one – but then all I needed to say was: “America. Turkey.” They got it.

But before we can begin to talk about the Thanksgiving festivities, it was time to get ready for the event of the year: the Changpyeong Middle School Sports Day and School Festival, which took place the day before Korean Thanksgiving. Same as last year, it was an all day event, with sports day in the morning, followed by an afternoon of performances.

Last year I really had no idea what was going on, and I had to awkwardly follow around my co-teachers, asking about what was happening and what was next. I still had fun though. This year, however, I could read the schedule, I had plenty of kids around who felt comfortable enough with me to chat, and I knew what to expect.

I came to school that day prepared for a morning of outdoor activity: two layers of pants, shirts, a sweatshirt, scarf, and a blanket. As I walked down the hall to the teacher’s office one of my kids told me: “You look like polar bear.” Well, polar bears are warm, right? Here is me in my polar bear motif with one of my students and my dear co-teacher, Mrs. Lee.

The day started off with some stretching, then team division, (blue vs white team – guess which team I rooted for) and we started off with some 100 meter dashes, which yielded some surprising results – I had no idea some of those kids were so fast! Then the groups split off into badminton, T-ball, and kickball, which I was free to wander and observe at any time. I bopped around, chatting to different groups of kids and taking lots of pictures. After the first round of games were finished, it was time for the boys to play soccer and the girls to play a Korean game involving throwing a ball and standing in a square like formation – with some running from one side to another in between. Obviously, I didn’t really understand it, and chose to watch most of the soccer game, which included all of my boys who always wished they were playing soccer instead of in my English class. This time I got to see them strut their stuff, and it was fun cheering them on. The morning concluded with team against team tug of war, and then finished off with an all grades, twelve person relay race. The blue team won!

After a hearty meal of bibimbap (just like last year) and some downtime, it was time for the afternoon of performances. Each class did a performance of various types – the first graders did a skit, three of them did a song and dance, one group did a gag skit, and the last group of third graders did a rap/song. In between individuals and groups performed. I was so impressed by some of my students, mostly because they are so shy in my classes, but when they performed they were amazing. The third grade boys did a K-Pop girl group dance to one of the hit songs of the year, complete with girl costumes. Four of my first grade girls, two of whom are horribly shy, rocked another K-Pop girl group song and dance, which you could tell they had rehearsed endlessly, as it was spot on. One of my favorite performances was when one of my third grade (ninth grade) boys performed a duet with one of his friends – this kid not only gets top grades, speaks English really well, is a superstar soccer player, had just won two running races that morning, but he has a phenomonal voice, unbeknowst to me – I started tearing up when I heard him. Of course, this kid is a hotshot, and tries to kick his soccer ball around during my unsupervised extra classes, resulting in my ‘angry face,’ but still, I had to admire him. What a talented group of kids I have the privilege to work with.

When the last performance came, I was sad to have the day end. One of the third grade classes was up, the rapping group, and when they were finished there was the usual round of applause. But they weren’t finished – to our surprise the song transitioned, and all of a sudden some of them ran off the stage and started grabbing the teachers to drag them onstage. Bewildered, we all stood on stage with them, not knowing what was going on, as they started holding up signs and giving us paper carnation pins. I’m sure the Korean teachers figured it out before I did, but it wasn’t until one of the kids (the hotshot kid, actually) came from backstage with a lighted cake and the students all started singing that I realized they were doing a thank you song to the teachers, as they were part of the graduating class and would be leaving the next month. It was so sweet of them! The signs spelled out “Teachers Thank You” and the carnation pins were to show respect and honor towards teachers (it’s a popular flower to give on Teacher’s Day and Parent’s Day.) And the cake? Obviously it was for the teachers to share, right? Well, that’s what I thought too, but the kids ended up having some fun with it instead. As soon as the song ended what did they do? On cue they all reached their fingers in the cake, scooped up some frosting, and wiped it on the teachers’ faces. Cake war: On.

The festival was over, and the third graders proceeded to smear every last bit of the cake frosting on the teachers and mostly on each other – it was great. Lots of fun pictures, and lots of getting back at students. Okay, just a little getting back at them. More of them getting back at me…(Oh, and I promise the kid next to me does like me...he wasn't ready for the picture. Me and my third graders, post-cake cleanup.)

Prior to School Fest I was feeling a little burned out – I was homesick, the weather was getting colder, and I was dragging my heels a bit with the everyday routine of teaching. But throughout that day I was so revitalized by the energy and enthusiasm of my students – they were having a blast, and it was contagious. I got to hang out with some of my favorite students, I watched soccer sitting on the sidelines with them, we shared blankets to keep warm, and best of all, they enjoyed talking to me and explaining parts of the day. I was beaming – my job as an English conversation teacher had turned into so much more with these kids – I felt like their friend, and they had accepted me as such, even though they had to use English to communicate. I was excited but sad to have just a month left to spend with some of them. It sure gave me a lot to be thankful for. Transition into Thanksgiving…

The week of Thanksgiving I enjoyed enthusiastically teaching middle schoolers about turkey, pumpkin pie, Pilgrims, and stuffing. I received some creative responses such as “ Columbus!” or “Abraham Lincoln!” when I asked who the first people to live in America were, and I had to agree with their bewildered looks when I showed them a couple of YouTube clips about Black Friday. “Why, teacher, why so early?” “I really don’t know, kids.”

We also made some Thanksgiving hand turkeys, which garnered some creative responses. Here are some to give you an idea of what my Korean middle schoolers are especially thankful for:

Of course, talking about Thanksgiving all week was making me quite homesick, but I enjoyed Skyping at 6 AM with the family back home – at least this year Reed didn’t wave a piece of pumpkin pie at me in front of the computer. I happily reminded everyone that next year I will be home for Thanksgiving, and tried to transition my thoughts of homesickness to thoughts of excitement for my own Korean Thanksgiving coming up.

Similar to the year before, this year our gathering consisted of nearly twenty people in one apartment – one of the guys from my orientation last year graciously volunteered to host it this year. We dug into one of the more unique Thanksgiving dinners that I’ve had, complete with pumpkin curry soup, Thai pasta salad, cocktail meatballs, and chips and salsa. Though we lacked a turkey, we at least had some chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, vegetables, and plenty of pie and sweets. As always, the most important part was the good company – I enjoyed chatting and catching up with my group from last year, as well as some of the newer teachers. We even had the downloaded football game from Thanksgiving playing on the big screen – it just about felt like Thanksgiving, even from 2,000 miles away.

I was especially thankful for: my safe, happy and healthy life in Korea, the opportunities and experiences I’ve had since living abroad, my students, my co-workers, my wonderful friends in Korea, and everyone I love back home and can’t wait to see again next year. So many blessings!