School Festival!

So, last week was Yeongcheon Girls' Middle School's School Festival. It's basically two days of games/contests for the students, and a way to show some school pride. Since I'm not a homeroom teacher, I didn't have to do anything other than watch the festivities, so it was nice and easy for me.

The students were really cute they way they got all into it, and the weather was perfect. Sunny, but not hot, and with a breeze. I really think fall is a gorgeous season here. Although it isn't quite as green and lush as the summer, the summer is also really, really humid and full of bugs. So, all things considered, I prefer this. I took a bunch of movies this time, so hopefully they'll all work.

The girl in the top picture with me, also shown here on the far right, is a mentally-disabled student, so I don't actually teach her. But, for some reason, she loves seeing me and talking to me, although she only knows a few words. She's also one of the only students I know who likes getting her picture taken. She had me take her picture several times during the day, but I chose these two to post. She's always friendly and cheerful, which is something I can relate to. The girl on the left is holding a sign reading, "현정님찬양."

찬양 means "praise," and 현정 (Hyun-jung) is a name, and 님 is a respectful title suffix (like Mr. or Mrs.),

so I believe it is a sign cheering for Teacher Hyun-jung.

More stuff after the cut!

Andong Mask-Dance Festival

Actually, the Andong Mask-Dance Festival was several weekends ago, but I'm always behind in posting.

Basically, the festival celebrates traditional mask-masking and traditional mask dances. We didn't get to see as many performances as I would have liked, but it was blast. We ate lots of unhealthy fair food, made masks, and wandered around. There were tons of other foreigners there. Clearly, everyone at Orientation had put this on the to-do list. The weather was very nice, and we stayed one night in Andong. We didn't really see any of the city other than the festival grounds, though.

More pictures after the cut!

The List

This blog entry features a list of things I miss about America and a list of things I like about Korea. I like doing this several times while I'm abroad to see how I change/adapt.

Ok, it turned out kind of long, so it's after the cut.

Seoul!

This post is kind of late, but that's the nature of things. Anyway, Korea has two main national holidays, New Year's and Chuseok. Chuseok is sort of a Thanksgiving Day when you pay respects to your ancestors and thank them for the harvest. Everyone travels to their hometowns to pray at their parents' or grandparents' graves and make the traditional offerings of food and alcohol. As for foreigners, it's a great time to travel to some of the big cities because they're relatively empty during this time. For that reason, my friends and I took off for Seoul.

It was actually a great time to visit, as it wasn't overcrowded and the weather was good (although Seoul had actually experienced flooding the day before we arrived). The subway was easy to use and decently priced. Because of all the foreigners, I was able to pick up American chocolate chip cookie mix and Germn schoko-muesli, two things that made me very happy. We stayed at a hostel that was conventiantly located right over a subway station. It was a nice, reasonable place with free breakfasts. All five of us shared one room, and it had a kitchen, fridge, and computer with internet. This post has lots of pictures, so I put them after the cut!