Happy Chuseok!

Hello to all our friends and family. It seems to have been a couple of weeks since we last posted. We have been having difficulty with the internet as we still do not have our Alien Registration Cards and so cannot get our own. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get it in the next week or so. We
Life has been good and busy. We started off our first week with a little bit of stress. It is always hard to learn a new routine and figure out all the ins and outs of a new system. Since all the classes in our school must make sure they stick to the same curriculum and be at the same place at the same time, it is a pretty structured school. This past week, or second of full time teaching, was a little bit less stressful. Matt was able to get a little bit ahead although with a lot of grading to do over the weekend and the next week. Eileen had a bit of a chaotic start as her schedule changed two times on Monday alone. We are enjoying the classes and students as we are beginning to get to know them better. It is interesting to teach second language learners as you are always having to find a new and different way to word or teach something so that it makes sense. It is also different having students from a different culture as they have a different set of background knowledge then kids would in the United States.
On Friday at school we had a good taste of Korean culture. This weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday is Chuseok. This holiday is referred to as the Korean Thanksgiving. It is a time when families travel back to the hometown of their relatives, visit their ancestors' graves, offer food, play games, and do other traditional things that we are still finding out about. So, on Friday morning our preschool and kindergarten classes celebrated Chuseok. First, all of our classes made song peyong. (We are sure we not spelling any of the Korean words right as we am going off of pronunciation) This is a type of rice cake that is filled with sweet sesame seeds or red beans. When we say rice cakes, it is not the crisy cake like Quaker Oats makes in the US. These rice cakes are made from this rice dough called dok. The process is somewhat like making pirogies. The kids took the dough, rolled it into a ball and flattened it with their thumbs to make a little bowl like shape. Then they added a pinch of the filling (try getting preschoolers to add a pinch of anything) and then you close them up into a half moon shape. These are then taken and steamed. Check out our pictures to see what this process looks like when preschoolers attempt it. From Eileen's perspective: It was really fun but a total mess. There was dok every where and all over the place. Some of it was not wet enough and became really crumbly. They were probably also the saddest looking song peyong that I have ever seen. The kids were all adorable because they were wearing the traditional clothes called hanbok. They are very beautiful but also very hot and most hanbok is made out of silk. It was a fun morning.
This past weekend we decided to have an adventure for Chuseok. We packed a couple of bags and headed out on the subway to find a beach. Several hours later after multiple subway lines and bus ride, we ended up at Eulwangni Beach. We hung out on the beach for a while and when low tide suddenly started to take all the water away we decided to stay the night and look for a hotel. Because it is Chuseok, there were not many people at all there. The hotel gave us their "honeymoon" suite, which was very nice, for about half price. We then set off to find a restaurant to eat dinner at. There were tons along this road. They were all seafood and so we just picked one. We had a mollusk dinner which was very good. We ate something that was clear and looked like Jell-o french fries. Our best guess is that it was aloe. We also ate conch, clams, and scallops. The next morning we woke up and hung out at the beach all day while exploring the rocks around. We got a bit of sun but had a really good time. On the way back we decided to change subways and stop in Iteawon which is the foreign section of town. We treated ourselves to a very nice dinner and Eileen was super excited to eat salad for the first time since coming to Korea! After a bit of exploring around that area we also got ice cream from Baskin Robins. Real ice cream too! Korea seems to have a lot of what we call icy cream. It more like what you think a fudgesicle is made out of. It was a very fun and exciting weekend.