Happy Chuseok!

Happy Chuseok!! Today is the beginning of our four-day weekend in honor of Chuseok, an important Korean holiday. It is a bit like Thanksgiving for Koreans; they spend the weekend with their families, often leaving Seoul to visit their parents or grandparents, to whom they give big gift boxes of fruit, or they visit the graves of their ancestors. In addition, instead of having class yesterday, we had an all-school field trip. The pre-school through second graders went to see a show called "Bubble World," while the third through tenth graders went to an amusement park called Everland. Since I am a ninth grade homeroom teacher, I had collected my students' permission slips and money, and yesterday morning, I went over the rules with them and gave them my cell phone number in case they had any problems.

Once we arrived at the park, which was a little more than an hour away, I, like the other homeroom teachers, gave them their passes, told them where to meet us at 2:50 pm, and set them free to enjoy the day (which was 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny). This meant that all of us secondary teachers also had the day to ourselves (I only received one call from a student). The highlight of the day was riding a new (as of last year) roller coaster called the T Express. This is apparently the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world, with the first incline at an angle of 77 degrees, and it was awesome! I was afraid at several points during the ride that I was going to fly out of my seat. It was actually the only roller coaster at the park (the other was closed for inspection). The other "ride" we did was the "safari," which involved waiting in line for a long time and riding in a bus through areas of free-roaming lions, tigers, and bears (and a liger). It was cool but also very sad (the animals did not look happy). Otherwise, we walked around with some other teachers, ate lunch, and watched a too-long "Happy Halloween" parade. One we arrived back at school, Daniel had to talk to a couple parents about their son's inappropriately helping other students with homework. Then, even though we were pretty exhausted, we went to another great concert by the Seoul Philharmonic with Sophie, the band teacher; they played Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead," Sibelius's violin concerto, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Now, we're cleaning the apartment and getting ready to relax and work. Hope you're all doing well!

Some pictures:


The sunset from our apartment


A river near our apartment



It was a beautiful walk but full of mosquitoes.


A stall near our apartment.


Caitlin and Lee on the safari ride at Everland


The two of us (with other teachers in the seats in front of us)


He was this close to my face.


One of the poor bears


The T Express


The beginning of the Halloween parade


The view while walking back to the main entrance