Hat Day!

Yesterday we had another Theme Day at school and this time it was all about the hats or 모자 (moeja), as they are called in Korean. I saw a lot of baseball caps, sun visors and even a few straw hats but I was not prepared for what McQueen brought. You may remember him from the crazy fire gear post last month.



He's not looking too impressed in the picture but all the kids went nuts over this crazy hat. Where do his parents buy these things?!? Seriously? These are not the sorts of things you find in a regular store.






All my kids were really cute though. Here are a few highlights and a trusty link to my Photobucket so you can see them all.

Oh my word!

Teacher's Day is fast approaching (May 15th) and today I was given my very first gift. Grace's Mom brought Paige and I some thoughtful handpicked gifts enclosed in some very swanky looking gift bags. So there was no mistake she had carefully written our names on the bags to ensure the correct gift reached the correct teacher. My present actually took my breath away when I opened it. Here are a few pictures of me modeling it (I know I look tired, it's been a long week so give me a break).
Did you do a double take? It's possible that the picture doesn't properly represent the true glory of my brand new double stranded braided white leather headband. Who makes these things? (Answer: the brand Evita Peroni) Who buys these things? (Answer: Grace's Mommy) And most importantly, who wears these things? (Answer: ME NOW!!!) I am so amused (and not in a snide, unappreciative kind of way). I feel like I should be hanging out with Duran Duran or going on tour during the classic Bon Jovi days. It's time for some hair metal or some tapered acid-washed jeans. Braided white leather!!

It makes me wonder, why was this gift carefully chosen especially for me? Did she let little Grace pick it out or did she think this was my kind of style? I had no idea I had an empty braided white leather headband void in my life until I came to Korea. I am ready to take any new hairstyle suggestion as long as it incorporates my new headband. Oh and for the record, Paige got a very normal looking black beaded headband and when I opened my present Paige thought it was a necklace! Other people were given gifts early too. Joi was given some grapefruit body wash as a present but I think my present is more personal and memorable. Bring on Teacher's Day- I'm primed, stoked and wearing my 80s headband!

Gyeongbokgung Palace

On Saturday we finally decided to check out Gyeongbokgung Palace which is the largest palace in Seoul. You may recall that we visited Deoksu Palace awhile back. This one was much larger and more interesting but I wish we'd gone to it first because a lot of the buildings are really similar to Deoksu so for me it wasn't as exciting. Gyeongbokgung is filled with trees and would be a really great place to have a picnic and just walk around and look at the palace. Matt and I weren't thinking very clearly and we decided to visit on Children's Day and it turned out that kids were admitted free and so the place was swarming with people.

















I love these shoes and I'm so happy that I bought them, however, I should have worn protective bandaids on my baby toes. Alas, I am now full of the blisters. Beauty is pain, right?
















I forced Matt to take pictures of me so that I could be featured on the blog for a change. However, my favorite picture of me (left) I took my damn self.

Matt bonded with his Chinese zodiac animal outside the folk museum.

Attached to the palace grounds is the National Folk Museum which is also worth checking out. It's possible that Matt and I are delinquents, but we couldn't find anywhere to buy tickets (and it does say there is an admission price on the website) and so we just walked in. Of course, it is possible that because it was Children's Day they were letting people in for free so I am going to pretend that's what happened. We were pretty tired when we walked through here so we probably didn't spend the time we could have. This museum really teaches you a lot about Korean history and customs and the information is printed in both Korean and English (decent English at that!) on all the signs. They also had a mighty tasty little coffee shop at the entrance where I purchased a very delicious Jeju mandarin orange slushie. For all the pictures, venture over here.
Oh to be royalty. I want a casket like this when I die.

The Friendship Festival

For the first week of May there is a massive festival called the Hi Seoul Festival and basically there are all sorts of cool events and sub-festivals planned at various locations all over Seoul. There were too many (and they were too spread out) to realistically attend but I did manage to go to the Friendship Festival and the Magic Festival.

The Friendship Festival was from April 27-29th and I went on the 29th. Ironically I experienced the Friendship Festival alone because Matt decided he had to do his report cards instead and that he couldn't finish them in time and go to the festival. It was all right though because it was really cool and I enjoyed myself anyway. It was held in Seoul Plaza and it was a really beautiful, warm day. There was a big stage set up and the hosts spoke in Korean and English. Dancers from around the world were showcased and there were booths representing tons of countries where you could buy food and goods. I bought a number of really cool things including a painting from Sri Lanka, a purse (which is a much deeper burgundy red than the picture shows) and wallet from India, and chocolate from Kazakhstan.


The event was so well planned and everyone was really friendly and things were actually reasonably priced. I realized how jaded festivals like the Taste of Edmonton have made me when I lined up to get a henna tattoo and then was SHOCKED to realize that both the henna tattoos and the face painting were FREE. And when a woman politely approached me with two books on Korean history and I almost asked her how much they cost. I felt humbled when she asked if I would take them, read them and then please donate them to my local library in Canada so that we could have some books on Korean history. Later when I was wandering through the different booths a woman from the China booth gave me a brand new set of postcards. This never happened in Edmonton! And I was able to buy a cup of fancy milky tea for $1 and a bunch of samosas for $3. I'm not used to festivals where people give you nice free gifts and you can afford to eat and drink.



Free stuff!! I love free stuff!




The whole plaza was surrounded by framed drawings/paintings done by kids that live in Korea (but who weren't necessarily Korean by birth). There was a big wall where you could write your wish to the world. Also there was a place to try on costumes and play percussion instruments from around the world. It was a really fun time, even if I went without any friends. This festival has been the most impressive one I've been to. If you're looking for more pictures you can go here. If it's awesome video from all the cool dancers you can look here, here, here or here!
Someone dressed up in one of the costumes and one of the Mexican dancers.

Here's a couple of my favorite drawings by the kids.

A few fun things...

I am hoping to be able to do a mass update in the next couple days. Until then, I just wanted to show a few cool things that made me smile. First up is my new phone strap! Sorry the picture is so blurry, I guess I could take another if I wasn't feeling lazy. Anyway, Paige Teacher bought it for me and the three of us each have a matching one in a different color. I picked red because it brings out Astroboy's boots. If you look closely at the phone strap you'll see that the 3 of us are clearly represented in pig form- Joi and I being the black pigs, of course. My phone is getting more and more Korean every day.











Beside my awesome phone is the card Matt made for me today. He's cheeky, eh? It made me chuckle anyhow.

And last but not least is the shirt Joi wore today that makes absolutely no sense. I've only shown the back view, the front just has some random black apples on it.

Stay tuned because there is so much to look forward to! I still have to write about the Friendship Festival, our trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Magic Festival!

I am giddy to inform you...

That I officially have only four elementary classes. This means that on my busiest days (Mon. and Fri.) I have 4 classes and all the other days I only have 2 classes. On Tues. and Thurs. I get off work at 4:30pm again and it's almost like I have a regular, humane job. We're not going to talk about Matt's schedule since it is not as favorable but I am going to enjoy mine while it lasts. Which probably means until Joi leaves and they don't have a replacement for her and we have to work crazy overtime and pick up the slack again. I'm trying to be hopeful though.

Norae Bang the Night Away

On Saturday, April 21st we went out with Eddie and Gisela to have a massive birthday celebration for Eddie. We ventured to Myeongdong in hopes of finding the stellar norae bang that Matt and I stumbled upon months ago. All other norae bangs had the same batch of English songs but this one had way more and a lot of really new songs. First we went to a really delicious Italian restaurant where we both ordered the "Couple Set" which included a number of courses and dessert for a fairly reasonable price. We also got a bottle of wine. Yum. Then we searched out and found the norae bang! Unfortunately they put us in a different room and this one just had the standard book. Matt and I have norae bang-ed a vast number of times but this was their first time. I was glad we could be there not only for Eddie's birthday but also to witness the loss of their norae bang virginity.

We may have had a drink or two and we may have had the longest marathon norae bang ever. Nothing can truly be confirmed. The time would tick down and then suddenly it would shoot back up again! My theory is that we were so awesome that they couldn't bear to make us leave. We stayed so long that we had to start buying the gross Korean liquor (but luckily they then brought in complimentary nuts and chocolate rocks so we used them as a chaser) and that the subways stopped running and we ended up getting a hotel room. There are a lot of good pictures but my favorite thing is the video I took of Eddie singing Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All". The entire song is pretty emotional but the crowning moment for me was when he belted out the line, "No matter what they take from me they can't take away my dignity". I think that sums up the night pretty well. And no, I won't be releasing the video since he took one of Gisela and me singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Until I get the upper hand on blackmail material the video will have to remain for private viewing only. I will release the pictures though. Here are a couple highlights.
Like I mentioned, the subways were closed and instead of taking a cab we stayed in an actual hotel. It was pretty sweet. I was tempted to take this for the school though so that we could have a real descending lifeline.


Korea may be way ahead in the electronic technology department but we are really kicking their asses with our fire safety equipment. Your fancy computers and cell phones aren't going to save you if there's a fire!

I find something new everyday...

Even though I've been here over 8 months now and I have walked through Gimpo too many times to count, I always seem to stumble upon new and amusing things.











I've been looking everywhere for somewhere to upgrade my dignity!

Free Gift with Purchase

Last week Joi bought some ribs at our handy dandy local market. I'm not sure if this is the standard thing or if it's because we're foreign or if they were just trying to get rid of it, but she was given this free gift.

"Wrapped in the soft rays of the sun, a pleasant story."

Apparently the soft rays of the sun reek of gas. We had to wash this towel immediately because the fumes were so strong. I don't know where they were storing the towel but I sure hope it's not the same place they keep the meat.

Field Trip to the Children's Museum

I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to update about the last field trip we went on with the kindergarten students. We traveled all the way to Incheon to the Children's Museum there. Apparently Little Brown occasionally recycles field trips since old Matt teacher showed me some pictures of the field trip they took last year to this museum. It was still pretty fun and cool.

The museum had a number of very different sections. The first was filled with lots of hands on toys, a jungle gym, some drums, blocks, this kind of thing. The kids had a great time trying them all out and trying to make patterns and stuff out of the blocks.
Ben and Brian.

Next we watched "Hansel and Gretel" in 3-D. Maybe I'm getting old but I really don't remember the part in Hansel and Gretel where they were trying to escape the witch's cottage and they had to dodge all those booby traps and run Indiana Jones style away from a giant boulder. And then when the witch's evil bird friend was accidentally changed to look just like Hansel and Gretel had to try to tell them apart so her brother could live. It's probably just my memory though.

The third section involved walking through a giant dinosaur cavern. It didn't actually have any skeletons or fossils but it did have terrifying lifesize dinosaur replicas and scary background noise. I could barely get some of my kids to walk through. I certainly didn't expect to see this display in the Children's Museum.


Lesson learned: velociraptors are not cuddly.





The next section was probably the most interesting and most museum-like. In the first room it showed an old Korean school room with an actual CHALKBOARD. Oh man, do I ever feel old! The next room showed what school is like in North Korea (which just seemed to involve white uniforms). Then we came to this large room that was supposed to show the rest of the world. This room just slayed me and possibly North American society is getting too politically correct but almost everything struck me as being at least mildly racist. It's worth it to click on these pictures and look at them full size!
We were not able to match anyone's skin color. I wonder what that means.

Everyone touched base with their home countries. It was nice to see some familiar faces, you know, people who really look like us.




I am assuming this was showing how people dress in different climates.





Then we looked at artifacts from different places in the world. Some were statues, some were carvings and then there was a section completely devoted to musical instruments.

The last area was a science based one where the kids got to do things like pump water, ride a bike and create electricity or power a propeller. There also were funhouse style mirrors.

Then it was lunchtime and the mommies had prepared an astounding amount of gimbap, fruit and pork cutlets. It was truly delicious and we all made giant pigs of ourselves.

After lunch it was time to go home but it had been a really satisfying day. Look at how happy Joi Teacher was!

Maybe for our next field trip we can visit this place. After all, it is right next door to the Children's Museum. More pictures here.