Happy Thanksgiving!

Standing next to people having a conversation in Korean...I'm like...


So the Korean is coming along.  Kind of.  I mean sometimes I can understand my name in Korean...Kelshe. I can also say 'I'm cold' (chuwhyo), 'school' (hakyo), 'meat' (galbi), 'no' (anyo), 'bibimbap' (bibimbap), and 'dakgalbi' (dakgalbi).  Okay maybe the last two don't count.  But they are delicious Korean foods and I give myself some credit for being able to find them on a Korean menu.  Reading Hangul is going much better than a month ago.  My choral activities really pushed me to memorize the Korean symbols and the sounds that go with them.  So, I feel pretty good about sounding stuff out, but the extent of my Korean vocabulary is so small that it's sometimes hard to remember that I'm making any progress.  If anything, I won't starve in Korea, because I will always be able to find Bibimbap.  Yessss.

Taebaek Choir Concert on October 27th.

 Getting ready for our fancy choir concert on Nov. 10 at the Taebaek Cultural Center

 Taebaek Cultural Center - where our concert was on Nov. 10

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  The American Chuseok.  Families and friends will get together, eat their hearts out, and be grateful they can spend time together.  There will also be football watching, football playing, turkey coloring, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade festivities for many folks at home.  Here is what my Thanksgiving is going to look like.  I have to work.  Classes will happen, I will tell everyone I see how excited I am that it is Thanksgiving, and they will probably say, 'Oh.  That's nice, Teacher.  Movie today?'  I'll pretend their response is this, 'Wow!  Then Teacher, how will you celebrate Thanksgiving Day, Teacher?!'  After school I'm going to boil a lot of potatoes, chop a lot of vegetables, find some thyme (I'm still holding out hope that good ol' E-mart has this), and make some yummy, almost-like-home Thanksgiving dishes.  Turkeys don't live in Korea, so none of that business.  But, seeing as the chicken is a close relative to the Turkey, it will be a good substitute for this American holiday in Korea.  In the evening, the foreigners in Taebaek will gather into a tiny Korean apartment with their delicious food (potluck style) and we will feast, be merry, and be thankful that we have each other in this foreign and sometimes strange place.  I think it will be a good day.

Being away from home though and missing holidays and other life events of the people you love, it is inevitable that sometimes you will get 'heavy boots.'  In my book club, we're reading 'Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer.  It's about a boy named Oskar who loses his dad in the 9/11 attacks.  Throughout the book, he tries to hang onto the life and presence of his dad by going on adventures around New York City.  However, as is always the case with death, there is a point where letting go and finding peace is an important part of being able to move on and live your life as your loved one would have wanted you to.  Whenever Oskar feels sad or that his dad is slipping away from him, he talks about how heavy his boots are.  His boots are filled with sadness and loneliness, weighing him down.  Although in a very different context, sometimes I feel like my boots are really heavy in Korea.  It is easy to get caught up in what you are missing when you are away from home, and a conscious choice definitely has to be made to snap out of it and focus on being present where you are at.  Which is a good thing to think about no matter where you live.  Being present is all it takes to change your attitude and to allow yourself to appreciate what you have and who is around you.  Psh, listen to me.  I will try harder to take my own advice :)

Here is some fun from the past week:

 Pepero!  A chocolate filled pretzel stick.  11/11 is pepero day.  All the students bring you perpero!  Well...not my students.  They are too cool for that.

Shopping in Seoul last weekend in Myeongdong...insane amount of people.

 Seoul Lantern Festival 

 Seoul Lantern Festival

 Seoul Lantern Festival

 Seoul Lantern Festival

 Seoul Lantern Festival

Some of the Taebaek crew in Seoul.  

From the left: Greg, Emily, Alex, Quincey, and Sanja. 

Trying to figure out where to eat dinner in Seoul...so much going on, so many choices!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!