Chuseok...

...There's nothing like a Korean festival at the end of the week to give you an extra day off!

It's been a long time since Children's Day back in April since we were afforded the luxary of a four day week. But friday/saturday is/was Chuseok which is one of the biggest festivals in Korea (I've been told that it's bigger than Christmas, but I'm not even too sure of it's origins or why it exists.)

We discovered that it's a lunar festival in the Korean calendar and if you're lucky enough it can fall during in the middle of the week, meaning that the natives just decide to sack the rest of the week at work off. Sadly in 2009 (like most of the good days off we could have been having) it falls on an awkward date meaning that out of courtesy we were only given the friday off school, not that it wasn't welcome of course.

Instead of having a 'field trip' with the kids this month we had a Chuseok Party which involved making traditional Korean rice cakes and the kids dressing up in their traditional Korean costumes. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent taking pictures, playing games and watching videos (which was obviously just fine by me.)

Chusoek is all about the 'family' getting together so some of my kids weren't in class on thursday as they were travelling to be with relatives who live far away for the actual day. Some of my classes were reduced by a couple of students and one of them was cut down from nine to three as many of them were obviously busy travelling. Most Korean schools are also closed on Monday so whether the kids will be back for the first day of next week I'm not sure.

Speaking of family Charlie's arrived early on thursday morning to visit him from the USA. I'm not entirely sure what time their flights got in but I heard Charlie get out of bed at possibly the earliest he's ever been up in Korea to go meet them at their hotel. He was showing them round the school in the morning so they came into my class and I got to meet them for the first time whilst we were making ricecakes.

We spent the evening eating at our now regular galbi restaurant and then afterwards his brother and cousin joined us for a few drinks at Lao Bar in the evening. As his parents are just in Korea for two weekends I'm pretty sure that they will be busy seeing the sights of Seoul over the weekend so I'm sure we'll meet up with them to eat again at some point so we can find out how Charlie's role as tour guide has been working out.

Just a quick blog this one to let you know about my last day of the week in class, hopefully I'll be doing plenty of exploring of my own on Friday, Saturday and Sunday so I will have a lot more to blog about then....

*Ben*

Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare.
Japansese Proverb