May 5, 2012 (Friday)
Today was Children's day and all classes were canceled for all day events! Parents gathered to watch their children participate. At 9 am all of the students gathered in front of the school to stretch to dance music to prepare for all the sports activities. They also did Taekwondo as a stretch, it was really great to watch the whole school participate in a traditional martial art.
I was able to film a couple of the events, but then I had to see Ms. Lee at 9:30 to set up my students work in the hallway of the main building. It took about an hour to pin everything to the wall and I am satisfied with the way it turned out. I showed Ms. Lee all of my lesson ideas and she particularly liked my Kandinsky color painting lesson. I think that the 6th grade classes did very well! I hope the principal likes the lesson and gallery; he likes traditional art, and does not particularly enjoy abstract art. Sagiri came from home to see the school events and seemed to really enjoy it. She was looking for Ubin.
After setting up the gallery, I had to race to the face painting event to help out! The English department had been asking me for several weeks to help with the event. It was a lot of fun! I had never done it before. Many children lined up and we continued to paint faces when the time was up. Eventually one of the other teachers just removed the paint so that students would leave. They were let out early because of the holiday.
Ms. Lee (Art Teacher) and Ms. Lee (Music Teacher) had invited me to lunch the day before, so we headed out to a department store that had a few really delicious restaurants. We ended up having Japanese food, and then going to eat a traditional Korean dessert called Patbingsu. Patbingsu is a dessert that is made up of shaved ice, red beans (sweet), and fruit. It is usually shared by a group of people eating out of one bowl. Korean's generally share food from several dishes instead of each person having their own dish.
We parted ways after eating dessert and I went shopping! I headed over to Wangshimni to the E-Mart that I am familiar with from my last trip at Hanyang University. E-Mart is similar to the American Walmart; although, I think that it is better. I bought some parting gifts for my host family and a card for the principal. It is amazing how difficult it is to find a card that says thank you when you can't read the language. After several minutes I did find one that said it in English. I also went to the international food section and found some of the ingredients I use at home to make spaghetti. Sagiri was very happy when I brought the food home and cooked it for dinner! They said that they enjoyed the meal, but since I know I'm not the greatest cook, they may have just been nice to me. :) Still she seemed happy not to be cooking that evening. Overall, it was a wonderful day!
