A Lizard in South Korea!!: May 5th: Happy Children's Day!!!

On this national holiday, parents give their children small presents and spend time with them. In South Korea, it is very common for children to spend the day at zoos and parks. Besides my middle school kids who had to study during the holiday for midterm tests, most of my kids were ecstatic about having a day away from schools and academies (hogwans).

Cards with candy Anne-Mari and I made for my students.

My "early birds," Ru Sung Yup (in his tae-kwondo uniform) and Chey You bin playing connect four the Tuesday before children's day. Sometimes, these two and a few others will come to school fifteen to twenty minutes before our class even starts just so that they can get a few games in! The other day, I taught them how to play "go fish."

On Children's day, Jenni and I went with our friend Bong Suk down to her all girls high school in the town of Yeong-am near the famous mountain Wolchulsan. Bong Suk commutes to Yeong-am from Gwangju every work day so we decided to spend and experience the day with her. Even though it was a national holiday, Bong Suk had to go in and monitor the study hall because the students at this half-residential school were going to have a huge exam the following two days.

At this school, we met Bong Suk' s home room class and got to play "Waguk (foreign) celebrities" for the day. The attention we got throughout our time there was unbelievable! You would have thought these students might have never seen a non-Korean person before. Everything we said, a hormoneous "oooooo," "Ahhhhh," "waaaahhhh," and other exclamations followed. They were the giggliest bunch of girls I've ever met and of course what were their first two questions???!!! "How old are you?" "Do you have a boy friend?" Which are the most common questions people ask here when they first meet someone.

In their library, Bong Suk asked me to share the book of Ansel Adam's American landscape photography that Kristin gave her as a gift. The girls loved it and they had great questions about Native Americans, the grand canyon, wild life, and other things! They couldn't believe that it was common to see deer roam the streets of Helena, Montana or that you could hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Kristin couldn't have given Bong Suk a better gift to share with her students.

At noon, we had a delicious lunch in their cafeteria (who would have thought school lunches could be so good!) with many sides that I enjoy including: pieces of chicken, delicious egg denchang soup, a rice dish with hot pepper sauce and a huge helping of bean sprouts (love those!) and other vegetables, and a few other things. I really enjoy Korean food.

The school's common grounds.

Wolchulsan
During the afternoon, Jenni and I decided to let Bong Suk have some time to get work done, so we went on a glorious hike up rocky Wolchul Mountain. Hiking in Korea is a bit different from back home. There are no switchbacks or gradual ascension, it is usually directly straight upwards without any leveling out or breaks until the top! Kind of like the "power-line" trail up Mt. Helena in the states, which people only took for a hardcore, fast workout. It is intense and your legs definitely start shaking after a bit, but the peak experience that I have felt in the mountains thus far in Korea, has been outstanding!

On our hike, we met an elderly couple who were born in South Korea, but have been living in Maryland for the past 40 years. The husband just took a job as a Sociology teacher at a University here in Korea, but they still travel back to their home in the states. They were such great people and incredibly inspiring with their impressive hiking abilities.