Wednesday 10 March 2010

Party time!






First I want to start by wishing my big brother a Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great day man! :)
Well, just a few weeks ago I was certain that spring was just about here, but I was really wrong. Two weeks ago the weather was up around 60 and feeling great, well...it dipped back down and yesterday after school I was leaving and to my surprise when I walked out of the school the wind was howling and the snow was coming down, hard! I catch a bus each day, and there are a lot of buses so usually the wait is only about five minutes, well...of course yesterday on the coldest, snowiest day it's been in a while (and the day I only had my fleece hoodie on) it took about twenty minutes for a bus to come around. Ugh! It was awful, the wind was blowing so hard! So, spring is NOT here and I think dressing like it is won't make it actually come any faster.
Just an update on the school...things are going well, the new semester started here on March 2nd, we added ten new students last week, so there are kids running around everywhere in the school now. We had a slot that opened up and the first day (last Wednesday) we had four kids and by Friday there were seven new kids in that class. So, it's been awesome how well the school has done so far...I hope we can continue to grow.
Well, about a month ago we had a Lunar New Year (Seollal or 설날) party at our school for the kids, it was a lot of fun. The kids dressed up in traditional clothes called Hanbok and we had a party at the school. We made kites, which is a traditional thing for the men and boys to do on Seollal. Dana also made some little paper purses for the kids...they were really cool, but really detailed, so I just stayed out of the way, I can't fold paper straight, much less make a purse. Kids here on Lunar New Year bow to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. and they give them money on Lunar New Year, so the kids could attach that little paper purse to their hanbok and their family could put money in the little bag. Some of the kids made out like bandits, one of my kids that's like seven years old got over 200,000 Won, or around $170! Not bad for a days work of bowing, eh?! HA! After making kites and bags we played a traditional game called Yutnori, it was a lot of fun. I will just put a link to the game here and you can read about it if you like, rather than me trying to explain it. Here's the Wiki link
We had a great time at the party...I forgot my camera, but fortunately Dana brought hers and she got some cool pics.

6 comments:

Greta said...

Wow I am so happy that your school is doing well. Now you just need a bus!! (for the school, not for you to get out the snow any quicker although that would be nice too). We have been thinking of you a lot lately!

Ben said...

Thanks Greta! Yeah, maybe a bus is in the future plans somewhere...then we might need some more foreign teachers. Are you and Tom ready to come to Korea? HA!

Rebecca said...

Oh, Ben, I love the pictures!!! I am so glad I checked this tonight. Chey and I just got back from a Disney on Ice thing. I could do a little bowing for almost 200 bucks! That's unreal. It's always so fun to see your pictures....tell Dana thanks for taking some good ones.

Anonymous said...

Cool pictures. Just make sure when you get a bus its not a "short" bus. LOL :) The kids say hi. Derek starts soccer tommorrow and thinks the ball you got him will make a big difference.

Mom said...

Thanks for posting. It looks like you had a great day! I love the beautiful clothes the students have on! I don't know if I would want to let them wear something that beautiful to school! What an interesting way to make $170 dollars!

Ben said...

Thanks for the comments, well Mer...a short bus might be cheaper! HA! I'm glad D-Man is going to play and I hope that ball does help him! He's so cute. Mom, yeah...to make matters more interesting some of the kids spilled glue all over their hanbok!