Children's Day

Today was the Children’s Day celebration at school. Children’s Day, Eorini nal, is a national holiday celebrated in Korea that was founded by the children’s storyteller and writer Bang Jung-hwan in 1923. From what I read, the purpose of the holiday is to instill a sense of national pride and independence in the children. It’s sort of like Christmas for the children. Schools are shut down and the children are given the day off for their parents to take them to the zoo, amusement park or just spend quality time with them. For me, it was exciting to have a day off ☺

To celebrate, LCI planned a big day of craft, hikes and games for the kids. We all put on matching shirts and went up to a field near the school. It was a lot of fun to see all of my students from my special classes. Whenever one of my student saw me the would scream “Bri Teacher!” They looked so small among my older students, so stinkin adorable! I would get just as excited to them and give them a hug or a big wave from far away.

After the kids sang and danced to Korean songs with the Korean teachers, we hiked up a little mountain-side to make necklaces out of wood. The kids had markers and decorated their own pieces of wood on their necklaces. Of course they all had to run up to me and show me what they made once they were finished. I was full of lots of ooh’s and aww’s and woooow! Lol Next we ate ice cream (the best part of the day) , took some class pictures. We climbed the mountain even further, singing the alphabet song along the way. I think my kids really loved seeing me outside of the classroom environment because they kept calling me monster teacher- probably because I would growl like a bear and try to scare them- and jump all over me. Yesterday each of the student wrote a wish on a small piece of paper, and once we reached the top of the small mountain, I attached each of their wishes to a balloon. As a group we set our balloons and wishes free. It was adorable to watch the excitement in my student’s eyes as they watched the balloons soar farther away.

Today was one of those days where I really loved my job and what I am doing here. Especially when I was playing with my boys. They love it when they jump into my arms and I swing them around and upside down so I got a little rowdy with them for a bit before we walked back down the mountain. The rest of the afternoon we just played games. I cheered on my students during the races and competitions against the other classes. The rest of my day was pretty relaxed, I decided not to teach my kids new things and just watch movies for the rest of the day. It was their day after all, and I really didn't feel like teaching. Today was a lot of fun. It was great to play with my students outside of the classroom and do something different than the usual routine of things. Now if only they would adopt Children’s Day in the U.S.


For my day off, Amy, Tia, Katie, Andy and I went up to Seoul to attempt to go sightseeing. We ended up just eating at the phenomenal Butterfinger Pancakes restaurant, were too late to make it to any palaces or museums so we went shopping in Meyongdum until it was time for our Mexican feast to celebrate cinco de mayo. Definitely the lowest-key Cinco de Mayo I’ve had in a long time. Oh, and Andy and Amy had never heard of Cinco de Mayo before!!! Stupid Canadians! Lol just kidding.