Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone!
I hope that this blog finds you STILL recovering from an AMAZING Thanksgiving, filled with lots of family, friends, and of course food!

I had never thought about NOT being able to spend Thanksgiving or holidays with family, and it has made me that much more thankful for what I have.

In school, I taught Thanksgiving to my students. We watched a Simpson's episode, watched a clip of football, and a video clip of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade and football were/are so foriegn to my students. They really enjoyed seeing how other cultures celebrate a holiday. Then, we made turkeys. They wrote four things that they were thankful for on the feathers, cut them out, colored them, and pasted them to the turkey. Although they thought that this was kind of silly, they enjoyed getting to do an art project. Because of their curriculum, students very rarely get to take an art class in school.

Thanksgiving Day was very difficult for me. I was in school, teaching about the holiday, and missing my family and friends very much. The most difficult was when I was showing pictures of my family eating, and knowing what I was missing out on. However, I know how extremely lucky I am to be in Korea, and that in the long run of things, missing one Thanksgiving isn't that big of a deal.

On Friday, all of the ETA's in Korea, were invited to the U.S. embassy for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. How many times in your life do you get the chance to spend a holiday at a U.S. embass, with the U.S. ambassador and the head of your program? Additionally, all of my friends were there. We ate an amazing meal! Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes w/ gravy (the first gravy I've had since being in Korea), salad, fruit, two kinds of cheesecake, pumpkin pie. The whole experience was really great.

I spent the rest of the weekend in Seoul. It was so good to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen in over a month! Additionally, I checked out the National Museum of Korea. It was HUGE!!! There were so many cool artifacts from throughout Korea, as well as Japan, China, and even Vietnam. Soon, they are going to have a travelling exhibit about the Incan Indians from Peru. I hope to be able to check this out!

This weekend, I again traveling to Seoul. I am meeting a friend and we are going Christmas shopping. We might even try to go ice skating!

This week I received a box from home and a letter from Darrell. I have enjoyed wearing the boots that my family sent me- they are so warm!

Our after school program started on November 23. I have really enjoyed working with these students. We are making a book about Korean culture and history. Additionally, they are going to enter a photography contest with pictures taken from their cell phones. I feel like having the students use English to write a book, is far more useful, than having the students sit and memorize grammar structures. However, their parents don't think so. We started out with a group of 20, and are now down to 11 students on a regular basis. The parents are pulling out the students to go to hagwon instead. It is very disappointing to see this. I know that this will also be ab obstacle I face with my agriculture students when I return to the U.S.

This has been a relatively good week. I hope you are all doing well.

Love and miss you