Chuseok

It’s nearing the end of my work week, and I’m getting ready for a 4-day weekend. It’s Chuseok here in Korea, so while Koreans are celebrating the Harvest and giving thanks to their ancestors, I’ll be snuggled on the beach around fire with friends eating fresh sea food and making smores (with flavored marshmallows and the closest Korean replacement to the graham cracker we can find.) A group of us are heading out tomorrow morning to spend the weekend at Muiido Island, on the West coast of Korea. It’s not tropical or touristy, more a fishing harbor, and it will most likely be deserted considering everything completely shuts down over Chuseok, and I couldn’t be more excited for some peaceful, low-key, relaxing seaside fun. We’re staying in little bungalow hut thingies right on the beach, right by the water, so hopefully the mosquitos don’t eat me alive, and I can enjoy falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

It’s been a busy week here at Kookje English Village. I had a surge of adrenaline Monday morning when I realized in my music class that I was putting in far too little effort and I needed to spice things up. So I’ve been getting all new songs ready for the next couple of months—complete with several songs about the different colored leaves of fall, raking, and general autumny stuff. I have successfully prepared almost everything I will need for the next 3 months of music class. I’ve even got my December schedule finished, complete with laminated snowflakes and bells. I wasn’t kidding about the adrenaline thing…

I’ve been teaching the adult TEOFL writing class every Tuesday, and it’s going really well. It’s nice to deal with people age 20 and up after a day of screaming at crying children, wiping dirty mouths after lunch, and telling little Tommy, for the 17th time, stop calling James a bunny. I also met with my favorite girl who’s just finished the TEOFL class this week because she wanted to talk to me about taking private lessons. I’m really excited! She’s 20 and absolutely the sweetest person ever. She’s hoping to go to school in Hawaii next year, so from now on I’ll be teaching her private classes at my apartment two nights a week—speaking and writing class. That makes 3 nights of extra teaching a week! And on top of that, Ali and I are still heading up the Adventure Teaching Korea facebook and blog project, as well as planning a big Adventure Teaching Korea event for the 3rd week of October (a day of Retro Olympics, carnival games, bbq, and an afterparty to follow…no biggy…YA RIGHT!!!). All in all, it’s going to be a busy month for yours truly.

But before the busyness takes over, I get a weekend sleeping by the ocean and eating fresh fish. Hooray. J