Chuseok

This weekend we have a four day weekend.  So friday our school held some fun festivities to get the kids ready for Chuseok.  Chuseok is like Thanksgiving.  Everyone goes to their home and eat traditional meals and make food together.  The men drink a lot.  Then they go visit graves of deceased family members.  So one of the things we did was play tug-o-war.  I guess that a fun family game?  Either way we had a good time.  We did teachers vs. teachers two times.  We changed the teams up and each time the team i was on won.  Apparently im a strong woman, that or Korean women don't really do strenuous activities.  At the end, one of the women came up to me and put her hand on my shoulders and told me something in Korean.  I still dont know what she said, "Good work" maybe?

And i was also welcomed to work with gifts.  I was not expecting this.  I got handed gifts from about 4 different teachers/students.  That was really nice.  So at Chuseok people give gifts.  Very thoughtful of them to included me.  One of the teachers gave me "Danish Cookies."  She has no idea how meaningful her gift is :)  It made me chuckle.

Here are our games from friday:

new kid.  new favorite.

Those are some of the other teachers cheering on the kids.

After tug-o-war we made song-pyeong.  (like son peon).  Its a rice cake.  Im sure you could have guessed that.  You put the dough in your hand and kinda knead it for awhile.  Then you make a ball, a moon.  Then you make a little bowl.  Then you put a mixture or sugar and sesame seeds in it.  Then you close it up and it should look like a half moon.  The saying goes, if you make beautiful song-pyeong you will have beautiful daughters.  Mine were not very beautiful.  Looks like i either wont have pretty daughters or i wont have daughters.  

my new favorite kid.

Everytime we do some cooking, they wear aprons.  Its so cute.

My boss demonstrating what to do.

making the moon.

filling the bowl

Me and my song pyeong. 

She had some really beautiful song pyeong.

After you make the half moon shape.  You then have to boil or steam the rice cakes so that they are ready to eat.  We ate them later that day.  They we a little dry but not too bad.  I'm  beginning to notice i have been here awhile because rice cakes are starting to not taste horrible.  Sometimes they even are a little tasty.