Halloween at LanGCon Academy

Koreans don't celebrate Halloween. However, because we are an English school, LanGCon decided to have a Halloween festival for the kids. In the few weeks leading up to Halloween, our school was obsessing over what games we would play, what costumes we would wear, and how to decorate the school.

When the first schedule came out Lainy was assigned to "Spinning and adjusting the donkey's tail". Somehow "Pin the tail on the donkey" got lost in translation.

Andrew was assigned to "find the candy in flour". We figured this had to be a mistake. When we had our nightly meeting with our principal we told her we didn't understand. We were asking is it flour, or flowers? She said, "oh yes, flour you make cookies with." The three foreigners exchanged looks of horror. Is she serious? Shoving your face in a pile of baking flour to try and find candy? Its like bobbing for apples, but more dangerous? We told her we didn't think that was a good idea. And all of the Korean teachers told us it was a traditional Korean game. WHAT?! How is this safe? We told them we though it was disgusting and not smart. They insisted it was a game and they must play it.

(As Halloween grew closer, and H1N1 breakouts in Suwon and in our school, administration reconsidered and thought it wouldn't be a good idea to swap germs in mass piles of flour, thank goodness. The game was rescheduled to musical chairs.)

And, because people got wind of the fact that I was an art major, I was in the face painting room with the boss's wife (who was also an art major in college).

We spent days cutting out decorations and preparing for the festival. Another note about Halloween in Korea... because they don't celebrate it, they don't understand that you can be whatever you want for your costume. So whenever someone would as us what we were going to be they would say, "Are you going to be a witch or a vampire?"

I decided to throw them for a loop and be an angel. (I was going to go as hangman because the kids love that game, but when the boss offered to buy us costumes, I told her to grab me some angel wings). I was the only one the whole day who wasn't wearing black.

Sunny and myself.

Andrew was asked to wear a scary mask so he could scare the kids... so I painted his eyes black so it would be scarier with the mask on.

Gina and Sunny.

Howard was going to have a super lame costume, but we fixed that. And that's Kevin on the right. We couldn't stop laughing at what he was wearing. He had a shiny witch hat, a cape that said Happy Halloween, and a laminated arm band. Nice.

The decorations and "photo zone"

My face painting room. Whenever we didn't have students in with us, it was a very awkward silence because the boss's wife doesn't speak English and I don't speak Korean. Usually one of us would just get up and walk away as to avoid the awkwardness.

Howard decorated the two mascots outside the school.

Vampire teeth for Lang!

This is the front desk area. That's the boss's daughter Jully (Julie) on the right and her cousin on the left.

Lainy and I with the boss's daughter and niece. (his daughter is on the right) Andrew and I both teach her.

Staff photo. From back left: Howard, Kevin, Diana, Lainy, Andrew. Front Left: Tony, Rosella, Sunny, Gina, and Myself. This is everybody except the boss, his wife, and the two secretaries.

Face painting room.

These are four of my students in Andrew's musical chairs room. From left: Arthur, Sally, Ashley, Vicky. Arthur is one of my biggest trouble makers.

This is Nicole. She is one of my favorites.

Two more of my trouble makers. Brian on the left, and Sunny on the right.

Andrew is manning Musical Chairs. From left: Vicky, Nicole, Brian and Sunny.

These two are wonderful and really fun to have in class. Vicky and Nicole.

This is one of my classes going down the hallway to the next room.

This is Howard's balloon popping room. Disaster zone. One of the little girls got so scared from the balloon pop that she peed her pants and the started bawling. After about 30 minutes she was back in my room and got re-painted because it had washed away.

This is one of Andrew's old students, Billy during Pin the Tail on the Donkey. (We have been switching around classrooms, so he doesn't have him anymore).

Three of my students: Sally, Vicky, Nicole.

From Left: Sunny, Arthur, Sally, Ashley, Nicole, Vicky.

These also used to be Andrew's students. From left: Tommy, Jason, Cindy.

Billy.

One of the room's activities was making trick or treat bags. These are all my students.

Okay, I shouldn't pick favorites, but its hard not to when they come as sweet as Nicole.

Howard is pushing down on this little girl trying to pop the balloon. She was too tiny it wouldn't pop.

The little boy in the front right (red hat) is Chris. He is Andrew's student and is now in my story telling class. He is sooo tiny and adorable.

These are more of my students that I see later in the day. (except for the girl in the white glasses). The girl in the Green is Rachel, then James, Jeff, and Alice.

Me with some of my students. From left: Jeff, Alice, James, Grace, (girl I don't know) and Rachel.

This is Angela.

This little girl is a little sweetheart. This is the girl who was Eunice, then I renamed her to Rachel. Last week her mom called and informed us that she wanted to switch her name back to Eunice. (really?) oopse. Notice she is wearing a facemask by her chin. When people are sick they are supposed to wear these. Well, most students come to school with them on now because they are afraid of H1N1. They also are taking every student's temperatures before they come in to the classrooms.

The boy on the right is one of my new students, Justin. The boy on the left is his brother. (The kids were allowed to bring family or friends for the day). Justin was very proud because he made the cape himself.

The two in the front used to be the two kids in my favorite class. Now Andrew teaches them. The older looking girl in the back is Helen. In the front is Amy, and on the far right is Max.

Once Amy and Max found out that Andrew and I were engaged they always tease us. Amy has a mega-crush on Andrew. (Max told him so). She always strokes his arm in class and puts her arm around him. I have competition! She is a big sweetheart, though.

Here's Max! One of the most polite kids I've ever met. I miss having that class.

Sweet cape, Justin.

Max.

Max.

Helen on the left, Amy on the right. (Maria is covering up her face in the background).

Lainy is spinning Maria. She is embarrassed to be in pictures because she is in 6th grade, and that's how middle schoolers are.

Everyone wanted Howard to try the game. He failed.

Popping the balloons!

Ahhh the end of the day. My wings were made with real feathers!

Hwaseong Fortress (pt 2)

Last weekend we spent another day exploring the Hwaseong Fortress. We started at an archery point where we go to test out our archery skills. Ten rounds only cost about $1.50. Koreans are traditionally very good archers, so throughout the wall you will see archery points. There was a school group that was there (on a Saturday) and so we were amongst the oldest people giving the archery a try.

You can vaguely see the wall in the background.

Andrew hit the target!

We then took a ride on the trolley around a portion of the wall. I didn't have a very good angle for a lot of pictures, but at least this gave us an idea of where we want to go back to walk on the wall.

Myself, Andrew, and Lainy.

Waiting for the trolley to take off.

The fall colors were so beautiful. Notice the busy city in the background, and the quiet wall in the foreground.

Can you see the wall in the back?

We got dropped off near a traditional looking building. The signs were all in Korean so we aren't sure what the building was.

The pretty fall colors going up to the top of the mountain.

I am tall. This door is not.

On the taxi ride home. See how the wall is lit up... the whole wall is completely lit up. The first time we saw the wall it was at night. Its very impressive seeing the whole long wall at night. We want to try walking on it when it is dark. A different experience, I'm sure!

Our work building

So I said I'd take a few pictures of our floor going in to work... and here they are!

I like these women's bathroom signs. The men's bathroom has a man wearing a top hat.

As we come up the stairs to the second floor (where our school is) this is our view. Every day a giant octopus in tongs. Next to it is a golf shop. LanGCon is down the hallway on the right.

This is another view of the giant octopus. This is the first restaurant on our floor on the way to our school.

This is a sign by the stairs/elevator for our school. See the Columbus hat logo?

The golf shop. Bathrooms are on the left. One of the doors to the vet clinic is on the end of the hallway. The other door is across from our school.

All of these are shops/restaurants.

They all have open glass doors. On the left is a restaurant. On the right is a different restaurant. And on the right closer to the next hallway is a photo studio.

This is the end of the first hallway. We turn left right before this point to go to our school, but on the left is a restaurant and on the right is a salon/nail studio. Notice all of the salon's laundry hanging at the end of the hallway (it is the green rags on the drying racks). No driers in Korea... You will see all down the streets shops that hang their laundry on the road to dry. No one takes it because Koreans are very honest people.

A little bit further back. Two restaurants and salon on the right, another restaurant on the left. This is the part of the hallway where we turn to go to school.

These are three of the guys we work with. They are all dressed up for parent/teacher conferences. Left to right, Tony, Howard, Kevin. Tony is the Teacher's Assistant. Howard is a teacher, and Kevin is the computer guy. Kevin doesn't speak English, but tries to have conversations with us in Korean. He does it hoping that we will learn Korean... however, when we don't understand he just starts speaking Korean louder.

This is the shop next door to our school. It is a Hanbok tailoring store. They make the traditional Korean outfits (called Hanbok).

This is our school from the outside. See the cubbies hanging on the wall... that's the library. The vet clinic is directly across the hall from our door.