Chuesok Finery and Aliens

Today was an extremely easy day at work, as the Korean Harvest Festival, or Thanksgiving festival of Chuesok was being celebrated. As a result, all kindergarten classes were cancelled, though all teachers were expected to attend to help out with the activities. Scott and I were two teachers who were not in attendance. As there were no classes this morning, we were given the morning off to go to the immigration office and apply for our Alien registration cards... which we must do within the first 90 days of arriving... or we are illegal aliens. So, that is all taken care of now... in thirteen days we can go pick up our i.d. cards confirming that we are now aliens... it's pretty good, we didn't even have to leave Earth. (I apologize for the extremely bad joke).

Anyway, I arrived back at work for my afternoon classes just in time to take in the last of the morning activities... all of the children and some of the teachers were dressed in the 'Hanbok' the traditional Korean clothing... it was quite a sight. The traditional costumes are beautiful, silk and colourful, with beautiful embroidery. If any of you have time you should look these costumes up on the internet... they are quite a bit different from the Japanese style kimono.... and they are very beautiful; each one is different.

The kids were all very excited, they had spent the morning doing traditional dances, playing traditional instruments, playing traditional games and cooking traditional foods... it was quite the morning I guess. When I arrived, the children in my classes rushed over to me to show me their costumes and the food and crafts that they had made.... One of the best experiences in Korea so far.