Happy Halloween

This picture is of myself with the two Korean English teachers that help me in my classes at Lila. We are posing for a picture right before being bombarded with children as we passed out candy. So, you may be wondering what Halloween is like in Korea.. Well I will share with you my experiences with it. Halloween has made it's way into the Korean culture, but as far as I know, it's stays mainly in schools, especially those with English programs. And because I work at such a school, Halloween was an eventful day. It all started when I went to Lila on tuesday to teach. The room had been decorated for weeks with pumkin-spider streamers, stickers, skeletons, and other knickknacks. When I arrived I took a halloween hat from among the decorations and taught my students along with the korean English teacher who was wearing her own funny hat. I began class by talking about different activities people do on halloween beyond trick or treating.. like hay rides and pumpkin carving. Then I used a website my brother had given me so we could actually carve a pumpkin online and play scary music- we had fun with it.
After my classes, I ate a quick lunch then had to rush back to the 4th floor so I could help pass out candy to the students. I got to see all kinds of costumes; but even if kids didn't dress up, we would still give them candy as long as they would speak English and say trick-or-treat. In this next picture you can actually see the kids attacking me for the goods. My only defence was to stand up and hold the bag of candy over my head. I wonder what would happen if treat-or-treaters did this in America... Kids love candy- that's for sure!
When the lunch period was over, kids made their way back to their respective classrooms and I began to gather my things so I could head back to my apartment for a quick break before teaching at FFLS. But before I left, I noticed the 5th graders were using 'English Zone' (where I teach) to carve real pumpkins. When I came back the next day, I could see (and smell) all the different scary pumpkins they had made.

It's fun to be reminded of familiar activites from back home, and good to be in a place that doesn't do things exactly how I'm used to them being done. It gives me a bigger picture of life beyond the USA and life beyond mine. How exciting (and stretching) it is to see life from a different perspective!