Get Some Manners!

I am ingloriously writing to you again, embarrassed from leaving this blog stagnant for two months. But HEY, I've been LIVIN'! Fall is sweeping through Korea and my second year as an expat officially began in September. I'm missing my friends and family more lately knowing that the holiday season is quickly approaching.

Some friends and I recently had a day at the beach on a "nearby" island called Muuido (do means island in Korean). Nearby meaning we didn't leave Incheon, but with necessary quotes because it took an hour subway ride, a thirty minute wait for a fifteen minute bus ride, followed by a two minute ferry boat, leading to a twenty minute bus ride, and then we were at the beach. But the gauntlet of transportation proved worth it when we arrived at Hanagae Beach. The tide was out when we arrived, leaving an extra quarter-mile of wet sand beyond the beach before the waves crashed. Twenty-foot tall poles stood up in the sand waiting to mark the tide when it came in. There was a strangeness to the expansive depth of the shore line, and with the giraffe-like poles, it looked as if it could have been inspiration for a Dali painting











The above picture is from a game called Tic Tac Throw. Everyone scours the ground to find a suitable throwing rock, then you make a big tic tac toe board. On your turn you throw your rock in hopes of being nearest the center, giving your team the appropriate X or O. The winning team gets to ceremoniously hurl the losers' rocks into the ocean. The losers must find new rocks before the next round.







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The kindergarten classes go on a field trip every month, which are usually on the dull side with a few exceptions. Although we are an English school, we're still in Korea so Korean is spoken on all the field trips. This significantly diminishes any interest I would have in these expeditions. September's trip was painfully boring. The kids wore their traditional outfits (hanbok) and went to Manners School, where they learned how to serve tea, make songpyeon (rice cakes served for holidays and special occasions) and bow.








This is Bobby, one of the more difficult students in my class. On this Manners field trip, Bobby had the nerve to spit at my Korean co-teacher. She spit back at him. I've never been prouder to work with this teacher.





My class: 2nd row - Bobby, Jude, Nathan, Jason. 1st row - Isabel, Joanna, Serapin, Amy