Teacher's Day!

On May 15th, Koreans celebrate Teacher's Day as a way to show appreciation for everything that they (I guess I can say "we") do every day for our students.  I've heard stories from other teachers who have been in Korea for several years about some of the lavish gifts teachers have received from student's parents and was curious to see what this Teacher's Day would bring.

There are 22 teachers (9 English and 13 Korean) at Dayelin Langcon so the potential for a wide variety of presents was imminent.  The students whose parents did not get gifts for their teachers took matters into their own hands and made thank you cards and notes to give to us.  Some of those are actually better than purchased gifts but everything was appreciated and it's a shame there isn't an equivalent holiday, that is taken as serious as it is here, in the states to show teachers how much they are appreciated.  Most of what I got was from my kindergarten class but there are about 400 students at Dayelin Langcon so you can imagine how many presents were given.  Just so you have an idea, here are some of the gifts the we received earlier this month.

- Chanel makeup/lipstick
- $50 gift certificate to the local mall
- a bottle of wine
- green tea hand lotion
- cake, cake and more cake
- donuts
- pecan pies
- a cellphone case
- some more cake
- cookies
- flowers...lots of flowers
- ice cream
- designer shampoo, conditioner and body lotions
- a few more cakes and cookies
- chocolate
- sun block
- vitamin C tablets

Aside from all of the gifts we received, the ones our kids made were the best.  I couldn't find any of the ones Sarah's students made but here are a few from my kindergarten class.

Did you know Korea... is about 70% covered by mountains.  No joke, everywhere you look, you can see mountain peaks.  It's pretty amazing that there can be more than 50 million people living in a country the size of Indiana or Kentucky.  Kentucky might be a better comparison though because of it's mountains but to give you an idea, Kentucky's population is only about 4 million people.  People and mountains as far as the eyes can see...that's South Korea for you.

My Daily Walk to School

I meant to post this a bit ago but forgot.  I took these pictures about a month ago though when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.  It only really takes about 10-15 minutes from the apartment to school and when the weather is nice, it's a pretty enjoyable walk.  You'll see a lot of cherry blossoms in these pictures but now the streets are lined with azaleas.  Spring in Korea is pretty amazing..

Out in front of the apartment.  You can't see it but there's a
plot of land out front that has a small garden planted on it.  On
the weekends, there's usually an older lady and man that tend to it.

From the top of the hill looking away from our apartment

And, the descent begins..

                         

                                    Some cherry blossoms that were
                                  out in front of the apartment

Almost to the bottom of the hill.. (I didn't take a picture of the intersection up here but we take our lives into our own hands whenever we cross the street to go to the convenient store.  It's pretty busy  and only has flashing yellow lights to direct traffic).

        

       At the bottom of the hill and about to cross Suji-ro.  After I cross,
       I hang a right and head towards that green mesh stuff on the bridge

Passing a gas station
after crossing the bridge

A little further down Suji-ro.
There's been construction here
ever  since we've arrived but
I'm still not sure what they're doing.

A little further down the street and
making a slight left onto Seongbok2ro

Some more cherry blossoms across the street.  The buildingyou see over there is
 actually another hogwan (private English school).  Hogwans are everywhere in
Korea though.  There are about 10 of them on the same block as the school I work at.

There is a little farm on the way to school.  It's kind of random but actually pretty
common. You  can see these farms all over the place, nestled between the high rises.

Still walking down Suji-ro though.

An overpass for Route 43 that will take you north or south of Suji.

A look back at the farm.

Under the overpass, there are some pretty cool murals
painted on both sides.  Here is the fall and winter.

Spring and summer are on the other side.

Through the overpass and now on SangHyeol-ro...almost there!

This is getting closer to a more commercial area.   There are plenty of restaurants
and shops around here.  Up at the building straight ahead, I'll make a left.

Making the left turn onto Manhyeol-ro

And then making a quick right turn onto the street where the school is.
You can see the blue and white Dayelin Langcon school busses ahead.

And here we are!

I've posted this picture before but here it is again.  Dayelin is the kindergarten on the 1st floor and
Langcon is the elementary school that's on the 2nd floor.  Our offices are up on the 2nd floor too.

As you can see it's really not that bad of a walk.  If it happens to be raining, there is a bus that I can hop on at the bottom of my hill that will take me to school in about 5 minutes.  There's not much night life near the school but  there are a lot of restaurants, shops, several grocery stores and some bars.  Almost 3 months in and I can't complain much about the school, living situation or everything we've gotten to do since moving to Korea.  I'll do my best to get into a more regular routine of posting at least once a week but I hope you're enjoying what I've posted so far.

Did You Know Korea... has legal prostitution?  I was pretty surprised myself, but should've expected it given how common it is in other parts of Southeast Asia.  I'm still not sure if it's 100% legal or if the police just look the other way though but Seoul has a few red light districts.  Another city about 20 minutes from my house has a pretty big red light district too.  It's right around the corner from a Baskins Robbins so you can get your 31 flavors of ice cream and then buy a hooker in the same night..