Thanksgiving!

We celebrated American Thanksgiving in pretty high style at Heidi's. There was an impressive array of luxurious western food and beverage products.

Here is Heidi, the lovely hostess, preparing some delicious vegetarian chili.



Here is the spread. Fried chicken, vegetarian stuffing (made by me), red cabbage, pasta salad, vegetarian and meat gravies (made by me), mashed potatoes and homemade bread.



Kelly Katharine and Katie hitting the wine.



Marina, also on the wine.



Shane preparing a luxurious and pretty dangerous vodka redbull concoction.



Sarah getting the buffet ready.



Nicole and Jon chilling in the living room pre-meal with some luxury-style American snack products and Sarah's deviled eggs.



Continued chilling.



And some more.



The group finally enjoying the bounty.




And the night ended at the cave bar in Hongdae as usual.



Hooray for expat holidays!

Farm Field Trip

A few weeks ago we went with the kids on a field trip to a farm. We got to pick sweet potatoes and gather chestnuts. It was actually pretty fun.

Here is the entrance to the sweet potato farm.



Some of my kindergarteners digging up the potatoes.









On to the chestnut gathering grove.





We were pretty close to North Korea I think. There were guard posts disguised as trees all over.



Much barbed wire was to be seen.



Then we had lunch at some sort of statue park and the kids got to play in the leaves.

FC Seoul-World Cup Stadium

A few weeks ago I went to a soccer game at World Cup Stadium. FC Seoul won, so that was exciting. Mostly, though, I would say World Cup Stadium is noteworthy for the beautiful bits of nature that surround it.

The main entrance to World Cup Stadium.


It's really big. They said that there were 45,000 people there that day and it didn't seem particularly full.



The FC Seoul fan section. There were many fireworks. I feel like only in Korea is it considered reasonable to bring fireworks into soccer stadiums.



Fall!



More fall!



Getting to World Cup Stadium Park requires that you climb any number of stairs. But once you get to the top it looks just like the midwest at night! It was a markedly weird experience for me.

Happy Pepero Day!

So today, 11/11, rather than being Veterans Day, is a Korean holiday that vaguely resembles Valentines Day. What is weird about it is that the entire holiday is really just to celebrate one brand of chocolate covered cookie sticks. They aren't even that good really.

At school it was mostly just a big mess. Give an entire school full of children an unlimited supply of cookies and chocolate and of course it's a nightmare.

But no worries, Laura Teacher received plenty of Peperos to send to everyone for Christmas!


I really want one of these signs but don't really know how to ask for one.



The bounty from the kids at school.



There are massive stands of Pepero products at every convenience store.

Halloween

Here are my friends/coworkers gathered to celebrate Halloween. Many Koreans were entirely confused.



Here I am during the construction process of my jellyfish costume.




Here is the jellyfish costume in action. I think I managed to stay in costume for maybe an hour before I abandoned the umbrella.





Here is me at school. I am the "TICKLE MONSTER!!!!" The children were frightened.



Scott as Harry Potter. This picture is my favorite. You can see the magic!



Carly the cat.



Daniel as a Power Ranger?



David and his mom.




Scott and his mom.




Carly and fam.




Polina and Annie with their moms.




Nicky and his mom.



Aqua class!