"It's a nice day for a White Day"

Sorry for the play on Billy Idol's White Wedding. You should have known something like this would come eventually :) Haha! 


Today is Thursday, March 14, 2013. Do you know what that means? It is WHITE DAY! 

White Day is a special holiday in Korea. (I think it is also celebrated in China, but I am not really sure.)

Anyway, back to White Day! Holidays are a very important part of Korean culture, and White Day is no exception. What is White Day, you ask? White Day is simply another form of Valentine's Day. In Korea, on Valentine's Day the girls give boys gifts. On White Day, the genders switch so today was the day for boys to give girls gifts. 

Anyway, before I realized it was White Day, I was on my walk to the bus stop and you will never guess who apparently lives right next door to a daycare? This girl! Living next to a day care probably isn't going to help my obsession with Korean children in the slightest. How can you not fall in love with these cuties? (Sorry for the creepy photo. I was just so excited!)

How sweet, right? 

I then got on the bus to school and made my way to one of my favorite places, Napo Elementary. 

Thursday is a long day, where I have a class every period. I was excited though, because I had prepared some awesome games and really fun activities for the little ones. 

If you are a person who has ever taught or is considering teaching English in Korea, just know that sometimes no matter how hard you plan, those plans will hardly ever work out 100%. What do you do then? You improvise. Haha!

So today, I taught first and second graders to say hello and shake hands. I taught fifth grader how to sing Justin Beiber and play a game called four corners with adjectives, and I taught a fourth grader how to play go fish. If that isn't a successful day, I don't know what is. 

The great thing about this day though, is that I was handed candy left and right! Korean kids apparently love to give their teachers candy on White Day! They also taught me how to say it in Korea. Such a sweet thing! I love all of my gifts! 

Thursday's for me also mean time for 회식 (pronounced "hweshik") Hweshik is basically a time to grow together as a community with the members of your faculty at school. In literal translation it means "dining together". Hweshik is very popular in Korea and is extremely popular at Napo. We all go out to hweshik every Thursday night. Hweshik is probably one of my favorite parts of the week! I am so extremely blessed to have the nicest teachers at Napo. They are always so kind, considerate, and happy. I love to spend time with them! For dinner today, we enjoyed roast BBQ duck! YUM! 

Also, someone (Soju) encouraged me that it would be a good idea to try something a teacher at my school gave me. Turns out it was Chicken Lung. You know how I said bug tasted exactly like you think it would taste? Yeah, Chicken Lung was about the same as you think it would taste. Haha! Glad to get a snap shot before I ate it! 

After a great dinner, we were all headed home until my Vice-Principal announced he would like to take all of the ladies (and any boy teachers who wanted to go) out to coffee and dessert for White Day! We went to a place called the Banana Factory. It was so cute and so nice! 

I know I keep saying this, but I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people at Napo! 

One of the teachers at Napo ordered this delicious waffle for dessert! 

Probably the best waffle I have ever had! Anyway, we enjoyed the rest of the evening laughing, and just enjoying each other's company. (Well, they were laughing. I was smiling with a "I have no idea what is going on" expression. Oh the joys of not knowing Korean!) My Vice Principal kept laughing at me, because he would ask me a question in Korean, and I usually just looked at him, and he just responded with, "Oh yeah, you are not Korean! I keep forgetting." I guess my English doesn't give it away as much as I thought! Haha! I cannot wait to spend more time with these people and to see where the rest of the semester takes me! They are so wonderful, and I am so happy to have met them! 

Tomorrow is Friday and as usual, it means traveling! We are leaving to spend the weekend with other TaLK Scholars in Daegu. I cannot wait to see all of my friends that have become my second family here! Many photos and a blog to come, as always! 

Have a good weekend, America! 

Kiyana in Korea