Sudeoksa Temple and Yesan Apple Festival: Saturday November 3rd, 2012

I can’t believe it is already the first week of November! Although, we are pretty used to life in Korea, everyday always brings new surprises. For instance, today I discovered that Korea doesn’t change their time for daylight savings. I asked my co-teacher about this and she informed me that they used to change the clocks in the summer and winter; however, the country decided to stop doing this approximately 20 years ago. I don’t really understand the reasoning, but either way we are now 14 hours ahead of Toronto.

Ian and I really want to explore as many different regions of Korea as we can in our year abroad. This past Saturday we went on a day trip to Sedeoksa Temple and to an apple festival in Yesan, which is in Chungcheongnam-do province (just south of Incheon). We started our day very early by getting on a bus in Seoul at 7am. Although it was an early wake up call, the trip was definitely worth it.

The first stop was Sudeoksa Temple, a mountainside temple that is 1500 years old. We walked through a little village at the bottom of the mountain where we witnessed how Korean wheat puffs are made (see attached video). It was a leisurely hike to the top where the temple is located. It was really gorgeous with the fall colours. The main building of the temple is Korea’s oldest wooden buildings, constructed in the Goryeo Dynasty in 1308. Another fact we learned is that Goryeo Dynasty is the dynasty from which modern Korea derived its name (Goryeo became Korea).

After the temple, we took a bus to Yesan’s 9^th Apple Festival held at a local winery and orchard. There were lots of booths and activities to try.  We toured the winery, and drank lots of apple beer and apple ice wine samples. The owner told us he had actually moved to Toronto to study wine making for 10 years before moving back to Korea and running his own business. There was also a Korean style bbq giving out samples. Besides drinking and eating apple products, we went apple picking, which was a lot of fun; however, apples and fruit in general are really expensive in Korea, so we didn’t pick too many apples. We also tried pottery making. To top it all off, throughout the festival the Seoul Jazz Soloist Orchestra was performing which added greatly to the entertainment. All in all it was an amazing fall day!

The province where Sudeoksa Temple and Yesan are located.

The main entrance gate to the walk up to Sudeoksa Temple.

The building in the back on the left of the tower is Korea's oldest wooden building, dates back to 1308.

Sudeoksa Temple is famous for these two towers. 

First time Ian and I have seen elephant figurines in Korea.

Walking back down.

Machine that makes Korean rice puffs. 

Apple picking

Pottery making

Meeting the instructor helping us make our pots.

Ian making new friends.

Got our hands dirty.

Ian's new friends. They stood directly beside him while he made the pottery.

Final product! 

Seoul Soloist Jazz Orchestra were amazing!

                                           This is the video on how Korean puffs are made.

Halloween at school

It has definitely been a different Halloween this year.  I just wanted to share my experience at school.  Yesterday, October 31^st, I dressed up in a version of my green mouse anipang costume and went to school. I had five classes back to back of grade 6. I brought a cat mask for my co-teacher to wear; however, besides her, I was the only person at my school dressed up in a costume. She also only wore the mask during class and took it off after.  Throughout the day students were running up to me in the hallways or in my office and yelling with excitement.  Many of my students play the game anipang and could recognize the green mouse character. My grade 6 co-teacher knew little about Halloween so she told me I could lead the whole lesson and dedicate it entirely to Halloween!

           

Halloween is not celebrated in Korea, but all my students were extremely curious and interested in this holiday. I loved telling the students that we were not studying English and that we were going to have a Halloween party.  I started the lesson with a little video clip and power point to explain the basics of what happens on Halloween. I showed some pictures from when I was a kid going trick or treating, which they really liked.  We danced to the Monster Mash, made scary masks, and then they went trick or treating at my desk. It was a fun lesson to teach and I definitely got the feeling that most of my students wished Korea did celebrate Halloween.

                

Ian also said he enjoyed Halloween at his school. He was giving Halloween lessons this week and said similarly that the students really enjoyed learning about the different Halloween traditions.  It was nice some of our students gave us candy, and Ian even got some hand written notes!

Happy Halloween! As the classes went on, more and more was added to the board. 

My grade 6 students making Halloween masks.

Frankenstein masks

My grade 6 co-teacher, Michelle and I

The mini chocolate candies we were giving out. I don't know where these names come from!

Some more of my students with their masks.

Ian's fan mail came with a candy.