Childrens' Day, Parents' Day, Teachers' Day

May in Korea is filled with holidays. On May 5th, we celebrated Childrens' Day as a National holiday. Parents are supposed to treat their children to a fun day; needless to say amusement parks, movie theaters, and baseball stadiums are always crowded. I was surprised to hear how many of my middle schoolers went to the PC room to play games with their friends all day. We had the whole day off, so we met with some friends for a friendly game of basketball, and then the boys went home and Rox and I headed to Ganhyun Resort (30 mins outside of town) for a bit of sunshine. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Our subway stop in Seoul is connected to "Children's Grand Park" so it was decorated nicely in anticipation for the big day.

On the 8th it was Parents' Day. The small children make small gifts and write notes to their parents, and older children (IE working age ones) are expected to give money to their parents. We recently learned that $100 for each parent is customary, but only if you have a stable job. We didn't get this day off as a nat'l holiday, but I was lucky since my rural school had mid-terms I stayed home. We ended up having class in Seoul that night due to a scheduling conflict but B was out at his rural school so couldn't make the bus in time. I headed in solo; got back home at 12:30, and woke up ag 7am to do the same journey on Saturday morn! After our accounting class there was a BBQ party at one of our professors from school. There were lots of fellow classmates there and it was nice to chat on a casual level as opposed to strictly educational level. We got back to Wonju around 6pm, and I met up with Rox for a walk around the nice track. After that, we met up with the boys for a beer and a laugh at our local pub. 

A view of our campus. On our way to the BBQ.

A group of our classmates enjoying the sunshine, tasty food, and good company.

Today (Happy Mother's Day) was a nice day so we  had a picnic with the same group from the pub last night. The high is 84 for today, so we had a nice BBQ lunch and then caught some rays for a bit.

B, Brandon, Rox, Bryan, Phil and Adele enjoying a tasty lunch by the river on Mother's Day.