Storm Clouds, Ice Castles and a Plastic Seal

Before showing Chuseok photos I must finish playing catch-up. In the foretold Chuseok pictures, you can see my dysfunctional Korean family all dressed in hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, and in one I destroy a Korean/Mexican/American piñata Pedró-style while wearing hanbok. Wait with anticipation.

A couple of months ago, my coworker, Sunny, asked me to hike Bukhansan, a mountain that overlooks Seoul, with her and her son. The only hitch was that we had to wait until September because her son was busy competing in high school golf tournaments throughout the summer. 

Storm clouds over Seoul

Two weeks ago, we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon hiking to the top of Bukhansan. Well, the hike down was lovely. The hike up was a rude awakening to how out of shape I have become. Though it took less than two hours to reach the crest, at several points on the assent, I thought I was going to fall over. I'd love to tell you it was the steep incline. However, that would be a lie. 

Finally, though we reached the peak. There, we ate a picnic lunch of fruits and homemade sandwiches packed by Sunny and carried by her son. While we dined, we watched storm clouds roll across the skies above Seoul. Pretty surreal. 

Me standing on the summit of Bukansan

Then, it was time for the hike down the mountain. Not so surreal. There was a reward though. Upon reaching the base of the mountain, we stopped at a local restaurant to sample traditional hiking food: pajeong (a Korean vegetable and seafood pancake) and makgeoli (Korean rice wine).

Sunny and her son enjoying pajeong

That same week, with Feinschule, we went to the 63 Building in Yeouido. The 63 Building was the tallest building in Korea until 2003 and was the tallest building outside of North America for a couple of months in 1985. Koreans are very proud of the copper-colored skyscraper. 

The 63 Building

Inside are insurance offices (not exciting) and an aquarium (very exciting if you are between the ages of four and 10). Here my students demonstrated their best effort, to date, of teamwork when they tried to fit all six of their little bodies on top of a plastic seal. 

The Feinschule version of teamwork

 In an effort to promote teamwork and general friendliness toward each other, I occasionally come up with extra activities and project. Frequently, it seems that these endeavors fall flat. For instance, I created a kindness chain. Every time a child witnesses a kind action performed by someone else, they write it one a link and we attach it to our chain.

The problems are that most of the time the children are only willing to acknowledge kind actions performed by themselves and, even if they do notice an kindness done by a classmate, they are unwilling to write on the chain link.

Last week, we had a couple of gorgeous autumn days. To make the most of them, I took the kids outside for a teamwork, art and science activity. We built an ice castle and then painted it with watercolors and watched it melt.

It went pretty well. Most of the kids were a little timid at first, but in the end, loved touching and playing with the ice.

Next up, Chuseok photos.