Celebrating at the Fire Festival

Hi everyone!

Well it's Valentine's Day here and I just wanted to say have a wonderful day! It's pretty funny how the kids just say "Teacher, chocolate!!!" the moment you walk in! This whole holiday is celebrated the same as at home. And I must say I was truly spoiled when Christian came home this morning with the largest bouquet of flowers I've ever seen. It had roses, and snap dragons and these lily-type flowers! So we had a nice breakfast of crepes and head off to school in a balmy 8 degrees Celsius!

Christian and I have been hit by a bit of a cold, and I have lost my voice! My kids think it's hilarious that I sound like a man!!! Anyways, Christian is actually teaching my adult class now since my voice has been ravaged by the last 6 classes! So its been a lot of worksheets and games today! Anyways, we are both doing really well, minus the health bit, but we have already gone to the doctors and we are on some med. It's funny here how we can go to the medical clinic, each have a check-up, get meds and still pay less than $40! Its a pretty good deal!

But we just had a most unique weekend. On Saturday we went to a Fire Festival. It was to celebrate the new moon and to banish bad omens for the coming harvest. So what they did was actually light an entire small mountain on fire! There were crazy fireworks, a lazer show and it was all coordinated with random music (Braveheart theme song, traditional Korean music, then some dance music to spice it up!) And this went on for the entire night! It was pretty impressive to see this gigantic fire just blazing in front of you...from 50 feet away you could feel the heat! I was in heaven! Though the billowing clouds of smoke were a little nasty, it was all really spectacular. There were tents set up all around and it felt like a mini-market. You could buy your fruit and veg here or a pair of pants, and there were also tents set up like restaurants where people were eating all sorts of traditional foods and drinking soju, makali, and beer! Needless to say we had a great time!

Our entire adventure in South Korea has been amazing and we are both looking forward to what the future may hold!

We send you all our love,
Karina and Christian