We are going to China! We just found out today that two spots have opened up on the Chuseok tour to Beijing and that we will be going. I am so excited!

The Korean work ethic is such that there aren’t very many holidays during the year. When we first applied to come and work here we were told that Korea celebrates over 22 National holidays. While true, almost all of the holidays fall on Saturday or Sunday, so we don’t really gain anything from them. The people here work like mad. Many of my students attend as many as eight or nine schools and attend classes six days a week. They learn from the crack of dawn until late in the evening and are usually exhausted by the time I teach them at 7:00 or 8:00.
There are only three or four major holidays in Korea and Ch
useok is perhaps the biggest of them. It is basically the equivalent of Thanksgiving and falls over three days at the end of September. Usually it falls mid-week but this year it falls from Monday to Wednesday so we actually get five days off with the weekend. We were a little hesitant to spend the money since this is our first full paycheck but at the same time, we don’t get another holiday until the Chinese New Year in January or February. We will be in Beijing for five days and will be going to the Great Wall, Tianemen Square, the Forbidden City, to the Chinese Opera and of course to markets and several temples. We are also going for a nice Peking duck dinner and for a Chinese foot massage. All of my life I have dreamt of going to China and now it’s going to happen. That’s what is so wonderful about dreams…they can come true.