Thanksgiving

Hey, I know this is a little late, but I haven't been in the writing mood. I definitely have moods of writing and now I'll probably do three in a row, but now just seems like a good time.

Thanksgiving was already eight days ago. It's December 3rd. Only 22 more days until Christmas. Then the new year. It's crazy. Thanksgiving was fun. The neighboring town of Wontong has many foreign teachers there as well. It's about a 10-minute taxi ride, so I went with my three South African friends that also teach at my school. The girl who organized ths dinner is from Louisiana and she thought it would be fun to have a potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner for the in hnor of the Americans and for all the other teachers who have never enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner.

Instead of turkey, we had duck. I actually didn't have any duck because we work late during the week (our hours are from 10-7) so we missed the duck, but we ate other things...like pie! There was tons of pie and lots of wine, so I was pretty happy. I think everyone else was indulging in pie and wine as well.

I met a lot of foreign teachers; some from America and others from South Africa and England. There is only one other American in my town and she's from New York, but the teachers in the neighboring city of Wontong are from Louisiana (the one that cooked the duck), Texas, Tennessee, Missouri and one other guy that I tlke to and I can't remember where he's from. Two of those guys also did the PeaceCorps in Macedonia and Bulgaria. They had a lot interesting things to say. They both were part of the education part, so they were also teaching English like they are teaching English here in Korea. I told them that I just did AmeriCorps last year, but the thought that was pretty cool. The PeaceCorps is a two-year commitment, but I think they aso pay for most of your school loans whereas AmeriCorps just gives you a monthly living stipend and pays an extra Education Award after completing 1700 hours. AmeriCorps was only a one-year contract, but you have the choice to volunteer up to two years.

Thanksgiving dinner was an enjoyable time to get to know people and share a meal. I needed that just because I am still not fully settled in, but it was nice to get together with some new friends. It wasn't the same, and it will be difficult not being here for Christmas either. This is my first time being away for both holidays, but I'm sure I'll plan a trip to escape a while...