Seven class Friday

This is my favorite time of year in Korea. There are tons of festivals

and fun things to do outside.... and a lot of vacation days!

Coming up soon is the Turtle Ship Festival. It celebrates Admiral Yi Sun Shin (이순신) and the Turtle Ship (거북선). The ships were used as warships during the Jeoseon Dynasty (15th century - 19th century). Admiral Yi was credited with the design of the ship. They were first used during the Japanese conflict in the late 1500s.

Every year there is a big festival where you can go aboard a turtle ship and they build scaled-down replicas in the area where the festival is held. My first year here, there was a small ship being built with soda cans! It was pretty cool. 

Its always kicked-off on a Friday evening with a parade. There are a mix of students, what I think are men dressed up in traditional army clothes, and old people playing traditional instruments. At the end there are some awesome floats. The last two years there was a fire-breathing turtle ship! There are also fireworks and food stalls set up all along the water. It spans over a weekend, so its usually a good time to stay in town.

Here are a few other things I've been up to the past few days:

Made a "My Style Summer" puzzle with my after school extra class. Each kid made a piece and they look pretty cool together!

Some nice flowers that just popped up at school!

I made orange juice! Much better than bottled because I don't usually like how sweet it.