Multicultural Kids and Korean Kids: Sleep Over at Children Library

Ok....first ...for anyone who may find it weird asvto why I use the term "multicultural kids', well...I simply translated it from the Korean term "다문화애들" who are simply children whose parents have different nationalities.

Ok...back to my story.

After they finished searching for papers with names of ingredients for gimbab on them, they began discussing. ... 

What kind of gimbab they're planning on making for the dinner!

Seriously....

....and attentively...

* ☆It's Moodo Children Library at Imundong, our neighborhood.

So....the atmosphere was great. I felt like really home seeing all these kids and the surroundings.

Hmm....why did it take such a long time..

To.discuss.what.kind.of.kimbab.

Oh...apparently they're NOT only talking about kimbab...

But..other stuffs, too. Ok...group picture!

Now...with some papers on hands

They could exchange the paper for the REAL.ingredients.

One by one....they're patiently bartering the treasures they found earlier.

....a great deal, for sure.

Hmm..couldn't wait for their own gimbab.

All.kinds.of.ingredients.available.

Ready, Get Set, Go to the Fiesta

Borrowing a rickshaw from a Bangladesh friend, we were teamed up with other Korean fellows who would go to the Fiesta/multicultural festival venue. 

Clad in a light blue T-shirt, they were ready to do a one-day fiesta. 

 

Ready for another show. Taking a pose in front of Indonesian-booth at the festival. 

What would be a multicultural festival be without the local delicacies of Indonesia. Well, since Indonesia has more than 200 ethnics, we dare not say that we represent Indonesia as a whole. So, instead we just showed what we knew best about some dishes that we could make in Korea. 

One of the posters my fellows created to show to the visitors of our booth.

All in Korean, of course. 

Wait...I thought they were....

learning Korean at the Pureun Multicultural Center. But..how come that I found this footage?

It looks like they were in some kind of parks...

I just learned that these Moms were having their time learning Korean at the park while of course chattering other stuffs.

One from Philippines, one from Vietnam, one from China, two from Indonesia.

Except the ones from Indonesia, the rest are Moms of multicultural families in Korea. 

Oh, there were others, too. I should've known.

Looks like they sure had a time of their life. 

Exposed themselves to Korean life and adapted themselves to other cultures brought by their peer friends Moms.

Saman Dance @ Multicultural Center Fiesta

An annual event in our previous neighborhood: 다문화축제  (Multicultural Festival). This is our 2nd time participating in the event. Being foreigners in Imundong where lots of foreigners reside, we feel obliged to 'get in touch' and know where we live. 

So, we end up associating ourselves in Pureun Multicultural Center where lots of activities to cater the needs of those both Korean and foreign nationals to mingle and understand each other's cultures. 

Indonesian team teamed up with our Korean counterparts performed Saman Dance (a traditional dance originated from Aceh, Sumatra). It took my wife and Ulfa..let's see..hardly a month to teach other Korean friends to be able to perform the energetic and no-mistake-or-we-are-doomed-:-D)-kind-of-dance. 

It was a relief that we did excel beyond our expectation...

and 'Encore! 'Encore!' exclamation sort of acknowledged our efforts to put in on the show.

Sock-Kittens...

not only kittens actually, mice, dwarfs, and other animals are also there for the sake of sheer pleasure of making them and contributing them to kids' activities at Multicultural Center. 

Yes, those cute little sock-plush-animals are made of socks (new ones, of course) by the ladies, female students, mothers or anyone whose kids, friends, niece, or .... are the the regular visitors to the Moodo Children Library 모두 어린이 도서관 at our neighborhood. 

I guess this kind of activity would surely give a good impact on the relationship among he ladies and of course it is good to incite the sense of 'togetherness'.

*my wife finds it exciting to be involved herself in most (if not all) activities carried out at this children library.

Multicultural Kids Gathering

After watching the Gayageum show, the kids seemed to be adamant of going back home. They thought that it would be too early to go home...so we decided to take them to a nearby playground where we (the parents) could sip some coffee while letting the kids play^^ 

We just let them play ...and luckily it was not that cold today. It was only 6 degrees Celsius and that was warm to our standard.^^ (Look who's talking, tropical suray:)  

We bought them some lunchbox for them to enjoy in between their playtime. 

Actually we did not buy the lunchbox at this Coffee Shop, but since we also bought some coffee here, the host just let the kids have their lunchbox there. 

The coffee-shop also provided one computer for the kids to play the games. I felt like this is intentionally designed so ..in order to let the parents do the chit-chat while their kids play some games...* not to mention the nearby playground where the Cafe was located.^^

All in all...today we did have a great time of taking the kids out..during the weekend. 

Ice Skating @ Kwangwoon University

Now kids, let's get started. First, those in kindergarten should be in the front and tag along the ski skating instructor of today. Freya, being the smallest one, was in the lead. 

It was Freya's first time ever on ice rink...let alone having any prior experiences of ice skating. But to my surprise, she was eager to do it..though at first...she kept on holding tight on the handrail. 

As for her sister, it was her 3rd time. She's lucky that she got her previous ice skating lessons thanks to her school's program. 

Just look at the kids on their lessons on how to ice skate. They were the kids of multicultural families (except us^^) in Korea. Most of them have multicultural backgrounds: either from their Mom or Dads. 

This is our weekend activity where kids from Korea and other nationals meet and get along together to learn about each other through various activities: This wee: ice skating.

How great it is that this ice rink is just a 15 minute ride by bus or 25 minute ride (including the walking part^6) by subway from home. 

This young instructor patiently taught the kids about how to scoop and skate. Guess he's pretty patient with the kids of  

I just realized that the helmets the children put on their heads were mostly yellow. 

Eyra and Freya did not seem to be scared or afraid at all. In fact, they kind of enjoyed it.

But, after a a while, Freya just gave up. She insisted on taking the skiing boots all the time. 

As for her sister, she kept on doing it and she pretty much got the hang of it and now I could proclaim that she pretty much nailed it. 

Freya and Eyra: separated by a pane of glass. 

Break-time: we were having some snacks, ramen, chocolate, bread, water, and....oranges. 

I thought that after a break, most of them would feel so tired..but we were wrong, almost all of them tried back on skiing I mean...skating. Eyra, too.  

This is when Eyra showed of f what she could accomplice today. In fact, I thought that this has been one of the best things of being in shape and focused on what the training would bring about. 

She kept on going back and forth and circling the rink for more than 12 times.!!! 

In fact, I should have captured all of the moments. 

She pretty much knew nothing about skating until today....everything seemed so wonderful, she said. She was like flying when she scooped over the ice. 

She was about to fall when I captured this.^^ 

But, as soon as she got off again, she kept on looking for her friends...and it seemed that they get along well.

Toay's program was then sealed in Lotte @ Cheongnyangni.