The 5th World Folktale Reading/Performance Competition @ our neighborhood

It's 01.15 pm and the show's started. We got to register first before entering the BRICs Hall at our university, HUFS. Eyra signed up and wrote down something on guest book. 

The event was held at BRICs Hall, HUFS. This year we did not participate since we already did last year...and became the first winner.!!! 

The hall accommodated about 300 people and it's full-house, not to mention those who had to stand in the back rows and alleys. 

The show was held by Pureun Community Center, a multicultural Center in our (previous) neighborhood in cooperation with Modu Children's Library. 

Participants were families, students, wives, husbands, kids from different countries or simply..anyone with multicultural background who are currently residing in our neighborhood. 

Japan, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Thailand, Iran, and Korea, of course. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to participate again since we did win the competition last year. ^^ 

We were shown on the clips on the intermission break. I was Green Ogre (Buto Ijo) last year.^^ what a great time that was!!!^-^  Read our story HERE.

Then, as the final act was the collaborative project telling a folktale from Vietnam. The mothers (wives) of international marriage residing in the neighborhood came up together to bring the story alive. 

It's nice. 

The children loved it since they did live up to their expectation of delivering props and action and stuffs to stir up their imagination. 

In fact, the story that they were bringing up was the one that's been read for the children on a regular basis at the library.  

Then came the winner announcement. Most of them got appraisal certificate to appreciate their participation. Look at the kids, babies who also took part in the event. 

Mongolia team ( a whole family from grandmother to a granddaughter) became the first winner of this competition.

Congratulations.!!!

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.

Out-Dated Entry: Strawberries Farm

Waaaaa....strawberries all over the place. 

Eyra went out for a one-day trip to a strawberry farm at Gyeonggi-do. She was so excited as she found out that she could pick up a box of strawberries. 

It was still cold outside, well it was winter, but the vinyl house that housed the strawberry   farm did a good job of giving 'life' to the fruits. 

It was like magic. I mean...the shivering winter outside was completely irrelevant in term of this amazingly arranged winter trip we had. 

After an hour-trip of strawberry picking, all of the kids were ready to get back on the bus to continue the trip. 

Now Eyra was on the bus.....^^ 

The surrounding scenery during winter was dull since not a single green lush vegetation was visible, but the fact that within the vinyl house...the sweet red strawberries with their green leaves were all there for us to embrace...

"what a wonderful world" we thought.

Eyra just could not be more impatient/patient in trying to taste the freshly picked strawberries.

*A Winter moment to Remember, indeed.*

Sleep Over @ the Library

도서관에서의 하룻밤 or a program where kids had a chance to sleep over for one night at the library. What? Yes....it's designed for kids up to 12 y.o.who would like to experience something different during winter night. Our neighborhood Moodo Children Library organized this event for the kids in the neighborhood.

They brought along their sleeping bag and stuffs they needed. I think it was such a good program for the kids. Eyra participated in this program since she wanted it in the first place. I am sure she got along well enough with other kids who were mostly from multicultural background. 

They made their own dinner, made up their own bed and...other stuffs. 

Global Family Camp 2012 (Part 6): We are Happy to be a part of it

Once again, we would like to thank the 교보생명교육문화재단 for having facilitated and coordinated such an event. 

이런 활동을 통해서 우리가 한국에서 사는 것이 색다르게 변하고 있습니다.

After having finished our Archery activity, what left for us was......finding back all of the arrows we shot earlier. It would not be a big problem if the arrows hit the target. We just pluck them out of the target board. But what about the missing ones? We got no choice but to search for them in the bushes behind the target board.

Now: searching time! The kids loved it. As for the adults, we got no choice but to go further beyond the perimeter to find any missing arrows. 

-----it was about 10.30 when we finished having our first activity.

Then, off we went to make organic soap. Eyra and her Korean family friends were busy looking at how the soaps were being made.

Then, we made these cute little family out of pins and nuts.^^

We were making a family dolls out of cloth-pin and nuts. We drew our family members' faces and glued them on the pins. See the picture?

Then, we made a book out of some paper and some fancy papers. We could decorate and write anything we liked. Each family got a pack of fancy cards, some posters, pictures, and other prearranged information on each country. 

We cut and pasted the pictures onto our books eventually so as to make them look like the ones shown above.

It took some coordination and cooperation to make this simple design. Yet, creativity was what we needed. Finally, though, a 30-minute task given to each family turned out to be a hard-driven spirit and challenge for us. After all, we would not have finished making it, had we not cooperated. Right?

The final remarks from the committee, National Youth Center, Kyobo Life, and 동부교육지원청. And of course, we thank them for inviting us to participate in the program.

We said goodbyes to our doumi or liaison officer during the events. Till we meet again...^^

Now, I want to write down the reason as to why we were chosen as the participants of this program: our daughter, Eyra, is now attending Cheongryang Elementary School. As one of the families whose children attend Korean Elementary School, we were given an opportunity by the school to participate in the program. After submitting our application form, we were happy to know that we were among 24 families selected to participate in the Global Family Camp 2012. 

That's pretty much the reason as to why we were chosen to be the participants.

We were so happy to be able to meet multicultural families and Korean families along the way. 

A worth-it trip. 

Once again...we would like to thanks the 동부뵤육지원청 and 교보생명교육문화재단 for having facilitated and coordinated such an event. 

이런 활동을 통해서 우리가 한국에서 사는 것이 색다르게 변하고 있습니다.