Happy Thanksgiving!

This was a quiet weekend for us. We had intended to go to Seoul, but our colds/coughs seem to be lingering so we'll put it off until we're 100% better. We had a lot of fun though. We got a soccer ball and a puzzle, went over to a friend's apartment for some chili and board games and wandered around the city a bit.

Some interesting facts about Korea we just read:
1. Koreans rank near the bottom of the list for number of hours of sleep each night
2. Koreans rank at the top of the list of number of hours spent working and studying
3. Koreans rank 23rd out of 25th in terms of productivity

This is something we have noticed a lot. At E-Mart (Wal-Mart equivalent), there are 10 times more employees working. Actually, there are more employees everywhere. In the public washroom at E-Mart the other day, there was a group of 4 cleaning women sitting on the bathroom floor talking with each other.

Students go to so many academies and spend so many hours studying. We learned recently that although high school students go to school until midnight, they don't actually spend that time IN class. They just study at school. Koreans place a huge emphasis on math so from age 7 onwards, every student (who can afford it) goes to a math academy. Their math skills are amazing, but it all seems without purpose. Our 5th grade students can do high school math, but as my middle school students told me yesterday, they will never use it in everyday situations.

MaryAnne has a private class with a 10 year old boy once a week who is preparing for the SATs. This is a standardized test Americans take to get into college. We both have middle school students taking classes to prepare for standardized tests that they will probably never take.

Anyway, we hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! We are getting a new camera this week so we should have lots of new photos to share next week.