Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

Thanksgiving is a new and exciting holiday for us South Africans. Over the past four years that I have taught in Korea the more I get involved in different cultural events the more I have come to adopt festivities that are not my own. I really look forward to American Thanksgiving, Canada Day, Chuseok, Chinese New Year and Halloween. This is the great thing about traveling, the longer that you live abroad the more diversified and global you become.

A big thing that most foreign teachers fear is missing out on all their favorite Western holidays. Especially the idea of living in Asia and knowing that most of the East’s holidays are not aligned with the West’s. In Korea, the major holidays are Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) and Solnal (Korean New Years). If you live in the countryside, Koreans don’t really celebrate big Western holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you live in big cities however like Seoul, Busan or Daegu then there will be Koreans who celebrate Western holidays and who enjoy partaking in them.

The couple days leading up to this year’s Thanksgiving, I was feeling very homesick. There was a lot of commotion back home as my family prepared for their Thanksgiving holiday. My older brother was bringing his girlfriend to meet the family for the first time, and my family also just got a new puppy, so I felt like I was really missing out. However, what made it a little better is ChungDahm provided the English teachers with a traditional Thanksgiving lunch! We had the essentials: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Before we started eating, our faculty manager opened the floor up to anyone who wanted to share what they were thankful for. Yes, it was as cheesy as you can imagine. A couple people shared, but I was too shy and embarrassed. In retrospect, if I had the chance to say something I would have thanked the staff for organizing this Thanksgiving lunch. It meant so much to me that I could still spend Thanksgiving with other people whom I enjoy spending time with. 

We shared some good laughs and I learned a little more about my coworkers. When everyone finished eating we had to do something with all the leftovers, so I filled up a tupperware full of food and took it home with me. I wanted to show off to my family that I had Thanksgiving food too! Later that day, I went on Skype to talk with my family. My mom’s famous corn casserole was in the oven and I watched them all get ready to go over to my aunt’s house for dinner. Skype is really a double edged sword. If you’re feeling homesick it can either make you feel better when you see and talk with your family, or it can leave you missing home even more. Thanksgiving has come and gone, so I don’t feel as homesick anymore. I don’t think that Christmas or New Years will be as bad because those holidays are celebrated here too. Actually, Thanksgiving meals are celebrated here, I just couldn’t partake because I was sick. However, here is a list I found of restaurants in Korea that serve traditional Thanksgiving meals: Your Guide to Thanksgiving in Korea 2011