A Trip to New Jersey

Last weekend Pete and I made a quick trip to New Jersey to attend a fundraising gala for Sejong Cultural Education, Inc. We are not well seasoned travelers...and we have have never left both children overnight. The travel plans and the "sleep over" with Grammy went very well. Hmmm...maybe there are more travel weekends in our future?

The event was held in Fort Lee, NJ. We flew into JFK and took a car service to the hotel. At one time, Fort Lee was the "motion picture capital of America." The 2010 census indicates that Fort Lee's Korean population is about 24%. Everyone we talked to said the Korean population was more along the lines of 80% to 90% of the city. It was really neat to see Korean signs, have Korean food served at the hotel, and have our pick of Korean restaurants!

We had very little time to do anything but attend the dinner. We had a late lunch at a restaurant called Gam Mee OK. It was delicious! I have never seen Pete eat so much kimchi.

The dinner was very nice. We were seated at a table with two other educators who are going on the trip. I did not get much of a chance to chat with them, since it was a busy evening. They had several speakers and performances.

The first was gayakeum (stringed instrument) duet. They played a song called "Dorajee," which was fun for us because we are familiar with it. We have it on an album of children's music (Rabbit Days and Dumplings by Elena Moon Park).

The next performance was really exciting. It was a drum dance called "s'am-g'o-m'oo." It is a dance that originated in Buddhist temples of Korea. According to our program, "The dancers' beating of the drum is meant to instruct the evil-minded on the ways of Heaven and to save creatures suffering in hell."

There were several other speakers as well. The keynote speaker, Mary Connor, is a retired educator from California. She started The Korea Academy for Educators. This non-profit organization provides workshops and seminars for educators to learn more about Korean culture and the Korean students they teach. Ummm...something for next summer? 

It was a quick trip, but a wonderful glimpse of Sejong Cultural Education, Inc. It made me even more excited for the trip!