Good morning everyone! It's a rainy. cloudy Sunday morning here, and I have no plans for today. As I have had many near-wipeouts trying to walk around in the rain with my umbrella and Old Navy flip flops (why would I wear socks and shoes in the rain?) on certain slippery surfaces that always seem to attract my feet, I think I'm going to play it safe today and have a cozy day in my apartment`.
Anyway, for this week's post I wanted to write about the fun I had on Thursday when we took an all-school field trip. The trip was to Suncheon, a city about an hour away from Gwangju, to go to what my co-teacher called a 'job fair.' I thought this was pretty ambitious for middle schoolers to attend, but then I realized when I arrived that it was more of an expo for all of the vocational high schools in the region to show off their stuff - one was a cooking school, one was a technology school, an art school, etc.
We arrived in sunny Suncheon around 10, and then we had two hours to wander around, look at the different displays, and participate in some of the hands-on activities the high schoolers had for everyone. The teachers and students wanted me to try everything, so as to immerse me in the full job-fair-slash-vo-tech-school experience I guess, so I diligently got to work sponge painting my own umbrella at the art school booth, decorating a mini-cake at the bakery school booth (which I got to take home afterward
s), mixing together essential oils to make my own perfume (at the perfume school booth?), and finally relaxing and enjoying a non-alcoholic cocktail with the other teachers at the bartending school booth. I was amazed at some of the displays the schools put on, and I can see it being a good idea for middle schoolers to attend and start thinking about their interests. I teach in the southernmost province, which is still pretty rural for Korea standards, and for many students a vocational school is more of a likely option than college, as it is a competitive and grueling process to get to, and because in Korea the three grades of standard public high school is actually not mandatory to attend. Most students do move on to some sort of high school, however, but the option to not continue is still there.
had a good, old fashioned picnic on a tarp on the parking lot with food that had been ordered in. We removed our shoes outside of the tarp, sat down cross legged, and enjoyed our feast. We had quite the assortment - vegetables, seafood (yes, that thing at the bottom of the box in the picture is a whole fish, waiting for my chopsticks to tear it apart), rice, soup, and dried seaweed. Better than it sounds, people. When we were finished eating we waited for the bus drivers to finish, and I enjoyed watching the students feed the teachers some of their leftovers. They are very communal eaters in South Korea, as evidenced by the rate kids were picking up some of their food and popping it in their teacher's mouths with their chopsticks. I was fed kimchi kimbap (kim-seaweed, bap-rice) by one of my girls, which looks like a sushi roll, but is actually kimchi and vegetables in the middle surrounded by rice, which is then wrapped in seaweed. Once again, better than it sounds. To top it off, it was a bright sunny beautiful fall day, per
fect weather for a picnic. I enjoyed chatting (well, half-chatting) with my students outside of the classroom as well. They were shy at taking pictures for me (see the girl on the far right turning her head?) so I didn't take too many posed shots.
After our picnic, we piled back onto our buses (Bus 1,2,3, and F, remember) and headed to a little village about a half hour away called Koksong. The area we went to is in a beautiful river valley, and the park is called the Koksong Train Village. Apparently the railroad along the river used to be a very necessary and important means of transportation (when the Japanese invaded in the early 1900s they came up the river, which ends in the South Sea, and then took over the rail lines to continue their invasion.) The park is now a preserved folk village, with traditional style Korean homes, little gardens around the train tracks, flower fields, and a fountain. We had about an hour to wander around the park, so the kids took off for the fountain while the teachers and I (I suppose I am a teach
er, as well, aren't I?) walked around, en
joying the scenery and taking pictures. The picture on the left is of the secretary, me, and my younger co-teacher, and the lovely ladies in the picture on the right are (L-R) me, my co-teacher, the secretary, the math teacher, the vice principal, and the (oops, I thought I knew, but I forgot what she teaches) teacher.
We topped off the end of the field trip with a train ride on one of the old railways - it is only used for touristic purposes now, but we got some great views of the river valley. It was the perfect end to a fun day - Korean school field trips get
an A. That's all for today - I have to get back to my to do list - I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend and a great week!
Anyway, for this week's post I wanted to write about the fun I had on Thursday when we took an all-school field trip. The trip was to Suncheon, a city about an hour away from Gwangju, to go to what my co-teacher called a 'job fair.' I thought this was pretty ambitious for middle schoolers to attend, but then I realized when I arrived that it was more of an expo for all of the vocational high schools in the region to show off their stuff - one was a cooking school, one was a technology school, an art school, etc.
So, around 9:00 that morning we all piled into four coach buses (fun fact: my bus was the fourth one, but many Korean have a superstition about the number four, much like we do about the number 13, so instead of riding on "Bus 4", I actually rode on "Bus F.") Makes sense, right? Our hour long trip was filled with beautiful scenery - the same rolling green mountains (the Koreans call them mountains, but compared to the Rockies 'mountains' doesn't really cut it. I think they are best compared to the Appalachians - green, low, and rounded.) But mountain sounds cooler and more impressive, so we'll just say they are mountains since the Koreans say they are mountains. Enough on that.
Another feature of our hour long bus ride was: K-Pop. The bus driver had some handy K-Pop music video filled DVDs, which did the trick of entertaining middle schoolers for the entire ride, and I'm sure won the bus driver some popularity points. On the way there, we watched the girl K-Pop bands, on the way back we watched the boy K-Pop bands. I'll let you guess which ride had more screamers. I'm kind of a pop song person myself, so I actually enjoyed watching them and learning about who was in what band. Some of the songs I had heard on the radio (or cell phone ringtones) so it was good to put a song with a face, if you will.
Another feature of our hour long bus ride was: K-Pop. The bus driver had some handy K-Pop music video filled DVDs, which did the trick of entertaining middle schoolers for the entire ride, and I'm sure won the bus driver some popularity points. On the way there, we watched the girl K-Pop bands, on the way back we watched the boy K-Pop bands. I'll let you guess which ride had more screamers. I'm kind of a pop song person myself, so I actually enjoyed watching them and learning about who was in what band. Some of the songs I had heard on the radio (or cell phone ringtones) so it was good to put a song with a face, if you will.
We arrived in sunny Suncheon around 10, and then we had two hours to wander around, look at the different displays, and participate in some of the hands-on activities the high schoolers had for everyone. The teachers and students wanted me to try everything, so as to immerse me in the full job-fair-slash-vo-tech-school experience I guess, so I diligently got to work sponge painting my own umbrella at the art school booth, decorating a mini-cake at the bakery school booth (which I got to take home afterward
s), mixing together essential oils to make my own perfume (at the perfume school booth?), and finally relaxing and enjoying a non-alcoholic cocktail with the other teachers at the bartending school booth. I was amazed at some of the displays the schools put on, and I can see it being a good idea for middle schoolers to attend and start thinking about their interests. I teach in the southernmost province, which is still pretty rural for Korea standards, and for many students a vocational school is more of a likely option than college, as it is a competitive and grueling process to get to, and because in Korea the three grades of standard public high school is actually not mandatory to attend. Most students do move on to some sort of high school, however, but the option to not continue is still there.
After a couple of hours of participation, it was time for lunch. When I was first told about the field trip, I was just told that it was a 'school picnic,' and sure enough, it lived up to its name. The kids had all brought their lunches from home, but the teachers
had a good, old fashioned picnic on a tarp on the parking lot with food that had been ordered in. We removed our shoes outside of the tarp, sat down cross legged, and enjoyed our feast. We had quite the assortment - vegetables, seafood (yes, that thing at the bottom of the box in the picture is a whole fish, waiting for my chopsticks to tear it apart), rice, soup, and dried seaweed. Better than it sounds, people. When we were finished eating we waited for the bus drivers to finish, and I enjoyed watching the students feed the teachers some of their leftovers. They are very communal eaters in South Korea, as evidenced by the rate kids were picking up some of their food and popping it in their teacher's mouths with their chopsticks. I was fed kimchi kimbap (kim-seaweed, bap-rice) by one of my girls, which looks like a sushi roll, but is actually kimchi and vegetables in the middle surrounded by rice, which is then wrapped in seaweed. Once again, better than it sounds. To top it off, it was a bright sunny beautiful fall day, per
fect weather for a picnic. I enjoyed chatting (well, half-chatting) with my students outside of the classroom as well. They were shy at taking pictures for me (see the girl on the far right turning her head?) so I didn't take too many posed shots.After our picnic, we piled back onto our buses (Bus 1,2,3, and F, remember) and headed to a little village about a half hour away called Koksong. The area we went to is in a beautiful river valley, and the park is called the Koksong Train Village. Apparently the railroad along the river used to be a very necessary and important means of transportation (when the Japanese invaded in the early 1900s they came up the river, which ends in the South Sea, and then took over the rail lines to continue their invasion.) The park is now a preserved folk village, with traditional style Korean homes, little gardens around the train tracks, flower fields, and a fountain. We had about an hour to wander around the park, so the kids took off for the fountain while the teachers and I (I suppose I am a teach
er, as well, aren't I?) walked around, en
joying the scenery and taking pictures. The picture on the left is of the secretary, me, and my younger co-teacher, and the lovely ladies in the picture on the right are (L-R) me, my co-teacher, the secretary, the math teacher, the vice principal, and the (oops, I thought I knew, but I forgot what she teaches) teacher.
The fountain that you see is one that spits up from the ground - all of sudden it would stop and look like a flat place to walk - a feature which some of my more rambunctious students decided to start a game with, to see who could run across the fountain square before the fountain started back up without getting sprayed. Needless to say, this resulted in some very wet middle schoolers. There was a radio playing K-Pop somewhere, so the wet middle schoolers turned into dancing wet middle schoolers - it was quite the show. The sun was shining, K-Pop was blaring, and everyone was having a great time - wouldn't you?
We topped off the end of the field trip with a train ride on one of the old railways - it is only used for touristic purposes now, but we got some great views of the river valley. It was the perfect end to a fun day - Korean school field trips get
an A. That's all for today - I have to get back to my to do list - I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend and a great week!
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