School Trip!

Last Friday our school , a.k.a 'Best Hagwon in Korea!!!!', took our six and seven year olds on an overnight school trip. We were headed to a resort hotel in the Gyeonju, a beautiful city about an hour north of Ulsan.
My brief peek as I passed through Gyeonjus has me salivating to return on a proper day trip and really explore the place. The building codes for the city state that ALL buildings must conform to traditional Korean architecture. Which is how you get petrol stations that look like this:



but that's an adventure for another day!

Meanwhile, back at the resort, we got the kids unloaded and unpacked and settled into their rooms for their packed lunches.
I gotta tell ya, Asia has really cornered the market on packed lunches! No soggy sandwiches here! Best of all, the kids shared their food with us teachers! Mmmmmm! All the kimbap I could handle, it was lush! Even better than the food was the kid's delight in feeding the Waygookin (foreigner)! I was helping to take care of one class in particular, most of whom are in my Afterschool English class, so they were familiar faces - it was great spending time with them outside of school - mostly cos I could cuddle them as much as I wanted!



After lunch we herded everyone into a massive conference room for a puppet show. I'm not kidding when I say the place was awash with children - five different Kindergartens were visiting the same day.

I understood nary a word of the show but I loved every second of it for the reactions of the kids and teachers alike it was brilliant!


After the puppet show it was time to hit the pool, or I should say pools, as there were four different ones for them to sample, as well as the hosed down bouncy castles that looked like; castles, Boeing 747's , a spaceship and a pirate ship. The kids were so excited it's only thanks to the constant hosing that they didn't spontaneously combust! After the bouncy castles they got to ride around on pedal operated horses, after which they had a well earned rest in the shade with some complimentary slushies. I got a real kick out of seeing the fashion parade that was the kids swimwear, or just Korean swimwear in gereral, or rather the lack of it. The kids were in great swimgear, but all the adults in the place were rocking the joint in t-shirts and shorts. I even saw one woman wearing three layers of tops - it was delightfully and bizarrely Victorian!
The Life Guards on the other hand were vintage Baywatch, MmmmMmmmm!


After an afternoon by the pool we dripped back to the rooms and once there I experienced a phenomenal example of Girl Power: myself and three other Kindy teachers showered, dried and dressed 22 7yr olds in 15 mins! We formed an assembly line, one to shampoo, one the rinse and two to dry. For 15 mins all I said was, "Next! Arm. Other arm. Leg. Other leg. Next!"

After dinner there was a kiddie disco, which was out in the courtyard with fireworks and lots of synchronised dancing - I wish adult discos were as much fun!!

But the single best, favouritest, highest high point for me was when the kids were settling down to fall asleep. The girls were all in the bedroom of our unit and the boys were with us four teachers in the living room. It was screamingly cute watching them snuggle and tangle together like puppies in a litter! I dare you to contradict me!

Dear God in Heaven, but I love, love, love my job!

Peace out!