Picnic time

I thought this was going to be an easy week. Tuesday picnic, Thursday sport's day, and Friday field trip. The picnic was a bit more than I thought.

First I had to get up an hour earlier than normal than ride in a car with other teachers for an hour or so until we got to what I thought was the picnic spot. It was there that I found out we had to hike across a mountain ridge (only 600-700 meters high) for quite awhile until we were at the picnic spot. It was pretty hard going a lot of the time and was jammed with people. It was really just like walking down some crowded street that had lots of giant boulders in the middle of it. It was not peaceful in the slightest. I didn't expect much with 200 odd high school students, but all the others (maybe 200-300 more) just made it too much.

What was good was that a lot of the kids wanted to speak (something they usually don't do in class) so it kept me busy and entertained. The food was pretty good kimbop which is my favorite Korean dish. It is like a seaweed burrito with rice and other stuff.

We finally arrived at out destination 4 hours after we began and I realized that it was at the one and only temple that I have already seen. Come on people! I have done so little in the way of travel here and you take me to the same place I've been?! I was hoping that we were all going home after that but the teachers had other ideas.

We went to some restaurant nearby and had what I think was duck (but they may have been saying dog) and I tried my hardest to not look bored as they all spoke in Korean for the next 2 hours. Finally everyone got up and was so ready to just go home and shower and take a nap. We walk down the rest of the mountain into town and everybody quickly walks into a building. Shit. It is a karaoke bar. They have these rooms (see my pictures) that you rent and sing till your hearts content. The teachers' musical taste is nothing to be desired. They picked some real crap English songs (most of which I had never even heard before) and expected me to sing along. I finally got the courage and sang a horrible rendition of "Born in the USA". All was going well until I got to the line about "killing the yellow man"...after that the wind blew out of the song. After a couple beers and countless crap Korean songs I made it up for one more song and impressed everyone with a jaw dropping "Sweet Caroline" that ended our session on a good note.

Finally we all went home and after eating some pizza I passed out in my own not so comfortable bed.

Oh, I almost forgot! Went to Gwangju to see some friends and stay in a grotty hotel that one friend successfully made even grottier. Good times were had by all! I posted a few more pictures, so have a look and click "PICTURES" on the right!

Also, here is something to make you happy!