Where has the time gone? (On a field trip!)

We had an interesting few weeks recently, and I'm only just starting to catch up with blogging--hence the series, "Where has the time gone?" A week after we went to Seoul, we went on a field trip with the whole Korean language school. In the days leading up to the trip, we had very little idea about what was in store--the words "sports," "mountain," and "dinner" were thrown around, mostly in Korean, and we knew we would be *somewhere* overnight (Thursday and Friday). Eventually, we understood that our class was to compete against the other classes in this Sports Festival, which led to an entire hour of class being spent ordering matching hoodies. (In the pictures below, we're the ones in red. 1B represent!)

On Wednesday, we learned a bit more about what it meant to participate in a Sports Festival. We each signed up to participate in the different events, a process which was conducted primarily in Korean, much to our confusion and entertainment. Very few of these activities could really be designated as "sports," and all of them were certainly... festive. As with any good Sports Festival, (I assume, this being my first,) there would be a three (plus one) legged race, an actual running sort of race, and arm wrestling. As for the rest... you'll understand soon.

After class on Thursday, (yes, they still made us learn,) we piled onto the buses and headed to our destination: a mountain near the city of 공주 (Gongju), about an hour's drive from Daejeon. (Unfortunately, none of us can remember the name of this mountain--simply that it had a snazzy Sports-Festival-appropriate setup and some nice cabins nearby.)

Getting super psyched for our field trip!

The festivities began shortly after we got off the buses--we dropped our bags nearby and gathered in a huge field where we would spend the rest of the afternoon. The teachers explained the rules--we were competing between classes for some events, and as the A team and B team for others. So it began! Once again, I think the pictures can explain things best on their own. Here are just a few highlights of the afternoon, some of which rather defy explanation.

Two-vs-one? Not fair!

Our classmate Cati rules at arm wrestling!

This might be the largest game of rock-paper-scissors in history.

The person in the middle mostly just sort of flopped around in this many-legged race.

This is supposed to be wrestling. Our teacher (affectionately
known as Man Teacher) is the one doing the lifting.

One... sport... involved spinning in circles and then hurling your shoe in the air.

You're supposed to catch it, but I thought falling
over was a better strategy.

I got it back eventually! That counts, right? .......right?

After a long afternoon of winning fun, the classes separated for dinner and relaxation. An excellent dinner of samgeopsal (again! score!) awaited us, complete with kimchi made by Man Teacher's own mother. We cooked dinner ourselves, sitting around a number of little grills scattered across the room.

Om nom nom :)

With such a sweet setup inside our cabin, and so many mosquitoes outside of it, we made the obvious choice--which is to say, we had a dance party outside with the help of Man Teacher's car stereo! Also, it turns out people dance more or less the same no matter where they're from, and in this day and age everybody has heard the same terrible pop songs. People from other classes joined in, too, and it was an excellent conclusion to a really great day.

At promptly eleven o'clock, it was bed time. The girls headed further up the hill to our own sleeping quarters, where we fell asleep almost immediately after setting up the beds. It's really just as well--we were awakened at 8 am for the rest of our field trip... which I will get to. Sometime. Soon!

One more time... 1급B반!