Childsplay
It has been a quiet weekend, but that will follow in a later post. First my field trip on Friday with the Kindergarten children.
We went to the Sudoguk-san Taltongne Pangmulgwan, which means "Sudoguk mountain hillside (squatter) neighborhood museum" but has been given the official English title of "Sudoguksan Museum of Housing and Living."
It was a rare opportunity to spend time with the kids and not be shouting at them to "be quiet" "listen" or "sit down"! In fact I barley said a word all morning as none of the Korean teachers I was with can really speak English and my ability to communicate with the kids is limited! But it was a good day (well morning) nonetheless.
We left the school about 10:45am on the school bus. Getting on and seeing the kids crammed in three to each seat meant for two was a surprise, and obviously there weren't any seatbelts. Sometimes the differences between England and Korea astound me.
It took about 45 minutes to get to the museum, during which time the kids were incredibly well behaved with only limited shouting and standing on the seats! And it wasn't until the way home that the first one of them was sick!!! At the child threw up in a bag I looked out the window and pretended it wasn't happening! Let the Korean teachers deal with it is fast becoming my motto!!!
When we arrived at the museum we walked around pretty quickly with the teachers explaining everything to the kids in Korean. I managed to guess that it had something to do with a mountain (well the massive hill we'd driven up to get to the museum) and old Korean houses. But most of the explanations were written in Korean and we walked around so quickly I didn't have time to read the occasional English plaque. I found an article about the museum on the Korea Times website. It makes sooooo much more sense now!
We walked around so quickly I didn't get chance to take any pictures. But as we reached the end the teachers began lining the children up in their classes and taking pictures. Here are some of my pickies.
Some of Blue class. From left to right: Josh (making the victory sign, as nearly all Korean kids do in photos!), Tim, Kate, Amy, (a very uncomfortable looking) me and Rebecca.
Pink class. From left to right: Daniel, Kandy, Philip, Alex, Jack, Danny, Julia.
Yellow class, the youngest and possibly my favourite! Left to right: Irene, Alex and Brian.
There are plenty of blogs to come about yellow class. Since they realised they get 'candy' or in ENGLISH sweets if they are good I get hugged (well two kids clinging to my legs) every time I walk into their classroom!!! And I think there may be a budding romance between Irene and Brian! (more to follow on that!)
After we went to the museum we had lunch. It is traditional for the kids mothers to make food for the teachers when the kids go on a trip. The food was pretty good and I was very good. I sat and ate traditional Korean food WITH chopsticks!! I can almost use them now!
After lunch we took the kids to a park near the museum. It has been years since I have watched kids play in a park. I guess pretty much since I was a kid. It is amazing the memories it brings back watching kids behave like kids and remembering all the things you used to do when playing in the park. After all a slide is never just a slide, it has many more uses than that.
Here are some pictures I snapped when the kids weren't looking. Oh the memories it brought back..........
The kids having fun in the park.
Amy Standing on a swing. Kandy standing on a swing whilst Daniel sits down.
I remember doing this as a kid and watching them it looked like wicked fun. But I got the impression I was a bit too big to go and play! Unless of course it's 2am I'm fairly drunk and walking past the play park on the quay in Exeter!
Shortly after I took this picture Kandy's friend Julia came and said something to me in Korean the only English words she managed were Kandy and Daniel with lots of together type actions. I think she was trying to tell me that Kandy is going out with Daniel!!! How cute!
Slide jam. This was always more fun on a helter-skelter!!
Jack ties the swing up then giggles as he wizzes around in circles.
Why am I to old for this stuff?
Julia shows that a slide is never just a slide!
Aside form watching the kids the views from the park were pretty spectacular, buildings as far as the eye could see with skyscapers rising in the distance. It just looks so different than British urbanisation! Check out the picture below.
View from the park at Sudoguksan.
- Posted by j150vsc on 26/09/2006.
- j150vsc's site
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