Saturday, October 10, 2009

Korean field trip

HS field trips in Korea are so much better than those in the States. I remember our field trips were usually going to a museum, theater, or classic music performance. Of course we did go to Valley Fair once, only to have to take measurements at the theme park and do lots of calculations and hours of homework.

Yesterday, all of the first year students and teachers went to a Ski resort. The students played paintball, had a picnic lunch, and went hiking. The teachers drove ATVs, had a picnic lunch, and took the lift to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view. It was nice because the resort staff kept the students in line so the teachers didn't have to control the students all day. Oh, the bus ride can be difficult though, right? One and a half hours to the resort? Not a problem, the students can watch a movie or TV on the big flat screen on the bus. Of course, my students opted to do karaoke instead so we had 3 hours of karaoke (1 and a half hours each way).

I opted to play paintball with the students rather than hang with the other teachers at the beginning. I was playing with class 1-2. Everyone was very cautious playing the first game. I was the first one eliminated... some bad students in class 1-3 (on the sidelines) provoked one of the students into teamkilling me and shooting me in the back. I stayed away from him in the second game and got 2 or 3 kills. The main problem was that each student only had 20-25 paintballs in their gun. So after getting down to about 5, I just made a suicide run. I got one of the 1-3 students a couple times in the stomach before he just clipped me in the shoulder. It was a good run. The paintball and the ATVs really get the adrenaline going.

The ATV was fun, as we took it across dirt, pavement, grass fields, rocks, loose gravel, mud, etc. The grass fields were great. The grass was about a meter high in most parts, so you couldn't see the lie of the land. Also, it was the only part where I could go as fast as I wanted to (i was usually stuck in a line behind the instructor and other teachers). When we went down the narrow paths, the other teachers tried to avoid any large rocks or puddles of mud. Naturally, I went through every obstacle I came across (i mean, we are in an "All Terrain Vehicle" so I think its more fun take advantage of its unique properties rather than drive it like a car). I was going full speed all day, in paintball, ATVs and whatever else we did. Finally I got a little tired on the bus ride back. The karaoke was too loud to sleep, but I was text messaging friends and studying korean words in my dictionary. Before I knew it, we were back in 김천. We had a dinner together with all the 1st grade teachers, vice principal, and principal before we parted ways.