Field Trip Friday

This past Friday our school had its first field trip of the year. Rachel, myself, Mr. Jong, and Miss Son were all put on the same bus. We had about an hour and a half ride to where we were going, but of course we got stuck with Rachel's worst class. We left Seoul and entered Incheon, which is directly west of Seoul. We were destined for an island in Incheon. To be completely honest it was another one of those times where we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into. Some people told me there were temples on the island, some said there was a fortress, some said there was mud, and others said there was absolutely nothing of interest, and we got shafted. But the bus ride wasn't so bad, I sat next to Miss Son, who I thought didn't speak much English. Well, it turns out she's just quiet because we talked almost the entire ride there. But where were we going? Some teachers told me they were going to Han River, some to mountains, and others to see Spiderman 3, but I hadn't gotten a clear answer as to what was on our island. Ironically enough, our first stop was at an army fortress memorial from a war between America and Korea. I walked around hundreds of Koreans in a place sacred because America attacked it, or as the memorial put it "America instigated the war". I don't know why we ever thought we should be fighting this far from home, but it almost seemed surreal. The good thing was that "ironic", usually a hard word to grasp, was able to be understood by almost every teacher there within moments. Yup, I'm always working.

We did not spend too much time at the fortress though; our second stop was not too far away, at some Buddhist temples. It's always neat to see these types of things but it was nothing too special. What I liked about it most was that there were high school kids everywhere, drawing. I just thought that was kind of cool. Not my high school kids or course, but others, from an art school. That was nice, oh yeah, and our awesome lunch, that was pretty sweet too. We just found a nice spot in the woods and all the students carried the food to it.

Our third stop of the day was by far the best, and most eventful. We went to the beach, but not just any beach, the "Mud Flats". Yeah, I didn't know what to think of it either, but it was really pretty cool. In this area of the shoreline, during low tide ,the water retreats, but instead of leaving sand behind, it leaves mud. I'm not too sure as to why that is, but it's pretty cool. It's pretty amazing how far the water retreats, some teachers told me that it can be dangerous when the high tide starts coming in; if your out in the mud too far you can drowned. When you're not drownding though, the mud is supposed to be very good for your skin. And our students made sure to test out that theory.

After an interesting game on the shore, that I'm sure would not be legal in America (that you can see above), our students started getting interested in the mud. And when I say interested I mean, they started throwing kids in it, or throwing it at each other. None of the teachers seem to care at all. It was as if we were all just watching it on TV. There were kids being dragged into the mud kicking and screaming, but we just watched and laughed. We definitely did a lot of laughing. Mud throwing, mud wrestling, mud sliding, and whatever other things you can imagine you could do with mud, our students were doing it.

A quality field trip, I hope you enjoyed it too...more pics in my picasa photo album (as always).