Field Day!

Last Friday was field day at my school. They call it "Undonghey" here and it translates to sports day. The entire week leading up to field day was filled with hours of practice with each grade. You would have thought they were training for the Olympics. All of the teachers (aside from me) were very busy all week and very much stressed out. Since I never have a clue what is going on until the last minute I really didn't know what to expect. I was expecting something close to what I had experienced in school with kids running around crazy and jumping from game to game with no sense of order and no mandatory participation required. What I witnessed was vastly different. Each grade was dressed in a different outfit, there was an opening ceremony complete with a flag ceremony, singing of the national anthem and a torch relay. Each grade had a different set of games that they participated in and the entire grade was involved. The games were not ordinary games that we would see in the states, aside from the sprints and relay races so I won't try to explain them (hopefully the pictures will help). Also each grade performed a dance along with a musical selection. The biggest surprise to me was that field day was open to parents and the community. There were at least 400 parents and people from the community that attended and along with the 600 students made quite a crowd. There were even vendors selling balloons and food. During breaks, there were relay races and games for the parents and grandparents which were hilarious. I did my best to stay as hidden as I could so I didn't get roped into humiliating myself but my plan was spoiled when the entire crowd started chanting my name in unison. I was a little confused at first but one of the teachers who speaks english ran over to me and told me that I was supposed to run around the track with one of the 6th grade students. I handed my camera to a co worker and took off with the girl around the track as the crowd cheered and screamed "Aaron teacher, Aaron teacher." After we crossed the finish line another student grabbed my hand and we took off around the track again. This would have gone on a while had the teachers not told the 6th graders to choose other teachers to run with so I could rest. Our vice principal who is in his 60's ran and ended up pulling a hamstring in the process and the principal also ran. After all the classes had competed and danced, there was a closing ceremony and a special teacher lunch. The "special lunch" consisted of cow lung, blood sausage, kimbap (a type of sushi), sashimi (raw fish sliced very thinly), and beer. Yes, Koreans drink beer at school, but only on special occasions. It was an interesting day to say the least. I took over 200 photos during field day but I chose a few of my favorites to post below. If you want to view more you need to click on the "photobucket" link at the top of my blog.