Day on the farm

Thursday May 2nd.
Wow... what to say. A lot of course.
I slept very poorly. I kept waking up thinking I over slept. Not the best way to start out what was going to be an extremely busy day.
Today was the fieldtrip/picnic for the kindys. I was a chaperone for my Denmark class. I think France class was sad I was not with them. Everytime they saw me throughout the day they all waved at me. Denmark was fun too. The different classes have such different feelings. My Denmark and Australia classes have about the same vibe but different personalities. My France class is different. All of them are 7, but it is amazing how much of a difference that 1 year at ECC makes.
Since it was a picnic, the students brought lunches, and some students brought extra lunches for the teachers. So some of my students brought Kimbap for me. So... I had an absolute ton of kimbap. I brought most of it. I have never been filled up doing anything with ECC before today. Besides the kimbap I brought, the kids are super willing to share the food. It is rude to not accept. So the classes I was eating lunch with were giving me and the other teachers even more. Just like a piece here, a piece there. But my Australia and Denmark were eating together, so that is about 20 kids. Even if half gave me a piece, that is still 10 extra pieces of kimbap.
Anyway, we went to a farm. It was fun and interesting. The kids seemed to enjoy it and I took a lot of pictures. I had every intention of posting some in this post, but it took me forever to get the pictures onto my computer. So I did not get to go through them as I had planned. I will.
So on the farm the kids got to feed milk to calves, "feed a cow straws," milk a cow, go on a tractor ride, and I am sure other stuff too.  The all of the foreign teachers except Ama left after lunch because we had afternoon classes to teach. Ama only had one, so it was covered, and he had to stay to help the kids.
So one of the interesting parts of today. I saw North Korea. Ya, more of the surreal factor instead of the oh crap factor. I mean, I will definitely go to the DMZ and JSA, but still just being on a bus and seeing it... So most of the way to the farm, we were on a road going along the Han river. Just outside of Seoul, there was a barbed wire fence and lookout towers every probably 300 meters. They keep a lookout incase anyone tries to come from NK into SK. They line both sides of the Han. Then when we got to a certain point, we could see North Korea on the other side of the river. Just so interesting being so close to something that people have talked about for years. So, of course I had to take a picture.

The rest of the day went pretty well. My Canada class had a test. They did not like it, nor did I like giving it to them. It was a standardized type of test. It seemed very easy and many of the kids were talking about how easy it was, but it took the entire class period. My Korea class seemed to be having a pretty good day again today. So that is a good thing to see. If I can just make it light hearted I think the kids will get more out of it. Instead of trying to force them, if I just ease them and try to make it somewhat fun. The girl in that class even smiled a few times and gave a chuckle. Not something that happens often.
After work Rob Sarah and I got some chicken and beer. (I know I usually write some things in Korean... but I do not have my keyboard set up to do that easily. Normally I go to a korean keyboard website and copy and paste what I type. Dont feel like doing that right now. I'm tired. Good conversations were had. Everything from relationships and dating to the work ethic and culture of Korea, to the US, politics, school, and everything.
When I got home, I tried to get the pictures from my camera here... and you already know where that story goes.
I know I am leaving some stuff out... well I think I know I am but am not sure. I'll go through the pictures soon and post them. But I'll give you one teaser.
Here is one of my Denmark kids. She was having an absolute blast with everything. Some kids were scared and grossed out. She was loving it. These pictures of her are just pure happiness and excitement.

Until soon, g'nite