Doam Spring Sports Day

Happy Labor Day, all. I was thrilled to have a day off from work and even more excited to spend it outside at Doam with my co-workers and students. The weather today was sunny and cool, beckoning the track suits and visors of the abbreviated Sports Days.

I didn't write a post about Doam's Fall Sports Day, which was a full day of races, quirky games, whole-school choreographed dances, music, food carts, colorful decorations, and family onlookers. It was a big event, one of my favorite days in Korea. Because of the ferry, my second school's Sports Day was cancelled and Doam's Sports Day was significantly scaled back; absent were the dances, decorations, food carts, and flock of parents. There was only one big school relay race, otherwise small competitions (like dodgeball and jump roping) took place by grade in different sections of the playground yard. It was much less of an event and more a collective morning physical education class. Still great fun of course.

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I sat on the viewing mats on the edge of the field chatting with one of my 3rd grade students for while. We watched the kindergarten running races (adorable and impressive) and the 4th graders competitively jump rope. I couldn't quite figure out the rules to the jump roping but geez there are some top-notch jump ropers at Doam. When my 3rd grade student ran off to join her class, I wandered over to the 5th and 6th grade area where they were playing a jump rope game with one of the big jumps. Two teams race to get everyone through the jump rope -- first person, jump in, jump out, next person, jump in, jump out, and so on. It was really fun to watch.

My co SK came over and we spent the rest of the morning hanging out with the 5th and 6th graders -- good bunch of kids and teachers. The teams were divided by class numbers: team one consisted of the 5-1 and 6-1 classes, team two consisted of 5-2 and 6-2 classes. When the dodgeball game began, the 5-1 teacher shouted, "Crush them, crush them!!!" and all the kids in team one shouted, "Yes-yes-yes!!!" It was perfect. Between matches we ate cantaloupe ice cream, pocari sweat water - which is "highly recommended as a beverage for such activities as sports, physical labor, after a hot bath, and even as an eye-opener in the morning" - and sweet potato energy drinks, courtesy of the 6-1 teacher.

Some of the 6th grade girls had made a bunch of silly posters -- most of them about their famous k-pop boyfriends but one that they kept trying to get me to hold, "What are you looking at? Am I pretty??!" Teenagersss. So much fun and so many laughs! After the big relay race, we had a particularly good lunch (seaweed soup, rice, chicken with sauce, white radish kimchi, pickled radish wraps with beef and mixed vegetable filling, and grape juice) and then I walked the long way back to my apartment and took a nap. Ahhhhhh. Good day. 

Five classes tomorrow and then a long weekend to enjoy! May 5th is Children's Day and May 6th is Budha's birthday = no school :D  Will be taking a 3-day hiking trip at Seoraksan with Rebecca, Anne, and Maggie. Sending much love from Korea ::