School Festivals and Sports Days

I haven't updated the blog in a while. Corey and I have been involved in multiple festivals and activities going on at our schools over the past couple of weeks. It's been fun, but kept us very busy!

My school had their festival day on Oct. 18. It was kind of like an open house in the morning with a lot of student work on display. Plus, students did science demonstrations. One station had students cooking bread in cardboard boxes and aluminum foil ovens that they hooked up to some kind of giant battery. Another station had students making a kind of toffee over bunsen burners. It was delicious!

In the afternoon, there was a 3 hour talent show that included acts by students and teachers from the school as well as a semi-professional girls' dance group (that the boys went crazy over!) and a group of older ladies dressed in Hanbok, doing traditional Korean dances. Overall it was a pretty good day.

Oct. 19th was Sports Day. The students competed in a soccer tournament, relay races, and skipping contests. I even participated in the teachers vs. parents relay race. The parents won, but all the participants got a prize--an umbrella! Very practical. At the end of the day the Principal announced there would be a staff dinner. One of my co-teachers drove me and another English teacher to the restaurant. It was my first taste of Korean barbecue. The food was really good and I think I'm starting to get used to eating in traditional Korean style, sitting cross-legged on the floor and helping myself to a variety of dishes with my chopsticks.

I took a lot of photos on Sports day and put them together in a slide show with English captions to show to my students the following week and they enjoyed reliving that day through the pictures in English class.

This week, Corey was especially busy getting ready for the big Incheon English festival that brings together several schools from the area to perform plays, musicals, and songs in English. Corey's school performed Wizard of Oz and Corey was a truly memorable wizard in his bright coloured costume all covered in bells! I'm so proud of him. I got to go to the festival too since my school was in it, performing High School Musical. This gave me the perfect opportunity to take some pictures of Corey in costume. Can you spot him in the crowd?

After the festival we went out with the cast of Wizard of Oz for dinner. This was Corey's first experience of Korean Barbecue since we got here. I think the picture says it all. Note the fork.