Sunday 16 June 2013

Camping in Korea


My school had their annual Fathers Camp this weekend, which meant I had to work on a Saturday, but it was good fun. All the 6-year-old kids from our school and their Dads travelled into the country to 'camp' at another school. Now Koreans love to camp, but they never actually sleep in their tents. They just like to take their tents to the beach or a park, or in this case a school, to 'camp' for the day, and then go home. So it was somewhat strange to see tents in a school carpark, but there we go.
The day started with a bizarre Nazi Youth style warm up, as all the kids and their Dads lined up in a field, while the Principal led them in a series of stretches and exercises, from a stage at the front, before making them swear an oath of some sort. They then did a series of dances, led by various different Korean teachers. We then split up into groups, to play games with the kids for the day. My group spent the day playing balloon games with the kids and their Dads, and dancing around to Justin Bieber. It really was a lot of fun. After a long day, I took the school bus back with my kids, and they were exhausted;



I also got called out as a fraud of a Science Teacher for the first time. So far in 'Science' we have drawn a picture of a bee, made a picture of a living room with different coloured wrapping paper, drawn a made-up animal, and coloured in a wooden dog. But this week, we were doing something even less scientific. We were painting bags. One of the kids asked, as he was happily painting big red and green stripes on his bag, "Teacher science yes?" Yeah sorry kids, all you arty types are going to be massively disappointed when you go to High School, thinking you really like science. You will be in for a shock!
Next week, we're colouring in a little wooden pig. I don't think they do too much wooden pig colouring in at CERN.


Away from school, I visited Seoraksan National Park last weekend. Its probably most Koreans favourite place, and it really is beautiful. Though climbing mountains in 30 degree heat is not fun. I went all the way to the top of this rock, called Ulsanbawi (which sounds a lot like Awesome Bowie, so I spent the day singing David Bowie songs);







I also had my first taste of screen golf. Golf is very popular in Korea, but there are very very few golf courses, as there isn't much suitable land in the country that doesn't already have buildings on it. So instead Koreans play screen golf. You go to a small room, and there is a giant screen at one end, and you smack real golf balls with real clubs at the screen, and various cameras sense how well you hit the ball, and track where it would have gone. You can therefore play a full 18 holes of golf, without ever leaving the room, or having to walk around looking for your ball. The screen is like a big heavy curtain, so the balls don't bounce off. Though if you're not very good at golf, you can accidentally ping balls off the walls or ceiling before diving for cover. Not that I did that. Honest. Its also, really loud. Its actually pretty terrifying, but certainly good fun.


We're gonna get those terrorists. Now watch me hit this drive.

Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well like many people, Tyrion was shocked recently while watching Game of Thrones episode 'The Red Wedding.' I really should have done a reaction video. He got furious with life and broke the filter in his tank, before crying for days. 

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