Mud pies, anyone?

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What a day! I'm exhausted, and it's not even 9:30 pm. We took the kids to the beach today. On the West Coast of the country, there is a place called the Boryeoung (sp?) where the tide goes out twice a day and leaves the sea bed exposed with little water and lots of sand/mud. It's about 2, 2 1/2 hours to get there by bus. We left at 8am this morning, which meant getting up early, eating breakfast early, and meeting the kids early. We arrived at the shore around 11am, just in time to eat lunch. Seafood noodle soup (with strange looking seafood as well as the regular) and dumplings. Of course there was the expected rice and kimchi on the table too.

When we got to the parking area, we met up with the company that was going to take charge of the kids for the day. They got them to change into army fatigue pants and a long black t-shirt. Then socks, but no shoes. They took them out onto the ocean floor, and walked, and walked and walked.

I had decided not to join them (at least not in the fatigues and socks) but ventured out onto the ocean floor on my own with my hiking boots. There was so little water and so little mud where I was that it wasn't even an issue. But it was a flurry of activity! There were tons of sea creatures! Everywhere you looked you saw little hermit crabs in their shells scurrying along the sand, and lots of little holes in the sand where other crabs had dug their way in. Little fish swimming in the inch deep water and shells everywhere. I got some really cool pictures. Some of the Korean girls were brave enough to pick up a couple of the crabs to look at them close up.

It was incredibly hot out there though. I don't know how the kids survived being out there, wearing long pants and sleeves, in dark colours for a couple of hours. They did come back covered in mud and sand though, as did some of the braver teachers. I just laughed and caught them on camera!

The funniest part of the entire trip was when we stopped about half an hour outside of Daejon (this is after 2-2 1/2 hours in the bus on the way home) to receive a KLC presentation. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and were coaxed out of the buses by the promise of ice cream. There was ice cream, but with a price! We had to listen to more KLC propaganda; a presentation to 11-12 year olds about the area becoming a new city. (That's what KLC does -- plans and creates new cities in Korea.) The kids didn't care, we didn't care (because it was all delivered in Korean) and it was HOT out there in the middle of nowhere. The craziest thing was that we were standing in the middle of the road hearing this presentation as vehicles drove by. Then we were given a gift (I got a tea mug) before boarding the bus to go home for dinner.

I think they cancelled study hall tonight because the kids were so tired and dinner was so late. The second group of buses got back around 7:15pm, almost an hour after we did.

I also heard from my roommate, Erika, that the place where the kids changed into the dark clothing ran out of water in the showers before the second group could get cleaned up. How do you run out of water??????

This place surprises me more and more.

And the final surprise of the night was when I went up to our room and discovered the door wide open and all the lights on. Nothing appears to be missing, but unnerving nonetheless! I'm glad I had taken all of my expensive items (camera, MP3 player, money, passport) with me on the trip! I believe that the cleaning staff had been in and forgot to shut the door. I found my sleep sheet rolled up in a ball and tossed into the closet. Yay. How nice!

I'm off to bed with the hopes that I can get rid of my headache with some sleep.....

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Comments

[Linda]

songs
I know this does not correspond to today's blog, but I have been away from the computer for a while. Some songs you could teach are head and shoulders, if you're happy and you know it. You could play simon says. I think its funny as I read your blogs, the memories that I had forgotten (or suppressed?) from when I taught ESL for that Korean comopany downtown. They also supplied a workbook. It had the same sorts of activities you mentioned. I think Madelyn wants to add something, so here goes: lnjmjhnmjjjjjjj buj I guess she's learning to talk! :) Talk to you soon!