Teacher's Day Presents and F.I.N. Trip

So it was recently Teacher's Day here in Korea.  I got a few presents from my students. 

This is a personalized stamp with my name on it in Korean!

My name in Korean.

How thoughtful!  You'd be surprised how expensive sunscreen is here.

From one of my little preschoolers.

Last weekend I went with Kodi and some other friends on an overnight trip.  My friend Patty runs another English school called F.I.N. English (Friend In Need).  Her school had planned a trip and was in need of some English-speaking chaperones (the goal of the trip is for the students to be in a mostly English-speaking environment for the weekend, so the parents are usually keen to sign their kids up).  So I cajoled a few friends into coming on the trip.  I had missed the trip last year for some reason or another, but my other co-workers at the time all went and had a blast. 

We headed out on Saturday morning.  We were split into teams; about 4 students to an English speaker.  Kodi and I headed Horse Team!  First we drove a couple of hours to a small amusement park, rode a few rides and bumper cars.  There was also a huge cave system right next to the park, which was originally made to mine amethyst.  We walked around the cave a bit and then there was an acrobat/contortionist show.  It was very... interesting.  After that we headed to a nearby building to do some pottery.  Most people made the usual: bowls, cups, and ashtrays.  I was stuck for a moment on what to do but ended up making a pyramid.  We'll see how it turns out.  After that we headed to our pension.  It was a great place!  Nice big buildings, a grassy area for games, a pool (currently drained, but we still made use of it), karaoke machine, and a fresh-water spring running from the mountain.  Really beautiful area and we had great weather all weekend.  We played a bunch of team-based games (of which, Horse Team was usually the winner!).  One was a game where we all tied balloons around our ankles and ran around trying to pop other peoples balloons.  Then we had a team jump rope contest.  For dinner, we had samgyeopsal (BBQ pork), sausages, sweet potatoes, and kimchi.  Delicious.  After dinner, there was a soccer game inside the drained pool.  The losers had to do the dishes. It was a close game, but our team finally won on the last point.  Later, we played a traditional Korean board game called yutnori.  The order in which the 4 teams finished denoted how many marshmallows each team got.  We got second so we all ended up with about 3 marshmallows.  The losing team only got one each, and they had to drink a big bowl of this foul-tasting herbal liquid which is supposed to be healthy but just tastes bad.  After that, people hung out around the fire, played ping-pong or other games.  The next morning we had a singles badminton tournament.  All of us foreigners got out pretty quickly!  We headed to a nearby temple, which was special in that it was populated by female monks.  We had a tour guide who spoke in Korean and each team had to translate to the foreigners, and at the end we had a little quiz.  After that, we headed back home.  It was a long, activity-packed weekend, but heaps of fun and a great experience.  I really enjoy spending time with students outside of a school environment.  Field trips with my little preschoolers are especially fun.  Anyway, here are some pictures!