Sports Day!

I am so behind on my blog posts and actually have a decent bit to write about! I will start with Sports Day! Apparently, having on last October was an anomaly and they are normally in May. Because our field was being redone, it was a little belated and ended up last Wednesday. Or was it two Wednesdays ago? It's easy to lose track of time!

Anyways, it was awesome. The weather was perfect, cloudy and windy. Since then, its either been raining, or insanely hot. I mean INSANELY hot. I feel like I am living inside the Biodome's Rainforest exhibit. Luckily, the teacher lounge at least is Airconditioned so I can cool down in there at lunch. 

So perfect weather and cute happy kids. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I had to use my cell phone. On the plus side, cell phone videos are so grainy I don't feel wrong posting videos of my kids! So here you go, a taste of Korean Sports Day!

The day starts off with the students (hundred of them) doing a warm up together. It is cute, but also seems very militaristic since we have nothing like it. Imagine these nuggest coming after you. Scaryyy.

Next the students race. They races among classes, in groups of 4. It seemed the groups were size based, as the tall kids raced other tall kids. Every now and then a pack of the super unfit would huff by and I couldn't help but laugh. I also laughed at my silly grade 6 girls who ran while holding their precious bangs. Seriously girls, your hair is magnificent Korean hair, NOTHING can mess in up! You put chemicals in your hair TO mess it up!!(Perms). Here are some videos of little ones running. The tiniest ones were unbelievably cute. All students participated in the mini races so they all had a stamp of 1-4 on their hands. None were too upset by losing and all were proud to show me their stamps.

While students raced around the track, various competitions occured in the middle. The whole school was split into a blue and white team and they competed throughout the day. Games included things like tug of way, strange relay races involving a group of children going inside a large hula hoop and running around, and even stranger games which I couldn't figure out. It was a joy to watch!!

Another great part, you may remember from my last Sports Day, is the grade 1s performance. They're dressed up as newlyweds and it's insanely cute. 

Now, while all of this sports day stuff was awesome, I have yet to tell the best part. A few weeks earlier, I was asked if I would like to partake in a teacher vs parents race. I have not felt such athletic glory in a very long time, if ever. The teacher relay-ing before me ran insanely fast, and very quickly left the parent in the dust. I was amazed by his performance so I decided I had to also give it my all. Apparently I am just the fastest woman these people have ever seen. The crowds went WILD (you can hear my kids near the end of the video). I was an absolute celebrity for the day. Students all day said "Teacher! You so fast!" "Running so good!" "You are athlete woman!" I even got called 'LT" which is a phone company whose current marketing scheme is about "warp" speed. It was amazing. Teachers who I've never spoken to congratulated me, parents gave me thumbs up. While my celebrity has died down, it was a truly remarkable and ego stroking experience. One teacher even called me Annesain Bolt, which in the Korean accent does sound like Insane Bolt, so it took me a moment to understand. I was also told the parents had been talking about how the foreigner teachers runs as fast as a man. I have never felt so much pride!!

In fact, this week I got a student letter that reads "Yesterday, we have sports day in our school! And your running is very fast! I'm very surprise And my mom surprise too! I'm running is 2nd! I want to 1st but I'm happy."

And to top it all off, an acquaintance of mine said that his barber told him about me! Apparently, I teach his children, and he took these amazing shots of the race. If I wasn't a already celebrity for my curls, I sure am now!! 

I love the expressions of the audience :)

So odd and creepy that I ran smiling, but I guess I
just forgot how awesome it was to run to a cheering
crowd!

Sports day was awesome.