"Sports" Day and Heading Out

Pictures and videos coming soon.

Tuesday marked my first sports day in Korea, only it wasn't with my students but with other foreign teachers in Ulsan. I didn't want to go, I even asked out of it. My co-teacher's answer was that I had to go (I think if my principal wasn't at the opening ceremony then maybe I could have got out of it).
My co-teacher (still don't know her name, must come up with a nickname) told me the day before that I had to wear sporty attire. I quickly realized that I didn't bring any sports pants with me (Mom can you put some of them in the first box you send) so I wore wide leg pants, lol. They gave us all shirts with "I Love Ulsan" on it, pink for the girls and orange for the boys.
We started at the Office of Education with the Mayor and other important people gave speeches that they did translate for us, a first. They gave us all roses, but my fell between the seats and I left it there. (Secretly, I didn't want it). After a bit, the opening ceremony for the Foreigner Sports Day ended and they put us on buses to go to an elementary school for the festivites.
The lunch was fab because it was bimibab (pronounced be-bim-bab). Afterwards we had free time to explore the school. I headed out to the courtyard with others to play with the elementary students. At first I only saw kids playing soccer, but when I turned to head into the school I spotted in the far corner kids playing baseball. They just had a small corner to play, but I still wanted to see what they were up to. I headed over there and they invited me to play and gave me a piece of chocolate, haha.
After the break, we got called into the gym where we were split into six teams, mine was ginseng (pronounced in-sum). All the teams did traditional Korean sports (although some weren't so traditional like the limbo). Even though we had a great cheer, which had some controversy since we were given lower points because the male judge didn't like men and only wanted to see sexy women (we had 80% guys on the team), and we were second after the sports competition, we still got last place. Horrible. The prize was a small pink cartoon blanket, lol.
The best part of the day besides playing baseball with 6th graders was the performances given by the students of the school. They did a traditional Korean fan dance, martial arts, and a traditional drum performace. All were excellent and I was able to get pictures with the students afterwards.
I didn't get home until after 5:30pm and as you know Tuesday and Thursday is Korean class from 6-8pm. I quickly changed, ate an egg, and ran out of the house. When I arrived I thought I would be the last one there, but I was the first one. My teachers came in and asked where was everyone and I told them they would probably be late because of the sports day (I didn't know that most people decided to skip). They then told me that KBS news station from Seoul was there to tape our class, haha.
Sidenote: Why does this always happen to me? I am just glad that I took the time to put decent clothing on and my hair and makeup looked good.
In the end we had to combine our class with the other one so it looked good on T.V. The teachers in the other class may be good looking, but they go way to fast and talk even faster. We just pretended to understand, lol. My friend from class, Natalie, was the star of the news special. They had been following her around all day so she was miked when she sat next to me. This didn't stop our commentary which is colorful since she is from England and I'm from Crisfield, lol. KBS stayed for about 40 minutes and then left.
When they were gone, the head of the Korean program came in and asked if we wanted to eat dinner instead of having class. We all said yes and they took us to this famous bimibab place (yes, I know I ate it for lunch) that has been open for over 80 years. It was wonderful. We ate, drank, and sang Korean pop songs. Our Korean teachers were surprised at that last part, but they laughed just the same.
Skip to Thursday. I got an email from Blondes' cousin who lives here, Jill. She and her boyfriend were going to a new bar and wanted me to join. I headed there after Korean class (I can't miss a single lesson because I am horrible at speaking). The bar is only open on Thursdays and is quite small, but cozy. I met some really nice people there and ended up leave at closing time. Yes, I am exhasted writing this blog right now, but worth it.
This Saturday, I have to judge a city-wide speech contest and give one myself. Yuck. I hope these kids are better than FuHsing's contestants. At least I get paid. That's a major plus since I have to get up early.