Sports Day at Bongam Elementary School

Sports Day is quite the phenomena. Filled with songs, dancing, saluting, synchronized stretching and a wide variety of relays the day is a day that students can kick-back a little and enjoy life as a child, as opposed to a student. Highlights of Sports Day at Bongam Elementary school include:

• Kindergarten students paired with their parents rolling a giant ball down the field.
• Melissa Teacher being paired up with the one foreigner (Chinese) student as his 'step-in' parent for two relay races:
• Race #1: Pair up with another family, each individual grab a corner of a sheet, carry a large ball to a mid-way point, set down ball and sheet, scurry through small tunnel like thing, run back to ball and sheet, run back to start point.
• Race #2: Child sacrifice one shoe. All shoes scattered in the middle of the field, adult carry child to center of field and find child's shoe - both run back to starting point.
• (Please Note: Student is approximately the same size as Melissa Teacher)
• Mother's competing for Fabric Softener by keeping the hula-hoop in motion.
• Father's competing for Toothpaste in a game of singles hacky-'golden-pom-pom'-sack.
• All students gathering in the field, hula-hoops in hand to conduct a song and dance routine.
• Kindergarten students and their teachers busting out a K-Pop Routine with white gloves and matching yellow shirts and white socks pulled up to the knees.

Days such as these are always welcome when one has been teaching in South Korea for a few months (or longer). It's great to see the students outside of the classroom environment having a good time competing and performing for each other, their parents and themselves.