Day 63: Picnic In The Park

It was kinda weird going back to work this morning after being off for a day - but hey it's only one day of work and then it's the weekend again! Well, it turned out to only be a half-day and then it's the weekend again... When I arrived at REI this morning Steven informed me with some great news - I wouldn't be teaching the kids that morning. Instead, I'd be joining all the kindergarten students in a picnic at Incheon Grand Park! COOL! Steven had to stay behind to get work done, so myself, Laura (one of the Korean kindergarten teachers) and Susan hopped in the REI van, along with our 10 kindies (a few were missing today) and it was off to the park.

And we could not have picked a nicer day for a picnic! It was sunny, warm, and the sky was clear and blue. And the park was stunning! The leaves are finally coming out on the trees, the flowers are blooming, and the park was filled with beautiful cherry blossom trees in full splendour! I wish I had my camera!!! Incheon Grand Park deserves its name because it's ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE!!! Apparently every single other kindergarten school in the province had the same idea as we did because the park was FULL of literally DOZENS of other schools! Was this pure coincidence or was today 'Take Your Kindergarten Kids To Incheon Grand Park Day?' I have no idea... It was really crowded and we had difficulty finding a spot of our own in the grassy fields. It was really cool though to see all the other schools with all the kids decked out in their school colours - little armies of kids all marching together hand-in-hand!

There was a small children's zoo in the park so we took all the kids there and they loved it! There were goats and sheep and monkeys and geese and domestic dogs (???) and ostriches in the mini-zoo and the kids were able to pet a few of the animals. You'd think only having 10 kids would be easy to look after (especially with 3 adults) but it was a challenge to keep track of all 10 of them as they ran around excitedly looking at all the animals. Every time we reached a new animal exhibit I did a head count and it was a good idea cause at one point I noticed that we only had 9... I looked around and couldn't find Chris - one of our small and very shy 5 year-old girls. I looked across the zoo and saw her way at the other end, frantically running around looking for us, but heading in the wrong direction. I had to go and chase after her (Scotty to the rescue!) and she was SO GLAD to see me when I found her!

After the zoo we enjoyed our picnic lunch and then had some time for 'horse-play' in the grass. I enjoyed being a human toy for the kids - piggyback, baby-in-my-arms, tag, hide and go seek, who's-covering-my-eyes are just a few of the many games that the kids LOVE to play with me and I must admit that I love play-time as much as they do! After lunch the photographer lady showed up and it was time for the class photo shoot. We went over to this really pretty area by all the cherry blossom trees and got a couple class group shots in, then it was time for me to be the Foreign Teacher Star. I got to sit and have my photo taken with each individual student in these really cutesey poses on this lovely park bench under the trees that I know that their parents are going to *LOVE*. Hell, I'm gonna love seeing them once they're developed! My kindergarten kids really are the cutest kids in the entire world! If I get copies of all these photos from the picnic today I'll get them scanned and pass them along to you. There's some great shots in there, I know, for sure!

The afternoon was sooo quiet today. The classes seemed to fly by and then next thing I knew it was time to go home. I got home and puttered around the house for a while, undecided as to what I should do for dinner and whether or not I should head into the city tonight. My 'pizza party for one' last Friday wasn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be, and so I didn't want to spend another night at home just sitting around my apartment. I went into Seoul and had some dinner and then headed over to my Starbucks (man I'm having Starbucks at least twice a week it seems now! My ol' Delany's gang would kill me if they knew how much I've been supporting the Evil Green Empire over here in Korea! That S'bux Mermaid Bitch really has me hooked!) I sat and read for a while and just enjoyed the busyness (I forget how to spell this word!) and activity of the coffee house, and then it was time to head on home.

No plans as of yet for this weekend, but I'm sure something fun will come up. If not, I'll just make my own fun plans! :-)