Big Day Out

Wow, what a day! Firstly I worked on the weekend program for the course in my tiny apartment, before getting ready to attend the Easter Event at Kids club. The children had all made their Bunny Ears, and Easter Basket by the time I arrived and we set off in little Conga lines to a local park, where two of the teachers had "hidden" sweets (or candy - there are so many Americans here)

The children ran wildly around the park with their little rabbit plastic bags collecting all the loot that they could - laughing and shrieking.

The childhood education schools are very competitive - and the key feature is to keep the children happy, so the squealing must have been heard by another local school group, and two ladies came and watched. Pointing and chatting. They had some sort conversation that I didn't comprehend of course, which sounded rather rude - the body language of our teachers and the two ladies was interesting. Funny really.

After than we congad back to the school, with the children still excited but by now some of them looking like Indians with one feather in ther headband, as the bunny ears succumbed to all the excitement and fell off!

Mr Choi was to take me out - at midday, but when we got back to the school I received a message that it would now be 2.30 pm. I was going to return to my apartment but Mrs Choi insisted on taking me for lunch. She drove around to the restaurant continually talking on her phone until we reached the destination - a Korean Sushi restaurant which was very nice. Very smart.

Mrs Choi chose the meal, we had bean soup, I had a pork cutlet (crumbed, fried and with potato and coleslaw), followed by kimchi and sushi. How do they eat it all?

By the time we got back to the school, Mr Choi had arrived, so after a while he and I left and he drove through the city and toa Budhist temple some 20 kms from Jeon Ju. The scenery was interesting - cherry and peach blossoms lining the roads as it wound it'w way through semi rural properties, some industry and a whole row of gardening shops. The road was narrow and winding, and Mr Choi spent most of the drive on the phone!

When we arrived at the temple area, it was mindbogglingly full of people and cars. Budha's birthday is coming up, and people had arrived in buses as well to participate in the activities. We drove on through towards the famous temple, and Mr Choi and I walked around the historic buildings. Mr Choi's English is quite good - and he and I get on well. He is always getting an English lesson. He asks me about words and phrases.

He asked a local man to take a photo of us both - with my camera of course.

We wantedered in and out of the magnificent temple - that has seen its fair share of drama over the years. We stood under the tree where one of the first holy men had died during an altercation hundreds of years ago, we stopped and looked at great stone carvings of the lotus flower, we went into some exotic buildings.

On the way out Mr Choi stopped to get a drink for me. I must try it he said. It was fresh ginseng root juice. I've had several ginseng drinks here but this one was awful. Perhaps the ones I'd had before were sweetened, but I'd be in no hurry to try this again.

We drove back to the school, and after varous conerstions with staff, some fo us left for dinner. We went to a tradional Korean restaurant in a busy part of the city near one of the univerities and had a barbeque, with some Korean Sake. By the time this had finished, it was nearly 9 pm and the rest of the group wanted to party on. I still had preparation for today so I opted out, and I was taken home in a taxi - complete with escort I might add - who returned to the others to drink a bar.

I was almost exhausted, but had several hours of work before I hit the sack.
(I'll upload some photos in the next 24 hours!)