"Yachting" field trip

August 30, 2011

I woke up early this morning to go on a short jog. The country side was very beautiful once outside the city a bit, but the most interesting thing I discovered during my run was what appeared to be an army of Korean men (and a few women) dressed in matching grey jackets and pants. They
swarmed the streets on mopeds, bicycles, and by foot. I was extremely confused (and a little alarmed) until I later learned that these were all the workers of the Samsung shipyard that Geoje Island hosts, one of the largest shipyards in the world. These workers swarm the city, mostly in the morning traveling to work, in the afternoon traveling home, and often at night piss drunk helping eachother stumble down the streets.

Their fashion-forward matching grey jump suits

Parades of them appear every morning mopeding to work

School today included what I had been told would be a “yachting trip” aboard one of the student’s very wealthy parents’ boat. This field trip turned out to be more along the lines of the four classes of students taking turns for about three minutes apiece on a speed boat doing figure-eights in
the water. It was definitely fun, but the main concern of the teachers was to make sure the children didn’t go flying off the back of the speeding boat. I’m not sure where the educational value of this trip was supposed to come in, but I am very impressed by the school’s apparently extremely lax
safety regulations.

Building the cigarette/sand castle

All the children wore hats or visors- Koreans are very scared of the sun!

I was surprised by how dirty the water and beach were; there
were shampoo bottles, brooms, and old gloves floating in the water and laying in the sand. My children created a nice sand castle that looked to be about 25% cigarette butts. Other children refused to go in the sand at all saying it was “dirty”.

After the boat rides and some icecream, it was back into the buses and to the school. Lunch time was next, Emma informed me that every day consisted
of rice, kimchi, some sort of soup, and a few side dishes. I get free lunch if
I eat at the school, and the director told me more or less that it would be appreciated to spend this time with the students, so I think I will be trying some very interesting and authentic dishes!

After school I went to “Meat Home”, a Korean BBQ, to meet up with a large group of foreign teachers for Emma’s going-away-dinner. It was quite a walk into town and I was EXHAUSTED after a day of work (I really am getting a newfound respect for what my parents do) but I forced myself to go. I
am so happy I did! Not only did I find out the walk was not nearly as long as I imagined, I finally oriented myself in relation to my school and the rest of the city. Geoje is not at all the small suburb I imagined, but rather a very busy and highly populated city that is scrunched together between large green hills.

This dinner was also a great opportunity to meet about 20 foreigners also living on the island.
There are many people here from South Africa, as are all the other foreign teachers at my particular school, which is interesting. They confided in me that their first language was actually Afrikaans, but they were not allowed to speak it at school as the directors did not want the student’s parents knowing they were not native English speakers. After dinner we went toget a drink at the “Family Mart Bar” which I assumed a bar jokingly named after the family marts that are on every street corner. Actually, it turns out many people like to buy beers at the 24 hour family marts, pull up chairs outside, and
hang out for a cheap night of drinking. After half a “soju” (a local favorite which tasted more like vodka than beer) I made the semi-long trek home. Luckily Korea is a very safe city with people out and lights on all hours of the night.