Today was the long-awaited field trip. The children looked adorable all dressed in their hanbok (traditional dresswear). We loaded the buses and went to a nearby park where they participated in activities regarding to history such as kite making and creating a sweet rice-cake. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot and with all their layers it wasn't long before they were sweating and too hot to enjoy anything else.

We got them back for lunch and afterwards, instead of their usual activities like art or science, the got movie time complete with the snacks that they brought. I had enough time to write up my break-down of It was a nice quiet time and I found out that my students do in fact like me. Two would not go into the gym to watch the movie without me. J

The rest of my classes seemed longer than usual and everyone felt it. It was the standard last-day-before-the-holidays feeling for teachers and students alike. The day before I woke up with a headache and the sniffles. The headache was gone but the sniffles came and went in bursts. With the field trip on top of it all, I was exhausted. So when the Korean version of RedBull was passed out—to say that I was thankful would be an understatement. The lessons were at a point that in most classes were reviewing or just starting new units, which meant that there was time for some discussion and non-book activities that would get them thinking without making them even more restless.

When 7:25 arrived, I was more than eager to get home. Sometime during the afternoon, all of the foreign (Native-speaking) teachers were given Chuseok gifts from the Director and I was curious to see what it was. When Vice Director said that it was all organic, I was even more curious. I opened it once I was at home at it was three jars of jam—apple, grape, and my personal favorite, strawberry! I had been craving strawberry jam on toast. Then I realized I was out of bread! No problem. I'll wait until Sunday when I come back, just to make sure the bread doesn't go bad while I'm gone on this crazy journey I had in mind.

So far I had Jongmyo Shrine and Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden for Wednesday, the Royal Tombs for Thursday, Suwon Hwaseong Fortress (along with archery lessons there J) on Friday, and two of the three Dolmen Sites on Saturday, and the third Dolmen Site on Sunday. It was a packed and exciting five-day excursion. True I had laundry to do and I was a little tired but I could totally do it.

I started looking for train timetables and realized that I'd have to cut down some of my activities, the times weren't right and some of the connections were sold out. I could do more by staying in the hostels, but I didn't know the areas well enough to make sure I had alternatives; most of them were sold out. I stopped planning about one am. The headache was coming back and if I was going to swing this trip, I needed to be up in six or so hours. (This blog entry started mostly as side-notes).