life abroad.: Excursions

Peter at the pear orchard

Once a week, our school takes the kids on an excursion to nearby places, like mini field trips. These excursions are basically just photo-ops to show the parents later how much fun their kids are having. As the English teacher, we just have to entertain the kids on the bus and take many, many, many photos with each of the kids. Each co-teacher has a camera and asks you to pose with each kid in front of the destination. The other strange part is that the English teachers basically have no idea what is going on. We are told where we are going on route and that is about all the information that we get. I just follow my co-teacher (who barely speaks English) and try to enjoy the ride.
This week, we were lucky enough to go on an excursion on both Tuesday and Wednesday with the kids. On Tuesday we took a 30 minute bus ride to a pear orchard in a small farming town outside of Gwangju. Korean pears are huge, basically the size of a large grapefruit, and really crisp, almost like an apple. At the orchard, we helped each kid pick their own pear, while taking many photos, and got to sample some of the fruit. Not really that educational but each of the teachers got to keep a few pears to take home so I can't complain.

On Wednesday we took an hour long bus ride out to the ocean and went digging for clams. It was actually a lot of fun, but probably the messiest activity that you could have 5 year-old children running around and doing. We didn't get to keep the clams to take home, but they did make a pretty good lunch. Again, I don't know how educational this activity was for the students, but we did get some good photos, and it served as a nice break from the classroom. It was however very refreshing to be near the ocean again. I can't wait until I get the chance to go back and further explore the coast of Korea.