So when our youngest English teacher, a really cute woman just out of college named Chyu Ri who started teaching even after I did, invited me to come with her and the male phys ed teacher to a "field trip" to "the countryside" where there would be "games" I didn't even bother asking questions. I said I would do it. We met at school Saturday at noon and got on a bus that drove for about an hour to some place in the Gyeonggi-do province which surrounds metropolitan Seoul. We ended up at a resort condo by a river and mountains. The students shared three rooms and Chyu Ri and I slept in one room. The phys ed teacher got his own room big enough for like 15 people because he's a man. The students played dodgeball, and when they had free time, the phys ed teacher drove Chyu Ri and me to the Garden of Morning Calm. Then students and three mothers who came along made dinner for everyone, including us! I can't remember everything, but we had rice, kimchi, samgyeopsal, salty nuts, chopjae (noodles), and spicy soup. The mothers even brought beer for the teachers. In America, this would have been so illegal, but in Korea it's OK. Then the students played around in the basement of the condo, which had game rooms and singing rooms, and I watched students bet money for pool for awhile. Then most of them went back to their rooms and I hung out with the teachers again, watching TV in the male teacher's room because we were all lazy. Chyu Ri and I went to bed around 11, sleeping on mats on the floor. I was only a little stiff in the morning. The phys ed teacher bought us breakfast at the condo in the morning, and I had salad, kimchi, eggs, french fries, and sausage. Then we went home, and I slept all day, because I was really exhausted from doing absolutely nothing!
I hadn't talked to the phys ed teacher in the three months I'd been at school but he was just so nice. I think he paid for the trip with his own money, because he told his class that if their final exam grades were better than their midterm grades, he would give them a surprise. And he showed me a lot of pictures he has on his computer of his children, who live in a mansion in Los Angeles with his mother. He only sees them a few times a year, and his wife is often visiting them in America, so he is very "lonely." I'm not sure why his kids live in America- maybe for better opportunities? But this doesn't make much sense because the economy in Korea is in better condition than the economy in the US. Anyway he was really nice, and once again I was impressed by the kindness and work ethic that almost every Korean possesses.
