Sports Day

I'd heard horror stories of sports days in Korea from friends who had been surprised on the day and asked to participate. Sometimes with incredibly humiliating consequences. Others had been given their own special tracksuit in preparation for the day.

Therefore I was rather wary when we were told that it was sports day and maybe we should wear a tracksuit and trainers. I had flashbacks to my fourteen year old self where I would be a nervous wreck on sports day, never being forthcoming about taking part in anything for fear of showing myself up. Or just demonstrating how utterly atrocious I was at sport. Is it hop, then skip and jump or jump, then hop and skip? By the time I'd had that mental dialogue with myself I was on my backside in a sand pit, having put my foot over the line. Bum.

So we turned up at 8 on the day and were first made to wear comedy canvas gloves to set up. We helped to lay the track, as a roller derby player I am an expert of using tape and string to measure a track. We then sat around alot and waited to be able to spectate all these fun and games, or so I thought.

Tasha ready for the days events

Jinny obviously knew what was in store for the day.

It was very high pressure down on the track, there was lots of shouting by people wearing matching tops and visors. It turned out that Namsung hadn't planned the usual track races, oh no, it was an intricate array of games involving props such as flippers, wooden carts and parents.

The good old drag your parent on a cart while you're wearing flippers race.

One of my favourite games was the, make the children dance to Gangnam style so they're all muddled up, put a sack over their head, and see how long it takes the parents to find their children game. Thus showing who has the worst parent.

Lots of children in sacks

The 6th graders had to toss a massive ball around

We laid out too massive sheets, which the kids and parents tossed into the air.

Then the parents held down the edge while the kids tried to climb up the
mountain created by the trapped air.

I was a bit jealous of this game, I really wanted a turn.

Trotting around on an inflatable tube whilst donning wizard hats
was the challenge for the 5th graders.

 After lunch we were told that we were up, and received some unclear instructions about running with a student. It turned out to be a weird obstacle race where the students would pick up a note from the floor which told them what they should race with, sometimes it was teachers, other times it was random objects, and sometimes it was just bizarre instructions like run the track with your hands always touching the floor.

Luckily I noticed the student who had picked up my name, mouthing it to himself, and we managed to win the round that I had to run in, I was so proud that I insisted on getting a number 1 stamp on my hand that had been saved for the kids. Winning!

Next up was a student/teacher relay, where the teachers had to race the parents, passing a giant foam cylinder to the next runner. It was so competitive that it resulted in many of the teachers falling flat on their face, running past the point that they should have swapped over, and getting hit in the face by the foam baton. Sadly, we weren't victorious.

After the award ceremony the older grades performed a dance to Gangnam style, then the teachers all headed off for a meal where the teachers were not scared of drinking soju on a school night.

Why weren't our sports days so much fun?!