This Is Not A Cave

I felt pretty embarrassed about today's field trip at first.

I had been told we would be going to visit some caves. While we were riding in the bus the students were talking about caves and I was asking them if they were going to see a bear -since cave has been a vocabulary word they learned about through a story with a bear in it.

So imagine my surprise when we stop in the downtown area.

Then go through a back alley.

Then wait for an elevator to go to the tenth floor.

That was when I asked about if we were going to a cave. Turns out the cave thing was cancelled and we were going to a play place. Vancouverites and former Vancouverites: think Crash Crawly's.

The first obstacle was the elevator, and I am not afraid of elevators what so ever, but this instilled in me a small fear. The wait was long, and when we crammed the 15 children and 7 adults in there it was not-so-great. Only made worse by more people getting on at the next floor. Then going to the 7th floor, finding out that two of the other people needed the 6th floor, the elevator then went down for some reason. We dropped them off, it was just us, waiting to go to the tenth floor, but the elevator goes down again. It stopped at basement levels 1-4 on the way down and again on the way up -picking up no one, those floors were empty. Then finally, we got to the tenth floor. I thought I would puke.

The kids took off there shoes and we when wild for two hours!

First we went to an area of wall to wall trampolines. Unfortunately for me the ceiling was low, very low. I didn't hit my head, but I didn't want to chance it.

As soon as two of my students left to explore with the call of "Niki Teacher! Catch me!" I raced out after them and followed them through a jungle gym and up and down the tunnels and slides.

Soon after, the two students and I discovered a room full of Styrofoam building blocks. We stayed in there long enough to build a structurally sound house -yellow, with a slanted green roof and the name of the school on the front.

There was a tree made out of net-like hammock material that made a good chill spot for some students and teachers. There was lots of climbing possibilities and it feltlike you just couldn't get hurt in there.

It was awesome to see the students gravitate to what interested them most and engage in that.

Probably the most telling was one of my more gifted students who doesn't always get the social stuff so much but damn, he can use his mind. He set to work on a pretty complicated structure at a building table where all that was given was a picture based instruction manual. Everyone had wanted to help him, but he made sense of the pictures and could coordinate the directions faster than any teacher. It was his paradise.

We really could've spent all day there and had a great time, no fights, no tears, just endless fun.

Oh, except for the end.

Then we all realized how hungry we were.

Back at school we happily enjoyed our lunch, but it never quite felt sufficient. After work I went out for dinner with the other foreign teachers. We thought we'd try Korean BBQ. Since they're vegetarian I suggested the place where I had gone for my first meal. That time we had accidentally ordered only vegetables. But alas, that was summer and the place I was thinking of had since moved their operation inside where they have no grills. Instead they do hot pot! The mix we got did contain beef which I ate for their benefit -but really my own right? But it also had some delicious vegetables.

I still went home and had an ice cream sandwich. I'm still so exhausted from all the running around.

In other news I have mailed my passport renewal application to the Canadian Embassy. So for the time being, I am truly stuck in Korea. Glad that I'm happy here.