Kindergarten Sledging

The other day we took all the kindergarten kids sledging, and it was superb. The slope is set up, quite bizarrely, underneath the catching net of one of the many, many driving ranges that blight the landscape of Korean suburbs. When we first arrived in Korea, I thought all of these skeletal frameworks draped in green mesh were construction sites, and it took me a good couple of months before realising their true purpose.




Here are Susie and myself, preparing to hurtle down the hill at warp speed. Susie came to our school halfway through the year, and quickly became one of our favourites. Not only for being cute, but for being an absolute nutcase. She laughed her head off all the way down the hill, unlike some of the more delicate kids, who looked like they were stiff with fear after a shot on the Waddell Supersledge. I still need to post the video of Susie's "Panty, Panty" dance, with a pair of y-fronts she artistically fashioned from a piece of paper and paraded around the room. Tony Hart would be proud.




Who do we have here? From left to right; Dorothy (who got lost at the end), Selina, some random unhappy kid, Katy, Mina Teacher, Judy Teacher.



And here we have; Peter and Ustina (back), Eugene and Ryan (front). The boys are all from Sue Class, which has probably become our favourite class to teach. For starters, there are now only 7 of them. Most of all, we love them because they will enthusiastically play any game you give them. If the game was something terrible like....."Write down your ABC's as many times as you can in 30 minutes", they would all compete with such zeal like it's the World Cup Final or something. Ryan is shockingly good at wordsearches. I mean it. He's only 6 but there's a very definite threat of him beating you in a race. Yes, you!




Oh, cute, potty-mouthed June, how we miss you. June has been part of the unfortunate mass exodus from our school in light of the many dodgy dealings, and imminent closure. "The Jamesgate Scandal". June has jug ears, a fantastically asian floppy bowl-cut, and a tendency to misbehave, all of which combine to make him a favourite among us. He calls me "Bear Teacher", and insists I call him "Gorilla June". For some reason, June and I didn't achieve warp speed in the same way Susie and I had, and we kept grinding to a halt. When I tried to push him down on his own, he scrambled to his feet, pointed to the sledge and insisted "Teacher, anja, anja!". This means "Sit, sit!", in the most informal way. He shouldn't really be talking to a teacher that way ("anjuseyo" is the polite form, but he should be speaking in English really!), but given our desperate mid-slope situation, and his good-hearted intentions, it was no problem. I sat down, and this tiny wee kid dragged my bulk down the remainder of the slope, before finally coming a cropper underneath the sledge. He is hilarious. Here's a video......