Things that would never happen at home

I was invited at the last minute on Tuesday to go on a field trip... actually it was and I quote because this is just one example of how things sometimes get lost in translation, it's not to be mean or anything it's just lost. " Do you want to go to camp with the 4th grade?" I'm of course like sure... why not... I spent a couple summers as a working at camps as a lifeguard I can do that. Um.. it wasn't really camp. We went to Gyeongju which I guess from what I managed to read on signs was the ancient Silla capital. It was interesting becasue I got to see some of my after school students in a diffrent way and I got to talk to several diffrent teachers who I normally don't get to talk to at all.
It was fun in many ways cause I got to see yet again how kids are kids everywhere. I watched them play with thier cell phones on the bus, listen and sing along with music.
The trip took us to two famous temples. One I think was famous because it was in a grotto. The other I think mainly because it was originally built in 523 AD. I also got to wander though an acheology exhibit at a national museum.

Now before we got to the museum we had lunch at the second temple. The teachers had their lunch prepared for them by the class leaders. As in the students had prepared lunch for the teachers... Think about that for a second... I don't know if it would have ever been possible for any of my classes to prepare lunch for teachers. Much less the feast that was prepared for these teachers. Fresh fruit, gimbap, seaweed soup, tea, sushi, kimchi, fried shrimp, and a few things I couldn't identify but they were good. (yes, Mom I am becoming much less picky about what I eat here, EXCEPT for fish!). The students also policed themselves so the teachers could eat with out worry. No parent chaperones. Just 4 teachers and 3 busses of students. The students were fun to watch because they would come running up to me and go teacher, teacher you come, me. And grab my hand and drag me running after them to see something and then they would try to find the english words for whatever it was they were showing me. The best was when they wanted to show me a golden pig. They missed the word gold for a while so I was trying to figure out where a live pig was. Then we got it figured out there was a gold pig infront of one of the temples and one hidden in the rafters.
They would also use me as a beacon to find their teacher. You know a blonde white person really stands out better than a short black haired Korean woman in the middle of a crowd. :) They also kept saying I was a rock star because all the other students were asking them about me. It's fun but strange most days.
Ok time to find some dinner.