My principal decided to start a walking class before school. I actually wouldn’t really call it a walking class as much as I would call it, ‘before school recess.’ These kids get no time to actually play and ‘be kids,’ and that’s why I think more students participate in this walking before school than I had originally thought. The average elementary student will be at school from 8:30 (without walking class) to 4:30 and then head to a hagwon (more school) for at least another 4 hours. It doesn’t seem too awful but remember, these are elementary students, aging from 7-11 years old; their schedules consist of school, school and more school from elementary all the way to high school where it gets much more intense and time consuming. They also go to school every other Saturday; Saturdays that they have off they are referred to as ‘holidays’ instead of weekends.

So, on days it’s not raining, the students have the option of coming to school before classes start to walk in circles around the playground and listen to music. It doesn’t sound too thrilling but let me tell you, it’s as entertaining as anything you’ll find on TV. During one of our teachers meetings, the principal suggested that I come early and walk around with them… at first this sounded pretty awful because getting up early and exercising isn’t really my thing, but after I did the walk a few times I really started to enjoy it. Everyday that I’m early enough to wal, how everything unfolds is like clockwork; once I’m close enough to the playground where kids start to realize that there’s a way-guk (foreigner) the, “Mayo Teacher” starts spreading through the playground like a damn wildfire. Most of the kids running up to me just come up and say, “Hello Mayo Teacher” and then scatter off, but some of the older kids who can actually formulate sentences will ask where I live, for candy or even ask for money. There is this grade 2 girl, whom I don’t have in class because I don’t teach grade 2, who literally hangs on me while I walk around the playground in the morning.

I’ve learned to keep my laptop bag on my person because I’ve brought a backpack to school before and this girl had actually taken it and hidden it on the other side of the school. While she thought it was HILLARIOUS, I didn’t quite see the same humor in it as she did… It took me about ten minutes just to get close enough to her without her breaking out in laughter to figure out where it was. It was quite a show. I would think following me around in circles might get boring after a while, but she seems like she can’t get enough of it. There are literally about 10-15 students surrounding me at any point during my walk. I wish I could get a picture of this. I tried pulling out my camera this morning but it was pointless because I had no arms to snap a picture, the kids had hijacked my arms and were using them as their personal human jungle gym. Sangwon keeps some pretty intense video footage surround the school (they probably have about 10 cameras outside the school) - I’ll check the tapes and see if they have a camera on the playground because it’s literally like a paparazzi surrounding me every morning and I really need to get some footage of this. Most of them are just following me, trying to hold my hand, jump on my back, tackle me, ask me to run, to race someone or asking me where I live for the one hundredth time.

It’s pretty fascinating how entertaining they find me. I’ve been here for two months now and they still act as if seeing me everyday is some sort of miracle. I don’t know if they’re expecting me to bounce out of this country everyday or if I just hand out the most candy in class but something is sparking these kids into a frenzy every time I’m spotted. Well that’s all for now, I did my best to take pictures today during the walking sessions and the after lunch recess. Like I said, it’s difficult to snap pictures in the morning because they hadn’t seen me in a whole 16 hrs so I’m pretty tied-up, but I did my best to take some pictures during recess. Some of the kids get shy when cameras come out and some go frickin’ nuts, you’ll see…