School Festival!

Date: 10/29/2010

On Friday, my school held a festival!  Ms Kim arranged it so that I could actually not go to my country school and, instead, participate in the festival.  I was super excited, but I had no idea what to expect.

It was kind of a carnival and talent show combined.  In the morning there were a bunch of stations throughout the school in which you could go and do fun stuff: face painting, make soap, make a wish on a ribbon, etc.  Then in the afternoon a talent show was held where students got to display a talent of their choice: singing, dancing, whatever.  There was also a fun section where boys dressed up as girls and competed.  I have a lot of pictures and some movies to show, so hold on and I'll take you on an electronic memory of my Friday!

I came into school in the morning and everyone was a buzz.  I have time to get out my computer before I am recruited to cut ribbons.  I was worried that I had cut too many (after doing 2 spools of ribbons) but am told that we need about 500 or so ribbons so I could not cut enough. Ms Kim tells me to make a wish on my ribbon and it will tied up with the rest of the student and teachers wishes outside.

To Make many Good Friends and Memories in South Korea!

So lonely--but not for much longer!

This was a "free activity" so practically the whole school make a wish ribbon.   Other activities cost like 200 won (which is only about $0.20)

After this, I walked around and looked at some of the student's art work:

For middle schoolers--there was some great art!

Then I got my face painted:

The facepainting is right by a bunch of balloons, which I of course, think are really cool.  The only problem is I have bow over so that I don't bonk my head on them.  Once again, giant-ticious hits me.

Everything is so happy in S. Korea--even the balloon dragonfly.

Next, onto traditional soap making.  I know this sounds lame, but there's a big tradition of making soap in Korea.  They give it alot as welcoming or thank you gifts.  I, myself, have gotten around 5 or 6 bars of soap this week.  I guess I did not need to bring over all the Irish Spring stuff...oh well!

First you pick what shape you want.  Then the girls in the back heat the soap, add some pretty scents like Rose or something (the deminstration was in Korean so give me a little slack if I couldn't understand).

Pour the hot soap into molds, and let cool.  

About 25-30 minutes later you have your soap form.  Yeah for frogs!

As I am walking to the next station, I pass a bunch of toothpick bridges: so I take a photo:

And then, because I have my camera out a bunch of students want to get pictures with me.  Celebrity-ness strikes again!

I head off to the waterballoon section!  I had seen some teachers making a giant cut out the previous day where I thought it was one of those things that you put your head in the hole and suddenly your head is on the body of a Roman soldier or some super bikini clad Baywatch girl--but I was wrong.  It was a "lob the waterballoon at your favorite teacher" board.  Oh course!

Anyway, good fun:

As you can tell, it was quiet popular!

Some boy paid for me and I landed a direct hit on the octopus.  I apologized immediantly--which apparently the students thought was really funny.

The ribbon wish station is next to the waterballoon, so I head over to see how Ms Kim is holding up.  

I actually made two ribbons: one in English and this one in Korean.  This is the more prosaic one: Good health and good fortune for my family.

I found out earlier this week that there is girl who has a nickname Maggie.  Or she goes by Me-gi.  Something close.  Anyway, she is super nice and always waves to me and attempts to speak English.  While I was chatting to Ms Kim she came up and decided that she wanted to do a ribbon in English: "I want to be rich. Give me a handsome boyfriend."  

I would say that this activity was quiet a hit!

I say goodbye to Ms Kim and head off to get some food:

I later asked Ms Kim what this was, unfortunately.  The street vendor food that Koreans eat: Fish Curd. Yummy!

I went inside and came upon a room that had teachers showing students how to make balloon shapes.  I made a heart.

The next thing I wandered upon was a nail boutique--in my classroom (the English room).  It smelled of nail polish to high heaven!  But I sat myself down and proceeded to get a manicure--Korean Style.

The gradation was done by putting three colors on a small sponge and then tapping it on my fingernail.   One of the teachers is actually studying to get her cosmetology degree so I'm guessing that how she knew to do this.  Anyway...it's very Korean and I kind of worry because now I have to go buy nail polish remover otherwise I'm going to be stuck with hot pink nails for a while.

Buy this point, its almost time to head to the auditorium to see the talent show, but as I walk back to the ribbon place (to meet up with Ms Kim) I run across some English class project posters.  I snapped a shot to show you guys what kind of level the students are speaking/writing.

That concluded the morning portion of the School Festival.  If you're like me, you're probably wondering, "There's more?!"  The fun had only just begun, people!  And you'll next the next part of my presentation--It has movies!

So, the afternoon was a talent show, with a little competition to start the day off.  A gender-bender competition, that is!  Powderpuff football was a huge hit in my middle school (that is, until the new principal thought it was "wrong for children to do" and he cancelled it, but nonetheless, this sense of self-regulation has not hit this section of South Korea).  So they held a competition for Boys to Dress like Girls and compete for most talented female.  There is actually a history of cross-dressing in Asian culture (FOR THEATER, you gutter-brains!).  For a long time, no females were allowed in the theater--acting or observing, so men had to dress like women to play the female roles.  In many cases, the men became so good at acting female that there's some quote somewhere saying that "Only a man knows how to be a women," or something to that extent.  But...moving on...boys, or groups of boys, dressed up and put on a mini show for the audience.  The students went wild!

This is during the morning practice that I snuck into.  But it's a better angle than the afternoon shots because I was up close and it was light.  

This next clip is of a couple teachers--who also performed during the talent show:

The male front and right is actually our principal.  I actually like that he's super involved in the school--doing the talent show, he was dressed up to play volleyball, and after the talent show he gave out a bunch of awards.

These are a majority of the teachers (there's only like 35 total).  I like this one because it shows how excited the kids get.  A lot of my teacher friends are in here: Ms. Kim, Tae-Hung, Wisdom, and a couple of the people I got to go drinking with later that night.