Remembrance Day

It has only been two days without Internet and yet it feels like I haven't blogged in ages. Is that the first sign of an addict? Sometimes blogging seems like a chore but other times it is fun and relaxing....I will continue to ponder this concept as I update you on Friday's field trip with the students.
Today (6.15) was another day to celebrate fallen war heroes is Korea. The school organized a field trip for the kindergarten class. It was about an hour bus ride to the memorial and we accidentally had a military escort the majority of the way. A convoy was moving through and they closed all of the side streets to let the mile long convoy stay together. We stayed in line with the convoy and bypassed all of the traffic lights.
Once we arrived we took the kids up a steep staircase to the monument. Each kid had to lay a flower at the base and then bow.

From a vantage point you could look across the mountains to North Korea. Afterwards we had lunch in a small wooded area next to the gift shop. I sometimes question our Korean helper teachers...after lunch many of the kids had to go to the bathroom. Instead of leading them to the toilet, the Korean helper teachers thought is was perfectly acceptable for the boys to drop trou and water the trees a mere ten feet from the picnic tables. It was rather comical seeing a row of kindergartner bums.

This just adds to the grocery list of Koreans I've seen naked in public. Babies peeing into bottles at public plays, people bathing outdoors along a public highway, drunken business men relieving themselves outside the bar, and the not-so-modest public toilets that have clear windows that look out on busy walkways. They do have public decency laws but that is one of those strange rules that isn't adhered to.

We made it back to school and then had a little time to relax before afternoon classes.