Botanical Gardens

Yesterday we had a field trip to the Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of Bucheon for the preschoolers. It was lovely to be out in the sunshine rather than in a classroom, although being responsible for 10 overexcited 7 year olds took the edge off. Koreans count age differently - age is counted from conception rather than birth, so the students' Western ages are actually 5 or 6 years old. It must have been field trip day as the park seemed to contain every preschooler from the whole of Bucheon. Luckily the worst to happen was a clash of heads between two of the students. It made me realise how much their English has improved, especially when one of them came up to me and said "Teacher, explain glacial"!

I didn't notice a huge amount about the botanical gardens, partly because all the labels were mostly in Korean and partly because all my attention went on keeping my students in check, but I do remember some turkeys who were fighting in their cage and some cut bunny rabbits! Afterwards we ate gimbap (Korean version of sushi) for lunch in the park, but then hurried back to school when it started raining!

Its traditional here for parents to give presents to teachers. So far this week, I've received a huge box of gimbap, 4 cakes, 6 doughnuts, iced coffees and fruit. I know this is not a purely philanthropic gesture, I'm fairly sure the parents do this to try and ensure their son or daughter receives preferential treatment (education here is hugely competitive). It won't work, I'm not going to pay extra attention to any student just because their parents gave me some cake, but as far as I'm concerned they can keep on giving me presents anyway!