Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Sports Day at the Dwarf School

I just got home from "Sports Day" at Sindong Chodeung Hakkyo, the 25-student elementary school I go to on Tuesdays. It reminded me of field day from my elementary school days, but it was a much bigger production. I'll let the pictures do the story telling...


The school (for 25 students!) was all done up when I got there this morning.


Meet the student body of Sin Dong Elementary School. The other twelve are kindergarteners... most of the pictures that follow are of the littler ones because they're infinitely cuter.


The neighborhood old folks came out to watch, but were made to squat under the hot sun in the play ground. Meanwhile...


The elite old men, including the headmaster of my other school, sat covered, in their finest suits with flowers and candies and a cute teacher to serve them tea and coffee.


The kids ran regular races...


And funny races...


That involved hands-free popping of balloons...


And hands-free eating of lollipops in powdered sugar.


There were blind monster races...


And races for the elite old men...


And even games for the poor old women.


I don't know why this kid was so angry.


Or how this kid was so cute.


Eventually the kids dawned traditional Korean clothing and did a story-dance that seemed to be about courtship.





And there was even face painting for me, to reveal my duel loyalties.


But the highlight of the day was the elementary school kids, in their best traditional clothes, playing their hearts out on their traditional Korean instruments. Here's a 30 second video of it.

3 comments:

Anjole said...

too much fun. did they ask you to compete?

Michael Levy said...

They did. I got to play t-ball and was the anchor for a big relay-race. Then I was sent home with a towel embroidered to commemorate the day, some very fragrant soaps, 4 boxes of tissues and 24 rolls of toilet paper.

Unknown said...

Tissues and toilet paper?!?!?!?!?! This is soooo precious. I love the traditional instrument playing and the costumes and the old people - all of it. Are you the only American at this school? Is the entire building for only these 25 students? What a treat!