Let's take the kiddies to Wolmido

On Thursday, my school organised a special treat for the students... 
First graders (twelve and thirteen) were to visit Wolmido. Second graders and third graders were each scheduled to watch a Korean musical in Seoul.

I teach all grades, so I was allowed to choose which field trip I’d want to join. (My thought pattern was a little like this: Korean musical = no understand, Wolmido = fun in the sun). So I chose Wolmido. My expectation for the day included dreams of a beautiful island of sunshine, theme park fun and cute kiddies. But life always has this uncanny way of doing the exact opposite of what you envision.

-       No sunshine, only rain

-       No cute kiddies, only rain soaked, upset tantrum-throwers

-       No theme park fun, only a very boring museum tour

Encountered with pouring rain and the inability to ride anything in the theme park, my Korean teachers decided that we’d instead take the students to a museum on the island. From this experience, I learnt an important life lesson… It goes a little like this: 

NEVER EVER take 400 teenagers who think they’re going to a theme park to a museum.
NEVER DO THIS. Do not do it people. It was cray cray town. 

Running, shouting and illegal eating were what the good kids were going. At one point I had to coax a child off some ancient Korean sculpture. No jokes. Even I can read “do not touch this” in Korean – apparently these thirteen year olds can’t. The worst was the poor museum lady… She was so out of her depth. Later on she just stood in the corner and spoke quietly to herself… I wanted to go over and ask if she needed a hug.

After the museum craziness, we were blessed with a little sunshine and the children could finally go on a few rides. This experience was almost (but not quite) as disturbing as the museum. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I’m pretty sure theme park rides need more adequate safety measures. Most of the rides operated on a similar principle: “You see this bar? OK, hold on and don’t let go. Let go, you die.”  

 

I may be overreacting just a tad… And the little ones had hoards of fun being thrown about- so much so that they refused to leave for home at the end of the day. I stood by and silently prayed no one would die (and then that everyone would just go home).  

All in all, it was a fun and exhausting day which made for some great memories. Terry Pratchett had it right when he wrote, 

“Chaos is found in greatest abundance whenever order is being sought. 

It always defeats order, because it is better organized” 

(Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett).  

;) I love Terry Pratchett.