A Viking Abroad: K-PACE Field Day

Today was awesome. I'm so thankful for all the hard work these amazing people put in day in and day out to run things around here. I really wish there was more I could do to help out. It's still pretty difficult with the language barrier. I mean obviously things are getting better everyday but I can only really say and understand basic short sentences in Korean. Any kind of elongated or complex thought would be lost. Sometimes I feel as though I'm almost more of a burden than a help haha. I'm sure no one else sees it that way, I just have been brought up to "see something that needs doing and do it" as my dad used to tell me, a saying he got from my grandfather.

So the day started with a light breakfast around the normal time. We were scheduled to get to the K-PACE center around 8:30, and be ready for the start of the homecoming day festivities around 9:30. We all started bringing out the necessary supplies (snacks, tents, chairs, tables) from the building to the soccer field. Heavy G, An Hyo Sang, YJS, and myself all helped carry the heavier things and set them up as needed. Good thing we did too, cause it turned out to be HOT.

We actually started a bit later than we were supposed to. We got into lines divided by two teams. The yellow team was the 사랑팀 (Sa Rahng Team) love team, and blue was 자유팀 (Ja Yoo Team) freedom team. The English conversation teachers showed up today too which was really cool, it was like uniting the two worlds. They joined us in our warm up. Heavy G and An Hyo Sang led the stretch, and subsequent dance number. After that, it was time to get going!

The first game was where you tie a balloon around your ankle with a rubber band and everyone tries to pop someone's balloon on the other team. The team with the last member remaining wins. Of course my team won. This game is always exciting to watch too. The mini 1 on 1 battles that go on, and people who look for revenge. You can really tell a lot about a person by the way they play games like these.

After that it was picture time. I'll post all the pictures at the end so you guys can see them. There are some pretty good ones. When we finished the pictures it was time for the mission run. This is a game that Koreans play which is basically a relay race with instructions. The course was just a circle around the middle circle of the field marked out by cones. About a quarter of the way around there was a place to fish out a ping pong ball with a ladle, and another box to put the ping pong ball in. After you finished that you were to run another quarter of the way around the circle and open a paper prompt that would tell you what to do next. Some missions included finding a teacher to run with you, or hopping on one leg to the finish line.

Soccer was next, and this was intense. It ended up being a guys only game. I think a lot of the guys take soccer pretty seriously. I was honestly kind of nervous, because I only played soccer a few times in gym class. I elected to play defense since I know at least something about defense from hockey. I'm also a big body so as long as I stayed between them and the goal we would be fine.

The other team was WAY better than us. Like wayyyyy better. When I say that I mean they spent literally the entire time in our end, except for one play on which we scored and that was the only goal in the game. We ended up winning 1-0. Haha our team literally all clumped up and stood still, and just watched the ball go past them. I'm not kidding, it was pretty funny. It wasn't strategic either, they were all just far enough away from the goal to let the other team have plenty of room to shoot. Good times.

After soccer it was time for lunch. When Korean's do something, they go all out. That's what I've noticed. They had TGI Friday's catered in, and the choices were American or Korean cuisine. As much as I wanted to stick with Korean, I decided to go with the American. It was a hamburger steak, some potato triangles, a salad, and some rice. Oh it had some Kimchi for good measure too haha. I really enjoyed it.

Following lunch, we were back to games. They decided to skip the 400m dash which I think was a good idea. As I said before it was hot and pretty sunny so the students were getting a bit drained. The teachers got everyone back up and dancing with "Gangnam Style". When the energy levels were at expected levels it was time for tug-of-war.

This was obviously a pretty big deal. There must have been 30-40 students on each side, along with teachers. The first pull we actually lost. They put me as the anchor and our team just ended up getting dragged straight over. We changed up our strategy and put me at the front along with the other strongest guys. This worked and we ended up winning two straight to finish it off! We were champions! Our team actually had won every event so they didn't bother doing the last event. We just started cleaning up and headed back to the K-PACE center.

At this point my sunburn was starting to show. I always get red first for about a day or two, and then it turns into a tan. My face is soooo red tonight haha. Not that my face being red is unusual, but definitely more-so than is typical. We went back to the dorms with the students after a short wait. The rest of the day was basically free from that point on. The boy band piled in the car for a nice dinner at 8 Ho Gwan around 5:30, but that was basically the most notable thing that happened here at night.

Tomorrow is another great day for church! I believe there is a field day for that too, so I'm gonna be really red and really tired. Thanks for reading guys! Hope you enjoy the pictures!