Zach takes "A Walk in the Woods" Please don't sue me Bill Bryson I love your books.

Yay hiking

So this week the kindergartners and I went on a field trip, oh and what a field trip it was.  We drove about 10 minutes to a small hiking trail located up the road from the school.  Excitement abound.  To be honest though it was a fun field trip, however due to a health related issue Amanda did not accompany us on this trip to a non-field.

Here we are as we begin our climb

We began our slow climb up a very small mountain pretty well, with the exception if Daniel and Tomas everyone stayed in line very well and didn't run screaming into the woods.  The director had the smallest child Jun with her so I didn't have to worry about him running off.  Since he is like 4 years old and still scared  of me if I had to take care of him it probably would have not been special.  The trail we climbed was a very leisurely trail, populated mostly by older woman and men going out for a random days walk.

As you can see the trail is very well maintained, and has wooden stairs and hand rails most of the way in the even vaguely steep areas.  While I won't exactly call this real climbing but it is a nice walk for someone getting away from the hustle and the bustle of the city.  It was actually very quiet up on the mountain, you wouldn't think it was completely surrounded by urban development less than a mile away.

The city off in the distance

We reached the summit of the tiny mountain, only to be greeted to a small waiting area with workout equipment and a watch tower which had a elderly park ranger inside it.

A better view of the summit area

After we reached the summit the children dropped off their backpacks and we went down one of the three paths that lead to the summit.  In a different direction than the one we came up of course.  We passed by a large work out area off the side of the trail where a bunch of older women and men were working out.  That is actually one of the nicest things about Korea, they have outdoor exercise equipment pretty much everywhere.  This is especially good since obesity is becoming a bit of a problem in Korea, much like it is in America.

We walked for a while, and nothing really of note happened other then one of the little girls Evelyn falling down multiple times because she has the coordination of a drunken mantis.  

Something about frog sex maybe?

We stopped to take pictures now and again and the director started going faster and faster checking behind her that the children were actually with the group less and less.  This forced me to stay behind and try to shuffle the children along as she got further and further ahead.

All of the overlooks have razor wire surrounding them, I'm not sure why other than it may be unstable?

After we finally got the group back together and stopped at a nice little grove, the said "Ok go back!" then we proceeded to walk back to the summit.  With one very distinct difference from before of course.  She left Jun the 4 year old behind, with me.  Now I was forced to try to get the stragglers to catch up with the class and try to shuffle along a 4 year old who flips out whenever I try to pick him up to move him faster.

The cutest snake.

So about halfway back to the summit she up and disappears with half the class since my half simply can't keep up due to them being young, or in some cases crazy.  Luckily it was a straight path, but it took us a good 4 extra minutes to get there, and when we arrived the director just looks at me and asks me "what took so long" in her own English tone.

A lost old man, sad times

The children then had snacks and played around at the summit for about 20 minutes before we began our descent to the bus.  I spent most of the time trying to clean up the trash the kids continually threw on the ground and saving the life of bugs they were trying to murder needlessly (The only moral bug slaying is when I do it you see).  Then after snack we headed back to the school, only to stop for ice cream on the way.  Right in time for lunch, which none of the kids ate because they had just had ice cream, and a snack less than an hour before.  Good planning there.

All in all it was a pretty fun trip, but I wish it hadn't just been me and the director, though it must have been nice for Manda to get those few precious moments to herself since she doesn't get the time normally.  I don't know where the next trip will be but it will probably be Manda writing about it.