Kinsinger's International Adventures: Sport's Day Festival

I named this blog entry Sport's Day "Festival" because that is what the atmosphere resembled. It was this past Tuesday, the last day of September. I wish I could have captured the air & essence of it all to send to you. It was like nothing I've seen before except perhaps earlier this spring when they had a small Sport's Day. This time, however, was the Big Whammie - they have had months to practice up for it. You'd expect it to be intense & competitive. And it was full of competitive events and performances, and yet there was not the attitude of competition. It was lively and fun-filled...each student and team doing their best and yet cheering others on as well. The whole school was divided into only 2 teams...the white and the blue teams. A perfect example is during one of the relay races:

The white team overall was ahead. At the beginning of the race, both teams were neck and neck for several laps. Then, a kid on the blue team tripped up, giving the white team a leap ahead. The kids watching cheered for the white team! For the rest of the race, the white team remained ahead by a large margin. The kids continued to cheer them on. By the last 2 runners, the blue team was at least 1/2 a lap behind. However, the last boy on the blue team was incredibly fast! As he took off and ate up the ground between himself and the white team, the kids went crazy. They were now cheering for the blue team, encouraging him to go faster. It was amazing! In the last yards, he pulled up neck and neck again and it looked like a tie from the grandstand. But then it was soon anounced that against all odds, the blue team had won!! Outstanding! And then, without further ado, they went on to the next event.

And so, it's great to win, but it's not a big deal if you lose...the most important thing is to give it your best and have fun. And that was the whole attitude of the whole day. I did not see any students with "bad" attitudes or not trying. Parents thoroughly enjoyed watching their children, but seeming more interested in taking their pictures than if their team won or not. Anyway, hope that gives you a bit of an idea as you go through the pictures below.

The parking was packed for the event...as well as our own driveway! You'll notice the colored umbrellas at the entrance to the field...there were vendors spotted around the perimeter of the grounds, selling food & toys - and even baby chicks & hamsters!

a)About ~650 students total b)The events started off with exercises.

b)The principal & other officials from SeoSan school district sat in the "grandstands." Note the flags...they were from every country in the world. Can you find the US flag?

a)Marching out to start b)During a relay race, eating a snack off the rope.

The kindergarten's relay.

a)Holding hands and weaving in a train around the spokes. They first had to roll dice and spin around in that many circles before taking off. b) running relay

This was funny! Two clowns stood ready to be "filled" with balloons. Then afterwards, the kids got to pop them all.

a) SunWha - festive with stickers! b) vice principal speaking

a) cheerleaders! b) another relay

a) short tug o' wars b) long tug o' wars - what you see is only about 1/3(yellow team) to 1/4(red team) of the total!

a) "Grab the cap!!!"-two kids tried to grab the cap off their opponent while being held on the shoulders of 3 other students. See the woman with the bong at the bottom right? Follow the green markers on down to the group on the left. Those 2 girls with the white caps were hilarious to watch! b) the grandparents were asked to the field, then played against each other. I got worried a few times about casualties, but thankfully no one got hurt!

a&b) special performances by the younger students. a) this was the old school uniform(not with one pant leg rolled up, though!) - now, the elementary schools do not wear uniforms...just the middle & high school students.

a) drum performance...I was told that they practiced since the beginning of school (March) for this - and disrupted some classes near their room! b) the team to pop the most balloons of the other team in a given time won

Pinata-style! Surprise! No candy, though.

a) a relay for the mothers of the students b) tug o' war for all the parents - I was very glad I did not understand the instructions to go down there!! But it was short-lived as the vice-principal came over, found me and personally escorted me down the steps and out there! John started snickering at me until he was also snagged. You do not say no to the vice-principal! With no way to respectfully opt out, we joined the last of the line and took hope in the fact that the rope ended ahead of us. No such luck! They divided us into teams and all of us pulled. I have not done such a thing since I was in 4-H about 20 years ago!!! Needless to say, I was sore the next day from the jerking around! Neither John nor I could figure out why they jerked instead of just pulled. We ended up on the same team and won both times. I was surprised because do you see that guy not in line yet towards the front...wearing a white shirt? He and another large person were on the other line...I didn't think we had a chance. I guess that's the power of teamwork. Anyway, it was quite the experience, that's for sure!