Staff Retreat

This Saturday, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Plus Academy, we had a staff retreat to Dream Island - a destination approximately 2 hours away, 3 in Korean traffic. So while the travel time was rough, and its never entirely pleasant to give up so much of your weekend to work-related things, the afternoon was full of merriment. The place itself was beautiful, a little cabin-like conference centre next to a rocky river running through mountains on all sides. After a few speeches (in Korean) from important people, where we clapped at all the appropriate times (aka when everyone else was clapping) we proceeded outside in the glorious fall sunshine. Long tables awaited us, laden with bowls of soup, rice, veggies, kimchi and potato salad, and soon after there arrived piping hot plates of freshly barbequed beef, shrimp, potatoes and even pumpkin. We ate like kings, and naturally the merriment was encouraged with endless free beer and soju. I was looking forward to spending some more time with the Korean teachers at my school, and I definitely did. Some of them also brought their adorable babies and children.

After lunch there was entertainment. Us foreigners sang Sweet Caroline, and I kept beat on the tambourine. Some very talented singers also performed, and I always find music in a language I can't understand that much more beautiful in it's mystery, so I thought it was just great. By far the best performance though was our very own 5th floor teachers, who rehearsed an entire dance to a Korean pop song, and wore black wigs a la The Supremes, and shook their tiny little bums for the whole audience. The head teacher was the most outgoing, and she even pulled the CEO of the company up on stage! Gotta love work parties :)

We tried to make the most of both Friday and Saturday night (c'mon you guys, we can't let the school win, gotta . have . one . more . drink ...!) but we were all so tired from the 7am Saturday wakeup that it was pretty much a lost cause. Sunday a bunch of us did get out to a baseball game, and what a game! Playoffs have started and I have never seen that many people crammed into a stadium - where Canada has fire safety laws, Korea seems to have an aversion to empty space. Just to get down the steps to our seats required gazelle-like grace and balance, not to mention the acrobatics needed to weave the maze of people blocking the path to and from these stairs-turned-seats-for-whole-families. Initially we were hoping there would be vendors in the aisles (because Kelly and I arrived frantically late and without eating), but clearly this would have been a suicide mission. Doosan Bears, the Seoul team we came to watch, won by a landslide, and the win was celebrated by thousands of fans in white performing synchronised action-packed cheers, a dancing banner about a hundred people wide, streamers of toilet paper, silver-bursting fireworks and the noise that only 1000s of people can make. Doosan has a good chance of making the finals (in which the winning team of the season automatically plays) so despite the crazy morning of scalping tickets in another language and fighting off feisty Koreans to keep a block of 12 seats reserved for 2 hours (thanks to Ian and Andy!!!), perhaps we'll get in another one, promised to be equally as eventful.

And now on to yet another week of teaching. Last week they surprised us with a pop song contest that had to be rehearsed in class. And thus I found myself alone in a room of teenagers, trying to convince them that Dancing Queen by Mama Mia was indeed a popular song at home, and that it would be a fantastic idea for them to embarrass themselves by putting their cracking voices to use on its timeless vocals. This week there is speech contest judging. Perhaps I will have to wear a costume for that. If not, at least there's always Halloween.

There is never a dull moment here at Plus Academy.