Small Town Girl: Sports Day

Last week was a fun, crazy time at my school. In Korea, schools don't sports teams like they do in the US. Kids are much too busy studying, so they only get to play sports during PE three times a week. This made me wonder, how do people become professional sports players if they don't play during high school or college? So I asked my students and they explained to me that scouts travel to middle schools and watch children play, then choose the best players to attend sports high schools.

Since there aren't organized sports in schools, every spring schools have a Sports Day festival. Poongsan High School's Sports Day was last week! On Thursday and Friday there were no classes, and there were competitions leading up to the finals on Friday afternoon. The whole school was split into four teams, and the teams competed in basketball, football, soccer, kickball, handball, tug of war, running events, and cheering competitions. Oh, and they had a 6-person jump roping competition, where 6 people had to jump a huge rope all at the same time. I couldn't believe the coordination!

It was so much fun to get to see a different side of my students. In the end, the team that I was secretly rooting for lost every single event. I felt really bad for them, but they proved the endurable nature of Korean spirit: even though they never won a single event, they were laughing, singing, dancing, and cheering on the other teams. They never got disheartened. It made me really happy.

As for the teachers, we got to sit under tents and eat a TON of food and watch the kids go at each other. I had a really great time. I think my favorite race was a relay where three students tied all their legs together and had to run. It was hilarious! Also, tug of war was fun to watch. Each game was worth a certain number of points, and they were totaled at the end for the overall winner of Sports Day. The team who won are in the purple shirts in the photos. The team in yellow is the team that lost every event :(