Mmmmm... all you can cook and eat meat...
We had an out of class activity lined up yesterday. Or, as the students like to say - "Field Trip!" Nothing really special lined up, we just planned on taking a bus up to the San Jose area and spending the day in Korea town. But it was an oppurtunity to have a relaxing day (as opposed to the third semester curriculum) out of class and practice some Korean in real life settings. We finished up the trip with lunch at a Korean all you can cook and eat meat restaurant. The one vegetarian in our class sat at my table. The restaraunt did have food that she could eat and did like, but I still felt for her a little with every piece of raw, marinated meat placed on the table grill... then I realized that with her not eating any, there was more for me.
Only a couple small problems with the trip. We were told the day prior that some buses broke down, so we'd be sharing with another class that was going to the same area. That worked out ok for the most part. But, one of the teachers on my team decided to bring a family member but she didn't fill out the proper paperwork in advance (the same paperwork we demand the students have in two weeks early or the dependent doesn't go). We had to wait 15 minutes for it to get faxed all around and approved.
Some of the teachers had to drive their own cars because of the bus sharing issue. When we were getting ready to leave our restaurant to go pick up the other class, the teacher that drove couldn't be found. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but he had another teachers baby bag in his car (yep, same teacher that didn't have prior approval to bring her baby on the trip) and no one seemed to know his cell phone. So, we left anyway and picked up the other class. We were able to contact the teacher and get him to meet us back at our restaurant so we could pick up the bag. All of that and we were still able to make it back to Monterey with 30 minutes to spare (a real worry with traffic between San Jose and Monterey on a Friday afternoon).
Overall, it was a fun day. The students had a good time and even after being in class for over a year, this was the first time many had the chance to eat in this style Korean restaurant. They got to pick up books, magazines, music, movies and more. AND, they weren't being tested on 200 vocabulary words they were introduced to just the night before (as is often the case in a regular class day). So, it was a good day.
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