Sex Education Sesame Street

Anyeong, how is everyone? Winter is coming. I can feel it. Mainly because my apartment is getting colder. As much as I've looked into stopping the seasons from changing, I've found no solid results thus far. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted. Until then I will snuggle under blankets with my heat fan when necessary. As winter comes, people are trying to fit in the last few outdoor activities until it is just way to cold to enjoy anything outside. For those of you who enjoy cold weather....props....

This past week we had one of the last of the field trips until the weather turns a bit nicer. The students, let me remind you that these students are 6 to 7 years old, would be learning about sex education. Last year the field trip was canceled last minute, so a Korean teacher here took over and taught the students. Fortunately, this year we got to experience the real deal. Located on the outskirts of the Bucheon city soccer stadium, the students would get to learn about how a baby goes from a little swimmer to who they are now. As per usual, the field trip was completely in Korean. My vocabulary, unfortunately, does not cover medical terms and all of the body parts, but I heard from my co-teachers later that the students actually were very knowledgeable about the workings of the human body with regards to baby-making. Naturally, this topic was taught through puppets and videos. When the sperm and egg puppets came out I had honestly no idea what they were. I thought it was some strange representation of reproductive organs, but after further demonstrations by the teacher there, I realized the true purpose for these cute fuzzy creatures. The sperm had a perm too...pretty accurate.

After showing this process using stuffed representations, we moved into the womb room. Yes. The womb room. Crawling through a red squishy doorway, we sit in a small circular space filled with fuzzy pillows and complete with a soundtrack of a beating heart. The students closed their eyes and imagined that they were back in their mother's womb, hearing her heartbeat. Makes you wonder whether there are any subconscious memories of that time. It was then, the teacher played this video of the process from the sperm finding the egg to the baby developing. The landscape and music made you think you were watching some dramatic opera about an Earthly apocalypse. The egg itself looked like a ball of fire and the the womb like a firey landscape of death. With scary-baroque-choir music serenading you throughout this journey, as a women you felt as if you should get some sort of medal for the bravery of completing this process.

Fireball of death (aka an egg)

After the rather scarring video where the students thought they were related to seahorses, we had them put on the pregnancy vests where they can feel what mothers get to experience for 9 months. The other teachers watched holding in laughter as our students struggled to hold up the giant belly and other womanly bodily parts.

Mother Jean

mother Jenna

Then they were taught how to correctly hold a baby, supporting the head. We had several students be super careful with this baby doll while others picked it up by its limbs to see what would happen. Hopefully by the time they have children, they remember the right way to do it...

creepy mother doll...with a husky...

 

We had the usual post-field trip photo shoot and made our way back to Little America. When the Korean teachers told me about a sex-education field trip, I thought it was going to focus more on the differences between boys and girls, and go into some things that just aren't appropriate for 6- and 7-year-olds. I'm a supporter for kids learning about these things in school. I think they definitely should know what will happen to them (sounds daunting), though kindergarten is wa-hay-hayyy to early for that. Let's let them keep some innocence for now.

Fast forward through a busy, tiring, week. I feel like I'm getting worn down. A vacation is definitely becoming necessary. I'm so looking forward to a week off away from spelling tests, homework, and explaining why it is "some" cheese and not "a" cheese. 47 days.

This weekend we had the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) 5k in Ilsan. Tarah, Kaitie, Kelsey and I got all ready to run in the rain donning some glow sticks and neon facepaint all the while dancing to some beat-heavy music and not thinking about the distance of the race (which turned out to be not 5k, but it's fine...). We arrived at the Kintex mall in Ilsan to get our numbers and get painted up for the run. As we painted each others' faces we had Koreans lining up thinking we were some sort of station created by the race. I painted a few neon stripes and cat whiskers on some Koreans, most of them being kind and thanking me while others asked their friends "does it look okay? she's not doing it right" in Korean. It took some willpower to not answer in Korean that I could just take it all off...Heading off we ran 2.4 miles (okay I'll stop complaining) around a loop and along the way had some DJ booth stations to dance while running. After reaching the finish line we joined the after party where all of the EDM Runners jumped up and down to songs that all sounded the same waving glowstick-clad wrists in the air. I don't mind a little electronic music but after a while I feel like I'm sitting in the washing machine while I leave my iTunes on shuffle. We headed off in to the cold again to get ready to go out to Hongdae and meet some friends to celebrate a couple birthdays. Seems like everyone's birthday is in November here (Aka their parents had fun around Valentines Day). There are a lot of races set up through Seoul and nearby cities. I will probably wait til next spring or summer to do another one as my fingers will not appreciate it being much colder anymore. This one was mainly Korean, which I found interesting. Seems like an opportunity to paint your face and run with glow sticks would totally get foreigners to come out. Maybe they got their running in with the Color Run about a month ago. Either way, a fun way to spend a Saturday night with some lovely ladies!

As we head into the next week we have those dreaded TOSEL tests for our elementary students as well as progress reports, grades, and plans to hand in on Friday. Friday is ALSO Kaitie's birthday! Excited for adventures happening next weekend to celebrate that one. Stay warm! xoxo

Korean of the post:
아니. 얼굴에 화가 아니에요.
(ani. eolgoolae hwaga aniayo)
No. I'm not a face painter.