Sports Day
Last week, we didn’t have programs here at the English Village. Most of the teachers were sent away on jobs during the week. But on Friday, the Korean administration, the Korean teachers, and the foreign English teachers of English Village joined forces for a sports day in our gymnasium.
In the beginning, we all were led in stretching. After our warm up, we paired up and roshambo’d. The winners became one team, the green team, and the losers another, the white team. I was a part of the green team, which I will now refer to as Gryffindor. 18 people vs. another 18, and each team had a nice balance of guys and girls.
For our first game, we were given a piece of string and a balloon, which were the color of our teams. We were told to blow the balloon to a size bigger than our heads. Using the string, we tied the balloon to our ankles. The object of this game was to pop the other team’s balloons. If your balloon popped, you were eliminated. We formed two lines, one of each team, and once the whistle was blown, it was game on. After about half of each had been eliminated, the each team lined up again, but this time it was every man for themselves. I was eliminated during portion, which was pretty amazing considering I blew up my balloon to a generous size. This game was very tiring to start out with because the fewer the people, the harder it was to pop your opponents balloons. The game was called after it was down to three, two from the white team and one from Gryffindor. White started off in the lead.
The next game we played was a dragon game. At first, the starting dragon consisted of three people, the head, a middle and the tail. We all clung onto each other by our shirts. The objective was for the head of each dragon to grab on the tail of another. If you tail was captured, your whole dragon team linked to the dragon which captured you. We did this a few times and then expanded to a six man starting team. Gryffindor kicked ass. We won the overall game, with my dragon team, and me as the head, winning a couple of the bouts.
The next game, we were told that we needed only 4 guys. For Gryffindor, I was one of the four. We were told to take off our shoes and socks. Then, we each were given a pair of panty hose. We were to put one leg on up to our knees. The object of this game was to take off the panty hose with our free leg and only our leg. This challenge was also a team effort. Gryffindor killed team white.
After the panty hose challenge, two girls were asked to volunteer for the next task, hackey sack. The hackey sacks in Korea are much different from American hackey sacks. Instead of a bean bag ball, the Korean version is beans in a plastic container with flaired strings coming out one side. Two girls from the white team were most impressive with a continuous 9 and 10 kicks, when the most for others were 3 to 4. Guys were later asked to participate, but no one could beat 10.
The game we played before our lunch break was dodgeball. In this version, we paired up amongst our teams one guy/one girl. The guy was to protect the girl from being hit and also threw the ball. The guys could get hit as much as possible, just as long as the girl didn’t. Each team made six pairs. The rest of the team was lined up at the opposite team’s out of bounds area, so the ball was coming from every direction. If the guys paired with girls threw the ball and the other team caught it, that team would be eliminated. But if the guy tries to catch the ball and drops it, that team is eliminated. Also, if a girl on the outer portion threw a ball and hit a guy that team was eliminated. Instead of using a dodgeball, we used a volleyball. We had two bouts of dodgeball. Gryffindor was massacred in both. The first session, I was eliminated in the middle of the game, as my blocking the ball with my hand was counted as me trying to catch it and dropping it. In the second bout, my partner Deirdre and I were the last ones remaining on our team, while none of the white teams had been eliminated. My tactic changed during the second session, as I had learned from my mistake in the first. In order to remain in, I put my arms behind me and linked them to Deirdre’s arms, this helped in guiding our movements better. Every time a guy threw the ball, I took the body shot. Every time a girl threw the ball, we dodged. I must have taken 10+ body shots with a volleyball before the white team’s girl ringer threw the ball at me and caught the right side of my jacket. Deirdre never was hit. Especially not like Clover, one the of the Korean teachers who was nailed in the face by one of the male administrators.
After we returned from our lunch break, we lined up according to teams. The next game was very basic. There was cardstock spread among the floor, each side the color of both teams. Whichever team had the most of their color, won. White team succeeded.
Next game, we were blindly ask to choose two people from each team. I volunteered. Had I known what I was getting into, I wouldn’t have. Each of us were given a piece of string and a pedometer. We were to tie the pedometer around our foreheads. The objective was to see who could record the highest number of marks on the pedometer using only our heads in 30 seconds time. We did four rounds of this with different people each round. The number of marks increased after each round when our people started using different techniques and expanded on them. Round three, one of the foreign English teachers, Michael from the white team, got into a downward facing dog position and recorded the highest number of marks from the previous two rounds, 34. Round four, Gryffindor came back strong with 41, but the white team ultimately won with 43. My round one bout, I had only 24 marks, but that was plenty to give me a wicked headache and very sore neck the next day.
Gryffindor seemed to be struggling. But the next three games, we pulled into a tie, as we won each task. The first one was a human bridge game, which each member of the team got down on all fours, while one teammate walked across our backs with the support of two spotters on each side. Once the person crossed over your back, you had to run and continue to building the human bridge. At the end of the gym, there was an obstacle we had to go around and we finished back where we had begun. The white team had no chance. We killed them both legs of the race.
Our seventh-inning-stretch activity was the four-legged relay race. My four-legged team started off with a big lead for Gryffindor and we never looked back. However, the white team’s third leg did pick up some slack by running the entire course, most teams just power walked.
Our next successful task was group jump roping. At first, each team had ten members trying to jump a single rope. The white team struggled as they could only do one successful jump. Gryffindor’s ten man team’s most successful turn was 5 jumps. After that, we condensed to 5 man teams. Gryffindor set the bar high with 14 consecutive jumps and it wasn’t even close for the white team. I really enjoyed jump roping during PE in grade school. I was the only one from both teams to do more than just jumping up a down in place. I started backwards and would spin around. This was probably my favorite event of the day. Well, this and dodgeball.
The score was even now, and we were down to the last event, the tug-o-war. This was for all the marbles. Every thing that each team had work for came down to this final game. How cliche, right? 18 vs. 18. We ended up doing two rounds of everyone, one round of just the girls, and the last round of just the boys. The first round of everyone, the white team won pretty quickly. We switched sides for the next round and started again. Gryffindor put up more effort this next time, as the balance shifted back and forth from both teams multiple times, but ultimately the white team prevailed, again. The Gryffindor girls came back strong and won the third heat. This really boosted our motivation for the Gryffindor guys, as we won the fourth, as well. But since, the white team had won both of the heats with everyone, they were ruled the winners of sports day.
As winners, the white team received a set of four bars of soap for each member. As a consolation gift, team Gryffindor was given a bottle liquid soap, which is something I prefer, as I don’t like using bars. Also we, as a team, chose our MVP for each team. Both teams chose a woman Korean teacher. Gryffindor’s MVP, Shine, won 2 days off with pay and the white team’s MVP won a gift certificate in a blind draw. There was also a raffle where stuff like hair dryers, towels, rice, onions, apples, dish racks, shower slippers and tupperware were given away. I didn’t receive anything from the raffle. But I didn’t walk away empty-handed, everyone got two bottles of fabric softner for their participation.
After this successful day, the administration is going to be planning more in the future. I had a great time and this allowed me to get to know a lot more people here at the English Village, having only been here a week. I can’t wait for more sports days!
