Jindo sea festival etc.

So this past 7 days I've been really busy with travel. I was lucky enough to have school trips and a few days off rolled all close together and I took advantage. I'm not going to write about each one in detail  because I would be here forever but instead of telling you I'll show you ^^.

It was the start of spring and so it's blossom season which is fleeting to say the least. All the trees come into bloom at pretty much the same time and the trees are all different shades of white, pink, red and yellow for about a week and a half to two weeks. Then all the blossom falls all turns green for summer. So you'll see many random pictures of flowers where I've desperately tried to get a nice picture of flowers that I won't see again for another year.

 
Tuseday 24th April

This was our monthly hiking trip with all the faculty at our school again.

Wednesday 25th March

This day was a school trip to an educational environment centre for kids in 서천 (Seocheon). I chose to go with my 4th grade students purely because they're my favourite.

Friday 26th - Sunday 28th April

This was the weekend I went to the Jindo sea festival. Basically was a festival centred around a naturally occurring parting of the sea, along with it's associated legend. First I travelled to Daejeon on Friday night, and then I got the KTX (Korea's answer to the bullet train I guess), to Mokpo. There I stayed with one of my Korean friends who is a staff Sargent in the army. He actually lived in a really cool old style Japanese house which I wanted to take photos of just because of the layout and architecture style but I didn't want to be all like, "Hey can I come into your house and take photos of your home." but maybe next time. The next day we travelled to Jindo and we bumped into some of his English friends on the way and we all spent the day together.

Now, I've made it quite clear that I don't like spending too much time with foreigners in Korea, and this trip was no exception. At first everything was fine and I was enjoying being with like minded people who enjoyed shared a sense of humour, but that's as far as it got. the problem started with the alcohol. When English people say festival, they think of Leeds or Glastonbury festival, which is tents, alcohol, drugs, mud and loud music. to Korean people a festival is family and culture time. So all these guys brought their own booze, and progressively drank more throughout the day. At first they weren't so bad, but it got to the point where I was involved with THAT crowd of loud obnoxious foreigners and I was embarrassed to be around them. Not only that but they also stole something from one of the stands, and I was horrified. Never the less, I was there for the sea festival not for them so I tried to just enjoy my time.

That night me and "Seosamh" went back to his place in Jindo where I met his grandmother, who didn't speak a word of English but I liked her none the less and I spoke enough honorific Korean to her so i think she liked me too.

Anyway, the next day, He showed me around Mokpo and we did a little bit of mountain climbing before I had to leave.

From Mokpo I then got the KTX back up to Iksan. There I met another one of  my Native Korean friends who is a student in his final year studying to be a mechanic. I definitely enjoyed my time here! His friends were all lovely and I really enjoyed being around other students again. At the moment I really feel like I get along with Koreans more than westerners. My only close western friend at the moment is Sai. bar her they're all Koreans. I didn't get many photos here, but we went to a Buddist lantern exhibition at the university campus on Sunday night. Then on Monday he showed me around the campus, and we went for a little shopping before I had to leave that night.

and alas...I then had to be back at work on Tusday 30th April. But! then I had another day off on Wednesday 1st May. I had not a great deal to do other than head to Daejeon again to run some errands and get some paint to finally start decorating my apartment. Though, a local foreign girl got in touch with me about going for a picnic since the weather was good, and where they were planning to go was pretty much the last place in Korea with blossom left. So I thought why not, I can go for a nice picnic in the morning, then go do my chores in the afternoon and be back for tea. I think I must have hit my head or just completely forgotten what the Saturday before was like with foreigners.

So we arrange to meet and get the bus station and get the 11am bus, naturally one of them is late, so we have to wait an hour for the next bus pushing back my schedule. I then had to spend an hour with them being loud in public which i thought was ok because soon it would end and we would be away from Korean people where they can be loud all they want, only I get into an argument with some american girl (who had been in korea for years) about Korean vocabulary. It didn't take me long to realise that many, including this group of foreigners don't socialise with native Koreans at all. They don't understand nor care to try to understand their culture, and don't bother to try to speak the language. they just stick to their little western bubble.

In any case we got the bus where naturally, they were all loud and knowing bus etiquette I sat a little away from them, and naturally an old woman told them to shut up. When we got to our destination I was much happier. The scenery was pretty and apart from the Americans complaining about how hard it is to walk whilst panting for breath, I was more comfortable being around them when I wasn't around any Korean people. When we got to where we were going to have lunch, we were all supposed to bring things to share korean style...like one other person besides myself brought some kimchi, and that's it. everyone else brought beer or candy for themselves. and when they all saw real food, they all tucked into my food. >.> not happy. I cut things short and left them to climb the rest of the way on their own.

got a couple of nice photos though...

And that's me. Hopefully my next blog will be a little less ranting about how much I really don't like foreigners in Korea.

Public transport in Korea

In a nutshell, I think the public transport is pretty amazing. Compared to transport in England and America, for me it wins, no questions asked. Although I appreciate that if you’re elderly, best take a car…

T-money charms

Ok starting off with the subways in the major cities like Seoul, Daejeon and Busan. They’re all really efficient clean and very easy to navigate. They’re miles better than anything I’ve seen in London, America or France. Price wise, the Korean subways are dirt cheap! To get into the subway you can either buy a card for a single journey, a T-money card which you can top up, (much like an Oyster card in London) or you can get little cute charms (which I use) also act as T-money cards, and you can attach them to your phone or keys or whatever so you don’t lose them. To get into the subway you’ll scan your card or charm and it’ll cost you something like £1 each time, and when you leave it won’t charge you again by the distance you’ve travelled. It will simply log that you are now out of the subway. That’s right, you can go any distance and be charged the same flat rate. I’ve also been told that if you’re journey takes more than an hour then you get the transport for free, but I haven’t tried it.

Scanning the T-money charm

Moving onto the navigation, the Korean subways are all in both English and Korean, and the electronic boards are all in several languages. They usually rotate between Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese (I can’t tell if it’s Mandarin or Cantonese). So when I’m in a rush, that helps massively, but when I’m not, I try and take the time to read the Korean. Also, when the subway map is far away on the subway train and I can‘t get near, the English is usually too small for me to read so I have to read the Korean names of the stops. Announcements in the subway are also done in English and Korean. In terms of the layout, It’s all logical and easy to find your way round. There are signs everywhere to tell you where to change tracks, and which subway exit takes you to which well known location.

Aesthetically…the subway is naturally a lot more modern than anything in London or France, but it also actually kept clean. Everything is a shade of white or chrome with adverts, shops and subway maps adding a splash of colour. One nice auditory feature that the subway has is that when your train is about to arrive at your platform, a little stereotypically Asian chime will play out of the speakers, and is followed by an announcement telling you where the train is going, and what the next stop is, just incase you missed the signs everywhere which tell you which way the train is going and what the next stop is.

For convenience as well, there are a lot of shops in the Subway, In Seoul there are many underground malls that I’ve just stumbled into when not paying attention. Although, these are usually selling stuff that old women would buy. And Finally, there is copious amounts of free wifi, as to be expected with Korea.

Moving onto Inter city transport with coaches. I haven’t had the pleasure of travelling by train yet in Korea, and it may not happen while I’m here, but I can at least tell you about the Coach system. Much like the Korean subway, with the large inter city coach stations, there is information everywhere in several languages, and all the large ones that I’ve been to are attached to an extensive shopping mall. In the same way that you pay a single flat rate on the subway, you do the same for an intercity coach. However for these you must go and buy a ticket. These buses are usually express anyway, but between some cities there is maybe one or two stops, and the price doesn’t change weather you get off at those or the final destination. Price wise I’d pay maybe £5-£7 each way depending on which cities I’m travelling to and from. Again, dirt cheap.

But these coaches aren’t like your national express coaches, or Grayhound  or Trailways. Oh no, the Koreans like to travel with comfort. Firstly everyone is assigned a seat number, and then the seats are spaced enough so have more than enough leg room. Your seat can recline with a leg rest and your seats are usually heated when it’s cold. Coach etiquette is pretty much, be quiet and keep yourself to yourself. And people do, because most people sleep on these coaches, even if it’s the middle of the day. And kids on these coaches don’t scream and cry either, they just sleep too. The odd person might have a phone call but they’ll cut it short and call back later. And again, these coaches are kept immaculate. There is usually a TV too which is connected to wifi and plays the news (no volume with subtitles in Korean) where I get my weekly update on what's happening in the world.

Moving onto local and internal city public transport.
From where I live (the middle of nowhere) and regular city public transport, there is very little difference. It’s regular, even where I live, and it’s almost never late. Like with coaches and the subway when you get on you pay a flat rate no matter weather you’re going just one stop or all the way to the terminal, and it usually costs between £1 and £1.25. The main difference however is the difference in how much English is available. In the city bus terminals, there is usually English signs, where I live, there isn't. So If I came to Korea before learning Hangeul, I'd find it mighty hard getting from A to B when looking at this...

You might not be able to see bit it's all Korean apart from the word "Timetable"

Depending on which bus you get, usually the busses are again really comfortable and you have more than enough leg space. With these buses however, you can either pay in cash, or you can use the same T-money card that you use for the subway, with the bus. Very handy. ^^. With city busses, there is also an announcement in both Korean and English to tell you which stop you are at, but in the more rural areas, like where I live, these are absent so you just need to know your stop. I must say though, these bus drivers mean business when they drive. As soon as you get on the bus and you’ve paid, they don’t wait for you to sit down, that food goes straight down on the accelerator, so you need to find a seat fast! Many a time I’ve almost lost my footing making my way down the bus and before now, I’ve seen a poor old woman struggling with her bags, literally be thrown off her feet half way down the bus. Lucally for her, another maybe middle aged woman grabbed her and caught her and gave her her seat. It’s a good thing too because that could have gotten ugly.

But yeah that pretty much covers public transport from my experience so far. ^^
 

Crime in Korea

So… crime in Korea… wait what crime? I think it’s pretty safe to say that South Korea, in my experience (so far) has made me feel safer and more comfortable than even in my home town or where I went to university.

I’m pretty sure that whenever I go back to the western world, I’m going to suffer some reverse culture shock when it comes to crime and safety. In Korea no matter what time of day or night it is, I can freely go skipping in a park with my cell phone in hand, wallet out in the other hand, and I never feel threatened or concerned for my safety. I never feel like I’m going to run into a gang of Korean high school boys in hoodies who are all like: “what are you doing in this part of the park, this is my park”. In England, I have to think twice about going to the corner shop because there might be a gang stood outside it equipped with knuckle dusters and bikes for a quick escape. Honestly, I have never felt that way or ever seen anything like it while I’ve been in Korea. Even when Im alone at night and I see someone with a hood up walking towards me. There just isn’t that chav stigma attached to hoodies here.

In Korea a lot of shops even have their products outside of the store, including alcohol, and no one ever steals it. Skooters of fast food delivery guys leave their scooters by the road, still running with the keys in. People leave their cars running with the kids in if they have to do a quick errand in a bank or something. And guess what, no body takes it.

I’m not saying that there aren’t bad school kids or there aren’t gangs in Korea, because there are, they’re just not as prevalent or as public as they are in England. As I mentioned in my last blog, after kids finish school here, they’re expected to go to an after school, or a night school of some kind. They’re constantly in school, studying. So the bad kids in Korea are being bad by not studying, or by going to the park and secretly smoking with their friends. Before now I’ve stumbled upon such an example and they react as if: “omg we’ve been caught, run!” but then they realise I’m a foreigner and they carry on.

If you go out at 1 or 2 am in Korea you’ll see lots of couples in cafes snuggling up, or friends just having a chat, minding their own business, as should be. In England on a Friday or Saturday night, you don’t want to be on the street. Someone’s gonna stab you if you look at them funny, or some random drunkard will try and start a fight with you.

Tbh I do think that unfortunately things in Korea could change. My co-teacher and I were talking, today infact, and she was saying how much Korean kids have changed since she was in school. The things they do and don’t have the nerve to do. And with the west having a stronger and stronger influence in Korea these days, in another 10 years the streets might not be quite so safe…but still, I find it hard to imagine Korea ever being like an episode of Shameless.

In England, whenever you walk down the street you always have a certain element of cautiousness about you. You where is and isn’t safe to go at certain times and if you feel threatened by any particular obstacle, you always know an alternative route. Whenever you’re in public you make sure to keep your belongings close to you and don’t leave anything where someone could make a sly grab when you’re looking the other way. But I’ve completely lost that air of cautiousness while I’ve been here.

I’m pretty sure that this is a public advertisement for the Korean mafia to rob me, walking down the street with my phone in one hand wallet in the other. I sure wouldn’t be hard to find in a crowd here.

Random collection

So this post is basically just a brief over view of the small things that I keep meaning to talk about but don't really have enough to say to write a full blog about each one.


 School

This year's staff photo

 So I've been at my school now for 5/6 weeks now. I'm really starting to feel like this is my life now.

Between every class, there is a 10 minute break where, but because it is such a short time, the students don't go outside. this turns the classrooms into a play ground between classes, but I really don't mind. I quite enjoy it actually. It gives me a chance to talk to the students and get to know them better.

The school also does staff trips once a month on Wednesdays instead of our regular volleyball games. For our trip in March, we all went hiking in the hills just by our school and had a picnic. With hiking i felt much more in my element than in volleyball, and again, with hiking it is a chance for me to talk with the other teachers and practice my Korean on them.

 Last up on school is dinning. Lunch is split into two sittings for the older kids and the younger kids. I usually eat with the older kids, but still, on the staff table. Now, one thing that I've had to get used to is not knowing what I'm eating. because in school, I almost never know what I'm eating. I just eat it, it tastes good and then I'm done. The same is often true when eating out. I'll ask a native Korean what a particular thing is, they'll look at it, poke it, maybe smell it, or taste is and then say that either they don't know what it is either, or they don't know what the English word for it is. but I'm ok with it.













Home

So I haven't really talked much about where I live.

It's a tiny area. in terms of area it takes up it's the size of a hamlet, but because of the population in the high size flats, maybe you'd call it a village. there's something like 1,800-2,000 people living here. Anyway, there's a few shops, social places, a norebang obviously, a couple of restaurants and a chapel. Behind the apartments is the sea, to the left is forest and to the right is rice paddies. Something about this area reminds me of 1950s America. All the families know each other and really contribute to the community. A large number of the families only have the men working and the women doing something or other, and the children are free to go off and play in the forest or whatever until it's time for dinner and then the streets are dead by 6:30pm because all the families are either eating together, or the kids have gone to their hagwon (after school school/night school.)  There are no teenagers hanging around on street corners because all their spare time is taken up by studying.

Tide is out (I'm not sure that I'll ever get to see it in.) 

The chapel

Korean toilet experience

Lets take things down a notch…

Do you recall me mentioning the one thing I appreciated most about my apartment was my western bathroom? Well let me explain why.

In Korea you will get one of 3 options when it comes to using a toilet.

1: if you’re lucky you will get a Samsung toilet.

2: you will get a western style throne with a twist.

3: you will get a floor toilet.

So lets start with the nicest one. The Samsung toilet. You can treat it pretty much the same as any old western toilet. But, with Samsung, you get a ton of gadgets on the side to play with. When I came across this toilet it was actually during my orientation with EPIK, and my Korean reading back then was so much worse than it is now, I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to play with it, but it turned out ok.

When I sat on the seat it was already heated, and once I’d done my business,  I didn’t know if I’d ever see one of these again, (and I haven’t). So I took advantage of this golden opportunity and just slammed on every button which I thought looked pretty. Without me having to get up, and with terrifying accuracy, the toilet washed and blow dried me. I actually didn’t want to get up. This was without a doubt the most pleasant toilet experience I’ve ever had.

Then there is your western style toilet. These days in Korea, they’re getting rid of majority of the floor toilets, and opting for the “throne”, as we have in the west. However, there are two slight twists. The first twist is that in public bathrooms, in each cubicle, there isn’t always toilet paper, you have about a 50/50 chance of toilet paper actually being in the cubicle. The other half of that 50% is that you’ll get a single large toilet paper dispenser outside all the cubicles. You take a massive roll, and you take it with you into the cubicle. Now you might be thinking, oh that’s not so bad, and sure, you’re right, it’s not so bad. but yeah, you know the pluming system in Korea isn’t designed for taking toilet paper. So beside each toilet you will see one of these babies…

toilet paper basket (not my school)

Oh yes, once you’ve finished you’re business, you’re used toilet paper goes in here. Lovely. This is the option that my school goes for actually, and it is always surprisingly white and clean. But in public toilets, it’s not always so nice, as I’m sure you can imagine.

a "nice" picture of a floor toilet

Now then, time to get to the nitty gritty. Option 3, the floor toilet. I think I’ve only seen one or two of these in the indie bars of hongde in Seoul. Now, whenever you’re in a place that’s a little bit indie, and you can’t see the toilet sign, that’s not a good start. If you ask when the toilets are, and they point to a door which leads outside the building, again, that’s not a good sign. The only time I’ve seen these floor toilets is when they’re in a small building, just next to a bar or café, round the back. In these floor toilets there are cubicles, but they don’t always have doors apparently. I’ve seen one where none of the cubicles had doors…I walked straight back out. I’ve never used one of these, nor do I intend to, but I’m not sure that I know which way to even use them. And they’re usually disgusting! People miss all the time. With these toilets however, again you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet so you will have your basket at the side, but I’ve also never seen toilet paper at all in one of these cubicles,or outside them. So I assume that people would have to bring their own.

I guess this whole, toilet paper issue could be different for girls than boys but still just in case, I always bring a little toilet paper with me when I go out just in case there is an emergency.

a typical bathroom in a Korean apartment

In wonderful contrast, the toilet I have in my apartment is completely western. But also, I should mention typical Korean bathrooms. Normally there is no specific place for you to shower in a Korean bathroom. Normally in apartments, the entire room is a wet-room, and just freely hanging on the wall is a shower head. And when you shower, you just get everything in the room soaking wet. As you can see, the shower head is also attached to the tap, you kinda need to make sure that when brushing your teeth, the tap isn't set to shower, otherwise the water won't be running into the sink. you'll be having a fully clothed shower. 

In my apartment, I actually have a bath that I can shower in…although I can’t have a bath, there was no plug when I moved in and I have no idea where the plug store is in Korea.  >.>  

Korean wedding experience

Ahh the Korean wedding. So I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a Korean wedding by another member of staff from my school who happened to be getting married. In typical Korean style, notice for the wedding was relatively short in comparison to the west. Wedding invitations were handed out a couple of days before the wedding itself.

On the day of the wedding, there was a rendezvous point in the nearest town where all me and some of the other guests where provided with a free coach up to the wedding hall in Seoul and were given food on the coach to tide us over. When we arrived, there was currently another wedding going on in the ceremony room, so guests gathered in the reception area and put their gifts (money) in envelopes provided at the desk, wrote our names and handed our money back to the desk. Since I’d only known the groom for such a short amount of time I was only expected to give 30,000KRW, the better the guests knew the bride or groom, the more they were expected to give. Up to how much I don’t know.

Since we had another hour after this until we were allowed into the ceremony room, the guests that I was with all decided to eat before the wedding instead of after. So I followed them down to the buffet style eating area, where not just our party was eating, but guests of the previous wedding and the next wedding in line were also eating there. The food was good but I actually appreciated the salad and fruit most! Everything in Korea has such strong flavours all the time, I relished the opportunity to have something that just felt fresh and unaltered in my mouth.

We finished our food barely in time to go to the ceremony room and get our seats (notice how I said we were almost late, but there are still plenty of seats), where staff members dressed like…air hostesses, made sure everything was ship shape and ready to go. While they finished up their last checks, a pianist and two violinists played atmospheric music.

Then the ceremony started. The mothers of each house, were invited up to the podium, a few words were said, and they then bowed to each other, and returned to their seats. Much to my surprise, the principal of our school then made his way to the podium and stood behind the microphone. The groom was then invited to the podium, with music and a round of applause. He then turned to face the audience, barely able to keep his face straight, bless him. The bride was then invited down to the podium, accompanied by what I assumed was her father, and she made her way down, very slowly…partly due to the face that her veil was too long and kept snagging on things but she made it without and accidents.  Both the bride and groom then hold hands and step up on the podium.

The principal then began to speak. There was also no priest in sight, nor anyone that I would naturally assume had the certification to marry two people so I just assumed he was conducting the ceremony. Even more to my surprise…everyone talked through it. No one was interested, or so it seemed. After perhaps 4/5 minutes of talking and being talked over. The couple stepped apart and bowed to each other. They then started to say their vows, when a bunch of camera men came right up in their face and started taking pictures, hovering round then like fruit flies. They were really annoying me so I don’t know how those two felt while trying to say their vows.

Once they were done, there didn’t seem to be any form of ring exchange…also for that matter there was no best man, or brides maids or any of that. Instead, the bride and groom stepped down from the podium, stood in front of the brides side of the audience, gave a deep bow, and then did the same in front of the grooms side. They returned to centre stage and then an incredibly ornate and well decorated cart was wheeled in front of them, on it was a bottle of what looked like Champaign already opened ready to pour, and a small wedding cake. The couple poured each other a large glass of whine, of which the bride took a sip, and the groom downed the whole glass and giggled, to which everyone in the audience replied with sounds of approval. The Champaign was then removed, and the bride and groom were then presented with a ridiculously oversized knife. It was more like a samurai sword than what I’d call a knife, but the two put their hands on the knife and proceeded to cut the cake. Naturally the fruit flies were all over this and made it near enough impossible for me to get a photo.

The bride and groom returned to centre stage, where something was said to the groom and he responded by shouting something into the audience and raising both his arms. This happened twice and the audience cheered and applauded. I was confused…and the bride then cried, and the air hostesses came to ensure she didn’t rub her make up and dab her face. One of the grooms close friends (also a teacher from my school) and what I assume was one of the brides friends, sang a duet together for the bride and groom, and then another person from the groom’s side went on stage to sing another song.

The bride and groom then faced the audience for the last time. Then, as if this whole situation wasn’t confusing enough, the two air hostesses stood on either side of the bride and groom armed with what looked like trumpets with a golden gun on the end to match, they then aimed them over the bride and groom and proceeded to fire confetti over them. The pianist and violinists then proceeded to play and the bride and groom then made their exit.

Normally it’s customary for everyone to take a photo with the bride and groom. First family, then close friends, then friends and colleagues. But we were running behind schedule, the next wedding was due to be in soon and they had to clear up, wheel out another cake, bring in a clean knife, clear up the confetti, etc. so we had to leave. And that’s…a Korean wedding for you…In total it came to around 20/25 minutes.

 Koreans do have honey moons and the couple are there now. For how long I’m not entirely sure but I’d assume a week. Teachers don’t get many paid days off in Korea. Plus I know the bride is pregnant so she shouldn’t be away for too long. Lol.  

White day and ddong chim

So today was a great, yet interesting, and down right bizarre day at school.

Today was actually “White Day”. Let me explain: in Korea, on Valentines day, that is the day of the year that girls buy boys chocolates or other gifts. However, they also have White day exactly a month later. On White day, that is when the boys are to buy the girls gifts. Even though my first experience was of White day was in an elementary school, it didn’t seem like a western valentines day where you give a gift to a special someone. It was pretty much everyone gives something to all their friends or anyone they like. At first I was shocked when my students started giving me candy randomly in the corridor, but after I asked my co-teacher it all made sense. Kind of.

By my first lesson of the day with my 2nd grade class, my back pocket was already bulging with candy that I’d been given. And this is where my day turned rather bizarre. Towards the end of the lesson, we were playing a game which involved students coming up to the board, and as one kid came to the board, he took his turn, and as I turned to the board for a second to clear the board for the start of a new game, I suddenly felt tiny fingers thrust their way into my bum, followed by a chorus of giggles. I had become a victim of ddong chim, literally translated as poop needle….

It's so well known, there's even a statue dedicated to it.

I’d first discovered such a thing in the Japanese anime Naruto, many many years ago. My reaction to it was confusion, feeling awkward, and not really understanding why or what happened, but I brushed it off and moved on. I’d also heard of it in Korea before I arrived, but I didn't think it was at all common place, nor did it even cross my mind that it would happen to me…oh how wrong I was.


I had one of two options. Option 1: laugh, brush it off and tell him to go sit down. Option 2: Scold the kid in front of the class and terrify everyone to the point that they don’t feel like they can have fun with me in the English class anymore. I chose option 1, which naturally worked out for the better. My initial reaction was to remove his hand and look at him with a look of complete shock, but then I said “what are you doing? Go and sit down,” with a bit of a giggle. The kid got half way to his seat and said “candy juseyo” which means “please give me candy”. He’d  seen my overflowing back pocket. Then I made my next big mistake. As I went to bend down to get to his level, again, I felt the bizarre sensation of tiny fingers thrusting into my rear end. Another kid has snuck behind me in my moment of weakness. At this point I felt like I was in Jurassic Park and I’d been caught be two velicoraptors, one on either side of me.

With that I cried “YA!" (Hey!), and the two kids ran back to their seats giggling. I then proceeded to share my candy with the rest of the class who were well behaved and gave those two boys the pleasure of sticking my tongue out at them.

But the loss of candy didn’t bother me, I was reimbursed by other kids in the school. The rest of the day was also pretty hectic, with all this candy flying round the entire school was hyperactive all day. The corridors were also filled with the sound of students campaigning for votes from the other students because today was the day that the students voted for their student representatives. I was exhausted and relieved by the time my last lesson of the day came round. The icing on the cake was that my last lesson was cancelled due the student candidate performances, and the voting for the representatives.