Hiking a mountain with 300 students

Today was my first field trip with Bugil ... the entire Grade 11 class went and climbed a mountain and then paid their respects at the tomb of the founder of Bugil.


Sweet ride! This was our luxurious bus that took us to the mountain.
We rode with class 2-3. There were 10 buses in total.

There are 300 students in grade 11. Along with the homeroom teachers and the two native English teachers for that grade, Bre and me, we all went hiking at Gyeryongsan, one of Korea's national parks. It was intense!! Someone once told me that Korean were like mountain goats .. and now I believe it. The bunch of us hiked for 4+ hours and the course was not easy. Lots of rocks to climb up and down. My legs were shaking by the end. I can't say for sure, but I think it was this trail because we went past multiple temples and the Nammetap pagodas. Three times we thought we were at the top, but nope! The trail kept going. It was beautiful though.



The scene right as we started the climb.

 

At the midway point, we all stopped to rest, drink and take many, many photos. The students were overly happy to pose with their teachers, so Bre and I got some pictures with our classes. There were also two pagodas at the midway point called Nammaetap, or Onwitap which means brother and sister.

Class 2-8 and me .. can you find me?

Some students from class 2-2

Some of my faves from class 2-4

More from class 2-4

Posing with class 2-6 

 Some pictures of the scenery.

We stragglers found a waterfall!

After the hike, the students had a paperbag lunch, but the teachers were taken out to a Korean restaurant. It was nice to feel like a part of the faculty. As a foreigner, I frequently feel on the outside of school affairs and even the last to know about schedule changes and things. This was a great opportunity to get to know some of the other grade 11 teachers and just enjoy ourselves!

Bugil Academy grade 11 teachers

Take care,

Jennika