A Day Outdoors

For at least one day a semester each school in Gwangju dedicates one day to some friendly athletic competition—sports day. Last Friday, the girls and teachers of Dae-Sung Middle School put on their best casual outfits and took to the dirt field. The morning started off with the entire student body, roughly 900 students, doing regimented warm-up exercises to an outdated audio track. After the gym teacher deemed our muscles ready for physical activity the sporting events got underway.

The first event up was relay races. A group of four girls from each homeroom were selected and placed into heats based on their grade level. The races were conducted until only the four fastest teams remained. Then one final heat was run to see who would win the sprinting title. After the races were completed, the lane markers were removed from the field to open the space up the basketball, handball (hand soccer), tug-of-war, and dodge ball. Students were provided with a schedule saying what sport their class would play when and against whom.

The staff was divided into different positions including: referees, line judges, nurses, and in my case photographer. For six hours I made my rounds from game to game documenting the various victory and defeats of my students. In between matches my picture taking would be interrupted by a few wandering students wanting to practice their English. When they approached we would talk about the weather, their favorite singers, and their favorite hobbies. Each proud to display their knowledge of the dialogues they worked with in class.

Sports day has become my favorite day of the semester. Not only because I don’t have to worry about lesson plans, but because I get to see a side of my students I have rarely seen. In class, my students are well behaved (for the most part) and shy, but on sports day they turn into outgoing, talkative girls. They turned into girls who would gladly talk my ear off on how handsome boy bands like 2AM, Big Bang, and Rain are. Oh the joys of middle school!