Thursday, May 13, 2010

Emergency Drills in South Korea

The days I don't bring my camera with me to work are bound to be full of picture taking opportunities. Murphy's Law is brilliant that way. Anyways, as I was stumbling through my second cup of tea my co-teacher messaged me that our first class was canceled (huzzah!) for some in class drills. I figured this had nothing to do with me and cheerfully set about getting a third cup of tea and working at a leisurely pace on lesson preparations.  An hour later, smoke bombs (of a mild variety) were set off in the school, an alarm went off and the loud speaker announced that everyone was to vacate the building. At least, that's what I presume it said.  So I grabbed my cup of tea (oh the joy of travel mugs) and followed the squealing crowds of children out.  After everyone was assembled (far too close to the school if there was ever a real fire or catastrophe) our attention was called to the student waving a blue cleaning rag out of the window. It was a simulation for what you should do if you don't get out in time.  Then the two PE teachers rushed into the school, got her, and carried her out on a stretcher. I kid you not. They fake checked her over for a minute too. Next, the teachers assembled in the middle of the field to demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher. Instead of just using them they decided to practice on a real fire.  So they gathered together some cardboard boxes and lit them on fire. The children were highly entertained.  After all of that, everyone went back inside presumably to continue the workshop. I went and got another cup of tea and got back to lesson prep. Except that everything smelled pretty badly for an hour it was a nice diversion to my usual routine.

Speaking of catastrophes, go and read Mr. Awesomecool's evaluation of the quality of Korean construction.  He worked in construction for awhile in the US and knows quite a bit about safety standards.

Tonight, bibimbap with the Partial Asian and SLEEP. Hopefully. I haven't been sleeping very well lately (yes, I know all of the caffeine isn't helping) and it's making me start to approach zombie land again...

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