Sangju: Elementary School

Teaching elementary grade kids has its pros and cons… the major draw for me is really just how cute the kids are. I adore their innocence and yet unjaded perspective on life, which is the major inspiration behind my art. I want to make books for children someday.

The drawback however, is that they require more energy and patience than I could pull out of my battered soon-to-be-29-years-old body. It was therefore quite the eye-opener when I saw just how well Ottie handled his elementary classes last year, despite his preference for older kids who would be able to understand the more abstract concepts he’s so fond of dishing out. He really is well-suited as a teacher for all ages…

Anyway, the elementary school is in the mountain as well, so we hitched a ride up for our second day of classes:

I tried capturing the beautiful ball of red, but phone camera happened.

We had our last class at the elementary school. We went to all grades except for the fifth and sixth graders who had something on, but they specially came by to the teacher’s room to give Ottie a bunch of farewell drawings, it was so endearing. Remember how I mentioned in my last trip that each grade consisted of a classroom? Yeah it’s not changed since then. In a way, I’m pretty optimistic that the governing body funds these schools despite the low enrolment rate. Most of the kids here come from parents who farm around the area, so there’s that too.

I introduced some of the kids to Daft Punk via my favourite medley by Pentatonix while they worked on farewell cards for Ottie using English. It proved to be a distraction.

But a good distraction. Here:

I was so envious of the telescope one grade had at the back of their classroom!

Wish we could have been there at night, the stars would have been such a beautiful sight.

I did a couple of quick doodles for the classes:

The cute kids gave Ottie their sweet heartfelt messages:

Two girls came up to Ottie and I during lunch and handed us this handmade clay heart with our names inscribed on it. My name in school was changed to the Korean reading of 仁榕 (In Yong) because there wasn’t an easy way to say the ‘r’ in my name in Korean.

School lunches, as usual, are the best. There was even a probiotic drink included.

Here, have some more things I love about Sangju:

The riverbank. It’s a brown winter.

Loving the Paris Baguette in Korea: Blueberry Ice Cream Macaron, Pistachio Macaron, Strawberry Cake, and Mocha Bread. You can’t find most of these at the Singapore branch!

The blueberry flavour was too artificial for my tastes though… it made me miss MILK.

Disney’s Frozen is still a pretty big thing in Korea, but who am I to begrudge these pretty cakes? The figurines look to be of good quality on this Paris Baguette cake too.

There’s also this super cute puppy living in the house near Ottie’s apartment. It was super energetic and friendly, but my heart went out to the small ball of fur because sometimes we would see it chained outside in the cutting, cold wintry air. It didn’t seem to mind the cold, but still.

Frankly, the house looks like it’s home to hoarders, but I don’t know what the houseowners do. Perhaps they recycle trash? In any case, they were very friendly to me when they saw me take this picture.

Can’t keep still!

I’ve got an outfit as usual. I dressed more conservatively in anticipation of all the running around with the kids, but it turned out that I needn’t have worried. It was pretty cool to highlight the characteristic of each layer such as having my studded collar top peek out from my zipped-up collarless leather jacket.

…I think I own too few cool collars.

I also started wearing socks over my tights because my most comfortable pair of sneakers was too lightweight for the cold. Those socks helped a lot.

Can’t close my backpack because of all the kids’ drawings!

Mid-shot.

OUTFIT
Pink leather jacket c/o Viparo
Studded collar top from Urban Outfitters
Oversized cardigan from Zara
Ribbed tights from Hue
Warrior socks from Stance c/o Shopbop
Sneakers from McQ x Puma c/o Shopbop

Outfit photos assisted by Ottie.