Elementary School Alumni Association

Saturday, April 25, 2009 - Fourty-one years after graduating Seogot Elementary School, I was able to have a good time with a group bus tour to 'Mongsanpo' beach resort in Chungnam Province with my elementary school classmates as the 1967-68 class alumni association had recently been formed.
More than 45 old boys and girls came to the bus parking lot near Incheon Seo-gu District Office around 7 o'clock early in the morning to get into the bus to hang out . Actually, many of my old classmates, both boys and girls, were familiar to me because I was able to meet them from time to time so far. Several peope among them, however, were like totally strangers to me since I couldn't remember anything about them, including their features and behaviors, etc. Actually all of my memories on them were blacked out. I had a hard time to match up some of my old friends' names to their current features, as well. As a matter of fact, fourty-one years are far enough to change teenage boys and girls into middle-aged men and women with crow feet at the edge of their eyes.
On our way to the beach in the bus, we spent most of our time to say hello to each other, while sipping up coffee or having some rice cakes and pork served with 'soju' or whatever individually wanted. It took approximately 2 hours for us to get to the destination. At the beach resort, meanwhile, we had a great time to play 'Jokku' game, a Korean-style foot-tennis, and foot-baseball game together like naive children before taking group pictures. Also, we enjoyed barbeque party at the courtyard of a nearby beach house. (Second from the right in the picture is me.)