On Friday I had no class 'cause the first graders were on their class camping trip. Instead, I went to Gyeongju on the second graders' picnic. Oh. My. God. So basically I have never seen my students out of their uniforms. (Have I mentioned by the way that they're making the transition from their Jiffy Lube summer uniforms to their model schoolboy winter uniforms? Now it's brown slacks with a white button down, a tan sweater vest and a brown TIE. Killer.) Even when I see them outside of school they're wearing their school clothes (and if they weren't I honestly wouldn't be able to recognize them as my students). So I was completely, completely unprepared for what I saw when I arrived at school on Friday. The first inklings came before I got to the gate, when I saw a boy in Cat in the Hat striped pants walking along next to his friend in a Cat in the Hat striped shirt. Anyway, once I turned the corner into the gate I was confronted with TOTAL MADNESS. Wild stripes were very popular, as were Charlie Cahplin hats (in several cases with a garish ribbon tied above the brim), ruffled shirts with pointy gold shoes, bow ties, skinny checkered ties, tight vests with pink silk ties and on and on. Apparently a ton of kids claimed that they had pressing appointments and couldn't make it to study time on Thursday evening (whihch lasts past ten) but then headed downtown to go shopping and prepare for the big, uniform-free day. It was pretty hot so the boys all bought paper parasols and strolled alongs the bank of the lake together. In their top hats.


Boy in bowtie. You can't see them, but he was also wearing really shiny pointy black shoes.


Nice purse.


I like the guy on the right's purse, too.


Checkered tie.