i HATE saying goodbye~~

those of you who know me already know how terrible i am at saying goodbye. i loathe the concept so much that i usually just avoid the entire process.

saying goodbye just seems so...final. especially when it's the kind of goodbye where you know that you'll never see the other person again. in my mind...i feel like if i never actually utter the word "goodbye" that there's still a chance that i'll see the other person again. even when i know beyond the shadow of all doubt that that's not true. i lie to myself.

when i left for korea, i only said goodbye to three people: my mom, my dad, and my brother. but, they're family, so they kind of have to see me again.

this week has been a week of goodbyes. i taught my 6th graders again...for the last time. ever. ever.

before, i was super excited about moving to my new school and starting a new life in seoul. but, now, my students are making it so hard to leave.

it's so hard to say goodbye. especially to my sixth graders. of all my students, i've taught them the most and for the longest time. they're the only students i have that i've taught all 2 years since i've been in korea. i've been on school trips with them, taught them in english camps, and taught them in advanced english clubs.

my hardest goodbye was yesterday. it was the very last time that i will ever teach my favorite class: 6-6. this group includes the students that were my favorites when they were in grades 4 and 5. they always come visit my in my office. many of them were regulars in my english camps. a few of them were in my english club. and this was the class that was always excited to see me...like, they would cheer every single time i walked into their classroom.

yesterday, we played english review games, because their exams are next week. i ended class a few minutes early to say goodbye to the kids. and then, the 2 class leaders--one boy and one girl--came to the front. they had prepared a special card for me...decorated with bigbang stickers^^~~everyone in the class had written a note on it. many of my other classes had made special letters or gifts for me...but this time, it was different.

the boy, who's nickname is california [that's where he's from], thanked me for teaching them, and wished me good luck, etc etc. then, the girl [her english name is stella] was about to hand me the card, when suddenly...she dropped it on the ground and threw her arms around my neck. she started sobbing--literally, sobbing--uncontrollably. in between sobs, she kept repeated "teacher, don't go...teacher, don't go!" over and over and over.

it was at this point that i also started crying. as in, actual tears were streaming down my face. i had no idea that the kids were this attached to me, or that they even liked me that much.

so there i was, trying to say goodbye to my students...standing there, with tears and mascara running all down my face. which was a completely new experience for me. i don't cry in front of people.

and also, i don't cry. EVER. [i'm pretty sure most of my friends and family thought i was completely devoid of emotion.]

and then i cried again 3 times today, just not as much.

and now i have a headache because of it.

and this is why i never say goodbyes.

아이고~~

from an activity in today's grade 5 class:

the president of korea is: ___kimchi_______

umm, what??

for your viewing pleasure~

so i'm trying to avoid posting thousands of pictures of bigbang, like i used to.


but this...this...ASJFKLADKLADFKLAFKL.


yes. that is all.


please enjoy this delicious piece of eye candy. [but not too much, because i already called dibs.]

above: all of the reasons why i love korea.

lady gaga, america's president

last week, i was playing a random trivia quiz game with my 6th grade students. my coteacher just wanted me to plan 40 minutes worth of games, not based on what they had been learning from the text book.

the object of the game was simple: i had about 100 cards with random things, food, people, and places written on them. i would pull a card of of a box, and describe it through words and/or actions and students would guess to earn points for their team.

at random, i pulled a card from the box. it said "obama" on it.

me: america's president.
students: lady gaga!
me: no...the president of america.
students: lady gaga!!
me: no...not a singer. president...leader...
students: beyonce!
me: NOOOO! like lee myeong-bak [south korea's president], except in america.
students:lady gaga!
me: NOT LADY GAGA! president~!!
students: ..................

at first, i thought they were just trying to be funny. but i asked my coteacher about it after class, and she said that those students told her that they actually believed that lady gaga was the president of america...and they had no idea who obama was.

i should probably add that the rest of my 6th grade classes had no problem differentiating between obama and lady gaga.

dancing queen

this week in fourth grade, we were learning about "she/he is a _[job]___."

today, we played a hidden picture game, where i showed the kids a picture of various jobs, covered with squares so they couldn't see what it was. i removed one square at a time, revealing a part of the picture, and as soon as they knew the answer, they could make a guess.

they were only supposed to say the key sentence as their answer.

one picture had been almost entirely revealed. a boy got super excited, and his hand shot up in the air. so, i called on him to answer.

his answer: "he is a dancing queen."

it was a picture of a doctor.

life and etc.

i realized that my posts have become few and far between. and that i haven't really said anything in any of them.

진짜 미안해요!!

i've been super busy lately, at school...and after school. i teach a bunch of extra classes now--advanced english. which means that i'm grading essays. and trying to make sense of essays. and i'm disappointed with my korean skill. so i've been studying super hardcore. and now i'm trying to go to the gym twice a day [5 days a week] and once on weekends. so i get negative 234869 hours of sleep. which may or may not be a slight exaggeration. and then my poor kitty had to have surgery last week, which was an absolute nightmare. because she screamed [not "cried", not "meowed", not "whined"...screamed is really the only way to describe those horrifying sounds] the entire way there, and the entire way back. and then she escaped from her carrier somehow. but luckily she jumped onto me instead of onto the street.

in other news, i'm in the middle of looking for a new job to start in september. i've applied to private kindergarten/elementary schools in seoul exclusively. i've talked to 4 potential employers, and now i have to go in for face-to-face interviews sometime within the next week or so.

also, during one of my classes this morning, a boy sitting towards the back of the classroom spent about 5 minutes trying on glasses, and taking off glasses, and fixing his hair, and smiling, and puffing his cheeks, and making "cute poses". finally, i called him out and asked him what in the world he was doing...his response: "teacher, i'm practicing cute poses for my selca". only in korea...
[selca=a picture you take of yourself...this practice is infinitely popular in korea, probably because of 얼짱 "ulzzang" (best face)...basically, this is ridiculously cute people who take ridiculously cute pictures of themselves doing different poses. people actually become famous this way.]

i'm just another girl~

i've been trying to post a lot less about kpop and focus more on things that i actually do in korea.

but, i reallyreallyreally love this song.