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??

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.

graduation

today, my precious little 6th graders graduate and move on to middle schoolㅠㅠ

it just hit me today that this is actually happening, and--not surprisingly--i'm really sad about it...

these students have been my favorites ever since i first started teaching at buwon--back when they were in fifth grade. i mean, they were just really, really good students. they were fun, smart, and they always tried hard and seemed interested in my classes [ok, so maybe they weren't really interested, but they sure did a good job acting like it].

anyways, i'm really bad at saying goodbye. like, horrifically bad. usually, my m.o. is just to leave--no goodbyes necessary. but today, i'm obligated to attend the graduation, and say goodbye to my 300 favorite students.

and now i'm wondering why i wanted to be a teacherㅠㅠ
this sucks.

winter camp~~

so the past few weeks have been kinda crazy/boring.

despite the fact that the last day of school was on Christmas eve, i've still had to come to work everyday. [ps i'm the only person at school. except for the office people. who occasionally come to check on me to make sure i don't escape.]

anyways, my first day of camp i walked in to school SUPER unprepared, because my coteacher refused to ever tell me my camp schedule. i just planned a few all-age appropriate random lessons. it ended up working well.

last week was definitely my favorite camp week, probably ever. i had 4th graders first, from 9-10:30 everyday. day 1, i had them make namecards with either their korean or english name [basically, whatever they wanted to be called for the week]. during the activity, a boy and i had the following conversation:

boy: "teacher, teacher! i will make a new english name."
me: "that's really cool! what name?"
boy: "i want to be called mr. eddie!"
me: "you mean...eddie??"
boy: "no, teacher. mister eddie. is it ok?"
me: "oh, absolutely."

BEST. ENGLISH NAME. EVERRR.

and then in my advanced english class [which met everyday], we had "spy camp". so i had the kids solve a crime, do scavenger hunts, interrogations [for some reason, i was the only suspect...], and solve/write codes. they absolutely loved it.

grade 6~~

today was my last day teaching my 6th graders, which is legitimately sad.

the korean school calendar is set up much differently than that in the united states. the school year begins in march, has a 5 week summer vacation from july-august, and then a long winter break beginning after christmas and lasting until february. the students then return for a week and a half of school before going on a 2 week spring break [crazy, i know]. even though there are still about 2 weeks left of the school year, my 6th graders have already finished their english books and taken their final exams so they won't have english class any more until they reach middle school.

anyways, i've been a little sad about it all week because i really love teaching my grade 6 students. honestly, there's not a single student or class that i don't like. [they were my favorites last year as 5th graders, so it's no surprise that they're still my favs.]

last year, my 6th graders were like little holy terrors. probably because i came in halfway through the year and they'd never had a foreign english teacher before. and also probably because my coteacher couldn't speak english. i literally hated 90% of them. but my 5th graders were like a breath of fresh air. they were always excited when i'd walk in to their classroom, and they were always prepared for class and ready to learn. they actually paid attention.

i was worried that my precious fifth graders would magically change when they moved on into the 6th grade. but, they didn't--for the most part. they still act so excited to see me [even though they've been seeing me for the past year and a half], and even when we don't play games or even do anything fun, they still listen and pay attention. it's amazing.

that being said, i'm really going to miss my students. they've been really awesome all year, and my 6th graders were actually part of the reason why i decided to stay at my school for another year instead of moving elsewhere. when i wasn't feeling well, or was having a bad day they'd always cheer me up--coming to visit me in my office or bringing me small presents [pictures of bigbang!!]; the boys would always sing "hello" by g-dragon or "hello" by shinee when they'd see me in the hall [not entirely appropriate, but funny nonetheless]. and then of course there were the puns on my name [a mispronunciation of my name sounds like "i don't know" in korean]. ahh, i will miss it!!

so to whoever gets my 6th graders as grade 1 in middle school: i envy you. these kids are awesome.

bukbu english festival

last wednesday [20 october] was the bukbu english festival, and my school was invited to participate. it involves the local elementary schools, and each school's english club is expected to give a performance entirely in english, as well as prepare a poster to display in the lobby of the event hall.

i have 4 coteachers. the one who is in charge of my school's english program did not want our school to participate, for some reason. so the other teachers got into an argument with her over it. in the end, she relented, but stipulated that only 4 students could attend [the english club has about 25 students], and she put a different teacher in charge. also, she said that i wasn't allowed to go or help the students prepare. i guess the principal found out and got mad, because last tuesday i was told that i would be permitted to go after all.

when my coteacher and i arrived at the festival, we were discouraged to see how severely under-represented our school was. i teach at the biggest elementary school in the area [more than 1500 students], but we had the smallest group at the festival. we also had the youngest group: 2 were third graders, 1 fourth grader, and 1 fifth grader. the other schools only brought their 5th and 6th grade students.

anyways, the event was supposed to start at 2pm. at 1:30pm, i was informed that i was supposed to be performing with my students. now normally, this wouldn't be a problem at all, except that my students were performing a song. in sign language. the song we performed was called "i will", which i have never heard before in my life. the students desperately tried to teach me, and i struggled to learn very quickly.

and then, my school's principal showed up to watch. excellent.

basically, it ended up being like napoleon dynamite's happy hands club. except with me as napoleon.

yep. it was pretty much exactly like this.

6th grade trip~

dear lovely readers: i sincerely apologize for having temporarily disappeared from the internet for the past week and a half. life has been [and still is] crazy busy. 아이고~~

wednesday, 13 october: "do you want to hear the fish death sound?"

almost two weeks ago, i had the chance to accompany the 6th grade on a three-day trip. since the 6th graders are my favorite students, i jumped at the opportunity. we went to 금산 [geumsan] which is a mountain three hours away from my school. [along the 금강 (geum river) which is apparently famous(??)].

i wasn't given a schedule for this trip, so i had no idea what to expect. it was much, much different from past school trips that i've attended in that, on those, we travelled from place to place to see museums and other national treasures. this trip was more like a camp. we stayed at the same place the entire time. there were counselors working at the facitility who were in charge of watching the kids, so the teachers went off and did their own thing.

the first day, i hung out with the other teachers. we went walking along the river and then hiking in search of chestnuts. as it turns out, i'm quite good at cracking open chestnuts with my feet. [i've got mad skills~~]

also, some of the teachers went fishing. since i have a [completely legitimate] fear of fish, i decided not to join them. however, i had no idea that they intended to catch fish for dinner. so i was completely surprised when a bucket full of fish was brought back to the room. apparently, a certain type of fish makes a "death sound". they happened to catch this fish, and all of the teachers held it up to their ears to listen. a coworker asked me if i'd like to hear it, but when i said no [and did the big "hand x"] she proceeded to shove the fish in my ear anyways.

congratulations coworker, i've been scarred for life.

thursday, 14 october: "teacher, you have a dolphin scream."

the other teachers decided to go hiking on thursday, but i wanted to spend time with my students so i hung with them for the day.

first, i was told that we would be going rafting. which i found out really only meant "row from one side of the river and back again." i shared a raft with some of my girls, and we were embarassingly lacking in directional skills. for some reason, we could only manage to go in a giant circle, and the counselor definitely yelled at us. oops.

next was archery. two years of working at a summer camp where i had to teach archery has let me know that i am completely untalented in this area. sooo, i didn't even make an attempt. instead, i talked to and played games with the kids that were waiting for their turn. one of the boys tried to throw a dragonfly at me, and when i screamed, other boys joined in by carrying grasshoppers and more dragonflies. so i screamed and ran away. [insects: another completely legitimate fear that i have.] when the boys had finally had their fun scaring the poor english teacher, they told me that i sounded like a dolphin when i screamed. excellent.

the camp had a huge zipline set up over the river, and i got to ride it! that was definitely the most fun thing i got to do that day. except that, at the end, i forgot to move the handles back and forth to brake, and i definitely ran into the counselor at the end. luckily, i shrieked a warning so he was prepared. oops.

also, i got to go with my students to "rec dance", and we learned the dance to bigbang's world cup song. yeah, i pretty much suck at dancing.

that night was the talent show [my students are sooo cute] and a bonfire. after the students went back to their rooms, i went on a walk with one of my fellow teachers, and we saw a shooting star!

friday, 15 october: crazy bus driver

i nearly lost my life on the bus ride home.

for real.

korea is infamous for crazy bus//taxi drivers, but this dude was BY FAR the worst [that i've ever ridden with, at least]. he was more concerned with changing the radio station than paying attention to the road. [and he kept the volume turned off, so i have absolutely no idea why he even bothered messing with the dial...] he also decided that he wanted to drive in the far-left lane, which was UNDER CONSTRUCTION, so he'd drive in there for a bit, and when he came to bulldozers or construction workers, he'd move back into the right lane. he definitely ran over at least 5 orange traffic cones by doing this.

his worst offense happened near the end of our journey. we were ON the INTERSTATE. he missed his exit. did he drive to the next one and turn around? of course not. instead he put the bus IN REVERSE. and BACKED UP. on the freaking INTERSTATE.

luckily, no people or vehicles were physically harmed during the duration of the bus ride.

pictures:

child star

apparently, there's a new student at my school, and people were making a really big deal about it this morning.

this is because the new student is...

...A CHILD STAR.

apparently, she's a relatively famous child actress in korea. her most recent film was 그랑프리 [grand prix], a movie about horse racing that was released over the chuseok holiday. in this movie, she starred alongside actress 김태희 [kim tae hee], who is one of korea's most famous actresses [kim tae hee was also in the tv drama "iris" with T.O.P].

anyways, i guess my school is kinda famous now. too bad the girl is a first grade student, which means i don't get to teach her.

portraits~

a few weeks ago, one of my sixth grade students gave me pictures that she had drawn of me that week while i taught her class.

for the record, my skirt was NOT that short...

soooo...

this week, students gave me pictures of T.O.P to add to my desk/shrine.

my coteacher also made me give my students a vocab quiz. in korean.


오늘 저녁에 집에서 식사해요.
그리고 요리해요!

fajitas~~and it's going to be delicious!!
^___^

my students are better than your students

probably.

i cannot emphasize enough just how fantastic the 6th grade field trip was. we left buwon elementary school early monday morning and spent the past three days soaking up korean history in gyeongju.

since i rode in the 6-10 class bus, i spent most of my time hanging with them~~totally ok with me, because this would be my favorite class if i was allowed to have a favorite ^__^

we did so so so many fabulous things on the trip: touring buddhist temples, palaces, parks, and museums. i learned a lot about korean history, but the trip was so amazing because it really gave me the chance to get closer to my students and the other teachers. i teach approximately 1,200 students, and i only see each grade once every month, making it virtually impossible for me to really get to know my students. i have to admit that i was very nervous about this trip...but all of my students were eager to practice their english, grab my hand, and drag me after them to tell me something that they had learned or teach me new korean words.

this trip also gave me a really great opportunity to become closer with the other teachers. i work in the 6th grade office since i no longer have an english classroom, but many of the teachers are afraid to talk to me because they aren't confident with their english [and i am too scared to practice my korean]. this trip seemed to break down these barriers--i was speaking korean, they were speaking english...it was really great. last night, some of the teachers even invited me to a game party that they were having. [and apparently, i am really bad at all korean games.] but it was an awesome time, and we all stayed up talking until lateeee.

it was just a really great trip. i don't think i can express it in words. also that might be because i got negative two hours of sleep last night.

so many fantastic things happened: ju sun and ji sung, two of my favorite girls, decided to keep my company on the 4.5 hour long ride to gyeongju. they also decided to follow me around the entire time~~sooo cute. the girls from class 6-1 spent two hours walking with me around a park, teaching me korean history. min ju, another of my favorites, taught me a kpop dance [sign by brown eyed girls]~~and it also turns out that her cousin is minzy from 2NE1. awesome. on the bus ride back today, songhee sat next to me and talked to me for 4 hours. straight. in amazing english. at the talent show last night, three of my boys danced to a song by kara. which was pretty much the funniest thing i have seen. ever. class 6-1 invited me to their "cookie party"~~and they wrote me really sweet notes. i also spent a lot of time with the 6-10 teacher, gyu-ri. turns out, she's pretty awesome. and speaks near-perfect english.

i almost can't believe i'm saying this, but i'm really looking forward to going to school tomorrow. i have the best job EVERRRRR.

also my students are freaking adorable:

class 6-1 girls~~at millenium park

silly boys~~

songhee, gyu-ri, me, min ju, min young, songee, and ju sun

my students are amazing

so i seriously have the best students. EVER.

it's amazing how a simple comment from a student can make your day a hundred times better. today's comment was from one of my favorite 5th grade girls: "teacha, teacha. today you are so beauty-ful." ^__^

also, another girl from the same class gave me a present. a picture of T.O.P-->WIN.

last week, girls from my favorite 6th grade class saw me in the hallway and said [or screamed is more like it...] "teacha! nose, win! eyes, win! face, win!"

today, those same girls stopped me in the hallway to tell me that they had thought of the "perfect" korean name for me. so now my grade 6 students call me "miranda '남자 친구 없어요' teacher"*.

ohh. life.

*miss miranda doesn't have a boyfriend.