We're waiting for a friend to go out for dinner one last time. Everything is packed. We visited one of the new teachers in the hospital - poor guy had a collapsed lung in Canada, and didn't know it until he got the X-ray for his visa health check here in Korea! He thought he had heartburn... wild! So his Korean health check saved his life. He's very chipper, all things considered.
I taught his classes yesterday, since clearly he wasn't available to teach. Poor guy. His classes were a little surprised, but they handled the news well when I explained what had happened to him. It was really nice to see the kids again (I stuck my head into my old classes). I feel bad for the teacher who is replacing me at 8pm on Mon-Wed-Fri - my class ASKED for me with about 30 minutes left (not to teach, just to see me), so Chris - who was just hanging around by then - subbed in for the grammar lesson and I sat with my class. I'm going to miss those kids so much: they're so bright, and full of potential. I hope some of them e-mail me once in a while.
A fascinating and interesting (and tiring) year has passed. We're so glad we came to Korea.
See you soon!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
This is it...
...the last day of work in South Korea.
Weird.
Where did the time go?
I've met lots of great people here who I'm really going to miss.
I'm really going to miss a lot of my students. I was very fortunate that the vast majority of my students were well-behaved, good-natured kids, so I did develop relationships with them. I'm going to miss them a lot, especially Sarah (Grade 4) and Frank (Grade 7). Both of them were in my classes for a straight year, and it wasn't always easy, but they always tried their best, and I've really watched them grow this year, in height as well as English ability and maturity.
I'm going to miss them because I want to know how they turn out! They all have such big dreams - do they achieve some of them? Will they get the support they need to achieve them? I really hope so.
Here's hoping I don't let any tears fly in class. I held it together yesterday when I said goodbye to my Mon-Wed-Fri crew.
I'm starting to look forward to going home to make myself feel better! We're almost all packed. I'm really not looking forward to the 5-block walk dragging our 200 pounds of luggage. I did manage to make everything fit in our 4 bags because we're throwing out most of our clothes. On a limited wardrobe, everything wears out a lot faster!
I probably won't blog again except to post a few last photos of our last few days here in South Korea. Not sure when the internet in our apartment is going to be shut off. It'll mean that Chris and I go off the radar by Saturday because that's when our phones get shut off too, but remember that no news is good news.
Weird.
Where did the time go?
I've met lots of great people here who I'm really going to miss.
I'm really going to miss a lot of my students. I was very fortunate that the vast majority of my students were well-behaved, good-natured kids, so I did develop relationships with them. I'm going to miss them a lot, especially Sarah (Grade 4) and Frank (Grade 7). Both of them were in my classes for a straight year, and it wasn't always easy, but they always tried their best, and I've really watched them grow this year, in height as well as English ability and maturity.
I'm going to miss them because I want to know how they turn out! They all have such big dreams - do they achieve some of them? Will they get the support they need to achieve them? I really hope so.
Here's hoping I don't let any tears fly in class. I held it together yesterday when I said goodbye to my Mon-Wed-Fri crew.
I'm starting to look forward to going home to make myself feel better! We're almost all packed. I'm really not looking forward to the 5-block walk dragging our 200 pounds of luggage. I did manage to make everything fit in our 4 bags because we're throwing out most of our clothes. On a limited wardrobe, everything wears out a lot faster!
I probably won't blog again except to post a few last photos of our last few days here in South Korea. Not sure when the internet in our apartment is going to be shut off. It'll mean that Chris and I go off the radar by Saturday because that's when our phones get shut off too, but remember that no news is good news.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The last week in South Korea
Here is our last batch of photos. We'll add to it as we go this week:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=300730&id=591715424&l=0dd1f4926c
Yesterday, we did a last few errands in Seoul, and had dinner with my long-time penpal Sky.
Today we gave the two new teachers who arrived last night a tour of the neighborhood, and went to our last Suwon Bluewings game. They lost! Wah! But we had a great time anyway.
More "see you arounds" since I don't believe in goodbyes, but they sting anyway. I'm really going to miss the great people we met here. I hope we can keep in touch.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=300730&id=591715424&l=0dd1f4926c
Yesterday, we did a last few errands in Seoul, and had dinner with my long-time penpal Sky.
Today we gave the two new teachers who arrived last night a tour of the neighborhood, and went to our last Suwon Bluewings game. They lost! Wah! But we had a great time anyway.
More "see you arounds" since I don't believe in goodbyes, but they sting anyway. I'm really going to miss the great people we met here. I hope we can keep in touch.
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