Last Day of School :(

I don't think I could appropriately summarize my 16 months of teaching in Korea. I don't want to sound trite and blabber on about how it was "one of the best years of my life" and "changed my life" but both of these things are true. It's hard to quantify/qualify an experience with words, but there were so many things about this year that forced me to grow up a little bit (and also regress at the same time).

Living alone was so much better than I ever anticipated. Living in a country where you don't know the language and no one around you knows yours led to so much frustration but also so many hilarious, awkward encounters. Korean food ranks up there in the top one or two foods for me. My best friend/wife of several years (Helen) and I got to spend a year being goofy slobs, cooking, teaching, watching far too many movies and LOST, running, and generally over-analyzing everything together. I met a few folks who I will be friends with til the end of time (Sarah, Matthew John J. Hennessey Baker, Nick the Dick, David, Kristine, Emily, Sean, Scott, Mikey, The Phil, Steve, Jasmine, Jon, Frank- I'm talkin to you). And became better friends with old friends (Clark and Brandon).

Regardless. My reason for going to Korea was to teach. And while the way that I was forced to teach was not exactly what I thought best (or my style of teaching), I love love loved (most of) my kids. The last day was rough and I definitely got teary more than a few times. It's strange knowing that I won't see any of these kids again...and even weirder to think, "will they even remember me in a year?" Either way, they left a pretty significant mark on me and I will miss them.

Here are some photos of my favorite classes on the last day.


Lucy

Pizza Party....(Back Row:) Tony, Tom 2, Eric, Bella, Rosa, Lucy, Tom; (Middle:) Ellen, Reese, Julie; (Front:) Sunny and Eileen

Bella, Lucy, Tom

Joseph, Charlie, Harry

(Back Row:) Charlie, Lina , Olivia, Wendy, Julia; (Front Row:) Sunny, Harry, Joseph, Jenny