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

My Favorite Class All Year

The last three months of working in Korea, I was able to teach a special "supplemental" speaking/grammar class. I saw these three kids William, John and Annie two days a week for about two hours each day. We had so much fun watching "Annoying Orange," Inspector Gadget and talking about baseball. These kids are super smart and I am happy I got to hang out with them for a few months :)




Annie, John and William

Furries at School, Part 2

Ricky with a Giraffe and an Alligator

Sun's a hambone.

Giraffe and a Caterpillar

Giraffe teacher

Violet!

Chloe!

Hyoree & Alligator

nothing to see here...just skyping with a wolf.

Furries at School, Part 1

Even More Hoodrats...

Mr. Kim's House

The owner of our hagwon (school) and 3 others, took us all to Everland for an end of semester fun day. Then we went back to his awesome house for a incredible buffet dinner and hilarious drinking games.



K poppin bottles with a giant spoon

Kelvin: "Eye docter...eye docter!"
Me: "Ok, how many fingers am I holding up??"
Kelvin: "Five! Three! Airplane!"

Everland

Went to Everland with last Thursday - what a way to spend a school day! It was a perfect day for rollercoasters and the T-Express was maybe the best ride I've ever been on...

T-Rex + Umbrella (A Series)

More Hoodrats...

Max. I'm taking him home in my suitcase.








my desk. over 103 Pokemon cards and counting. race cars. drawings of fairies.

Harry's Last Day at School

All the kids LOVED Harry. Probably because he didn't yell at them or give them bad grades and was tall and blonde and fun. Wonder why they don't love me as much...




making kids take the stairs to the ninth floor with us.