despite our absence of a 4-day holiday in korea, i've had a jam-packed weekend. on saturday, i went with some friends to the jinhae cherry blossom festival on the southern coast of korea. mark opted out, so i was on my own with the early morning wake-up. my day started super early (think, 3:45am - yikes) and ended very late (walked in the door past 1:00am, totally zonked), but it was nice to take part in the annual spring ritual and spend some time with friends. also, it's always interesting to do a cross-country trip in a DAY. that's something i could never do at home! all in all, it was a fun, albeit tiring, day.
tomorrow starts our final full week of teaching. our replacements also arrive this week, on tuesday, so we'll be spending most of our school-time training the new guys. as excited as i am to be finished and to hand off my classes, i am going to miss so many of my students (please note that i didn't say all, there are definitely some i won't miss!) and probably most importantly, i'll miss my co-teacher jinny. jinny's been my saviour so many times at work when i thought i was going to lose my mind (she has great power and authority over unruly students, which i sometimes significantly lack - bonus that she speaks their language and often wields a threatening stick); she's also been a really great friend! i don't like thinking about having to say goodbye to all these people who've become so important to me over the past year.
i received an early goodbye note last week from one of my grade six students, grace. although she was still a fairly new student, grace left our hagwon for greener pastures and returned after class one day last week, to give me a card and a small gift. how cute! the note inside was awesome (this is verbatim):
dear alex teacher hello! alex teacher. i'll stop to english academy. thank you for among the 2 month. you're very x1000 kind, pretty, and goodness. you're not korean then i can't said "thank you. i can't speak english very well (insert hand-drawn emoticon). we are not conversation very much but i feel your favor and kindness. i remember you! (insert emoticon) i love you bye bye... from grace
what! we are in conversation all the time, grace. if by "conversation" you mean me speaking to you and your peers and you looking back at me uninterested/blankly. regardless, totally adorable and flattering and heart warming. i can't wait to receive 62 more ...
1 comment:
I'm really excited that you're coming home, but it will mean no more reading about your Korean adventures when I should be working :) I think that "Alex and Mark In Southern Ontario" will be just as good though ;)
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