As much as I love my students, I was really ready for them to move on. 12 months is a long time to spend listening to the same whining and dealing with the same behavioral issues. Of course, all of the other things happening in my school compounded with the tiredness of the kids to bring my patience to an end. We prepared for our graduation ceremony for at least a month. Each child wrote and memorized (for the most part) a speach. Each class prepared a song to perform. My class did "We're All in this Together" from High School Musical. The kids had so much fun, and the dances that we did for it were ADORABLE! I was so proud of how great they did, and my old Korean partner teacher even heard from the parents about it.
A few weekends ago I sang in a friend of mine's wedding. (I know what your thinking, "why in the world want Stacie to sing at the most important event in their life") There were a group of five of us. Three of us singing were American, and two were Korean. It is a huge status symbol to have foreigners at your wedding. There are even agencies that you can use to hire westerners to attend your big day. I like to pretend that my friend (Jun, who I know from my church) asked us to sing because he wanted his friends to be a part of his wedding, but the truth is that he (or more likely his parents) just wanted to look better. This wedding was a little different from the last one that I went to about a year ago. Instead of a wedding hall, where most weddings take place, this one was actually in a church. There were four weddings that day in the chapel, so it was still kind of a "get in, get out" kind of afair. There is no wedding party. The bride has an attendant that comes with the purchased wedding package. (which, by the way incudes the rental of the wedding dress. Because of this, the dresses are always absolutely gorgeous.) She is always fussing around the bride to make sure that everything looks perfect. The second picture that I have is of a part of every Korean wedding. The parents of the bride and groom sit in chairs in the front. During the ceremony, the couple goes to each set of parents to bow to them. I love this part of the wedding. Don't ask me why, but it is really moving to me.
Okay... my new class. I wish I had pictures to show you, but they are all on my camera, which is at school. You will get to see some next time. The students are four years old, and this is there first ever English class. This makes for an extremely exhausting day. They have no idea what I am saying most of the time, and I have no idea what they are trying to say to me most of the time. I can deal with this during the actual teaching time. The hardest part of my day is the 10 minutes of play time. When a child comes to me to try to tell me that someone won't share, hit, kicked etc... I do my best to help them, but it is basically one student rambling on in Korean, and another saying "NO, NO, NO." I can't ever figure out what happened, so it is really hard for me to help them resolve their dispute.
I also am dealing with parents who are sending their children to school for the first time. Most of the moms are stay-at-home, so it is often harder for them to part with their children than it is for the child to part with them. We are getting notes and phone calls every day giving us extremely specific instructions to do something, not do something, or otherwise change something that we are doing in the classroom. I'm sure that as times goes on, things will get easier, but for now I am pretty tired when I finish with them every day (not to mention that many days I have four hours of teaching left when I finish my five hours with them).
The last big thing that I want to mention is my future job situation. By the beginning of February, the options here in Korea had dried up. I had either been told no or hadn't heard anything from all of the international schools here. I started applying to and interviewing for schools around Asia and Africa. After a while, I realized that it didn't really appeal to me to start all over in a new culture. At that point, I started preparing myself to come back home. I got really excited about it, and had even applied at one school district that somehow had posted openings for next year already. Then, out of the blue, I got an offer to teach in a first grade classroom at an international school in Seoul. It caught me really off guard. I was excited about coming home and didn't think I wanted to stay here anymore. But in all honesty, the chance of me getting a job back at home is pretty slim. I ended up accepting the contract. I went in to sign it this last week, so I guess I am offially staying another 2 years. It will start in the beginning of August, so I will have about 5 weeks off between contracts. I will be home for 3-4 of these weeks, which I am super excited about.
Sorry for rambling on so much. My next post won't be as long, I promise.
