Last week in SK (Monday-Friday)

This week has been so strange. I didn't know what to expect for my last week, but it's just been anti-climatic in some areas and then odd in others. Basically I am the queen of awkward goodbyes.

Sunday was my last day at church and I posted about that already. So I said goodbye to a brig group of people, not really expecting to see them again.

On Monday - crap, I can't even remember what I did and it's only been a week.

Tuesday was my last bible study at IEC. The lesson was good, but I will have lots of homework to do to keep up with the class from here. The ladies there are super nice and 3 of them bought me going away presents. I often feel awkward when people buy me stuff and this was no exception. All the gifts were really sweet though and I will miss that group.

After bible study I had coffee with one of my co-workers. She and I have been having coffee maybe once of month or so. We talk about TV shows and culture differences etc. and she asks me questions about pronunciation and grammar. It's really nice. We went to a place called Zoo coffee and it's in the same place O'Taco used to be. The funniest thing is that it's on a corner and 2 other corners of the same intersection also have coffee shops. They have redecorated with lots of jungle print and stuffed animals. Then I had school as usual. In my lowest class we made Valentines cards. I wish I had had my camera because they wrote cards to each other and they were so cute. John and David wrote each other cards saying they loved each other and Sally and Emma wrote each other cards saying Be mine. I made Dallas and Anna cards, but my kids stole them.

I am pretty sure that I did something on Tuesday night (most likely with Dallas), but I have no idea what it was. I do remember that we didn't have very many kids at the night classes though. We possibly watched "Hercules", but that could have been on another day.


Wednesday I had lunch with Keung He and Reagan at the chicken place downtown. We had a little different lunch than we usually have there, but it was still good. Then we had coffee and chatted for awhile. It was sad saying goodbye to Keung He because she has been probably my best Korean friend. Luckily she has skype and we've already messaged once. I hope she still asks me English questions because it's interesting to get her perspective on some of our weird grammar or idioms.

School on Wednesday was very weird. Morning classes were about the same as usual, but at night we have 15-18 students on average, but there were only 2 there! And of course one of them had to be in my last class so I had to stay. He was bored as crap too. The other kids weren't there because they are studying for their school mid-term exams.

Goodbye letter from Emily

After school I went with a huge group of people (11 in all I think, which was funny because it started out as 3) to see "The Avengers". I ended up sitting next to Josh, which was awesome because he is my twin and the 2 of us laughed throughout the movie at places where nobody else did. Sometimes it was because we just have strange senses of humor, sometimes it was because we were the only 2 people old enough in the theater to understand the references! The movie was great though and I will probably buy it.

On Thursday Jamie came over and helped me clean/organize my room a little bit. She says she likes to clean and because she knows Corrine (who took over for me) she wanted her to have a clean room. I did get a bunch of stuff done while Jamie (and Olivia) was there, but I'm afraid the house wasn't totally clean for Corrine (sorry!!). After cleaning, we had lunch at one of the Vietnamese places. I got pad thai and Jamie has pho. It was another awkward goodbye because neither of us wanted to cry, so she hopped in a cab and I walked to school! I will really miss the Current family alot. They have had a huge influence on my life, both spiritually and emotionally.

This was my last day for T-Th kids, so it was nice being able to say goodbye, but also strange. One my classes asked for a test (on the last day) and then we talked for awhile. We made Halloween masks in my next afternoon class and my last one we finished up their book and played a game. Night classes were a bit stranger because some kids were missing and nobody was very talkative.

99B (minus Sophia) - Alice, Tony, Mary, Julie - one of my favorite classes

97 - David and John making Halloween masks

97 - Emma tracing Sally's face to make a mask. I actually laughed out loud when I looked up and saw them doing this.

Thursday night is of course bowling night. My last class was canceled and I went to Dallas's, then we went to the kimbap place and met up with Anna and Mikey. Jon, Lindi and Madia came and brought me presents even though I told people not to! Then a few other people showed up and we ended up with about 12 -13 people. It was fun, but sad at the same time. Everyone had an awful night of scores though and we put it down to depression about my leaving. Dallas and I were really tired, but we stuck it out and left around 1ish (I think). Emma walked home with us and got confused because Dallas lives in the other direction - it was kind of funny.

We couldn't fit all the balls on the thing

The black team. When the first 8 of us got there and took off jackets, we discovered that 4 people were in black. That made team division really easy.

Then Dallas took off his shirt and had a purple one under it, so we ended  up being team purple. We took a picture of just me and Dallas but we both look awful in it.

What typically ends up happening at bowling night - Dirty Dancing reenactments

And mock fights

Jon and Nono just celebrated their 1 year anniversary. I took a sneaky picture and then they turned so I couldn't get a better one. They are super cute together!

Friday was a hard day. I was supposed to meet my coworker for lunch, then go to one of Dallas's classes that got switched so that I could see one of my kids. His class ended up not being switched, so I didn't get to see her and on the way to meet my co-worker, she called to tell me her dad was in the hospital so she couldn't come. Luckily Anna had the day off, so I was able to meet up with her.

While I was waiting for her, I went to a coffee shop and 3 random guys came over and talked to me. They asked all kinds of questions, sort of hit on me, took my picture and offered me a job in Seoul. Thankfully Anna showed up at that point and we could leave! We had lunch at Pasta Buono and got chicken salads (with blueberry dressing) and split a pizza which wasn't very good. Then we went shopping for random crap and got coffees. I had to leave then to go meet Dallas. We just hung out in his classroom and watched part of a movie. Then I went to the bank, ran some other last minute errands, got munchkins for my co-workers and headed to work.

Yum

The last day of work was really sad. The kids were nice, but they are used to having new teachers and were kind of just like "bye", except for my first class where everyone wanted my email and skype stuff and drew me pictures. My boss was super sweet and hugged me and gave me all his contact info in case I want to go back (which I kind of do). As I was leaving, one of the students who missed the final exam came in. I was kind of annoyed because I didn't want to wait around for an hour for him to take the test and then to grade it. Luckily I only had to give him the listening and speaking parts and my boss graded the rest. I made it to Dallas's house before I started crying. That's when it hit me that I was actually leaving. I took everything from my desk, I wasn't coming back, I was never going to climb the steps to that building again. He just hugged me and let me cry for awhile.

Then we went down town and had soup for dinner (which I wanted to eat before I left), went shopping for a bit, then went shopping at another area for his niece's birthday present. I met up with a bunch of IEC people to say a final farewell (which I think was my 4th good bye to some of them) at Holly's coffee. We closed down the coffee shop, then 3 of them (Heejin, Eugene and Seth) walked me home. It was very sweet of them and a great way to say bye. I will miss everyone there very very much. I got home, did a little bit more packing and went to bed.

The weekend will be another post coming soon.