Yesterday, I arrived at work around 8:20 and proceeded to kill time until 11:00.  With little to do, I surfed the internet, chatted with my co-worker who sits beside me, and g-chatted with Michael (who may or not have still been drunk from the night before).  I also picked up our school yearbook, which is called the "student album."  The student albums are only for the graduating class and only include pictures of them.  Each student has two formal pictures (standard sitting/staring and one where they pose with a book and a globe, HA), a casual one in the park, and then each kid has a group photo with maybe five or six friends.  It's always hilarious to look through the albums because some kids do the goofiest poses.  Also, they photoshop all the pictures before they are printed, thus some of the kids look really different.   My yearbook picture, by the way, looks really weird.  Something is really off about my face.  They photoshopped SOMETHING but I'm not sure what.

When there was officially nothing else to do, I walked over to our newly finished gym/auditorium and joined the mass of students, parents, and teachers.  It was graduation and I didn't really know what to feel.  I was a little sad, a little wistful, a little relieved.  I looked out into the throng of almost four hundred teenage faces and every single face triggered some kind of response.  Even though I didn't know most of them on a personal level, I'd taught them for so long that I still could think of a handful of quirks or stories about each of them. 

The graduation process lasted only an hour.  The school administration gave some speeches, presented awards, and then the student body president gave her speech.  Parents continued to flood in the back and the sides of the gym and I found myself looking at them almost more than the students.  I haven't met any of the parents so I was really curious.  Most of the parents had giant bouquets of absolutely ridiculous flowers.  Korea is really, really into these gaudy flower arrangements.  There will be a few roses in the middle, and then layers of bright yellow or pink mesh and sparkles around them. 

At the end of the ceremony, the kids all cheered and then immediately got up to start taking pictures.  They dragged classmates, friends, teachers, and family members into the shots.  Knowing the drill from the last two years, I just milled around the center and allowed myself to be tugged into different photos.  Some mothers immediately realized I was the foreign teacher and were really friendly.  Others absentmindedly asked their children, "Is this your friend?" and then were incredibly embarrassed and apologetic when their kids turned red and exclaimed, "Mooooom!!! It's my TEACHER!"  I don't know how many family photos I was pulled into, but it was a lot.  I wanted to get pictures with some of my students, but since they already had a camera, I didn't want to go, "Oh, and can you take one with mine, too?"  I really hate that, so I just let it go. 

I wasn't as sad as I expected, since I knew I'd be seeing my JA kids in a week or two.  I need them to take some clothes off my hands, so they are arranging a date to come over and sort through it all.  I would have hated my last time with them to be in that noisy, confusing gym.  So I have a few weeks to still finish that goodbye. 

Overall, it was a weird week.  I only had four classes the entire week--two classes of third years and two classes of first years.  I gave friendly goodbye speeches to the first years but it was really, really difficult to do the third year ones.  I'm not a person that enjoys showing tears in public--I really, really, really despise it--so I was caught off guard when I started to get a little choked up.  Because I wanted the kids to know exactly what I was saying, one of my co-teachers translated after every line.  The kids started to get really wet-eyed and as soon as I saw that, everything became difficult.  I felt stupid but later, my co-teacher softly pointed out that they were my first students and I've had several years to develop a closeness to them. 

So that door is closed.  I will go into school next week to clean out my desk and classroom, but then...it's over.  There was a school dinner last week where I said goodbye to most of the teachers.  It kind of hurts to think that there will be someone else to take my place in a month.  Someone else will sit at my desk, trying to decipher my lesson plans, someone else will be smiling at my kids, someone else will be punishing them, someone else will eat lunch and complain with my co-teachers.  It never feels good to be replaced. 

But this experience has been priceless.  There were times that I absolutely hated teaching and I thought, "Why am I putting myself through this?" But I know that I'm a different person now than I was when I first stepped foot into that school.  It's something that has changed me permanently. 

And what now?  I just have cleaning and organizing.  My party drive is dead.  The last few big events we've been to, I've been pretty uninterested.  I can't tell if it's my mood or the actual party, but I'm banking on the former.  Lately, all I want to do is eat or drink with my closest friends or sit at home and have "Supernatural" mini-marathons with Dean.  A month ago, there were so many things I was dead set on doing before I left.  I felt like I had to visit each restaurant, each area, each favorite bar one last time.  Now, that doesn't really matter anymore.  Visiting one last time won't make a difference.  I already have memories from there and I can't help but think that forcing myself to say mental goodbyes to all these places is not healthy at all. 

Picture time!  There aren't too many.


The kids listen to the graduation speeches.  So many faces and I know them all.


With my co-teachers in the first picture and with some really sweet/silly third year girls in the second.


The kid next to me with all the flowers is one of my favorite students, KB.  He was in the original JA (gave it the name) and has been a loyal camp/after school student since that first day, two and a half years ago.  I watched him grow from a short, funny little kid into a really mature, confident teenager (and apparently, quite the ladies' man).  The kids around us are his friends from another middle school.  All of them have sent me messages on cyworld and they're the students of my friend.  Kind of weird.  They really wanted all of us to get a picture, so...yeah. 


My yearbook picture.  It says my name and that I'm the foreign language teacher.


I posted this on my facebook and told my friends to tag themselves according to who they were most likely to pose like, should they be a Korean middle school student.  I got some really, really amusing tags and replies. 


Another yearbook gem.  They took all these group pictures at the Seoul Racetrack during the summer.  There was this old photographer who forced them all to pose in these really stiff, unnatural poses.  It was hilarious.


The right side of this picture is amazing.  Hands on head of statue, hands on shoulder of friend.  Not awkward at all.


Simple standing around and a kid on his knees with arms wide open.  Fantastic.




This title is "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Mama told me when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this
It will help you some sunny day.
Take your time... Don't live too fast,
Troubles will come and they will pass.
Go find a woman and you'll find love,
And don't forget son,
There is someone up above.

And be a simple kind of man.
Be something you love and understand.
Be a simple kind of man.
Won't you do this for me son,
If you can?

Forget your lust for the rich man's gold
All that you need is in your soul,
And you can do this if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

Boy, don't you worry... you'll find yourself.
Follow you heart and nothing else.
And you can do this if you try.
All I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.