A busy December

So far December has been crazy. I have been preparing my kindergarden students for their year end concert which was on December 10th. They had a full hour and a half concert. My number was the finale, which was kind of cool. They sang five English songs, and two of them were Christmas songs. I never want to hear Must be Santa or Santa Clause is coming to town again! I taught those two songs everyday for five weeks. They were long weeks, but in the end the kids did a pretty good job. Their concert was quite impressive and they were so adorable. My friend Keri came to help me videotape the performance and we were both entertained during the entire time.

The teachers asked me to make a little speech in English before the children sang explaining how hard the students studied English all year. I thought it was a bit pointless since I was pretty sure none of the parents would understand me, but I did it anyway. They applauded when I said, "Hello," and "Thank-you ,"in Korean and looked completely confused during the entire English part in the middle, but I think they liked looking at the tall foreigner who has been teaching their children for the past nine months. I thought it was pretty amusing when they started clapping when I spoke the two Korean words I know best. It was actually a bit embarassing.

After the concert the Kindergarden owner and her husband took all of us out for dinner to say thanks. I can't say enough about the Korean teachers who virtually organized all of the performances. They did a fantastic job and I have no idea how they kept their sanity during the entire thing. I only had to teach five songs for five weeks, one hour a day and I thought I would go crazy. They choreographed an hour and half worth of dances and songs and practiced every afternoon for the past six months. They did an awesome job and the kids did such a fantastic job performing. I felt really lucky to be a part of the whole thing. There have been moments that have been frustrating while working there, but overall I am really happy that I took the job. Teaching them has been really rewarding and fun. The teachers are great to me and so is the owner.

After the performance I went out to celebrate my friend Rachel's birthday, which was great. We danced the night away. Unfortunately I was really sick and could barely breathe, but it was still a good time. The next day I was one sick teacher though. Luckily my middle school students are pretty relaxed and easy to handle.

December has also been really busy at my hagwon. Our Amercian teacher, Rei, just up and left in the middle of November without any notice or warning. He has always been a bit flakey and talked about leaving, but somehow he really managed to surprise Ben, Lisa and I. We were expecting him to leave a few months ago because he kept talking about it. I have never met someone as old as him, 35 , with such a short attention span. This man was intrigued by everything, and planned to do everything, yet never followed through with anything. Every week it was a new plan. One week he was going to teach in China. The next week it was Brazil. Then he was going to go to university in Korea to get his Masters. Next he was going to New Orleans to help rebuild after the hurricane. It went on and on. He was a nice guy, but you never knew what idea would come out of his mouth next. Ben, Lisa and I figured he would leave one day, and he said he was going to leave after Christmas, but we never expected him to leave when he did. One Tuesday afternoon he just didn't show up to work. The funny thing is that none of us realized he wasn't there until 10 minutes after classes had started. Our boss contacted the police and hospitals to make sure that something hadn't happened to him, but we all had a feeling he had left. The next day immigration confirmed that he left the country. Since he left, we have been working short handed. It's been a bit stressful and to make it worse our boss is having a difficult time finding a replacement. We will be working shorthanded for one more month and hopefully we will have a new teacher by the end of January. Technically we will have three new teachers then because Ben and Lisa will be leaving then too.

I was supposed to leave then as well, but my boss asked me to stay longer because he is worried about the new teachers adjusting. He asked me to stay until the end of April, but I told him Februrary is my limit. I think I will go crazy if I stay any longer without a holiday. I need too go traveling and get home soon. I have enjoyed my time here but I really need a dose of Western culture soon.



These are just some of my adorable little students! Aren't they sweet!