I guess, that's it.

Well, my grant year is finished.

I said goodbye to my students.

I prepped my classroom and my students for the next foreign teacher.



Notes from my students to the next foreign teacher.

Notes from my students to the next foreign teacher.

And then I left. 


I cried in front of my coteachers, the principal, the vice principal, and my students. I cried on the KTX to Seoul and with Annaliese that weekend. I'm sure I'll cry when I leave and I'll cry when I get home. For now, I have to say more goodbyes.


I've always had a close relationship with the students who clean my room. I wanted to show how thankful I was so I took them to a baseball game. For some of them it was their first time at the stadium.



After the game, many students were riding a different bus than me. So we said goodbye at the bus stop. We were all sad.

I rode the bus with Su Hyeon (grey t-shirt). When I got of the bus, I waved to her as the doors closed and the bus pulled away. And then I cried.

I filled the time between school ending and now with my host family and preparing for Japan. I think my host parents think I'm lonely because last Saturday they asked if I wanted to go to the Youth Festival downtown. I said yes, because I had no other plans and hadn't left the house all day.


When we got there, my host parents bought me all kinds of food and kept asking if I wanted a beer from the trendy place with all the young people in line. (Which usually would be nbd, but my host parents don't drink so them asking if I wanted a beer was weird.)


After walking around for a while we got in the car to go home. My host parents kept asking if I wanted to go eat bingsu together. I was really full so I said no. A little while later my host dad was like "see, if we go get ice cream we can be in air conditioning" which was true... so we went to McDonald's and I got to try the banana dipped cone.

very satisfying 
Yesterday I went to watch a new Korean movie "A Taxi Driver" ("택시 운전사"). The movie follows a German reporter and a Seoul taxi driver during the Gwangju Uprising/Democratization Movement. The movie was so, so sad, but it was real. It's the truth and history of this great city that I love. After the movie my host brother and I didn't talk much. I think we didn't know what to say to each other.

I'm in a strange space now. I don't really have words about leaving. It's painful because my time here has been filled with so much love and laughter. I'm going to Japan soon so I expect I'll do a lot of thinking there. I'm going to try and unplug while I'm there. Really focus on myself, my experiences, and what's going to happen next. (Not that I know what's going to happen next.)

This might be my last post on this blog... A time capsule, if you will, of my time in Korea. If you want to read about my trip to Japan/other ramblings about my life, head over to my personal blog, follow me on instagram or twitter.

Comments

Popular Posts