42) Good-byes

Well, I couldn’t have anticipated that it would be so hard to say good-bye to some of my kids. I knew it would be tough with the kindi kids- they were my favorites, and I loved them. It is a little bit easier with them because they don’t really understand what is going on the same way kids who are just a little bit older than them do. However, it was horrible to see the reality sink into a couple of the smarter kids that liked me as much as I did them. Alice (who is one of my favorite kindi kids) was upset all day when I told her yesterday that I was going to be leaving- she would only smile when I picked her up or tickled her. Chris kept asking me why I had to go, and was trying to figure out if I could stay. When he explained it to the other kids in Korean, they all got a little upset.

I made them a movie and showed it to them in class today. It was a sort of picture collage set to music. I put pictures of their nicknames and then pictures of them that I had taken throughout my time at the school (nicknames like “Apple Alice” or “Molly Mouse”). They loved it, and it was actually pretty tough for me to watch with them- just because I knew I would miss them so much, and their reactions to the movie were so sweet. They all made me cards and gave me hugs before they left, and told me they loved me. It was pretty tough to walk out the door today knowing I would probably not see these kids again.

Two days ago I told one of my favorite classes that it was going to be the last time I would be teaching them (the kids are 12 years old, and the class meets 3 times a week, every other day, but there are two teachers for the class, and it rotates every other class, so I only had them once this week). When I told them, Christina, Olivia, Heidi and Jenny got pretty upset and pleaded with me not to leave (those four girls are the reason for me loving the class). They became more at ease when I told them I would see them on Friday (today). I was planning on making them some sort of gift before I left, just because I loved them so much. I ended up making them each a DVD full of music (because sometimes we talk about music in class, and often times when I come in they are listening to their mp3 players). Before I could leave the office to find them today, I saw them waiting outside the door. I was surprised with a small arsenal of gifts from them. Origami, sweet notes, drawings of me and them, money, candy and little crafts they made! It was so sweet!! I gave them their gifts and told them we didn’t have to say good-bye now, but we could do it after our classes (because they have the last time slot of the day). So after everything was over, I went out to try to find them. They were waiting by the door again, all of them looking sad and Christina was crying. Apparently she wouldn’t do anything in class today, and the rest of the class was pretty unresponsive as well. It was a tough good-bye, and the owner had to drag them away as I assume they had already missed their busses. By the time I got home I had emails awaiting me from them.

It is kids like these that make teaching the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I am just sorry that I was not at a school I could stay at.

From left to right: Heidi, Olivia, Christina, and Jenny

41) Fun things to deal with

These are probably going to be some of, if not the last pictures from Swaton (my school) that I will be posting. After a bizarre and rather angry meeting with the owner of the school, I was told I could no longer take photos of my students (although this was not the main topic of the meeting, it is just the most relevant for this post).


My experience at this school has been steadily going down hill as the time passes. I am just glad I am almost out now, and in a short time I will be in Cambodia. Things went from bad to worse, and anyone who has had direct experience with this school is not surprised. Chip brightened my mood a bit today with these comments: “Sounds like life keeps tossing you fun things to deal with. Just keep good spirits, and think of the sweet stories you'll be able to tell. Everyone likes to hear how bad someone else's life is/was, and how you got through it. So all this could somehow make someone else's day brighter, so think of that....”

Anywho, enjoy the pictures. I may get around to writing a more indepth post about the school, but at this point I don’t know if it is even worth my time. I would rather just leave this all in the past.

These are all pictures from my Fo2 class (which is one of the lowest level classes we have- so they learn things like colors, letter sounds, etc). They are a fun class, and have produced some of what I consider the best photos. I will miss these kids.

40) Sam I Am

It has been a cool and rainy day so far, but not at all depressing. It kind of reminds me of my summers in Washington, which I remember with fondness. It has been a good day to just stay at home and edit photos, listen to music and the rain, and read. I had some fun last night in Seoul with Billy, and have just been relaxing today. I edited some of my favorite photos from the last week, and below I posted the two I like the best. I updated them on my photo site too, but I suspect this is more convenient for most of you.

Sam I Am

Colorful Ruby

39) Beautiful Nights

Fall is certainly in the air. The hot and humid days have given way to weather that seems like it was made for jeans and a T-shirt and a nap in the park. The nights and mornings have been absolutely perfect. Walking through the parks I have caught whiffs of the sweetness of decaying leaves- a smell that learned to treasure long ago while hiking with my parents in Wisconsin. I love the Fall weather and especially love the colors (which have not really started to take affect yet). But Fall is also a reminder that Winter is just around the corner, and will bring with it cold weather, and shorter days. So I guess the only thing to do is enjoy it while I have it.

Last night I took some city shots of Bundang, and the shots of the children are from the last two days.



Playing some late night basketball in the park



Ruby and Daniel

Kiana and Rejina

Christine- in the middle of a fierce r/p/s battle

Jay showing me the revered "Take 2" card

Ben- he fell to the ground when I turned my camera towards him

Zack- I don't really know why he was doing that...


Just a picture I thought was funny- and hope his mother did not see me taking from the web came. These kids know that the finger is not a good thing- but don't really know how it plays into US culture- so it isn't really taken too seriously.

38) Photos from all my classes

Now I am wishing I took more photos throughout my time at Swaton, but I guess it is better late than never. In the last two days I have taken about 100 photos in my classes. The kids usually love it (even the ones that hide from the camera) and it has been like therapy for me. I took these shots yesterday.


Reo and Jamie- rock beats scissors!

Molly and Chris

Jamie anxiously looking to see if Alice won or lost the rock, paper, scissors match. These are the moments that make or brake hero’s in a kindi class.

Alice, giving the peace sign. She may look sweet, but she can certainly be a little monster at times.

Lucy and May. May is easily the sweetest girl in Korea, if not the world.

From left to right: Michael, Sam, Lucy, May, and Barbie. As you may be able to tell by the look on Lucy’s face, some days she can be a bit of a chore.

Tom and Kent, playing for the camera.

Allen- the older kids are often a bit less photogenic.

Christina- apparently not wanting to have her picture taken.

Jenny hiding from the camera, and Anne posing.

37) An eraser stuck in my head

One of my favorite things about interacting with people from foreign places is listening to them talk. In the past when talking with my friends from different countries, I remember hearing some interesting sentences and phrases to try to explain something. Most of the time these words, phrases, or sentences are funny, but make a lot of sense when you think about it. For example, one of my Korean friends was trying to teach me the Korean word for full (as in “that was a lot of food, I am full”) and the word for hungry. I could not remember either of these words for the life of me (and still cannot). Eventually she had enough and told me “I think you have an eraser stuck in your head!” Once I asked the kids in one of my classes if they knew what a moustache was. One responded with the explanation “It is like fur for your nose.”

Below are some pictures from my two kindi classes. Billy suggested that I really start taking a ton of pictures, because soon I will miss the children, and wish I had the pics. And I know he is right. So hopefully I will be adding lots of pictures of these kids for the next two weeks- hope you all enjoy!
Ruby and Jennifer ^

Will ^

Ruby^

Arnold ^

Sean ^

Reo ^

Sean ^

Reo, Molly, Alice ^

Alice ^

36) Buddha’s

Yesterday I went to the National Museum of Korea. The building was absolutely beautiful, with gorgeous stonework. Someone I met there told me they finished the building just last year.
One of my favorite displays there was in the Buddhist Sculpture room. It displayed Korean Buddhist work, and many statues. I got a couple pics while I was there, but I am mostly just trying to get this camera and lens dialed in for my coming trip to Cambodia. I would hate to get there and mess up some potientially once in a lifetime shots!



Side note: I did some color editing on these pics- because their original use was for my cousin.

35) Market Photos

I went to Suwon today to try to get some pics with my new lens. I never really explored the markets there, and I am glad I finally did today. One of the food markets almost made me feel like I was back in India. I remembered so clearly the night a couple of us went to visit the giant statue of Shiva in Haridwar.
On the way back we weaved through and endless maze of markets. It really felt like I was in a movie- I remember thinking that it was some elaborate set, or dream for the couple of hours we were wandering the market. This market in Suwon didn’t even compare in terms of size, chaos, eeriness, or randomness, but it caused me to reminisce nonetheless.