Though I may be the worst blogger out there, I have returned to say goodbye to Korea. It’s been a great year – I tried many new foods (who thought I would actually like octopus?), attempted to learn a new language, learned about Korean culture, traveled throughout East Asia, celebrated two birthdays and met amazing people.
I am going to miss my students a lot, though I know that they are in good hands with their next native English teacher. Saying bye to them was definitely not easy. Almost every class ended with a photo op during my last week (see right). On the very last day of class, one of my classes refused to leave the classroom when the bell rang. Instead, they decided to sing me three songs: happy birthday, a Korean thank you song for teachers and ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”. It was adorable! However, when the bell rang to indicate the beginning of the next period I shooed them out – I didn’t want to get in trouble for making 45 students late on my last day of work. Luckily, some of my students actually wrote my email address down and have gathered the courage to email me. “Please don’t forget me FOREVER ^*^,” wrote a particularly cute student, Jessica (her English name).
Though I don’t see myself visiting Korea in the near future, I definitely hope to make it back to Seoul and Daegu at some point. In the meantime I’ll keep busy with life in the city and grad school. Hello NY!
