School Birthday Party

This year was one of those dreaded years when I actually have to work on my birthday. Most of the time, it falls during the Thanksgiving holiday, so I get it off. It fell on Thanksgiving proper this year, but since I'm not in the US, it didn't matter. Anyway, I was determined not to work on my birthday, even if I had to go IN to work, so I promised all six of my Thursday classes that I would give them food and we wouldn't do any studying.

Here's the amazing lineup of food for my classes:

1:40: Buns that taste like waffles with butter and syrup from Rotiboy (the "son" of Papparoti, a popular bakery chain) and mango juice

2:30: Cake (brought in by one of the students) and pastries from Paris Baguette

3:20: I bought french fries from Lotteria, Korea's own fast food joint, and one kid surprised me with pizza and soda for the whole class, and another kid brought three bottles of soda herself.

4:10: Fried chicken from Homisil (I think that's the name) and soda

5:10: Pizza from Pizza Etang (it means Pizzaland) and soda. These bastard fifth graders (well, it was really just Jack) begged me for as many pizzas as possible, since the boys could eat two and the girls could eat two. Since Pizza Etang apparently gives a two-for-one deal, I figured I'd just get four and make them happy without killing my wallet too much. They only ate one and a half of the pizzas, so I ended up giving a whole pizza to another class after I gave a piece or two to all the other teachers and staff members.

8:20: More cake from Paris Baguette, plus some of the leftover pastries from earlier, and soda.

Man, I felt fat after that. And I'm pretty sure I spent a whole day's pay on all that food.

I was really surprised at how the kids stepped up to the event. I got almost as many birthday presents as I did Teachers' Day presents, and three kids brought in food and drink of their own to share with the class. It was quite nice. All my kids were so happy that we had a party, and all the kids in other classes were wicked pissed at their teachers for not having a party, too. They could smell the food.

Here are my second graders, Danny (cut off), Melanie, and Michelle putting the candles on my first cake, which Danny's mother bought:

The cake says Lotte Hotel, which is kind of a funny thing to put on a cake. It was probably quite pricey, though, given the grandeur of the company.

Here are my second, third, and fourth graders, Jessica, Sally, Ava, Jenny, and Lucy is in the front:

From the same class, Patrick, Major, and Joey:

This is what my desk looked like after three classes:

My third, fourth and fifth grader class, John, Pam, and Jun, watching the Simpsons:

Any and Bunny, from the same class:

After the Simpsons was over, the kids just played Nintendo DS, Jun against Bunny, and the others watched:

That's Lauren in the back, there (she's always late on Thursdays):

My fifth graders watching the Simpsons. They listened to a CD by Big Bang, a terrible Korean pop band, afterward. That's Na-huin, Amy, Nancy, Sung-sik, and Alex:

Jack and Ji-ung:

This is the cake I bought myself for my last class of the day. It says "Congratulations," and I thought about asking them to write in frosting below it "You're old," but I'm sure they don't do that here. I had to get a big cake because Leon's class meeting at the same time are also all my students, but they don't see me on Thursdays. They begged Leon to let them come, and he'd take any excuse to not have class, so they all joined us.

I must note, though, that after eating three of my own birthday cakes and at least a couple other cakes since I've been here, I have found Korean cakes very much wanting. I have yet to find any flavor in any of them, especially the chocolate ones. They all taste like air, and they're kind of mushy. I had a conversation about this with my coworkers (at my special Thanksgiving, more to come), and everyone else said they liked the light quality of Korean cakes. I guess I'm just too American, too much buttercream, sugar, and whatnot.

This is Tina, one of my newer students. She got transferred into one of my weekly classes last week because she bullied another girl too much. Then the girl she bullied got transferred into my class the day of the party. Ummm...

Wesley, hamming it up, with Eric laughing at him:

Sally (different Sally from the one above) and Hanna, getting ready to take my picture on their cell phones:

And here they are taking the pictures:

My second cake came with streamers in little cones with strings. A couple of my studens pulled them, and then I ended up wearing one in my hair, and yes, the earrings were a gift. I would never wear earrings like that without obligation.

Here's Cathy with the streamer before she gave it to me:


Cathy and Emily:

Back at home, here are all my gifts:

I got a scarf and mittens set, another scarf, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of earrings, a set of two embroidered handkerchiefs, some roses, three nice pens (two Parker pens), two pairs of socks, some doughnuts, two candy bars, some candy-covered chocolates, a bottle of handcream, and two jars of Dream Cacao chocolate, 56% and 72%.

Here are some closeups:

Here is the birthday ceremony for my last class, plus Leon and his class. I demanded they sing to me, but they didn't put up a fight. Wesley loves Abba, by the way: