Final Days at Kate LA

For my last two days at Kate LA, August 23-4, I had parties for my classes, as I mentioned in an earlier entry. Monday parties were for three classes that met MWF, and then all classes on Tuesday had parties. My first class to have a party was Psylocke, a class I taught pretty much the whole time I was at the school. Beforehand, as I was putting the food together and making whipped cream for a later class (which turned out kind of bad, since I didn't have a beater or even a whisk), Danny used my video camera to take some video, including what he called "X-files." ... Well, I tried a couple times to upload the video, but Blogger doesn't seem to like it, so you'll have to imagine Danny going around the school, videotaping Lucy's class, and people going about their business in various areas.

What I was pissed about in my earlier entry was that after Psylocke's party watching The Simpsons, my go-to activity, Heather disallowed me from showing the kids any programs in class. Luckily it wasn't too much of a problem for the kids, since many of my students are social beings, and we also had American made-from-scratch-by-me snacks, which I often had to explain to them for a while.

Some of the kids gave me gifts, which included quite a lot of pens and cell phone charms, but also some handmade clay things, lotion, etc. Some also wrote letters, which said things like, "Teacher, you are good because you are smart and nice and. Sometimes pretty" and "When you are angry, you are like a monster. But when you are happ, you are like an angle." Haha.

Here's me and my homemade chocolate chunk (pieces from candy bars, since chips were not readily available) cookies. Damn, they were good. And BIG.

This class had eight little girls in it. Oh. My. God. They were good girls, though, for which I was quite grateful.

Emily was kind enough to take some class pictures for me. I didn't bother to ask her for a picture of every class. I don't even think I took any pictures in some classes. Oops.

Nice face, Audrey (jeez, I think that's her name. I only had several of my classes for the last two weeks I was there. I had some trouble with their names).

I think this video of Sarah and Helen is really funny. It shows a tiny hint of what it's like to teach them, except usually there is a LOT more sequential "Teacher..." "What?" repetition in our interactions. Also, Helen laughs like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

The younger kids were happy to sit around and play and talk with each other and talk to me. The older kids were the ones I usually really depend on cartoons for. This is a typical posture for a Korean middle school student when given more then ten seconds of free time. He's not hiding from the camera--if you look at his knee, you can see his phone, which he's playing a game on. I'm not sure if this posture comes from illicit gaming in class and trying to hide it, or just making a shadow for better visibility, or maybe both.

And the other boys thought it would be good to play games on MY computer. I was slightly worried they'd get snoopy, so I had to keep an eye on them. Kids are only interested in games, though, so they played chess, I think.

The girls just wrote a bunch of crap, mostly in Korean, on the board. This worried me, because Heather was right next door, meeting with parents, for like three hours (much of it after classes ended, though), and I thought she might end any moment and pop in to make sure I was having a real "party," which I think I wasn't. Also, if any parents saw this, the shit would hit the fan.

Normally, Heather and Mingyu give an afterwork party for any teachers going away, in which all the teachers are invited out for a meal, often sashimi (which I started to hate very quickly), then to a bar or two, then to a noraebang for singing. However, because of my unique situation of finishing my contract, taking a trip to Taipei, then coming back for two days before going to the US, there was some confusion. Although I told Heather that I probably wouldn't come back to Ulsan after my trip, since both my flights left from Seoul and that would be way too much bus time in two days, not to mention flight time, I wasn't clear and definite about it. 

I ended up deciding that yes, I would go to Suwon (outside Seoul) with all my shit the day I left for Taipei, and drop off my two big bags with a friend before taking a carryon bag to Seoul for my little trip to Taiwan. Then afterwards, I would stay in Suwon for two nights before leaving Korea to go home. But Heather thought I was coming back to Ulsan for those two days, so she had planned to figure out something substantial to do during that time. When I eventually made it clear to her that my last day of work was the last time she'd ever see me, she was kind enough to change her plans. She ended up having just the foreign teachers meet her and Mingyu at Wa Bar after work on my last day. This was kind of a hassle for me, since I had to get my apartment ready for me to leave, and clean it a little, and get my luggage squared away, etc. etc. I really didn't have time to meet with people, and ended up only getting about three hours of sleep that night, but I figured it would be the peak of rude to turn down the offer.

Anyway, it was sort of nice to say goodbye to everyone (except Mingyu, who mysteriously disappeared and a little while later texted Heather that he was sick...), and I also invited Leon, and Heather was glad to see him. Moriah had also just come back from her vacation to Hawaii, and gave me some nice Hawaiian going-away presents.

And that was the end of teaching at Kate LA.