Our last teachers' lunch of the school year:
Partying preschool/kindergarten-style. Bring on the ABC computer games!
My bilingual 3rd/4th grade classes finished a unit on reading and writing instructions, so it was time for a project. I wrote the instructions for rice krispie treats. We brought in a portable gas range and all the ingredients and set them loose. The kids loved it, but it will be a LONG time before I cook with 11 9-year-olds again.
We spent the rest of the class time playing Monopoly and watching a movie. The kids had never played Monopoly before and loved it. I wish I had more board games to play with them because they're a great way for the kids to practice their reading, speaking, and negotiating skills.Note: I was the banker; I didn't buy up all the property from the kids.
I'm sad to say goodbye to some wonderful students, but overall, the day was a lot of work but a lot fun.
Since the ceremony was all in Korean, I didn't pay close attention during the teachers' and director's speeches. At one point, the director was talking and my mind was wandering all over the place. I heard, "Blah blah blah blah EMH blah blah blah blah." The sound of my name startled me back to reality. I looked around in surprise, and one of the moms sitting near me motioned for me to stand up. Then the director motioned for me to come up to the stage and asked me to give a speech. Yikes! I had no idea that was coming.
Puppets are great teaching tools because the kids are drawn to them. They want to communicate, so when they animals speak in English to them, they answer naturally. It's especially fun to have puppets of North American wildlife because the kids (and parents) aren't quite sure what they are. I must have had the following conversation 15 times today.
And the end-of-the-year preschool staff picture
After work this evening, one of the preschool teachers had a housewarming/end-of-the-school-year party at her apartment. Since the preschool teachers have hardly spoken to me all year, I was a little nervous that it was going to be an awkward evening. Even though I couldn't really participate in the conversations, I'm glad I went. I felt like I actually connected to the other teachers. I wish we had done something like this a year ago so I could have gotten to know them a little better. I'm thankful for the teachers who speak some English and could help include me in some of the conversations. 
While I'll see the kids and teachers again at the graduation ceremony next week, I'm really sad to say goodbye. However, I know I've made the right decision and will be glad to have a couple hours of free time each morning. I plan to start going to the gym again and also be more intentional about studying Korean. I had wanted to take a course at a nearby university, but there isn't enough time between the end of the Korean class and my first class at the school. Instead, a couple friends have offered to help me. It's going to require a lot more discipline than I usually have when it comes to studying, but improving my Korean is very important to me these days since the language barrier is bothering me more than it has since I came here. Feel free to pester me about my progress. It'll help keep me on task. 
One of the preschool teachers gave me a plate of hangwa, traditional Korean snacks. They're too pretty to eat!
Today Joy brought a traditional Jungwol Daeboreum lunch to school for us--ogokbap (five grain rice) and namul (cooked vegetables) with kimchi and kim (dried seaweed). Thanks, Joy!
Unfortunately, I worked so late tonight that by the time I went home, I was so tired that I forgot all about looking at the moon, and my apartment window doesn't face the right direction to see it now. I'm sleepy and already in my pajamas, so I'm not going to get dressed and go outside. I guess I'll have to wait for next year.
Today I took E ice skating. We had been skating once before. She loved it, and I told her then that we'd go again someday. Days get busy, though, and almost 10 months have gone by, so on Sunday, the two of us headed off to the rink. H-k was with us the last time we went, so she bought the tickets and did all the talking. This time, the responsibility was on me. I didn't think it would be a problem negotiating admission and skate rentals, but since the last time we were there, the ice rink installed automatic ticket machines in place of the helpful people in the ticket booth. There's a pretty good chance that people in a ticket booth speak a little bit of English or might understand my little bit of Korean. An automatic ticket machine, on the other hand, isn't quite so flexible. It stretched my Korean to its limits, but I was able to purchase the right tickets for admission and skate rental for one adult and one child. I consider it a success.
They had a lot of outdoor activities and demonstrations because of the holidays, including traditional Korean games and music.
After visiting the museum, I walked past the Anapji ponds to Gyerim, "Chicken Forest." According to legend, one night in 65 CE, King Talhae heard a rooster crowing from this grove of old Chinese elm trees. He sent his prime minister to check it out. The prime minster found a gold box hanging from a tree and brought it back to the palace. They opened the box and found a baby boy. King Tallhae didn't have a son, so he adopted the boy and named him Alchi, which meant "young child" in the Silla language. Alchi was never king, but his descendants ruled continuously from 356 to 912 CE.
From Gyerim, I walked past more burial mounds, with the spiritually significant Namsan in the background.
From there I visted Cheomseongdae. Built during the reign of Queen Seondeok (632-647 CE), it is one of the oldest structures in Korea. Historians believe it's a star observation tower, and the number and position of the stones are believed to represent seasons, zodiac figures, and positions of certain stars.
In the park adjacent to Cheomseongdae, the Silla Culture Experience Center was sponsoring a kite festival. I stood around and watched for a while and then saw the table where people from the center were writing kids' names in Chinese calligraphy on paper kites that had a rubbing of the Chinese zodiac character for their birth year on them. I decided to buy a kite as a souvenir to take home. I told them I needed a monkey kite, but the old man doing the calligraphy couldn't understand my name and walked away. At first, the other people working at the table wanted me to write my name on my kite, but I told them no, so another volunteer wrote it in Korean and English for me. I intended just to take it home with me, but as I soon as I held it, with the ink from my name still wet, the wind caught it, and I couldn't resist. I spent the next hour flying kites in the park with about 50 other people. It was one of my very best Korean experiences.
By the end of the day, I was very tired and very cold. I think I'm still a little sick from a couple weeks ago. There was still a lot more I wanted to see in Gyeongju, but I just didn't feel that I had enough energy for another day. I went to the bus terminal at 6:00 and was able to change my ticket to a bus that was leaving for Seoul immediately. Sitting on the bus, I was a little worried that I would be disappointed by my decision to go home early, but now that I'm home, ready to sleep in my own bed tonight, with absolutely no plans for the next two days, I'm very happy. I feel like I'll need a couple days of rest before I'll be ready to deal with kids again.
