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June 27th Our last day at the middle school was very emotional and heartbreaking. The students start exams tomorrow, so instead of teaching a full lesson we wrapped up a review activity from last week and played Pictionary. Pictionary was a lot of fun for the students because many of them are talented at drawing, and it was also a way to help them build their English vocabulary! The lesson was very enjoyable, but the goodbyes were not! Several students came to our workroom bringing snacks, notes, and hand-drawn pictures. It was so touching! A teacher at the school even brought us Nutella and bread! A very special gift we received was Yunnori boards. Yunnori is Korean New Year's game. The students in the after-school English club each chose a KU teacher and decorated boards for us. My board is decorated with famous historical sites and landmarks around Korea. The drawings are incredible, and I love the board! After many goodbyes exchanged with students, the administrators and English teachers of the middle school threw us a surprise party with Korean pizza! Though Korean pizza is very different from American pizza (it often includes toppings like corn or sweet potato), it was delicious! The party was a nice opportunity to talk to the principal, vice-principal, and English teachers before we leave. The staff at Kyunghwa has been so welcoming and helpful, and I will miss them a lot. And of course, I will miss the students! They are always so joyful and kind, and I will truly miss their presence in my life. They've made such an impact on me! June 28th Today was our first day of working on final reflections, lesson plan corrections, and projects. There's not much to write about because we were working on homework for most of the day. However, we were able to take a break and play basketball against some Kyunghwa High School teachers! I am no basketball star, but it was so much fun to play with them. I haven't played an actual basketball game in years, so it was pretty exhausting. I enjoyed the opportunity to bond with my fellow KU teachers and the Kyunghwa teachers! June 29th After another long day of homework, we went to the "lookout", which is a location a little bit up a mountain with a library and a memorial. However, we went there to get a view of Gwangju. We've only explored a small portion of the city, so it was neat to see how large the city really is. It was so nice to look out over the city and watch the sunset. After that, we went to one of our favorite spots in Gwangju, the Nutella ice cream waffle store. I am going to miss Gwangju! June 30th As expected, most of the day was spent working on schoolwork! After dinner, we went to the dessert cafe one last time for bingsu. Then, we did karaoke! Karaoke in Korea is different than in the United States. You rent a karaoke room for a certain amount of time and only sing in front of the group of people you came with. We had a lot of fun singing and dancing and being ridiculous together! We have gone a few times before, so I'm glad we had the opportunity to go one more time! July 1st-July 3rd The past few days have mostly been filled with finishing up final projects and assignments. Yesterday we were able to take one last trip to Seoul before we leave! We explored Insa-dong and bought some last-minute gifts for our families and friends. Now we are heading back home, and I am excited to be home again, but I will also miss all of the wonderful people I've gotten to know in Korea. I have been blessed with wonderful roommates while in Korea, and I have enjoyed getting to know all of my fellow KU interns. We also had a wonderful professor and GTA for the program, and they always helped us with any problems we encountered. I will also miss all of the Korean teachers we met during the program, and I won't forget everything they taught me about teaching. However, the people I will miss the most are my students! They made every day here a joy, and they taught me so much more about myself and about the world around me. I am so glad I had the opportunity to be a part of their lives! As I go back to my everyday life I will carry my fond memories of this experience with me. I appreciate the opportunities I had to learn and grow while here, and I can't wait to go explore new places and meet more people. |