Learn From Yesterday-Live For Today-And Hope For Tomorrow

To say my students really turned it around would be a total understatement. My homeroom class proved to me that they were amazing children and that the first day at camp was just too hard for them. On the second day of camp I had a heart to heart with them about their behavior and I had Sik (my co-teacher) translate for me. The students nodded in understanding...phew.


The teaching hours long were long, but fun. Each day, we taught a morning class for three hours, had lunch, and then taught a different class for three hours until dinner time. After Dinner time, the kids normally gathered together and participated in some kind of competition. My class tried hard but never ended up winning as group. It was hard on them. Soon they didn't want to participate in these activities because there was so much pressure involved. Usually representatives from each team took turns to answer game show questions. If they got the answer wrong or didn't know it, they would have to take the walk of shame back to their seats and face their classmates. Their classmates would blame them for any team failure. There was a time when none of my girls wanted to participate and Aly (one of my girl students who every time I think about I get this huge smile) took one for the team. She reluctantly approached the front and answered the game question correctly. Unfortunately, because of chance, our team lost all of our points. At the end of the game Aly cried. I did my best to hold her and asked her what was wrong. I found out she felt it was her fault our team lost. I did my best to explain that it wasn't her fault. Sometimes we win, sometimes we loose and we all tried our best...it wasn't really sinking in. I decided she might be homesick and need a distraction. This is the night Aly became my little buddy.

I invited Aly to look at some funny family and friend photos on my computer. She smiled and seemed to feel a lot better after an hour or so. "Teacher, you have a funny life!" She said. The next morning, Aly brought me coffee. :) It was the kind from the vending machine that I always bought. Everyday, for less than one thousand won I enjoyed, "Let's Be Mild Coffee,"and everyday it reminded me of Aly.

One night, Aly and her friend stopped by my dorm room to visit me. She looked at my pajamas and said, "TEACHER! Those are hospital pants!" I laughed and told her about my five day stay in the Mokpo hospital room. Aly stared at me with her eyes wide and said, "I saw you on the NEWS!"

Sure enough, there I was and the back of my head was beautiful! We spent the next 3o minutes watching the NEWS special about all of the English teachers bringing swine flu to Korea. To my dismay, they played some footage from the security camera mounted in our hospital room. Thankfully it was only the back of my head and that all I did in the shot was slowly stroke my hair. In the photo, you can see the back of my head. Thanks to Amaia, my hair color looks great. I was not able to share the video with the U.S. so I no longer have that. :(

Anyway back to more important things, teaching became easier and easier throughout the week, but the days became longer and longer. I stayed up late every single night to use the opportunity to talk to Jon over internet. I paid for my late hours with puffy eyes and slow movement in the classroom. The Koreans ever so sweetly looked at my face and never hesitated to say, "You look tired." I heard that line at least once everyday. I tried to keep the kids engaged and entertained (they were even more tired that I was) by having them do the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey. Their eyes lit up and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

On one of our days at camp (nice transitional phrase eh?), we took the kids on a mini field trip to one of the training ships docked by the university. We all had fun running around the ship and I loved watching the kids excitedly speak Korean to one another as they were fascinated by the ship. We made sure to get a lot of pictures including some with Gene.

Gene was our English Camp Principal. All of the English teachers loved him. He was in his late seventies and never seemed to sleep. Gene delivered many speeches to the camp staff and often recited quotes that he learned. Our favorite one was one that we repeated for the entire rest of the trip. We taught it to everyone and I intend to teach it to my family and friends at home. We all shout it really loud during, "Cheers," then we clank our glasses together.

"LEARN FROM YESTERDAY, LIVE FOR TODAY, AND HOPE FOR TOMORROW!!" -Principal Gene who learned it from Einstein?

Throughout the entire week, our class worked very hard on a dancing and singing routine for our Camp Idol. It was going to be held on the last night of camp and we had to be well rehearsed. We made up a cute little dance to the song "I Want To Hold Your Hand," by the Beatles. We practiced everyday for a little over an hour. The kids were tired and did their best to make the dance great and learned all of the lyrics. There was a lot of encouragement and collaboration to make it work and it was really touching to see it all come together.

Camp Idol night came and my students were super nervous. They rushed up on the stage as planned and got into their adorable starting positions. They danced in unison and sang beautifully. I was so proud of them. All 12 classes performed that night and.....drum roll please....we got 11th place.

After the performances, our homeroom had a little class party with pizza, Coke, and Korean pop music in our classroom. We tried our best not to be emotional or to talk about our losing performance and just to enjoy every last minute with each other. I was a total dork and told them even though we never won a single competition, they were all winners to me. I said winners are kind, support each other, smile and try their hardest. I see you rolling your eyes at me Darryl.

The last day of camp was a roller coaster. All of my students surprised me in the morning with a decorated chalkboard and beautiful cards. They each took forever to write English messages on them along with their email addresses. Turned out that Sik bought each one of them a card to give to me. This was one of the nicest gifts I had ever received..all I gave him was coffee and soju... :(

Then there was the final ceremony. Principal Gene had all of the English teachers line up in a single file line near the stage. Then all of the students lined up in a similar line and walked slowly passed us to shake each one of our hands. Over the speakers a sad song, Auld Lang Syne (you know, that famous New Year's Eve song?), slowly played as teachers and student exchanged their goodbyes. One kid after another shook my hand and soon the kids that shook my hand started to cry. One student after another looked away from me with wet and red eyes. The girls cried openly and my boys held their heads down so their hats could hide their faces. Some of the the students could not speak over their sobs and some of them spoke, "Goodbye Teacher."

"Thank you teacher"

"I'll miss you teacher"

"Don't forget me teacher"

One student cried so hard she couldn't speak. I held her until she calmed down. "Teacher, I love you."

I felt pretty good about myself since my entire class made it through and I didn't cry in front of them. Then Aly approached me for the second time. "I'll miss you Teacher Christine." I hugged her and cried...a lot. My other students walked up behind her to say goodbye a second time. I had completely lost it at this point. Then Sik approached me and I couldn't even look at him. Finally, we hugged and after sniffing and wiping my mascara away Sik said, "Okay picture?" as he handed his camera phone to a friend to take our photo. I laughed at the fact that he wanted one right after I bawled...I'm sure it's really pretty and I hope he tags me on facebook.

That night, we left the camp and traveled to another campsite where we got ourselves ready to meet the governor. I put on my long white skirt and gray turtle neck (I'd like to give a shout out to Stacey for helping me put this outfit together). On our bus ride to meet him, Linzay, Michelle and I made funny faces at the camera...because we're mature.

When we arrived at dinner, I got the biggest surprise. You Sun (Margaret) set up a very special meeting between Megan, Laura, me and our Nurse Monica! We left our dinner with the Governor (since this was the only time we could meet her) and went outside to greet her. She jumped up and down with excitement when she saw us and brought two of her friends along with her. She brought all of us bookmarks as gifts. She held one out to me and said, "This one is for you Christine." On the bookmark, there was artwork created by the same artist as on the flash drive that she brought to us in the hospital. Monica remembered that I specifically complimented the artwork on her flash drive and picked the bookmark just for me (The photo was my attempt to get a good picture of the bookmark). :) I told her I was so sorry that we did not have gifts for her. Monica stared at me as tears welled up in her eyes and she started to cry. She gave me the longest hug to express her emotions. She was happy to see us, but sad we could not stay with her for longer. It was a truly special moment that I did my best to express with words...but I can never capture how incredible and surreal this moment was.

The next day we left to spend two nights in Jeju Korea. My favorite part of being at Jeju was our Beach day. I would have had more fun in Jeju if I didn't come down with a cold. I felt okay on beach day though. We turned our friend Wyatt into a mermaid, which I am so sad that I do not yet have pictures of.

*On a side note, you'll notice some karaoke tour bus pictures...yeah we did that too.

After Jeju, we went to Seoul for two nights. I had a great first night when I met Megan's family. Her mom and brother flew all the way from the states to visit her in Seoul. We hopped around the city and talked about life.

The next day Michelle, Linzay, Dannette, Aly, Jessica and I went Shopping in Seoul. We spent two hours of the first part of our trip on the subway...quit snickering, it's hard to figure out a new city. I was super helpful in navigating and I took pictures of the girls looking a the map. You're welcome girls! I bought four very cute dresses, a million gifts for my family and friends at home and had a great time with the girls. :) This was a great end to an incredible trip.

After the long flight home, I was greeted by my husband, mom, Rachel, Austin, Dannette, Madeline, Corynn, Samantha and Tanner. They were all holding a "Welcome Home Christine," sign and stuffed pigs. :)

On this trip I was quarantined for two weeks in a gross building, so as not to affect the Korean population with swine flu...then I got swine flu. I ended up spending 5 days locked a room that could only be entered by nurses and doctors in space suits. Our stay in the hospital room was documented and shared on the news for all of Korea to enjoy.

On this same trip I made amazing friends that I hope to have for the rest of my life and built beautiful relationships with Koreans. I taught Korean children a lot and I learned even more from them. We laughed together, cried together and are going to make every attempt we can to be together again.

I couldn't ask for more.

Thanks for reading :)