Christmas ended up feeling like Christmas despite being away from so many friends and my usual family gathering in Iowa. I think this was mostly due to our special Christmas events at school. On Monday and Tuesday before Christmas we had short classes to make time for crafts and games for each group of students. We made ornaments out of pipe cleaners and beads, wrote wishlists, and played school-wide BINGO.
There seems to be some general confusion in Korea as to how to play BINGO, mostly because BINGO in Korea refers to what we know as tic-tac-toe. When we played (actual) BINGO for Christmas, every class got a giant BINGO board and the director read words over the PA system. Instead of drawing words from a hat, he just read a BINGO board straight out, so in some of my classes, we got instant BINGO. Just not fun. And he read "free space," which was just adorable. Not to mention his (mis)pronunciations of some of the words made me want to hug him.
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| These are actually my three most impossible girls. Don't let looks fool you. |
A surprising number of students demanded a Christmas present from me, which I was not expecting. One girl named Bini actually got really worked up and threw a mini fit when I told her I didn't have a present for her. I was also joking with Sophia and Julie that I would buy them whatever they wanted for Christmas. I told them a smart phone and tablet would be no problem. Then they got really offended when I told them I was just kidding. I figured that was pretty obviously a joke, but I should know by now that a lot of my jokes are lost on my students.
I did get two huge tins of Christmas butter cookies from two of my students. They also wrote me cards, and I loved Daniels so much...
"Dear medlin.E
Hello this is Daniel in Nina
class. I like to study english
in your class. I envy you
because tall and thin. Thank you
for teaching me.
I want wisH you a merry
Cristmas.
from Daniel"
I can always rely on my students to give me the best compliments and also the worst comments. "Teacher, why do you always wear the same shoes?" "Teacher ugly" (just a common greeting) "Teacher dirty" (the two most commonly used words by elementary school students)
Besides my massive excess of butter cookies, I also received random offerings of snacks and candy. Everyday, my students hand me little candies or shrimp crispy things, or whatever they happen to be eating. But on Christmas I think they felt a little more giving. Poor Dylan I'm pretty sure just handed over his snack for the day (a granola bar) when he saw that other students were giving me things.
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| My drama queens doing some serious model poses. I was uncomfortable. |
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| Sassy Sophia and Emily abusing Emily |
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| Showing off their pipe cleaner bracelets |
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| I am Dylan. Hear me roar. |
We also had a gift exchange with all of the teachers and staff. The director got pretty territorial over some gifts, so as with all disputes in Korea, we settled it with rock scissor paper (gawi bawi bo).
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| Gawi Bawi Bo! |
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| 메리 크리스마스 (meli keuliseumaseu)! |
On Christmas Day, we had a dinner party potluck at Emily's apartment. Adam and Calum picked up rotisserie chickens at Costco, which were amazing! I made eggnog which I was extremely proud of. It was so much better than store bought. Pat on back. And Emily made everyone stockings with a Christmas poem and candy. She is the greatest! So Christmas was spent with good people, amazing food, and card games. Happy Birthday, Jesus.
The day after Christmas we started winter intensives (I teach two more classes a day, so seven total) and work 10-11 hour days. This is because students are on winter vacation so their parents enroll them in more academy classes. So much for the month-long vacation I am used to at home.
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