All Good Things Must Come To An End...Eventually

This post will be a little random, I think. My pictures are a little unorganized right now because of stupid computer problems so some of this is in the wrong order, but don't worry, I'll make it clear which things happened first when I'm talking about it! Aren't I amazing? yeah, I know.

So first up is proof that I didn't come to Korea and NOT make gimbap. I convinced my school to let me teach a cooking class with my grade three students. The school agreed, but said no oven. That left very little to work with so we made gimbap. Which I've always wanted to make anyway so this was a good excuse! I'll talk more about it in another post once I organize those pictures and videos, but here's two pictures!

Sam and I continue to bike and take pictures. Sometimes separately, sometimes together. This time, biking and photo lesson. I really look forward to these days. It's so nice to just forget about everything for a few hours and just bike and bike (and let me tell you, we bike. I've never biked so much in my life).
These were taken about half way to downtown Gwangju.

Can someone tell me what Anguilliformes food is? We're thinking a really bad Korean-English translation...

Ok, this should be AFTER Brian's going away party, but they ended up here. Sharon left Korea after five years teaching here. She is heading for new adventures, but for now is home in Colorado. We miss her so much and it's only been a week. The four of us are like glue when we're together at worship practice, church, dinners, and who knows what else. I'm not sure what the other Korean's think about us. (Sharon is second from left)

Mary, a new English teacher, and Cherrah came down to Unam Dong for dinner with Kris and I one night. BR run after. Yum.

Heejae was playing at a Jazz bar one night and I practically begged him to let me come along. He told me it was late at night. Like 10:30 or 11:30 start time. I told him I was a big girl. He said okay. Apparently I wasn't as big as I thought because by 1pm I was falling asleep (I have good reason...lack of sleep prior nights). The concert was awesome, I met some crazy-good musicians all of whom were scared of me. Except Heejae's guitar teacher who would say random English sentences. He was...interesting, to say the least. But Heejae and I had a good time when he wasn't playing (we witnessed a very bloody brawl on the way there. I thought the guy covered in blood would attack our car) and I got home a 2am. I was dead.

This was the third time I went to a Jazz performance by a friend and it was by far the best one I've been to. I'm so glad I went. Though I wish Sam hadn't taken his camera back because mine sucks. Sigh. I liked his camera.

A friend of mine from church (Jin, if you remember him) remembered that I wanted to go waterskiing sometime. He took Kris and I last Saturday. More money than I'll ever pay again for it, but it was so worth it. I went wakeboarding after too...only because I saw another guy go and I was so better than him and had to show him up. Why do I have to do that all the time? I don't know. It just gives me pleasure beating guys at things and since I'm good at it I do it far more often than I should. And that is why I don't have a boyfriend. Guys don't mind being beat by me. Boyfriends do.

Jin took us to this Italian restaurant afterwards. I love restaurants in Korea. They're all so pretty and in the middle of the mountains.

The next day I woke up insanely sore. Not my legs thankfully. Those are in great shape with all the running and biking I do. My arms however, are not in shape. They're still sore.

Church was a massive worship service with the Korean and Chinese and English services of our church all combining as one for the day.

This picture is not supposed to be here. It's supposed to be one of me and the Canadian flag. Basically the story is, we were told to hang them up. By the end of the service, they all fell down. Whoops.

Most of the members of our band our in the band section at the back. It was huge. Three drummers, three keyboardists, tons of guitars....but oh so good!! One of my friends was texting me during the service. He's a bassist in the band. It was rather amusing as we could see each others expressions across the room and know what they thought about the text based on reactions. It kept me occupied (don't worry, I listened to the sermon. This was during speeches about the church that no one cares about anyway).

Oh hello. Here's the one of me and the flag. In that case, I have no idea which picture was supposed to be in the place of the other flag one. They also made us wear these ugly white shirts. They promised us blue. Gave us white. Said it was for girls. Other girls were wearing the blue ones. We were not impressed. We look horrible in white. I like blue. Blue is good. White is not.

Only the cutest boy in the world. This picture doesn't do him justice. His Mom sings in the worship band. She's Filipino and married a Korea. The result? Adorable little boy!! When you say Anyang or Hi, he bows. Its SO cute!

The big show at the end.

Samgye final volleyball game again the high school teachers. I missed workshop for this game. My co-teacher didn't bother telling anyone I was missing it. oh well. no one comes anyway. This was much more fun. I rocked our team. We lost. (3 games to 2)

Brian, our worship band leader (guy shoving food in his mouth) was quitting the band to prepare to leave for the USA in November. This was our goodbye party. We miss him huge, he was awesome, but we see him now and again.

The next day. His last service. We took a group picture. Here's all the people:

L-R: front row - Jeong Jay Yoon (AKA: Jay), Brandon, Charles, Brian, Michelle, Charles kid and Rachel.

L-R: Back row - Grace, Kim Dae Shik, me, Joel, Sharon, Kris, Oh Cheong Hyeon (Kyle)

The restaurant my VP, Principal, co-teachers, and random other dude took me to as a farewell lunch for me on Tuesday. It was SO sweet. They said all these speeches about how they wish I was signing on again because the students love me and I'm awesome (paraphrasing, but that's basically the gist of it), but since I'm not, they wish me the best in the future.

The restaurant in Yaksu that my workshop teachers took me to today.

Samseo grade two kids are probably the sweetest kids ever. They planned a party for me our last class together and I came into the classroom (late because I forgot about the class time change and a student had to come get me. Great ending Tara.) to this message on the board.

So we had a party. They gave me presents. A pencil case and barrette from the girls and from my favourite boy (one in black, looking down) gave me a BASEBALL! My kids know how much I love sports, especially baseball. This is the sweetest thing ever. He was so proud of himself and bragged he paid 10,000won for it ($8.50). I couldn't believe he bought it for me.

So that's that. My last day at Sinheung was today. The grade one kids swarmed me after class with presents as well. Mostly candy though. My co-teacher there bought me some stuff too. Now I have more stuff to lug home to Canada, but it's so worth it because I'll never forget these people. My last day at Samgye is tomorrow, but only unofficially. I still have three weeks of summer classes there, but most kids don't do that so really, tomorrow's my last day to see 3/4 of them. It's a half day. Then I have guitar lessons and then Kris and I head out by train to the MUD FESTIVAL on Saturday. Monday morning we leave for CHINA!

I would like to take the time at the end of this post to say an early Happy Birthday to my wonderful father whose birthday is on Sunday where he will celebrate turning really old in Seattle! Which brings me to my second congratulations to my favourite cousin Dennis who is getting married on Saturday in Seattle! I am so upset that I am not going to be there, but I wish him and Linda all the best and that everyone arrives there and back home again safely!

Peace out yo.