Oh My Nervous

Today is Sunday. On Saturday we leave for our trip!! Friday will be our last full day in Korea, ever. Life as we know it is about to change, completely. We are about to go from working our asses off at a job we're too used to, 9-5 with 2 weeks off per year and three sick days and not much free time in the office to even say hi to each other or plan what we're doing, to complete freedom to sleep in, walk around a city, buy souvenirs, decide to stay longer, take pictures of temples, go swimming, climb a mountain, have a rest day, get a massage, and who even knows what else. That's the thing. I don't even know.

The only time I've been off of work or school for more than a week or two in my adult life was when I was too sick to function in college and hung around with my parents after a surgery or hospitalization in general. I was so used to ruining plans because of my health. Yesterday, I hiked the mountain with a friend and twisted my ankle. For a split second I thought, "Here it is! Our reason to cancel everything. It was nice dreaming." Then I stood up, stretched it out a little bit, and kept walking. So this is happening. Saturday morning we will take a bus to Busan and board a ferry to Japan. We have our $300 Japan Rail passes in hand. We will soon get a letter of approval for our Vietnam visas. We have taken an online course to get scuba certified (which by the way, is way longer than 8-10 hours. Pretty sure it took about 20). 

If I could poop out of excitement, I would have already done it. Luckily I've got a bag into which my poop freely flows from the involuntary muscles of my small intestine.

We still have some packing to do. But for the most part we've shipped home 4 45lb. boxes by ship, and we've got 3 more. At some point in the process, some of our pillows disappeared that we used for sitting on the floor. I think we must have put them in a box by accident. I bought them when we first came, but it would have been nice of me to leave them for our replacements. Oh well. They're gone now.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about leaving my job halfway through the school year. I mean, these Kindergarteners have really started to pick up on things. Ever since my dumb kid left for the month (sorry replacement teacher who will have to deal with him on your first day alone on the job), the class has really been working hard to focus and figure shit out. I'm pretty sure that in the last month they have learned more than they did in the first three months of the semester combined. They just get my teaching style now, and I get their learning style. I can reprimand them, and they know I still love them. They know I can be a little scatterbrained sometimes, and so they'll remind me of what I wanted to do before. And they respect me. They respect me as an authority figure, just enough so I can quiet them with a look but not so much that they fear me. We've got a good thing going on.

But Wednesday is my last day alone with them before the new teacher comes in for training on Thursday and Friday, and they have no idea what's coming. We've known for months that August would be our last time with them, but we have orders not to say a word to the children until maybe Wednesday this week. I am going to crush their eager little souls. Many of them had a teacher up and leave in the middle of the year last year too, although they got no warning. They remember those teachers though. They were told the teachers were "sick," which is probably best.

The hagwon kids, on the other hand, know what's coming, and most of them are sad. One is happy, though. He's one of the kids I teach when I'm too tired to teach but have a class anyway, during my body's natural nap time, around 3:30. I teach way too many classes and I just have to do my best to push through the sleepy. I do my best and accomplish what my body will allow, which is teaching without sleeping as much as possible. Anyway, all the other kids are sad to see me go, but I explained to them that I've been away from my family for a long time and it's time to go see them again, especially since I'm getting married. They seem to get it and have accepted it, and I told them their new teacher will be very nice. I teach all the younger elementary school students who have never had a teacher leave, but I told them that this will happen a lot in English hagwons. Because that part is true.

Things I won't miss about Korea:

• incessant staring
• awkward. Korean. Interaction.
• not knowing what's going on because I'm not Korean (no matter how well I can speak it)
• standing out in the crowd all the time
• Korean men undressing me with their eyes
• showering directly onto my bathroom floor
• my tiny refrigerator 
• rainy season
• the selfie/primping culture (oh it's extreme)
• the lack of avocados, cheese, good wine, good bars
• the hagwon (after school academy) culture
• kids yelling "HELLO" at me in the street, and also adults
• hard beds that are supposed to be like the floor
• little old ladies (ajumas) cutting in line all the time

Things I'll miss:

• the little fruit and vegetable markets, with the same people working all day every day
• dumpling ramen noodles (called mandu ramyeon)
• (some of) my students
• cheap accessories 
• getting my hair permed for $60 and cut for $12
• the really purple grapes
• having a group of friends who are never too busy to hang out
• being able to say anything I want and not worry that someone will hear me or even understand
• being able to play the ignorant foreigner
• (really good) fried chicken and pizza at 11AM because a 5-year-old has a birthday
• living right next to my place of work
• jumping into a cab when I need to and paying very little
• of course, maeshil: Korean pickled green plums. 

Well. I guess we'll see. Sayonara Korea! Oh I guess I should say:
"Annyeonghigyeseyo!" -- STAY WELL. I'm leaving.