standing on the edge

officially. i am a horrible blogger. apologies all around. one for each of you.

today marks three weeks until my departure from korea. i'm not sure how to pinpoint my emotions about this in words. let's just say it's a pretty great bittersweet surreal overwhelming regretful sad thrilling numb but welcome feeling. i think that's about it. it's like if i could sigh, cry and laugh all at the same time. with a 15 hour flight in the middle. i'm going to go out on a limb and say this will be my last korean blog update. but who knows, maybe i'll surprise both of us.

so tom left in december. since then, i've adopted a new group of friends. i still have my old ones, it just worked out that i made lots of new ones after tom left. it's quite strange, because i've been here for a year, but only with these friends for 3 months. it's like i'm quitting the friendships prematurely. not that i'm "quitting", but let's face it. there's a whole bag of people here that i'm friends with but i'll only keep in touch with a few special folks. anyway, that's one of the reasons for my sadness.

another is my students. who would have thought that i would actually take a liking to screaming dirty snot-faced children. hrmph! no really though. it's impossible to describe how these kids amaze me, surprise me, and make me so proud every day. i wish i had kept up with writing here a little better. there would be lots of stories about my kindergarteners. for example - talking to them (6 year olds) for an entire class period about the attacks on Yeonpyeong island; trying to explain to them why everything is "made in china"; teaching them to learn the map of the world when they live in a place where most kids can't locate russia on a map; teaching them beatles songs. ahhhh the good old days.

so now i'm at the edge of a precipice and what's next? i'm going home for 4+ months, getting certified to teach TESL (you don't need to be certified in korea), and moving to Morocco with my boyfriend to teach English there. i am thrilled to be able to speak french finally. anytime i get frustrated communicating to the koreans, i think to myself, "i could easily convey this message in french". i'm happy to be one of the few people who actually uses their forced language education. hopefully i'll be a better blogger in africa. so i'll say annyeongi que seyo for now and maybe next time will be bonjour. but like i said, who knows? maybe i'll surprise us and blog again but don't count on it.