missing JES island || my life

It's been about two months since I finished working at JES Island. I miss my kids a lot. I found all these pictures and videos that I never shared or even bothered to look through while I was in Korea. I was thinking, "Maybe I should go back and teach" but I don't know if any other group of kids would measure up to the kids I had. My kids were the best group of kids a teacher could ask for.

I found a lot more on my smart phone so look out.... there's going to be a lot of pictures and videos of them in the future :)

Growing Up || life lessons

{76/366 - little hands}

I've been babysitting for the past two weeks. This is Isaiah. He's very pensive. He'll stand at the window and look out without saying a word. 

I guess you could say that I'm a pensive person as well. I've been reflecting a lot what it means to grow up. I've resisted growing up for a long time. I diagnosed myself with the Peter Pan syndrome. I thought if I grow up I would lose myself. I never wanted to wear suit pants or heels or take out a loan or get a real job. I thought I wouldn't be able to do the things I love. I was afraid of growing up.  I thought growing up meant compromising my personality and what I love to do. 

You don't lose yourself when you grow up. Instead you discover MORE of who you are and can grow even more confident. 

I also discovered that in order for me to really mature and experience life at its fullest I need to become like a child again. I need to trust like a child, love like a child and expect a lot like a child. Life is full of silly paradoxes and this is one of them. 

We're Graduating || Goodbye JES Island

{50/366 - Graduation}

Here's most of my class. One girl couldn't make it and another was late. I can't believe my time with them is up! It was pretty emotional. I'll remember these kids and this experience forever. It changed my life. Who knew that teaching English would have such a strong impact on one's life... sigh. 

Some kids were pretty emotional while others had no reaction. It was really moving to see young children become emotional about saying goodbye. 

While it was an emotional and sad day, it was also a really good day. I'm really thankful for my managers, my co-workers and all the students I worked with. Normally when a chapter in my life is ending I end up feeing some regret for all my inadequacies. This time, I felt confident in everything I had done. No use in filling your head up with regrets. I'm looking forward to what is to come :)

Last day of work ended with a pizza party, my final pay cheque and a severance pay ^^ along with awesome gifts from my students' parents. 

Now I'm off to Singapore for 5 days! 

Last Day of Teaching || Project 366

{49/366 - Phileo Love}

It was our last day of class today! Rather than doing work, we ended up playing a lot. We spent time practicing our graduation song for about an hour and then we ended with a final game of dodgeball with the students against the teachers. Here I caught Rina and Jenny being really loving with each other. I loved that every student in my class loved and liked each other. Phileo love is brotherly, friendship love. It was definitely seen in my class everyday. 

little jenny || Project 366

{48/366 - jenny and me}

Here I am with my little Jenny. I'm starting to say my goodbyes. I don't know if they fully comprehend that it'll be rare that I'll see them again. This makes me really sad. Who knew that seeing them almost every day for a week would get me so attached. Tomorrow is our last day of teaching and then Friday we have graduation. I can't wait to be free but I'm going to miss my kids terribly. This was taken by my co-teacher Hannah.   

Cloud-Like Cake || Project 366

{48/366 - Cloud-Like Cake}

Rina's dad brought our class a cake. It was a surprise since we didn't have any reason to have cake. It was delicious. Normally I don't like cake but this was really nice. It was delicate and fluffy. Most cakes tend to be too heavy, but I felt like I was eating clouds! Look at Rina looking at her cake. 

5th Last Day || Project 366

{47/366 - hula hooper}

It was my 5th last day with the kids. I have a countdown. I'll miss them, but I'm also ready to be done!

Here's Belle NOT hula hooping. I love when kids are missing their teeth and they're laughing. I know they're insecure about missing their teeth because they won't smile when you ask them to, but they have no shame when they're laughing. It's great

The students made their own popsicles. Here is Jenny going in for a bite into her popsicle. 

orange noser || Project 366

{46/366 - orange noser}

Aimee is actually the brown noser of my class. She's always trying to be like the teacher and will do whatever she can to impress me. We had oranges for lunch today. She loves making her friends laugh so I caught her doing this with her orange. Cute.

clay faces || my life

Last week at JES Island the art assignment was for the kids to observe a teacher or remember a teacher's face from memory and recreate the face with clay. I became the object of observation for most of the kids. Here are the results. 

All three were done boy boys. I was shocked but had a good laugh.

I was really impressed by this one. My eyeliner was done differently on this day so you could notice it. The student noticed this detail and created it in her piece. So awesome.

These are just two of the classes. There are three more. Keep reading to see what other masterpieces were created.

wink wink || Project 366

{45/366 - wink and kick}

this is sean again. i asked him to wink for the camera. i love how he casually put his hand on his head making this shot even cuter. 

he forgot to write his name on his work so instead of going back to his desk he sprawled on the floor and started to write. i love how adorable his small feet look in these crocs. 

valentine's day || Project 366

{44/366 - reading cards}

Koreans don't really give or make Valentine's Day cards. All they do is buy a lot of chocolate. I miss buying random boxes of cards and then choosing which one I would give to the people in my class. It was an important decision to make. I was so shameless in how I'd pick the pretty ones for my friends and the ugly ones were left over for the people I didn't like. Terrible. Luckily I printed out really cute ones for my kids so they were all happy with giving and receiving. They were SO excited to look into their bags and see what card they got from their other friends. One student kept pounding her chest saying that she was so anxious and excited to see her cards. It was so funny. 

This is the chocolate I received from my students. The chocolate on the left was hand made by Daniel. He was so proud of what he made. The story was that he bought chocolate bars. Before he started baking with his mom, he logically thought that he could melt the chocolate in the microwave. Without really timing it right, he ended up burning the chocolate. He was so confused and didn't understand why. Luckily his mom bought him extra chocolate and showed him that he had to slowly melt it. It was even cuter because he designed these and even gave special ones out to his classmates. 

It was a good day. Spent it with my kids. Spent it with a good friend of mine and was reminded to hold on tight to love. It's always around us. We just need to open our hearts to really see it.

Jacob || Project 366

{40/366 - Jacob}

This is one of my favorites. His name is Jacob. Somehow he got tagged as the Korean boy that looked Mexican so you'll find saying Hola, como estas? when really he should be saying Hello, how are you? I only teach him art once a week, but we'll always say hello in the hallways. He's not that developed in his fine motor skills, so his artwork will usually turn out very messy. He also never puts in much effort and will spend majority of the class scribbling or cutting without ever finishing his work. This past week we were making clay faces of the teacher. I told them it'd be easy if they looked at me and tried to make my face. Jacob actually put in some effort and this was his final product. This is pretty good considering his history with art. I was very proud of him. 

Sean || Project 366

{39/366 - happy sean}

This is Sean. He is the loudest student at our school. He is always seen laughing. Even when he gets in trouble and comes in crying, he still looks so cheery. His English is amazing. You can have a real conversation with him which is rare in Korea. One time I was trying to take his backpack from him and he says, "if you take my backpack then i'll take your clothes out and see your brassiere" and then he ran away. I was left speechless. Kids say the most hilarious things. 

dimples || Project 366

{38/366 - dimples}

Melody is so cute. She has two massive dimples which made me think about how unique each person's face really is. I asked everyone in this class to smile and to look at each other's faces. I asked them to see what was the same and what was different. Most of them didn't notice Melody's dimples. After pointing them out, they started to notice the friends who did. I think dimples are extra special. I have one on my right cheek and never thought much about it until recently. I wonder what makes a cheek dip in like that. 

Super Mario Marc || Project 366

{37/366 - Marc aka Super Mario}

Before Angry Birds became really popular with Koreans kids, Marc LOVED Super Mario. Everything he would draw and do was related to Super Mario. After finishing making his clay face, he started playing with the leftover clay. I love how kids can make use of anything they have their hands on and have no limits what they do with it. I think we can learn a lot from kids. They have no boundaries and it's accompanied by innocence. Below I posted some older pictures of Marc as Super Mario.

It's Hannah Teacher! || Project 366

{36/366 - it's Hannah teacher!}

The art for this week at JES Island was making clay faces of the teacher. Rather than having the kids guess from memory a teacher they wanted to make, I just suggested they practice looking at my physical features and make my face from the clay. It was hilarious. I will post a collection of my favorite by Friday. 

prepared Jenny || Project 366

{33/366 - prepared Jenny}

It was a COLD day. Jenny was wearing this purple hat, bulky white parka, a green neck warmer that had that soft fuzz on the inside. Today she decided to show off her new elementary school backpack since our kindergarten gave them backpacks they had to use. She looked like she was prepared and ready for whatever was to come after leaving JES Island. 

navy girls || Project 366

{Project 366. 32/366 - navy girls}

At JES Island our different classes have color names. I teach Olive Island. I decided to feature kids from the different islands. These girls are from Navy Island. They're probably the brightest and most witty girls at our school. They singing about their teacher. The words were pretty funny "Beryl teacher is happy that we are leaving. We know her heart! We know her heart!" They speak almost perfect English. I teach them gym everyday and for the longest time I couldn't distinguish the three of them. In the top picture we have, from left to right, Cheney, Rachel and Belle. They're all little punks, but also so adorable. They're going to beautiful as they grow up. So cute now. 

loving the camera || Project 366

{Project 366. 31/366 - loving the camera}

I was testing something with my camera on these tables when suddenly Rina and Daniel decided to fool around. Daniel loves when a camera is around him. I love when kids aren't camera shy. It's so refreshing when they shamelessly want to be captured because so many kids in Korea turn their head away. 

miss independent || Project 366

{Project 366. 30/366 - miss independent}

Today was market day at work. Each student brought in things they didn't want, and then they were given ' 3 dollars' to go to different stores (different classrooms) to buy things their friends brought in. Here is Jenny cleaning some toy trains that she bought for her younger sister. She was so cute.  

Here is Jenny again. I gave the students some time to practice reading and memorizing their speech. They each had a partner, but since I have 7 students she was left out. I said she could pick a group to join, but she said she wanted to be alone. Everyone was reading out loud so it was pretty chaotic. Jenny got up and then put her earmuffs on and then went about reading her paper out loud. I admire her independence.