Quite the interesting last day (of the semester that is)

January 14th: Today was my last class of the semester, so instead I decided to play a game with. This was tricky of me because I was supposed to teach them writing, but the game was all about writing... muahahaha. Its called scattegories. Easy to play and it gets the whole class involved because kids are competitive even when they just wake up. So you pair the class into groups of two, meaning 6 groups for my class and you give them a piece of paper and I sit on my desk with a stop watch. 3...2...1... countries, then all the kids furiously write down as many countries they can think of befor I stop the clock. They have to write them in English, if its in Hanguel (Korean) I dont count it. And then we go over spelling when I notice lots of the kids had the same errors. I get them to tally up the number of countries and I write them all down on the board under group a,b,c,d... etc. Then we start again... jobs,school supplies,holidays,types of drinks,name brands until about 5 minutes of class is left and then I get them to do the math until a winner is decided. I was given a bag of chocolate and stickers to give out for the winners or whoever i decide was the best student of the day. The stickers were a whole other idea, whoever gets 10 stickers gets a pack of rahman noodles, and of course I weilded this over their little Korean heads until I got what I wanted. Shhhhhhhhhh..... ok, no stickers.

So after this and the last class of flea market, the kids had a final exam which I had to mark their scores and do a bunch of grading and fill out papers to be sent home to their parents. I cant believe it, I actually feel like a teacher. I had to evaluate them on a grade system A+, A, B+, B etc. on levels of listening, reading, writing and attitude. The worst mark I gave out was a B, I had my best student at a C+ for attitude because she just was never pleasant and didnt care, but I just dont think she was challenged enough. But I really couldnt speed up the class for her because everyone else was going along at a slower level. I definitely learned a lot from this first semester and would do things differently.

So here came the interesting part of the day. As we are all marking the tests an email was sent to 3 of the teachers from headoffice. Brent, Chad and George all good guys and good teachers. The letter said in jist that they were in big trouble because of a sexual harrassment claim from one of the TA's(teachers Assisstants) and a student. WHAT!!! everyone couldnt believe it, mainly because it wasnt true, but because no one knew where the idea even came from.

Now let me take this back a day, to clear things up a little. The second semester of the camp has a lot less number of students coming so the school had to get rid of three teachers. Brenton, Peter and Nari were the ones chosen, mostly because of their visas and they can still get around without any trouble, so it was only reasonable to let them go. It was unfortunate but no hard feelings were brewing.

So fast forward a day back to when they recieved the email. No one knew where this sexual harrassment stemmed from. But through detective work and inside knowledge, it was found out that the head counselor at the camp Mr. Sol, who sits in the same room as us and one that I played ping-pong with created these allegations from a small fabrication that Brent made when touching one of the ta's neck. The t.a. went to Mr. Sol and said that she was uncomfortable which Mr. Sol turned around and contacted head office saying that Brent touched her breasts and ass and then through in some stuff that students made claims too.

This is how Korea works people and lots of the time people get away with it, but not this time. Chad and George got thrown into this mess because Mr. Sol wanted a different group of people gone instead of the 3 that had to leave because of their visa's. The main reason being that they were all older than him, and in Korea the head teacher likes to be above everyone and age has a large factor on this. He felt like he couldnt control them (not that we were even having any problems) and would be in a better position if everyone were under him, in age and status. So this thing got blown out of proportion and lets just say, Mr. Sol has his coming to him. I dont know what or when, but ill keep everyone updated on that.

SOoooooooo after that huge ordeal it was time for the kids to put on their plays that they had been rehearsing for the past week. My class middle-2 performed Snow White and it was awesome. Their english was really good and they werent nervous at all, and even one of the kids Tony who played the prince in the play wore a girls dress. Haha... it was so funny. Other classes performed "the boy who cried wolf", the section from "Sister Act 2" where whoopie and the choir were singing, and a bunch of other things. A lot of fun and I took like 50 pictures.

So with the camp over, I had to come back the next day to watch them graduate, give out awards and say bye to all the kids. I was about to leave when I forgot I put my laundry in the wash about 5 hours prior. And a little sidenote, Korea doesnt have dryers... ahhhh so I boxed all my and walked home.

It was Nari's last night at the camp, so Richard, Nari and I grabbed a couple Maekchu's and some Soju and snacks and chilled at my place and drank and watched 'The Best of Borat'. We actually stayed in my room so late, that the buffet we were going to go to closed. So we decided to hit up another spot, and orded a bunch of dishes. Mandu, kimbop, pork soup, and some other pork dish... aww really good. A fun last night with Nari and a good ending to a strange day.

Heres to the mom and pops