Office goodbye party & last choir performance

Wednesday, June 27, was my final day at work in the textbook office and Jonathan's last day of teaching. In the early afternoon a couple of my coworkers walked into the office with a Paris Baguette (a pastry/bakery chain store) cake box and suddenly all the rest of my coworkers got up and congregated at the small table in the corner of the room. "Ali, come on, we're going to have a party for you," Robin told me as she rose from her chair. I was surprised, since my office had gone out for a goodbye dinner the week before, but I quickly finished what I was doing and joined the rest of my office at the table. They made me sit in the seat of honor while everyone else stood, and presented me with a blueberry cake and two presents. "You have to open the presents first," they commanded and I'm sure I turned red with all the attention as they watched me open the card first and read all the sweet thoughts and good wishes they had written. Then I carefully unwrapped the first present and found a white modern-looking, but older-style alarm clock. In Sun explained, "When someone is leaving, it's a custom to give them a clock, so that when they look at it later, they will remember all the time they spent with us." I was so touched and I know I will always remember the amazing people in the textbook office whenever I see my new alarm clock! They were all quite pleased that I liked the gift. Then I opened the second gift and found a small handmade wooden fan. It was from a lady named Kyeong. She told me, "I am so thankful for all the work you did to help me with the project I was working on. The fan is a thank-you for your help and the good work you did on that project. Also, it's because we were in the church choir together." I was so surprised she had given me something special since helping her with the project was just another part of my job and I hadn't even spent extra hours on it. What a sweet gesture! Then everyone wanted me to cut the cake so we could eat it. Someone suggested that Robin come and cut the cake with me (haha, like at a wedding) and then they told me that she called me her baby and called herself my Korean mama. I had had no idea! They told me all kinds of other stories, too, and it was such a nice time of sharing and reminiscing over the past six months of me working in the textbook office. We chatted and ate cake with chopsticks (the only utensil stocked in the office) until someone, probably our director, Dr. Yoon, said we should probably get back to work.

My goodbye blueberry cake

My Korean mama, Robin, and I cutting the cake, wedding style

Robin, Ann, Jewel, and Coco eating the cake Korean style

It was hard to go back to work and try to finish up the last project I would be working on in Korea, but it was even harder to go through the office and say goodbye to everyone when 6 p.m. rolled around. We promised to keep in contact, to write or send pictures, but of course that's never the same as actually being together, working in the same office, sharing our lives with each other. I had wanted to back-up all my work files onto my thumb drive, but hadn't been able to fit them all on, so I promised everyone, "I'll be back tomorrow to get the rest of my files. I'll say my real goodbyes then." So I gathered up all my personal items - my thumb drive, a chap stick, a small bottle of lotion, the "well-being" metal mug that June had given me back in our old office in January - and headed out the door accompanied by goodbye calls and waves.

The next morning I was back at the office, bringing my mum, who had arrived the night before, along with me. I wanted her to take some pictures of me together with some of my favourite people in Korea. After I saved all of my files onto my external hard drive, she did quite a photo shoot of me in my office with my coworkers. I will cherish these pictures of my special Korean people forever! (To see many more pictures, look at my mum's blog post.)

The steps leading up to my office feature many of the fruits of the spirit
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

In my office ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Textbooks I helped create for my first project at the office ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

With three of my coworkers: Coco, Chili, and Kyeong ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

More of my coworkers in a meeting downstairs: Hee Young, me, Dr. Yoon, Jewel, Robin & In Sun ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Jewel, Robin, In Sun, Ann, Michelle & Jin waving goodbye to me ~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Then there was another goodbye at church on Sabbath. It was mine and Jonathan's last time to sing with the church choir. We had told everyone the week before that the next week would be our last week at church, but they were still surprised when we told them again that morning that it would be our last time singing with them. It was special to sing that last choir song in Korean with my parents and brother sitting in the congregation. And after the service was finished, my family came up front and I introduced them to the choir and we had a flurry of photos taken with the whole group and with certain special individuals. It was a bittersweet time. I was happy to have my family there, excited about the traveling we would be doing soon, and looking forward to being home again, but sad to be leaving this country, and more importantly, these people who had become special to me.

Going over the Korean lyrics during our practice before church
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

Special music by the choir and orchestra
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring

After-church pictures with the choir and my family
~ Photo by Glenda Quiring's camera

I guess that's why life on this earth is disappointing and heartbreaking. We make friends, but sometimes we have to leave them, sometimes we have to say goodbye. I can't wait for the great reunion in heaven where we will never have to say goodbye to those we love and cherish ever again!

Farewell supper at VIPS

A couple weeks before the end of June, Dr. Yoon, the director of my office, told me that our whole office would be going out to eat on June 19. The next week, while walking to work with In Sun, the assistant director, I found out that we were going out to eat as a goodbye meal for me. When June 19 came, we all left the office right at 6 p.m. (something that pretty much never happens since most workers stay to work overtime) and walked together to the main road where we caught several taxis. A few minutes later, once over the stream and into the shopping and restaurant section of our part of Seoul, we hopped back out of the taxis. Then we quickly crossed the road, and headed into VIPS Restaurant on the second floor of a glass-fronted building. Our group included 16 people and we had to sit at two tables, which was unfortunate since we couldn't all socialize together that way. But the table I was at was lovely to visit with and the buffet and salad bar was great! It was a nice evening spending time with each other and I am so thankful that we got to enjoy this special time together as an office before I left.

My placemat - what I never needed to know...

Table 1 (L-R): In Sun, Chilli, Hee Young, Coco, Coco's husband, Dr. Yoon & In Sun's son Daniel

Table 2 (L-R): Ali, Pat, Kyung, Jewel, a lady who works in a co-office, Michelle, Ann, Robin (AKA my Korean mama) & Leeza
(Unfortunately, Jin must have been gone to get more food when this picture was taken...)

Kimbap/Cookie Day

Today Ali and I had company for the first time! One of the other teachers, Ellen, had mentioned to me a while ago that some teachers should get together sometime and make food, and I immediately thought of making kimbap (what we in America call sushi). I suggested it to her, and she said it sounded great. A week or so later, she randomly asked me if she could host some of the All-Day Club students at my apartment so that one of the students could make cookies for them. I remembered about kimbap again, and said that we should make it a cookie/kimbap fest! So we set a date, and finally today it came! A few teachers and a few more students all showed up this afternoon, and we had a great time making kimbap, cookies, and tteokbokki (pronounced toke boke ee), which is rice cakes in hot sauce.

All the shoes (minus our own, which were put away to make more room)

Richard and Daisy cutting vegetables

Michelle (in the blue jacket) starts making the cookies

Mixing them up

All ready to put on the pan!

Cookie crew and spectators

Jin cutting the eggs for the kimbap

Michelle very meticulously placed each cookie on the tin foil

Jennifer frying up some vegemeat

Ellen (the teacher who helped organize this) making tteokbokki

Making kimbap

Ellen still working on the tteokbokki

More kimbap!

Ali helps cut it

All ready to eat! ...except for the tteokboki, which I forgot to wait for when I took the picture.

Of course, Koreans are most comfortable on the floor, and Ali fits right in (but not me)

After lunch, a couple of the students were tired, so they sacked out in the "office"

The cleanup crew

Jennifer posing after a short nap

For pictures of our first two-person Kimbap Day in February, click here.

Final weekends of Term 1 All-Day Club

We're finally finishing up with the All-Day Club pictures from last term. The next-to-last Sabbath of the term, February 18, was really busy here at the Seoul Main Institute. We started with a teacher's Prayer Breakfast. We have Prayer Breakfast once a month at 8:30 on Sabbath morning. We usually sing some songs, someone presents a short talk, we prayer together in small groups, and then we eat breakfast together. Ellen usually makes pancakes and they're always great!

Jason, Ellen, Janice, Kevin, Dillon and Jonathan at Prayer Breakfast 

Cereal, pancakes and strawberries 

Ellen doesn't really want to hurt Dillon with a fork. Really, she doesn't.

After Prayer Breakfast we hurried upstairs to the church for Sabbath School. All-Day Club put on Sabbath School that weekend and the special music was all the All-Day Club members and teachers singing together. After that, one member, Stella, gave her testimony about getting baptized because of learning about Seventh-day Adventism through All-Day Club.

Stella giving her testimony and Jooch translating

Then we all dispersed to our separate Sabbath morning duties. Jonathan and I went to our Morning Clubs and then met back up again for church. In the afternoon we helped out with the Bible Video Club from 3-5 p.m. It was really fun because Pastor Caleb, the assistant director, had made up three games for us to complete. He put us into four groups of All-Day Club members with one foreign teacher in each group. For our first task we had to cut words out of newspapers and paste them onto blank sheets of paper to make a fairly extensive Bible verse. Next we played a Taboo-esque game where each team member had to describe a word that Pastor Caleb showed on the screen to the rest of their team and the team had to try to guess the correct words. Some where names of students or teachers and others were from the Bible. It was really close and by the time we were done that game the teams had very close scores. The final game was one the foreign teachers couldn't participate in. It was Korean riddles. In the end my team got really close to winning because of Gisele's great guessing, but Jonathan Lee's team finally beat us in the end. But we all had a really good time together. Right after that we rushed back to our apartment to change and then met back in front of the institute to go out to eat for a farewell to the leaving teachers. We went to a restaurant called Seven Springs that was several stops away on the subway. Yum, it was good, although trying to find vegetarian food proved to be a bit of a problem. We vegetarians just filled up on ice cream and floats, though, and all was fine. :)

Us in front of Seven Springs Restaurant

Then the next Friday afternoon, February 24, we went to Ashley's, a buffet restaurant, again with the All-Day Club members. It was a nice time together, especially since it would be one of the last times to see and spend time with some of the students.

Eating out at Ashley's restaurant

The guys - Jerry, Jonathan L., Koon & Jonathan G.

The girls - Ali, Angela & Elly (and a guy)

A game of "Rock, Scissors, Paper" (the Korean name for it) - Koreans use this game to decide all kinds of things

Waffle dessert

Ice cream dessert

Rudith, one of Jonathan's Level 2 students and a Half-Day Club member

Jennifer, another of Jonathan's Level 2 students and a Half-Day Club member

Farewell lunch at Mr. Pizza

Today both of us went out to eat as a sort of "farewell" outing - I with my 10 and 11am classes, and Ali with her coworkers. Out of pure coincidence, we ended up going to the exact same pizza restaurant! Mr. Pizza has some pretty good pizza as well as a salad bar and yogurt bar. After Ali finished eating with her coworkers, and they left, she came and joined our table while we ate.
I also presented awards at that time - for each class we give out an award for the top student based on grades, also if someone has perfect attendance, they get an award. The top student receives a free textbook for the next level of class, and for perfect attendance a 20,000 won voucher is awarded toward the next level tuition (about $20).
In my 10 am class, Jennifer got both awards, and in my 11 am class Daisy was the top student, with no one achieving perfect attendance. Of course, they were duly excited; in fact, Daisy was actually surprised she had passed!

All in all it was a fun time, even though a pretty small percentage of my students showed up that day.

Ali and her coworkers: Christie - the Adult Textbook Office Manager, Robin and MJ (June was sick and couldn't make it)

Jennifer with her two awards

Daisy with her award - I think she was too surprised to smile!

The whole group, after Ali joined us. L-R: Ali, Amy, me, Randy, Jennifer, Rudith, Michelle, and Daisy

Jennifer insisted on getting a picture with me

And of course, after that, Daisy had to, too

We had never seen an intersection with so many crosswalks before, so Ali took a picture of it. It has all the usual ones across each street, as well as two diagonal ones that cut right across the middle of the intersection. Traffic comes to a complete standstill for the use of these walks.

Daisy and Michelle found a cute puppy to pet just before we got back to the institute