chal ga (so long) william

i found out today that one of my favorite little kidlets is leaving. on friday!!
this was very hard for me to take. i love this kid a lot.
he used to cry every day when he started school.
so i danced a lot and buttoned his coat and pretended to be various animals.
and he stopped crying.
he loves me in a way that gets me through the day
because his is my last class
and if i ever feel like high-tailing it out of there,
i know i can hang in for this little guy.
plus he makes me laugh. see attached photos.







he's great.
he calls me "erin maschita"
which translates as "delicious erin."
this is because i pretended to eat my own hand one day.

now, let's analyze:

1. it's not just william. i'm actually in love with this whole class of kids and his leaving is the beginning of the breakdown of this whole happy zone for me.

2. it makes me so sad that i almost cry when i think that i will never see these kids again and i will never know what becomes of any of them because all i know are their fake-o engrish names.

3. i am a hypocrite because i leave in three weeks. but i was going to leave first!

4. this is the beginning of the end of korea for me.
it's slow to sink in, but oh so sad.

my first summer working as a camp counselor, my boss had to pry me from one kid who it was breaking my heart to leave. and that was just the short, one week pre-session. after many summers as a camp counselor, i guess i have learned nothing, as i don't even remember that kid's name now.

it all feels very cheese romantic like some quote carved on a brightly laquered piece of wood about "people leave footprints on your heart and i'm better for the struggle of love and walk beside me and be my friend and if you touch the life of one child bah bah bah bah."

i honestly bask in the warm glow of completely unconditional love for six hours every day. i get greeted in the morning with cheers and sincere smiles and i leave with hugs and usually candy of some sort, or at least a sticker or two. and when i can see that i have taught them even the smallest bit of english in the process of just showing up for work, it's so cliche, but it's so rewarding and makes me feel like 8 billion dollars (or 8 hundred billion won).
this is going to be hard to leave behind. especially when i think about the fact that i have to tell 25 5-year-olds that i'm leaving and never coming back. i hope they remember me at all.

ouch.

you know who will remember me is the little stinky 9-year-old girl i made sit in the hall today during class for lying to me and manipulating the boys in the class and playing with marbles and defying my authoritay who now totally hates me. she'll remember.