Friday, December 14, 2007

One more picture


This is me and two other teachers watching the game. I had totally intended on playing, but went jogging for the first time in quite a while and hurt my foot...as my mom said, maybe those two things aren't entirely unrelated!

Egerton Cup

Me and Mimi, my principal's little dog, trying to stay warm!
One of the teams in their official Egerton Cup shirts.
The other team.
Pete and Jason watching the game.
The two teams after the game.

On Sunday, December 9th, there was a soccer game in honor of John. He was the varsity soccer coach. Our school just had a new soccer field built, so it was a fitting place to have it. Then we came back to the apartments and had a Thai food potluck and some people (not me!) drank car bombs (a shot of Jamison dropped into a glass of Guiness and chugged), which were John's favorite drink. Even though it was a Sunday night, some people (again, not me!) partied into the night, so Monday morning was tough for some folks! But it was a nice way to remember John.



I'm heading home in a week! I'm very excited to go back to the US and see everyone. There's also a lot of food I'm excited to eat while I'm home that I can't get here: a Burgerville cheeseburger, black beans, skim milk, good Mexican food, pastries, sourdough bread, regular Diet Coke...yummm!



Friday, December 7, 2007

Memorial


Last Saturday, December 1st, one of the SIS teachers was riding his motorcycle in Seoul and was hit by a bus that ran a red light and was killed. The teacher taught junior Kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds) and was 12 days shy of his 28th birthday. I didn't know him all that well, but it's been a huge shock to the whole school. One thing that was weird for me was that I had e-mails in my in-box from him that he had sent me just a couple of days before he died. For the people who knew him well, this week has been really difficult. I was really impressed by how the SIS community pulled together to mourn him and celebrate his life. It's kind of a weird thing to have someone die like this, so far away from home. To a large extent, his friends here in Seoul had become his family for the past 3 years, but then he has this whole other life in the US that most people here don't really know much about.


We all found out about his death on Sunday and on Monday, the multi-purpose room at school was turned into a place for his memorial. It's traditional in Korea to send large wreaths of white flowers to a funeral and there were over 20 huge wreaths for this teacher, mostly from parents connected to the school. There was also an alter set up with flowers, a picture of the teacher, candles, pictures, and other souvenirs people had from this teacher. The school put on a memorial service for the teacher on Thursday. Then on Sunday, we're playing a soccer game and eating Thai food in his honor.