Last Day of Class

The Intermediate class has had a lot of fun the past few days. To celebrate our last day of class, we made a big poster for our homeroom teacher, 김 선생닙. It was shaped like a giant cupcake (컵케익), and we wrote individual notes to her shaped like sprinkles!

Our awesome cupcake poster! The green stem of the cherry was actually a piece of trash we found on the ground.

We also got her this amazing green tea cake (녹차 케이크) from Tous Les Jours (뚜레쥬르), the nice bakery chain that also has 팥빙수. It was absolutely delicious, and also very pretty!

녹차 (nokcha), green tea, is one of my favorite dessert flavors. :3

During the first two periods of our last day, we learned a Korean song called "Americano", by 10cm. Here is a fan-made lip-sync video of the song. It's simple and really catchy, so I think it'll be stuck in my head for a while! Anyway, our assignment was to rewrite the lyrics so that we loved something besides Americano.

Our class decided to write an ode to... ourselves. ("인터, 인터, 인터, 인터... 인터미디엇!) We also *kind of* put down the Beginner classes... not my idea! But it was really funny anyway, and during the class battle (B-1 through B-6 versus Intermediate, all presenting their versions of the song), we had a great time. I love a little rivalry, and it's funny how it's only just come out! The competition to make the best poster, buy the best gift, and impress our teachers the most at the end of the semester has been a fantastic motivator. Also, I'm glad we finally had a chance to have a fun class. 인터미디엇, 사랑해!

"We love Intermediate, no need for Beginner!" Teehee. (If you're wondering, we're making hearts with our hands.)

Speaking of class gifts, our gifts to 김 선생님 and 홍 선생님 were photographs of our class in really nice frames. (Thanks to Kelly and Ashley for getting the cake and gifts!) After giving her the gift, we ate snacks and cake and wrote little "yearbook" autographs to each other. I was pleased at how much I knew how to say to my classmates in Korean, although I still used a little bit of English in my autograph to get some more complex points across. But I can now tell people that they are going to be a good English teacher in Korean!

김 선생님 with our class photo, which was taken in this same room in front of the same whiteboard. 파이팅!

I guess I'm pretty sad that language class is over! It wasn't always loads of fun -- in fact, having four hours of language class a day was never very exciting -- but it was a really important part of Orientation, and now that we've passed this milestone, the reality of our approaching Departure Day and the real beginning of the grant year is starting to sink in. I'll miss my classmates and our teachers!

(We still have one thing left, though: the graduation ceremony! It'll take place in Seoul on Monday. During the ceremony, every class will give a presentation in the form of a skit and speeches. So, our class still has to meet to rehearse once or twice. Fortunately, our skit is hilarious and I enjoy rehearsing it. You'll see photos of it soon!)

(Oh, and yeah, I'm going to Seoul! It's 1:30am as of this writing, and everyone will be boarding the buses in two hours. Am I going to have an awesome weekend? Yes.)

Intermediate class, posing with our awesome cupcake poster! From left to right: me, Susie, Monica, Jaeyeon, Kelly, Ashley, Megan, 김 선생님, Amber, Tracey, Lizzie, Kyla, and Soon.