Our school year is officially at an end! It is stunning how quickly one year can go and what all can happen in one year! At the end of each year I've always had my classes answer various questions about the year and what we did. It's fun because when we talk about what books we've read the students are always amazed because the things we did at the beginning of the year feel very far away!
While Matt did a post about the Senior banquet, some new pictures with him have surfaced and I loved them so much I decided you should see them as well! :-)
The above picture is one that always makes me very happy. Matthew has a tendency to put his fingertips together when he teaches and it's become a trademark gesture that the students love to copy.
Isn't he lovely?
The last week of school was blessedly organized with finals and field trips abounding. For his final exam Matthew offered a bonus point for anyone who wanted to draw a whale on their exam (it's a long story!). Below are some of the most artistic renderings.
I always love the square little whales this student draws. Previously he has also drawn Matthew as a whale in a tank with a chalk board.
This whale is graduating and even has a little commencement speech!
And this has chibi versions of Matthew and I fishing for whales that look like us!
Of course there was field day as well, and we had very nice weather this year! So nice that about half of us who were there got sunburned since we forgot the sun is so much more powerful this time of year! But it was worth it. :-)
I saw this and knew it needed to be photographed! It says "Caution, Squirrels!" The comma certainly adds ambiguity to what it could possibly be alerting everyone of!
Matt was the pitcher for the (very competitive!) elementary kickball competition.
One of the relays included having to shuffle with two pieces of paper under your feet. It made me laugh that this team decided having two people hold the paper under the person's feet was a good strategy.
I also loved that this shirt read "Feel Great. Piece of Lucky." and had a little monkey in the middle.
This game was very eventful in that it ended in stampeding. I had actually played this in youth group before and it ended exactly the same way. You tie everyone together and they have to make it around the cone and back. Two teams almost made it before someone tripped!
Graduation was Thursday and this year it included kindergarten graduation and awards day.
The 2nd grade performing "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music
My lovely kindred spirit, Sveta, giving her awards.
Me and my top English student!
The band played parts of national anthems and, of course, Pomp and Circumstance.
Our two graduates, both Korean
We particularly appreciated that this senior said to us in his commencement speech that though our assignments could be hard we should keep doing them because he learned a lot from them. Very validating!
And singing our traditional end of the year song, "This is My Father's World."
It was a very bittersweet time of year for us, especially as it is a reminder that next year we will be saying our goodbyes. But while that is bitter, the sweetness comes from being able to look at the years we've had here and our amazing students. This has been a year of big changes and at times big challenges for us and for many of the families here, but God has blessed us and the school and we pray he will continue to do.
One final surprise greeted us this past Friday. We got a call saying that we needed to take a surprise trip to Finland for a new migration card. While it was a very fixable problem, it did end with us spending our entire Saturday in a van, so that was an interesting and unexpected way to spend the first Saturday of our vacation! Fortunately, we had good travel companions and it all went fairly smoothly.
Continue to pray for the school. We have been blessed so far and are hoping that everything can be put in order with the government relatively easily, but surprises do happen. Thank you for all of your prayers through this past year!
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