Sleepovers

Oh. My. God.  Last night was one of my favorite nights.  Ever.  As I was leaving school yesterday afternoon, Hyunjoo invited me to come to a sleepover she was having for her select choir.  I already had dinner plans and then Diane was coming to stay for the weekend, so I wasn't sure if it would work, but I told her I'd text her after dinner and Diane's arrival to see if the festivities were still happening.  Boy were they!

The sleepover was held at a house that the school owns that is two buildings away from my apartment.  The house is used for special camps that the school has sometimes.  So, we (Diane, Desiree and I) walked into the house and heard loud music, singing, cheering and clapping coming from a room at the side of the house.  As we entered the room, about 25 teenage girls erupted into cheering, clapping and screams.  They were so excited to see us.  We sat down and watched as several different groups of girls came to the front of the room to perform.  In true Kyunghwa fashion, some sang, many danced and there was even a violin duet.  There were a couple of other teachers there too, all watching as the girls put on the most raucous of talent showcases.  Some of the girls had total sleepover hair and had also painted freckles on their faces for their performances.  During a lull in their performances, Desiree, Diane and I had the bright idea to teach them the Macerena, so, amid more raucous cheering, we came to the front of the room to demonstrate the actions.  In the meantime, the girls requested that we do the Chicken Dance, which Dionne and I had taught them a couple of weeks ago for no good reason.  I was so excited and almost touched that they not only remembered but wanted to do it again with us.  Adorable.

As we were teaching them the actions (right hand out, left hand out, right hand up, left hand up, right hand elbow, left hand elbow, etc.) they were all repeating the words we were telling them.  I should have taken a video of it.  It was so cute.  They loved the dance and asked us to teach them more.  (Dionne and I planned to do just this for a lesson after Finals, so it was good confirmation that they'll enjoy it, but I also didn't want to do too much to spoil the lesson...)  In the meantime, they also asked to do the Hokey Pokey (Dionne and I taught them the Hokey Pokey so they would sing it when they were late to class, but no one seemed to catch on and connect to it, so I was also surprised at their excitement to do the Hokey Pokey...)  Then, we all migrated to the dining room where Hyunjoo and Ji Hye had prepared watermelon for us to eat.  We stood around the dining room talking to my most adorable students.  Then, most of the students retired to a huge room on the second floor of the house to play typical sleepover games before winding down for bed.  We figured that was a good time to leave, so thus ended our Korean sleepover experience.

I don't feel like I'm doing this experience justice in my explanation...  It was such a simple couple of hours, but, to quote Tom Hanks from Sleepless in Seattle, it was a million little things that made the evening special.  Their excitement over our arrival and meeting my friends, their giddiness and their interest in things Dionne and I had randomly taught them weeks ago was heartwarming - maybe more than heartwarming.  Things I thought they'd never remember or react to come up more and more.  I'm starting to realize just how much our interactions impact them and it's a pretty special feeling.  The more time I spend here with my students, especially outside of the classroom, the more I feel like I'm building a really special connection to this place, and more so, the people that I interact with on a daily basis.  I've always known I would fondly look back on this time of my life, but it's starting to sink in that my time in Korea is going to affect me for the rest of my life - in the best way possible.