Chapter Thirty-Seven: Extreme Abba Musical Chairs

This promises to be a most ridiculous post. Unfortunately, the whole school is sick right now so I haven't had the chance to take any new pictures of life at Little Genius--but I do have these videos from PE with Jupiter last week.

We played musical chairs to the Mama Mia soundtrack, which they happen to know by heart.

The music in this one is humorously ominous. Towards the end, you can see that two students declare themselves losers without noticing that there is actually an empty chair left.


In this one you can see that they watch me like hawks while I control the music. But the best part is that when I stop the music, many students keep singing.


You can kind of see Mark's high quality air guitar in the background. Where does a five-year-old Korean kid learn to air guitar to Abba?


Remember when I said that was the last "Super Trouper" video I would ever post? I lied.
The best part of the video is Cindy in the background shaking her head along to the music. Her hair is amazing. I tried to get a good video of it every time I saw her doing this dance for the past two months, but to no avail.


I entitled this video "Extreme Abba Musical Chairs: The Final Showdown" and got about 25 hits within the first half hour of posting it to youtube. Then the hits stopped completely. I guess the title was a little misleading, you might expect something a little more exciting--but it's not like I post on youtube for the general public.
The best part of this video is Peter's look of triumph at the end. In the background, you can see Chris trying to do a balancing game with Uranus--unfortunately they were a bit distracted by the sheer awesomeness of Abba musical chairs.

This experience makes me wonder why we stop playing musical chairs as we get older. I mean, it's a pretty sweet game, isn't it? Also, very few alterations need to be made to make it an amazing drinking game. Nicole, I think I have a game to add to New Year's!

Chapter Thirty-Six: End of Year Celebration

Welcome to Saturday's "End of Year Celebration" which was basically a Christmas pageant and kindergarten graduation combined. This was the snazzy room in Exco where it took place. We had three hours of rehearsal before the performance which was nearly two hours long and followed by an hour of dinner. Looong day for the little ones.

Sharon's pretty jazzed about it.

The adorable backdrop.

"Really, you expect me to wear this?" say Kane's eyes. Nevertheless, everyone else in Mars can't wait to get dressed! Does this not remind you of elementary school plays that always involved wearing a white leotard?

Don't mess with these elves. Lookit Woody's badass face on the right.

Whatever they are doing, Eric, on the left, is horrified.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"For some reason, I don't believe this is Dior."

Yes, Christy, you can totally be a princess. That will get you all the princes.

Pluto getting dressed as elves. Not nearly as funny as Mars.

Here, Mars and Pluto perform "Winter Wonderland." Alas, no video.

Mercury's "Any Dream Will Do" was introduced by a little skit about what they wanted to be when they grew up. "I love pretty dresses and I want to live in a castle, but my friends say there are no princesses in Korea," says Christy. "I think you are smart and beautiful, any prince would love to marry you. Of course you can be a princess!" responds Nicole. "Yes, I can!"


Here are the three girls who want to be singers, serenading us. "Do you think we can be singers?"

Venus singing "Summer Holiday."

Pay attention to the adorable kissing at the end. "Ah!"


The last "Super Trouper" video I will ever post. I swear.

Each of the graduating classes put on a play that Arthur adapted for them. I continue to be impressed with his drama teaching skills. There were so many great jokes. Here, Uranus is doing Peter Pan. You can see two lost kids, Captain Hook, Smitty, and Peter Pan. Captain Hook, Dustin, was absolutely amazing.


"Joanne" (not enough boys), Michael, and Wendy singing a nursery rhyme.


Jully as Tinkerbell, throwing the mildest temper tantrum ever, walks out while Peter Pan, Tommy, and Wendy, Ariel, talk about the role of a mother.


In this one, just listen to Captain Hook's delivery. A-mazing.


Most of Uranus singing "Boom Boom Ain't It Great to Be Crazy" after scaring way Captain Hook.


The epilogue. "Happy endings make me cry!"


Mars and Mercury sing "Are There Any Cookies in the Cookie Jar?" There was a short period of time during which they thought I would have to dance with them. Luckily, that was sorted out because I would have been awful ("You are going to need a lot of practice, I think," responded Rosie).


Backstage, Jupiter is getting ready to sing "Playground in My Mind." Jake is yawning, but it looks like he is trying to bite Kelly's arm. Meanwhile Steve, behind him, is looking a little concerned about the situation.




Pluto's play, also adapted by Arthur, was The Wizard of Oz. I was running out of video, so I only have a little bit. This part with Rocco as the cowardly lion is my favorite. It matches his personality so well.



The whole cast singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" at the end.


Backstage Uranus and Mercury get ready for "Animal Boogie" which was my least favorite song (see: poorly made rhymes and inability to fit lines to the meter) so I did not take video of it.

They were already so hot and sweaty from singing, dancing, and their Peter Pan costumes. "So hot!" was all Mike said to me the whole night.

"Please, no photos." Mars gets ready backstage in their adorable shiny pink costumes.

Kevin and Harry aren't nervous. They're just four.

What I love about this video of "Zippity Do Dah" is that Fita, all the way to the left, and Liam, in the middle, actually got the dance down. They were having a lot of trouble for a long time. It's also impressive because at age four walking up stairs is a major feat of coordination and these kids can dance!

Finally, we have some more elves--Jupiter and Venus--for "Santa Claus is Coming"


Just a clip.

Afterwards, we had a fancy dinner buffet. It looked like a wedding, seriously. It was in this huge hall, with white linens and covered chairs. Crazy! Nicole brings the class.

While the adults ate, mostly the kids ran around with big lollipops and made us nervous. Here's Stephen on a sugar rush.

Chris enjoyed the buffet style immensely, but he said he feels incredibly awkward at any function like this. I think I lost my ability to feel awkward since coming to Korea.

Tommy, from my second grade class, was there to cheer on his sister. He did a lot of running around, too. Chris, on the right, is the biggest ham and I love him for it.

This might be the single greatest shot of Liam ever taken. His eyes are OPEN. He has more to his face than just missing teeth. He looks like a little man! I am going to miss this one so much.

Back at home, I put the two roses I recieved from my students into my classy beer mug vase. Yeah, I've given up on cleaning since I will be leaving so soon. I'm in the process of packing as well.

Up next, "Extreme Abba Musical Chairs."

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Singin' 'n' Dancin'

These videos, one from last week and three from today, are of students practicing for the end-of-the-year celebration. Not much photo-worthy has been going on but these videos are pretty amusing.


Pluto and Jupiter singing Abba's "Super Troopers." The best part comes at around 30 seconds when Emily turns Steve around because he is facing the wrong direction. Excellent!


Mars, the four-year-olds, singing "Zippity Doo Dah." Lina, in the front with the pink slippers, gets really into it.


Pluto singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Unfortunately, there is no dancing for this one. They also have not been practicing this anywhere near as long as the other songs. They are going to be performing this in the context of doing The Wizard of Oz for their class play. It's going to be pretty amazing.



Last but not least is Uranus singing and dancing to "Puff the Magic Dragon." This one is going to be in the context of them performing Peter Pan. I absolutely love the dance.

These videos do the kids no justice. I am so, unbelievably excited for our end-of-year performance. Though, I am not excited about the fact that the English teachers have to MC it. I am not prepared for that, but I have over two weeks.

Chapter Twenty: Halloween with the adults

Welcome to Halloween with the adults! We went out to a brewery that is popular with Westerners and Koreans alike. There were actually a lot of people dressed in costumes and it was great. The best part was the Filipino band dressed as the X-Men doing a lot of 80's and 90's American pop music. You just can't make this stuff up. And again, video! Again, very loud. It'll take a few seconds to figure out what's going on, but once you do, it's amazing.

A friend of Dini's dressed as Samuel L. Jackson, ala Pulp Fiction.

Mario and the pirate outside of school.

As a team, we are totally freakin' badass. Or... baaaahdass. I really wanted to call this "One Baaaahdass Mutha-fuckin' Halloween."

Time for dancin'!

Guns blazin'.

The fake 'stashes were passed around quite a bit. Clearly, I had to wear one and look thoughtful.

Nicole and Dini, planning their next bank job.

Mario... after a few too many. (But not really, just playing with the stashes)

Everyone really wanted to take pictures with Arthur. I mean, at least twenty people asked him to take pictures. I loooove this little Korean kid doing a Mario pose.


And Nicole is such a kindergarten teacher that, of course, she finds little kids to dance with instead of adults. I followed suit quickly.

These photos all come from Nicole who has a much better way with a digital camera:
The whole gang at our table. We were one of the largest groups of people together in costume!

More stash.

According to Nicole, Mario is jumping to punch an invisible block. I agree.
Arthur and I have the moves. The thing about these photos is that I don't think I even realized we were dancing like that. And we didn't stop for a pose, Nicole is just that good.

Doin' the shopping cart?

I am so sad that I was at the bathroom and missed this moment.

We're so bad... or maybe just tired.

Wait no, we are bad.

Baaaaahd. (No Mom, I didn't take up smoking, it was just necessary for the photo).

Lining up for the costume contest. The whole place was cheering for Mario, but they awarded prizes to people with simple witch hats. Laaaaaame.

This was definitely the best Halloween in Korea I could have asked for.