Goodbye Omni

Leaving our students at Omni was really difficult since we had taught most of them for a year and a half. We had developed relationships with these kids and knowing that we would probably never see them again after coming home was so sad. Our last couple of days at Omni were filled with pizza parties, games, group pictures, and some adorable presents from the kids.

Pizza party with the sixth graders!

Sixth graders Jamie and Clara...with Brenda peeking around them in the back.

Frank enjoying some pizza with his sixth graders.

Us with fifth graders Harry, Ethan, and Jessica...our most advanced class.

Frank with fourth graders Dennis, Harry, Alex, Jessica, Joanna, Jenny, and Nick

Melissa with her favorite class of third graders- Louis, Eric, Jessica, Dean Jr., Ally, Crystal, and

Rachel. This class loved to write songs to go along with the stories in the book.

Ally and her mother came to Omni at the end of the day to bring us some very special presents. They gave us a photo album filled with pictures of their family, some Korean tea, matching "couple" cell phone charms, and a very nice letter. We started teaching Ally at ELC when she was in first grade and have watched her grow so much over the year and a half we've known her. Now, she's in third grade and is such an excellent English speaker! We will miss Ally so much!

First graders Jamie and Enya- so cute!

First grader Wendy with her potato stick. This little girl has the biggest personality of anyone else her size. She speaks with so much enthusiasm and sounds like a native English speaker!

First graders Sally and Amy

Fourth grade class Eric, Sally, Jenny, Terry, and Kevin

Funny fifth grade boys Tony, John, David, and Harry

Fifth graders Henry, David, Alex, Tony, Sarah, Jina, and John

Frank with third graders Jessica and Crystal

Melissa with Linda, Cindy, and Ally...which one can I bring home with me?

Frank with fourth graders Emily, Sally, Erica, Alvin, Harry, and Alex

Fifth grade class- Tony, Brian, Sally, Vanessa, Lucy, and Lily

Omni's receptionist Sophia

Korean teacher Lina

Dawn, Frank, Rabey, Chris, Jessie, Josephine, Ben, and Melissa

Omni had a goodbye dinner for us and a welcome dinner for our replacement teachers Dawn and Ben. We enjoyed a traditional Korean meal of grilled pork and beef.

Leaving Omni was bitter-sweet for us. We were there since the opening of the school when around 20 students were enrolled. Now Omni has grown to over 100 students! Although it was a wonderful experience, a lot of extra time and effort went into helping establish the school. Our students were what made the hard work worth it. They were so fun to teach and really made our experience in Korea memorable. We were fascinated by their drive to master English at such a young age. The amount of time our Korean students study is unbelievable. Our elementary students not only go to school six days a week, they attend academies after school until 10pm! The academies are in subjects such as English, Korean, math, science, piano, etc. On holidays, they spend their time studying. We admire their work-ethic, but wish they had a little more time to play and be kids. The great thing about teaching our students is that even though they lead somewhat adult-like lives, we learned they still love to joke, play games, tell stories, sing songs, and act silly. They also did a great job of making us feel loved. They will always have a special place in our hearts and we hope to see them again some day!