High School Musical

I've been in the doldrums for the last couple of weeks. Only 30 days now until my time in South Korea comes to an end, and as ever, it's getting through the last little bit which is the hardest. I've totally run out of steam, have had a hard week with Grade 6, and am wobbling between the excitement of coming home and reunion with family, friends and prawn cocktail crisps and the sad work here saying goodbye to people.

For the last year, I've been teaching three 16 year old girls at the unsociable hour of 8pm on a Friday night - but the girls are charming, funny, sweet and geek-chic to a tee. Our last class was at Pizza Hut last week, where they invited me to their interschool dance competition. This is the first real demo of any sort of teen culture I've seen here. Middle and High school kids study so hard that they're almost invisible. They're the ones that are slumped in heaps on the subway trying to get some sleep between school and academies, or stripping cosmetic shops bare in 30 seconds. This dance competition was a platform for them to show their devotion to K-pop, having learned the moves exactly down to the last pout. Two of my students, Kitty and Miffy (!), were part of a 20 strong team, in somewhat dubious outfits, but with a superhigh energy cheerleading routine.

This is Miffy exhausted and happy after her performance. Not a good photo, but a good memory of a very lovely group of girls.