GONG show

**note. i will try my best to describe this insanity, however, words cannot fully express the evening of Friday, June 18, 2010.

this past friday was the SK graduation at our school and i did really well - i didn't even cry! we gave each student their diploma and it was just a quiet, simple ceremony in our class with the parents (oh and audri who is the canadian consul general of vietnam was there too - i'm pretty much a big deal lol).

anyway, we were told a week ago that we would also be having a closing ceremony for our school and that it would also be on friday. from 5:30 - 7:30 pm. at the REUNIFICATION PALACE!!!! the palace was the home and work place of the president of south vietnam during the vietnam war. and we were holding our closing ceremony here. i'm shaking my head just thinking about it. GONG!

ok, so closing ceremony. they asked if we could include the SK's beacuse they were graduating and they wanted to honour them. i said no, that we could be the entertainment and just sing our graduation song, and they said that was fine. a few days later, i am told that each of the 32 sk's will be getting a trophy for their graduation but not to worry, the owner would do that - i just have to keep them quiet. great. fine. NOT SO! guess who had to deliver the 32 sk awards?? oh and good news, the awards had their vietnamese and korean names on them so i had to play a guessing game to figure out who the awards were for. fun. GONG! oh and as i was delivering these awards, there was a random boy on stage like grabbing my feet, kids running all over, parents talking to each other, talking on phones, not paying any attention. it was AWFUL! GONG! and it doesn't stop here but i just can't even talk about it anymore. i have to stop.

oh and hey! did i forget to mention that they also decided it would be a great idea to make this evening the grade 8 graduation as well??? oh yes! so we go through the sk song, 32 sk awards, 4 special awards for each glass from jk - 9 and THEN the grade 8 graduation. GONG! the poor grade 8's got totally ripped off and i felt so bad for them because by the time we got to them, there was hardly anyone left!! there were awards with the wrong names, some with their dad's names on them, the owner was yelling at the vietnamese staff, kids were running all over the place and making paper airplanes....the list goes on. really. GONG GONG GONG!

this is only a taste. i feel like the pictures can't even capture it all!!! i should have taken a video of the insanity. but now we know. i have a feeling that next year teachers will be putting a foot down on this craziness!