Day 377: Caps 'n Gowns and Movie Stars

Today was Graduation Day - for the Kindergarteners, that is!

Graduating from Kindergarten is a really big deal in Korea. Much bigger than home. Big enough that it warrants a full-morning ceremony complete with caps and gowns and speeches and everything. Our ceremony was held in a reception hall of a church basement and us Preschool teachers went along to help make sure that everything went smoothly.

The kids were excited as hell and all wired up. Soon their parents arrived and the ceremony began. A few speeches and welcome messages were made, and then each kid was called up on stage individually to receive their little Kindergarten diploma. It was kinda chaotic nonetheless though cause most of the parents don't understand much English so they weren't even listening to anything. Instead, they were all just chatting to each other and pushing in and out of the kids to take photos of their own child. This was quite unlike any graduation ceremony back home where this behaviour would be considered extremely rude and disruptive, but then again, I'm not at home, am I?

Also, all the Korean teachers were up in a fuss because a fairly famous movie star was at our graduation ceremony. I don't remember his name but he's been in quite a few movies, and even just *looks* like a movie star. He has two daughters who go to POLY and one of them was graduating today so that's why he was there. After the ceremony all the Korean teachers were fluttering around and giddy as hell when they got to have their pictures taken with him. It was funny to watch and kinda weird because they were all so excited, yet I don't recognize him at all. Fame is a strange and relative thing, isn't it? It was cool though and our POLY campus is even a little bit famous because of his kids' enrollment at our school. Does that mean I'm a little bit famous cause I teach at the school where the kids of a famous movie star attend? (probably not!)