As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been saying good-bye to people (19 days to go!). At the faculty luncheon a couple of weeks ago I got a card filled with lovely thoughts and a gift (a brand-name wallet with a super-cool wooden clasp!) from the Korean teachers and a big ‘crystal’ “award” for 10 years of teaching at Ewha. Then, I was planning on having a going-away dinner with some of the ‘girls’ (Elena, Kristen, Haechin) the night before Kristen left for the U.S. and the wedding she’s in (see next post for the dress I made her!). It was the last time we were going to be together, so we planned on going out to a Mexican place.

That day we’re all running around finalizing our semester’s grades, then I thought we were leaving, but they insisted they needed coffee before dinner (?!?), so we sat in a coffee shop for an hour. It was fun, but I was hungry! FINALLY, we left.

We walked into the restaurant… and there were (almost all of) the full-time teachers and the TAs from the office! It was a surprise going-away party for me! And what a surprise it was — I had not a clue, and I had seen most of these people at least a couple of times that week already! No one spilled the beans.

I was so touched, to say the least. Not only was it totally unexpected, I believe it is THE VERY FIRST time anyone has ever thrown me a surprise party! They gave me a hysterical card — it had my head on Christian Siriano’s body, and the banner over it said, “Project Run-a-way!” (I would show it to you, but I’ve packed it already, apparently!) They also chipped in and got me a gift. Technically, a cash gift, but they printed out exactly what I had to buy with it (and it saved me packing it, yeah!). They “got” me an Italian leather portfolio presentation case for when I’m making my rounds with my designs to show clients/employers! So now I’m all set for that interview with Monique Lhullier <g>.

I tell you, them all being there, the wonderful things they said on the card, the extremely thoughtful gift — I almost started crying, and you KNOW how hard it is to get me to do that in public! So of course I made jokes, but it was a wonderful night finding out that I may not have been designing, but the 13-1/2 years I spent in Korea were well spent!