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Published: August 6th 2007
So here's the scoop since Thurs....
So since I last wrote, we've eaten rice, been offered kimchi, eaten rice, been offered more kimchi, and eaten rice.... And while I'm trying to make that sound funny, it's absolutely true!
Friday we went on two short field trips. In the morning we went to Happy City, which if you read last year's blog, you know that it was a stop in the middle of a road to see a big empty field where they're planning to build a city. This year, we got to take a tour of the administrative building for the planning of the city. There were models, and korean explanations of all the rooms, and a video (believe it or not that was in English!) to explain their intent. The Korea Land Corporation (KLC) is who we're working for, teaching the children of their employees, and they are in charge of the planning and building of cities in Korea. Their idea is to make this "Happy City" be a centre of government and finance for Korea, with wonderful housing, lots of parks, paths for wakling and cycling, and all the buildings easily accessible to all. Their class sizes will be 10-15 instead of the 40 they have now. In other words, the kids were treated to lovely propaganda to promote the company. Fun field trip! :P If I were 11 years old, I wouldn't have cared at all. In fact, I didn't care at all anyway!
Friday afternoon we went to the swimming pool. After all the kids had their bright yellow swimming caps on, they had to exercise to warm up (like they weren't already warm from the humid hot weather!) and then they could go in the pool. Like last year, the pool was cleared out every 45 minutes so that everyone could rest. Don't want anyone to overexert themselves in that very crowded pool! It wasn't like you could really swim..... 3 people for every square foot, and the water was almost as warm as bathwater. Ugh. I think I was cooler sitting on the edge of the pool and dangling my legs in. No way I was going to wear a yellow bathing cap!
Friday night was really exciting. I fell asleep at 8:30 pm. I woke up around midnight, got up, brushed my teeth, changed into pjs, and went back to sleep. Fun. I think though that I really needed the sleep and it was probably good for me to have an early night. This place can really wear you out. It's not easy having to adjust your speaking style, pace and language to make yourself more understandable to beginning English learners. And I don't care what I was told, my class is NOT one of the high classes. I'm sure that they only understand half of what I say.
Saturday was fun. We weren't really responsible for much at all. In the morning they CCs had organized club activities to attend. We went to Balloon Animals, Pop Song, and Jazz Dance. I made myself a monkey hat (check out my flickr site to see it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sue70/ ) and helped the kids pump up their ballons and twist them into monkeys. Andrew, you would have loved this! Pop song was kinda lame; the students had to listen to a really dull song called "Big, Big World" which was slow and depressing, and fill in the missing words from their sheet. Then they sang the song about 20 times over and over. I think I know it off by heart despite my lack of trying to learn the song. It's stuck in my head now. 😞 Jazz dance was okay, but I think that the moves they were teaching the kids were a little age-inappropriate. I couldn't follow along ('cause I suck at dancing) but the kids tried hard. I think that they were just happy to not have to speak in English!
The afternoon was interesting, but in a different sort of way. There was a high school group that came in to put on two performances. They explained a mock trial, which was far above the comprehension level of the CCs, let alone the kids. The girl explaining the trial spoke very well, and I understood it, but maybe that's because of my experience watching movies and Judge Judy. 😊 She then re-explained everything in Korean and I think it was still above the heads of the kids. What a boring topic to begin with! Why they chose to present a mock trial to a bunch of 11 year olds is beyond me. Next they put on a mini-musical of The Sound of Music". They sang about 5 songs but left out all of the plot. It was a little hard to follow, especially if you haven't seen the movie (like me.... I've seen bits and pieces but never the whole thing). The kids really enjoyed that, but again, an odd choice to perform. I don't know why they didn't perform the whole musical instead of the mock trial. That would have been much more interesting to see, for everybody!
We also had our talent show. I wrote a script for my class to "relive" the first day at camp and I tried to make it funny. Unfortunately, the class didn't know their lines and had to read off their scripts. I think it went pretty well, though. People were laughing at some of the jokes I had written (however lame they might have been) and we were complimented after the show. I had my CC record a video of it on my camera, but I can't upload it to Facebook because it's too big. I also don't know where else I could upload it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! 😊
After dinner last night, a bunch of people were planning to head downtown, but Louise and I decided just to go and do a little shopping. We headed out to the bus to go to a big department store and asked the security guard at the end of the complex's driveway which bus to take. He told us the bus number and off we went to the stop. He came out later and told us (through gestures) that he'd given us the wrong bus number. While waiting for the bus, it started to sprinkle, and Louise and I had left our umbrellas behind in the room. The security guard came out again, walked up to us and handed us an umbrella. What a sweetie! And thank God that he did! It started to pour after we got onto the bus and continued all throughout the night. Our shopping trip wasn't terribly eventful. We went to Sav-Mart and bought some snacks. We were hoping for big bottles of Diet Coke, but alas, there was none to be found. I did buy an aloe drink though. It's currently waiting for me in the fridge in my room. Our trip back to camp was interesting. We started out to the bus stop and it was raining like a monsoon had hit. After about 15 minutes of waiting for the rain to let up a little, we headed to the bus stop. Again, thank God that security guard had lent us his umbrella! After an interesting ride home (stop, start, stop, start -- honk honk!) we got back to the KLC complex. We dropped off the umbrella with many thanks and dashed through the drizzle to the dorm building. A couple of the managers were there outside chatting, (under the canopy) and mentioned that everyone was in the karaoke room.
After dropping off our stuff, I convinced Louise to go up with me and check it out. I think she had more fun than I did! The first little while was fun, but I hardly got a chance to sing. Then the beer and soju arrived. I hung out for a while longer, but the more soju and beer that was consumed by the others, the more I found myself wanting to leave. People were starting to get a little obnoxious and (maybe because I wasn't drinking that godawful stuff!) I was feeling a little left out. I decided to head out early and told Louise to tell people that I wasn't feeling well. That actually was the truth; my stomach was bothering me, and then my head was hurting from all the terrible singing.... 😊
Today was also not too bad. We had a reading time with the students this morning, and I got my mute girls to speak more than one word to me. They actually came out with full sentences when I spoke to them one-on-one! HOORAY! PROGRESS! Things are looking up! We played some games and then practised with Louise's class for our final presentation. We've decided that they will sing the Korean national anthem, and then the Canadian national anthem. They learned O Canada quite quickly too. I'm quite impressed. They'll also draw themselves two flags to hold, one Korean, one Canadian. We only have a few days to put it together so we chose something fairly easy.
This afternoon, Louise and I met our friend Marianne (who has been sent off to another camp due to their lack of teachers) downtown. We compared stories of camp (as Marianne was here last year with me) and chatted the whole afternoon away. I think Marianne is feeling a little out of sorts at her camp too. She described her colleagues as really nice and respectful, but like a frat house. Seeing as Marianne is about 55 and a non-drinker, I could see how that would be a little difficult to feel comfortable. We went shopping, ate at Mr. Pizza and then on the way back to camp, Louise and I stopped at this little park which was a Korean Prehistoric Site. There were little huts built with mannequins inside to show how the Korean cavemen must have lived. Thank goodness it was free to enter!
Anyway, I think I've pretty well caught you up on all my thrilling (ya, right!) adventures here in Korea. Hope you're all well and feel free to email me! 😊
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Sue70
Sue
Still at camp
Michelle, we're still at camp.... We work until Friday afternoon, have a farewell party and head to Seoul on Saturday morning. The we have a couple of days in Seoul before flying to Beijing on Monday.