Blogs from Jeju, South Korea, Asia - page 10

Our ransom over the kids involves 'Happy Stickers.' Premise: Happy Sticker are rewarded for good behavior and retained for bad behavior, and then near the end of camp we open a market where the stickers are redeemed for prizes. The purchasing power of a happy sticker is 2 = half a banana. But, the true power of Happy Stickers lies in the fact that kids will kill each other over one. If I need to distract children I will throw a sheet of stickers on the ground and watch them fight over it like beggars looking for their last meal towards survival. The best item you could possibly buy at the market is an orange slice or banana, not because they are the most expensive but because the other gifts are tragically misguided. In an attempt ... read more

So This is how it goes. Camp is Chaos controlled in two buildings. I have to lowest level kids, so I work on things like the alphabet and basic words, then they start to act like caged monkeys and I finally break down to just letting them play hours of hang-man or whatever. Since I haven’t shaved in two weeks they call me monkey and TV Star... which I still don’t get. But Today was an especially fun day, after a two hour routine of “Guess Who”, and a short interjection of "Hi, Nice to meet you, my name is _____" we went on a field trip. First to Mini Mini Land, where everything is miniature but the place Mega sucks. The premise is this: Take all great works of architecture, or at least great Post ... read more

OK! So this isnt a glamourous lifestyle but it is fun as hell. Every morning I wake up, dreading working my 12 hour shift, but then I realize how fun and easy it is, and I forget that I'm even working. But let me back-up So I got on a bus to Gimpo airport, and took a two hour flight to Jeju Island (First Class!). As soon as we landed it was raining hard, and I found out, it rains 300 days a year here. I see it as a mix between London and Key West, loads of grey sky and light rain with tropical birds and plants everywhere. From there I was picked up by three Koreans, all young but fluent in English (Fluency is something of a misnomer here. If you can carry on ... read more