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Published: August 9th 2006
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View of camp
this is the camp, i just left the dorm and am walking to the "school" building. I'm now done what will hopefully be the last of summer camp for me. Not that it wasn't fun but being confined to a tiny living area and spending my time in either a classroom or a field and being forced to eat kimchi every day is just something I never want to do again! Aside from it being a camp, it was a lot of fun. I got used to the kids and learned how to deal with the fact that they have no respect for teachers. They're constantly walking around the class or randomly talk to me while i'm teaching. I have one kid who is always in space and never knows what's going on. So while I'm teaching he'll say something like, "teacher, my feet are cold." And when I give out work, I'll explain it and everyone will do it and 5 minutes later he'll be like "oh, teacher what's this?" But it's so hard to be mad at him, cuz he's the cutest kid. He's like a little old man. And he thinks we're best friends, so he always finds me at meal time and sits with me. It's really cute...he's the kid in the picture
Haunted House
we had a haunted house where we basically scared the shit out of the kids by jumping out of the woods when they walked by! i'm all the way on the right. called the Devil. And the angle picture is of the most adorable boy. He has the haircut that apparently all boy band guys have here. Which is funy cuz he's actually a really great singer and dancer, so maybe he'll actually be in a boy band when he's older. his parents are probably grooming him for it. and he was the perfect student. he actually helped me explain things to the other kids when they didn't understand.
something else i noticed here, Koreans are very blunt about looks. They say you are pretty, you are not. I had one kid say in his class speech that his best friend (a boy) is very handsome. In Canada the whole class would have laughed that he admits he thinks his friend is hot, but here it's normal. and one kid said she had a friend who's looks were so-so but she had a good personality so it was ok to be friends with her!
Since there was nothing to do at night, all the staff ended up drinking in a gazeebo a lot. one night everyone was there, so we ended up playing charades...how random? i haven't done that in years.
Teacher Dodgeball
after playing with the kids the teachers hung around and had our own game in the mud! but i guess when you're drunk everything's fun! and on saturday night we all got together and planned an escape! we snuck out, got into cabs and found the nearest bar.....where again we got drunk! it was the only time i was actually drunk at camp, as opposed to the other nights where i was a good girl and only got buzzed! the last night at camp every class had to sing their own song in english and every teacher choreographed a little dance to go with their classe's song. my kids sang "You Are My Sunshine". it was adorable. at one point i made them shake their asses to the audience!! and for the teacher performance, we did a circus act...how weird eh? one of the teachers had gone to circus school...whatever that is, so she taught us a couple tricks and we put together a 4 minute thing (the pictures help with a visual...there was a video too but i can't get it on the site, you'll have to wait till i come home). but basically since i was the smallest and had the most experince being lifted and thrown from skating, i was in almost every part
night out
the one night we had the balls to sneak out and find a bar! of it. at one point i was standing on a girl's shoulders! it was crazy.
the last night of camp was retarded. they got a DJ so we danced and did stupid games....seems normal. even though he was talking korean the whole time so every time we changed games the kids had to explain it to me! but then the kids were told to sit in circles and all the teachers had to stand in the middle of their kids and the DJ starts talking korean and there's slow music playing and after a few minutes all the kids start crying. i found out he was giving some speech about how the kids were never gonna see their teacerhs or new friends again and they should thank everyone for making their time at camp fun blah blah blah. it was sooooo depressing. they didn't stop crying for like half an hour. and the most retarded part was that when he was done talking the teachers lined up and all the kids walked by shaking every teacher's hand and said goodbye. it was like when sports teams shake each other's hands after a game eccept most of the kids couldn't
My class
my 11 kids....we were called the Animals...it was a very appropriate name! stop crying long enough to say bye!!! and we were all grossed out cuz they wiped their noses then shook our hands! it was only a 2 week camp, they need to calm down!!
anyways, now we're done and back in Seoul and guess what.......WE'RE STAYING!!! Marissa and I both found jobs near each other in Seoul for 3 weeks. so we're gonna stay and make some more $ for our travels.....sorry mom, i'll find a synagogue in Asia to celebrate the jewish holidays! the jobs provided housing, but mine's the crappiest little appartment, with a pretty small room and an even smaller kitchen! but at least there's air conditioning!...or air con as they call it here. my room at camp was actually bigger, guess i shouldn't have complained! i work 6 hours a day, not in the morning thank goodness, cuz we all know how that would go, and the rest of my time is free. some of the other teachers from camp are in seoul now, wo we'll hang out with them and chris and fallon obviously. so now i can add korea to the list of places i've lived....how random....who moves to korea!! actually i didn't
The Devil
he lookds so cute so it's hard to believe, but he was the devil! know till i got here, but so many people do it!! and teaching is so easy at my new job. there are 1 to 6 kids in a class and classes are 40 minutes long and go by so fast!
Since we're staying we got cell phones, mostly to reach each other, we only know like 4 other people here!! but whatever. if you wanna call us my number is 010-9294-0147 and Marissa's # is 010-5821-2526. i'm not really sure how to call though, i think you have to dial 011-822 before our #s. but whatever, i'm sure none of you are gonna call korea anyways!!! eccept you Jack....we expect phone calls from you!!
that's it for now.
i'll let you know next time about all the excitement that happens in the next few weeks in korea!!
Later
Trish
P.S. Marissa says hi and agrees with everything I've written....so she has nothing to ad!
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Mom
non-member comment
Wow. You write a great blog. Sounds like everything is fine. Except that you are staying longer. Hope that you are feeling good too. We will call you coz we are the parents. Great pictures. Feel like you are not too far away. Love you, Mom