The hour glass is running out of sand as we enter our second to last week of camp. Monday was a rough day full of naughty kids. This week is Invitation to a World Celebration week and I am again in charge of science club. It’s kind of a geology club; we talked about continental drift and Pangaea and tried to fit the continents back together like they previously were. We played elbow tag outside and in rotating activities I made Fuze beads in the art room.
Tuesday in small group we learned all about the fifty states and colored the different states certain colors on the map. They behaved for about half the states, the western half of the country, then an exhausted Miss Smartie gave them free coloring. In club I brought in the bag of rocks I collected from Gyeongju beach and gave one rock to each kid. We had magnifying glasses and they had a piece of paper to draw and describe their rocks. When everyone was done we put all the rocks back in a pile and the test was to see if you could use your notes to find your rock. That afternoon I went swimming with the kinders and first graders and spent lots of water fun time with my favorite Kalisha. She is going to be hard to leave; she says she loves Miss Smartie about ever ten minutes. That night Jesa and I watched the Last Song and cried our eyes out together; it was a real bonding experience.
Wednesday was a wet day, we were in a typhoon advisory starting Tuesday night and it wasn’t supposed to stop till late Wednesday afternoon. James and I walked to work in literally drenching, cats and dogs, torrential down pour rain. We got to work and our socks, shoes, shorts, backpacks, and rain jackets were completely soaked through, and we got to stay in them all day. The problem with rainy days is that you can’t take the kids outside for all camp activities or to any schedule event aka swimming and bowling. So in small group we made four leaf clover lucky charm necklaces. In club we made dinosaurs out of felt and learned about different species. In outdoor activity time we did paint by numbers of different country flags. Then when we were supposed to be bowling and swimming we did rotating activities and I was in charge and Pictionary and made friendship bracelets. That night we had a going away party for our Korean intern Miss Moon who is leaving on Friday. We went to Mr. Ricks and Ms. Jeans apartment to eat dinner with a lot of the staff and their family. They have high active twin boys who are four and a daughter going into seventh grade. They were so cute, and you would think we would be sick of kids after playing with them all day but we could not resist the smiles of these two little kids. We ate a variety of dishes buffet style and enjoyed fruit smoothies. I overcame one of my top fears when the karaoke machine made its debut. Everyone was forced to sing a song, after much protesting I was forced off the coach and wannabe by the spice girls was selected for me. James gets very into his Karaoke and was dancing with the microphone. I think the highlight of the night, and a great end to a trip in Korea was when our centers cook, Mr. Ye, polished off a bottle of wine, no exaggeration he drank it all himself, he got up to the microphone and sang a lot of old nineties love songs really well. It was hysterical in his broken English/Korean accent it took all I had to not die of laughter. Most mornings he is slow getting out breakfast and sits in the kitchen with his head down hating life and hung over, as he was singing Mr. Rick told us that last week he went Karaoke-ing every night of the week. After making James and Jesa belt out Whitney Huston’s I will always love you and ending with a group effort All for one, I Swear, it was time to head home.
Thursday was field trip day. We were off to the Amethyst Caves down by Busan. It was a long two hour bus ride with a broken VCR but I rode with Sammy, the one who normally throws up but this time didn’t, and time went faster than expected. Sammy is a trouble maker and comes from a trouble childhood, he and his sister Samantha about a year ago found their bloody mother in the bathroom after she committed suicide and they have recently opened up a lot more about it. I feel so bad for these two kids; they will never have a normal childhood and have to carry that image of their mother forever. Sammy and I played with plastic animals until he fell asleep, he was adorable and he has just recently started smiling, laughing, and hugging us and I almost want to cry every time I see it. We finally arrived at the caves ate lunch and headed into the most dangerous spot to lose a kid, and the easiest. These caves were freezing cold and very full of Koreans. We went to an underground show first with three men and a young girl. They did acrobatic/flexibility tricks that blew every one’s mind. They had some inappropriate jokes and things that would explain why the show was underground in a cold cave but the kids just thought it was hysterical and watched wide eyed and mouth open. After the show we wandered around the caves for a while and finally headed out. I know I have mentioned before that there are just random amusement park rides everywhere but it still blows my mind. This place had about six rides and we took our kids on the carousal, mini Viking ship, and two other spin car things. After snack we loaded back on the bus and Sammy and I played games again until he fell asleep. That night Jesa and I made our last trip to the commissary and watched rent on T.V. singing along the whole time!
Friday we painted in small group and made volcanoes in club. We learned all about the formation of volcanoes and how they erupt, then we used the left over clay cooking club had made to build volcanoes and put baking soda and vinegar in them. The clay wasn’t very strong and vinegar got everywhere but the kids really liked it. After teaching kids science this week I think it is safe to say that teaching isn’t my calling. In the afternoon we played bingo in rotating activities and played the armadillo game. The armadillo game emerged when the boys, Judae and Sean, were playing with the five little plastic armadillos and Mr. Taffy hid them in really hard spots. Now if they are good during closing everyday Mr. Taffy hides them, tapes them to the ceiling and under tables, and they search for them after receiving one clue for each armadillo. They love the armadillo game and they have been behaving very well during closing. Friday night was very uneventful. Jesa, James, Devin and I hung out making travel plans, since the island that we had originally planned fell through when we realized the return ferry didn’t get back till Tuesday. We settled on heading to the west coast to Byeonsan Bando national park.
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, 4:20, in order to catch our train at five thirty. Taxis don’t run on base till six so we had to walk off base and find a cab. Our first train was two hours long and I think I slept for a total of fifteen minutes. It is so hard to get comfortable in a straight up seat, especially when you are excited about all the day holds. After a thirty hour transfer we had another two hour train and arrived in Jeon ju at 10:30, the ride was beautiful and went through a ton of rice fields. You could look out on a huge field and see one Korean standing among his crops with a straw hat. Jeon ju is a typical college town with an art university; the boys were drooling over the young promising ladies and wondered how we had missed this place for so long. After taxi-ing to the express bus terminal we found the two hour bus to Byeonsan Bando and boarded. Jesa of course slept the whole way and I enjoyed more rice fields. As we approached the coast we saw long muddy wet beaches that stretched out about a eighth mile before reaching the ocean, we were possibly thinking of camping on the beach and started getting concerned about our slumber arrangements. Finally we got off the bus and found the national park office. We talked, well gestured and used one word phrases, to a ranger who gave us a Korean map and told us to get on a green bus to go to Gyeokpo beach. Oh I forgot to mention that it had been pouring rain all morning and some people were a little grumpy with the cloudy weather, luckily by the time we reached the coast it was just cloudy and the rain had stopped. After another fifteen minute bus ride we arrived in Gyeokpo and walked to the beach. It is a little run down sea side town, and I am pretty sure we were the only round eyed people there. We walked down to the beach and found another long muddy sandy section before reaching the water. We waded in a little and hunted sea shells for a while before moving onto the rock formations. These rocks were like flattened pancakes, cliffs on the shore, and then you could walk around on the barnacle covered rocks next to the cliffs. These rocks had a ton of little tide pools in them chalk a block full of crabs and fish and rocks and it was beautiful. The cliffs had water dripping off like a bunch of mini waterfalls. After taking lots of pictures of ocean and rock and harassing many a crab we headed up to find a camp site. I asked another ranger and he pointed down the road where we found many a Korean also geared up for a night of camping. Koreans know how to camp, they have huge tents complete with patio, outdoor mat rain covers. They also bring coolers full of regular meals and they all sit and eat with their chopsticks. We found a nice patch of grass in the middle of a large Korean huddle and settled in. We were pretty tired from being up late and we took about an hour rest lounging outside the tent and chatting. Around four thirty Devin, James, and I decided it was time to conquer the ocean and all the Koreans swimming in it. Jesa wasn’t feeling 100% so she stayed with the tent. One thing I still do not understand about these skinny skinny Koreans is why they all wear regular clothes instead of swim suits. No one wears bikinis or one piece, its polo’s and button down shirts in the water, constricting one would think. The waves were really blasting and the tide had come in to cover the whole beach and all the wonderful rocks we had just climbed on. We swam around for about an hour, Devin taught us how to make a gun sound underwater and we perfected our whale and seal noises. Devin and James kept doing handstands into the waves and the Korean lifeguards died laughing every time their white thighs were exposed. After swallowing more than my fair share of sea water, my short stature could not jump over the waves, we headed back to the tent to pick up a sleeping Jesa. We walked up to the lookout point next to the beach and watched the sun set on the ocean and the waves crash on the mermaid statue sitting on the rocks below us. It was a pretty picture perfect evening. After the sun disappeared behind the clouds and the moon made its debut we headed back to the tent for a little relaxation. We laid in the tent debating all things political, religious, and social and laughed and chatted and made fun of James Gulley. Eventually we headed back to the beach around ten where we discovered they were selling fireworks and James bought us sparklers and a small box of fireworks. The wind was really blowing so after about fifteen minutes of working with the lighters and trying to make a human shield we got the sparklers lit. We ran around down by the ocean and the boys took turns trying to pick us up and throw us in, luckily they were unsuccessful. The tide had gone back out and our mermaid from earlier was on top of rocks and away from the water so we climbed up to it and relaxed in the sea breeze. We lost James for a while as we were watching Koreans make a heart out of sparklers and gave us some for free. Finally we found him back at the tent and we decided to call it a night. We woke up the next morning to pouring rain; we packed up the tent and caught the 8:10 bus back to Jeon ju. We then found a bus back to Daegu and got home around 2:30, I didn’t get much sleep the night before it was hot and uncomfortable so I was fast asleep for both buses only to be informed that I missed our most beautiful bus ride ever, of course. We dropped our stuff off and headed back downtown to make our final purchases then walked to the market for one last visit and back to the train station so the boys could buy plastic soju bottles to pack in their carry on luggage. Sunday night we watched the Hangover and started some of our packing. It was a fantastic last weekend in South Korea full of laughter and a lot of “lasts.” I cannot believe I will be home and back in classes in less than a week. I am very sad to be leaving Korea, but very excited to return home to see everyone. I will hopefully send out one last email to share my last week of camp and let you know I made it back to Iowa safe and sound.
Kicking and screaming the whole way home!
Elizabeth
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
몰몬교이 세상을 구한다
The life of a camp counselor is tiring yet rewarding. This week in camp was ocean week and children go bananas for anything that can be related to spongebob. That’s how my kids tell time, “Miss Smartie how many spongebob episodes till we go to the pool?” each being fifteen minutes I respond accordingly. My club this week is Fishy Suspicion Science club, I made up the title all by myself, and I would say it has been fairly successful. I have twenty kids in my club, and I am generally alone, so that can present a slight problem. Like I mentioned last week our numbers skyrocketed and they have yet to fall back. Monday was by far the worst camp day I have ever experience, behavior related. My group of 19 small grouper refused to follow any directions, clean up, listen, it was awful. After losing my voice and having spent a large part of the day lecturing and yelling, it was a relief for Mr. Taffy to come in from swim lesson and take over the yelling. In club we learned about coral reefs and I created a long paint by numbers on construction paper and watched them fight over painting it. That afternoon in rotating activities I was in charge of making goo, worst decision ever. They have made it before in small group and it was my turn, unfortunately they lost the recipe so I was stuck experimenting and figuring out the correct combination. The first two groups were a messy failure, glue and water everywhere on the table and by group three it was turning out a little better. Needless to say I was ready to peace out by 4:30 and happy to collapse on my hotel bed.
Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly uneventful, swimming and bowling. On Wednesday in clubs we created paper maché turtle eggs by covering water balloon balloons. On Wednesday we used items from around the room to create turtle shell nest to try to protect them from attacking birds. That night Jesa, James, and I went to Sosong lake to rent swan paddle boats and float around. Jesa and James did the paddling and I did the sleeping in the back. The lake wasn’t too big so we only paddled around for about an hour before heading back.
Thursday’s field trip day was crazy. We took the kids to Busan aquarium with about fifty thousand other Koreans. After a two hour bus ride of trying to keep kids happy and not wetting their pants or throwing up it was frustrating to see how many people were there that we had to keep our kids separate from. It was pretty fun though to watch the kids get excited about the fish, I generally brought up the back end holding hands with Kalisha and Keyona and I would read the plaques to them and they would repeat all the fish names. We went to a 3-D movie that moved; basically it was rows of chairs on a platform that shook as we watched parts of happy feet in Korean. That night we got pizza in James room and enjoyed watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Friday was a long day, the longest camp day I have ever endured. The kids were high on something and completely crazy. We had a rough morning and when Mr. Taffy came into a silent room at lunch his first words were what have you kids done to Miss Smartie. The air conditioning was broken so everyone was sweaty, crabby, and not following directions. In the afternoon we went over to the teen center where the air conditioning was fully blowing and we let the kids watch movies and play games. Kristine, our project coordinator, came down for one last site visit. We all went out to dinner around seven; Jesa and I just ordered rice so we could get Baskin Robbins after. After ice cream and a little down town perusing we were joined by Amanda, Emily, and two other Yongson girls who were staying with us Friday night on their way down to Busan. We took them to Dr. Fish where they got their dead skin eaten and we hung out talking. We headed back to our rooms and stayed up talking and watching television.
Saturday we woke up early and met up in the lobby at seven o’clock sharp. We walked to the subway station in the blazing, morning heat. After working up a good sweat on the fifteen minute walk we bought our 1,100 Won subway ticket and headed to Seobu station where Mr. Kim had told us there would be a direct bus to Jiri-san national park, the mother of all Korean national parks. Unfortunately he is a dirty liar and this imaginary bus was nowhere to be found. At this point James was getting a little antsy, he does not like to stray from the plan at all and wing it, as Devin and I were hustling to find a solution. We decided to taxi over to DongDaegu train station where there are two bus terminals and try our luck there, failure again. The decision was made to travel to Daejeon, a two hour bus ride, and then bus to a different national park that was close by. We boarded and took an uncomfortable nap in the very back row of the bus. Daejeon is the sixth largest city in South Korea, but it appeared larger. The bus terminal was under construction so we were dropped off in a gas station. This really threw us off and we wandered the streets, stopping in the Korean Tourist Hotel which was no help and several other establishments, I stepped into a family mart and asked the lovely lady behind the cash register for help. She pulled out a big bus guide and told us to take bus number 105 for twelve stops then transfer to bus 107. This sounded awfully complicated so we decided to wander a little further up the road first where our prayers were answered with a God-send. Mormons. I spotted them in their button up short sleeve shirt, pants, belts, black shoes, nametags, side backs, and book of Mormon under their arm. They approached us with a friendly greeting and started talking to us about where we were from, what we were doing, if we had found Jesus, I felt like I was back in the states. They were on their two year mission in Korea, loving it, before they went back to school in Utah for college. They walked us down the street to the hidden bus station then when there weren’t any buses, they put us in a cab to bus number 107 so we could get on without getting lost on 105. When Elder Anderson told us we would have to take the city buses, I responded oh ya the 105 to the 107 and he was shocked and believed me to be a bus specialist when really it was all from the kind woman in the family mart. It was hard to part with our new Mormon friends, Elder Anderson gave his card to Jesa to catch up sometime. As we got in the taxi and headed off Devin asked who those Jews were and we all had a good chuckle at his stupidity. We got on bus 107 and endured the hour ride to Gyeryong-san National park. We arrived around one and immediately set off in search of the trail. It was a glorious day, it was a little cloudy and cool, probably around 80, but don’t worry I still sweated through my shirt and backpack. The trail was about 4 km to the peak and once again we were walking on boulder stairs and a boulder trail, I don’t know if I could ever grow accustomed to their cruel steep inclines. The boys took off and Jesa and I enjoyed our leisurely pace. This was our first clear day of hiking where the mountains weren’t covered in mist and clouds so the views were absolutely breathtaking. We came to an observation deck about halfway up and got our first glimpse of the peaks and the rocky outcrops jutting above the trees. The rocks were fairly slick, lots of streams and such around, so the last km was a rough one. I slipped and smacked my camera against a rock, thankfully I had invested in lens protectors and only the cover shattered not the actual lens. Finally we made it to the top and nothing else mattered. It was very worth it. We took lots of pictures and looked over the ridge line that lead to the second peak, it was too late for us to hike it ourselves but it was something to look at and watch the other Koreas do. After an hour of time well wasted we decided to make our decent. My small feet led the hop down the slick mountain, I fell twice, but finally we were back at the bus stop around seven pm. After indulging in a grape Popsicle, probably the best Popsicle I have ever in my life tasted, we boarded the bus and found the KTX train station back to Daegu. We hung out in the station for about an hour, eating and turning into ice cubes sitting next to the huge air conditioner. We had a family car on the way back and we got into a ridiculous argument that left the fifty minute train ride back silent. That night James, Jesa, and I watched most of wedding crashers and were asleep around 11:15.
Sunday morning I woke up around 6:40 to go with James to the base club house. He had signed up to play golf at 7:26 with a group and was nervous to go alone. I walked him over and waited with him to T-off, he tried to explain the many rule of golf to me as we waited, no compredo still. I headed back to the hotel and got dressed for church and headed off to mass where I sat by my camper Jonathon and around a few other campers. After mass I hung out, took a nap waiting for Jesa to get back from church and James to finish golfing. James was in such a good mood after his great game that he took Jesa and me out for brunch, his treat at the Evergreen. It was delicious. After lunch we met up with Devin and the four of us headed out for a day of shopping. We went down town first and split up boys and girls, Jesa and I bought some typical Korean t-shirts and socks. Koreans are crazy about socks and they have crazy designs and are very cheap, I have purchased too many socks. We took the subway from down town to Seomun Market, the market I have visited twice previously. We split up and conquered the market. I got all my siblings their gifts and another purse for myself, whoops! I had some spare time after shopping to browse the food section and I found the live animal aisle. There are cages, and no cages, of chickens, ducks, rabbits, pheasants, and puppies! You would think you were in a pet store aisle not meat aisle, oh and in one freezer section there was a skinned dog head, I am getting closer to my dog eating goal. After the market we taxied back and Jesa and I stopped off at the bootleg DVD store before calling it a day, you can’t not go to Korea, where you get five illegal movies for 20,000 won, and not buy them, trust me! That night we watched clash of the titans, one of Jesa’s purchases and I was asleep by 9:30!
All in all I would call this weekend a success, I feel very comfortable here in Korea and I cannot believe how my time is ending so quickly! Hopefully my camp kids shape up so I am not constantly losing my voice, but I still know the last day will be a tearful one! I miss you and look forward to sending you a report next week about my final weekend vacation in Korea!!
All my new found Asian love,
Elizabeth
Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly uneventful, swimming and bowling. On Wednesday in clubs we created paper maché turtle eggs by covering water balloon balloons. On Wednesday we used items from around the room to create turtle shell nest to try to protect them from attacking birds. That night Jesa, James, and I went to Sosong lake to rent swan paddle boats and float around. Jesa and James did the paddling and I did the sleeping in the back. The lake wasn’t too big so we only paddled around for about an hour before heading back.
Thursday’s field trip day was crazy. We took the kids to Busan aquarium with about fifty thousand other Koreans. After a two hour bus ride of trying to keep kids happy and not wetting their pants or throwing up it was frustrating to see how many people were there that we had to keep our kids separate from. It was pretty fun though to watch the kids get excited about the fish, I generally brought up the back end holding hands with Kalisha and Keyona and I would read the plaques to them and they would repeat all the fish names. We went to a 3-D movie that moved; basically it was rows of chairs on a platform that shook as we watched parts of happy feet in Korean. That night we got pizza in James room and enjoyed watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Friday was a long day, the longest camp day I have ever endured. The kids were high on something and completely crazy. We had a rough morning and when Mr. Taffy came into a silent room at lunch his first words were what have you kids done to Miss Smartie. The air conditioning was broken so everyone was sweaty, crabby, and not following directions. In the afternoon we went over to the teen center where the air conditioning was fully blowing and we let the kids watch movies and play games. Kristine, our project coordinator, came down for one last site visit. We all went out to dinner around seven; Jesa and I just ordered rice so we could get Baskin Robbins after. After ice cream and a little down town perusing we were joined by Amanda, Emily, and two other Yongson girls who were staying with us Friday night on their way down to Busan. We took them to Dr. Fish where they got their dead skin eaten and we hung out talking. We headed back to our rooms and stayed up talking and watching television.
Saturday we woke up early and met up in the lobby at seven o’clock sharp. We walked to the subway station in the blazing, morning heat. After working up a good sweat on the fifteen minute walk we bought our 1,100 Won subway ticket and headed to Seobu station where Mr. Kim had told us there would be a direct bus to Jiri-san national park, the mother of all Korean national parks. Unfortunately he is a dirty liar and this imaginary bus was nowhere to be found. At this point James was getting a little antsy, he does not like to stray from the plan at all and wing it, as Devin and I were hustling to find a solution. We decided to taxi over to DongDaegu train station where there are two bus terminals and try our luck there, failure again. The decision was made to travel to Daejeon, a two hour bus ride, and then bus to a different national park that was close by. We boarded and took an uncomfortable nap in the very back row of the bus. Daejeon is the sixth largest city in South Korea, but it appeared larger. The bus terminal was under construction so we were dropped off in a gas station. This really threw us off and we wandered the streets, stopping in the Korean Tourist Hotel which was no help and several other establishments, I stepped into a family mart and asked the lovely lady behind the cash register for help. She pulled out a big bus guide and told us to take bus number 105 for twelve stops then transfer to bus 107. This sounded awfully complicated so we decided to wander a little further up the road first where our prayers were answered with a God-send. Mormons. I spotted them in their button up short sleeve shirt, pants, belts, black shoes, nametags, side backs, and book of Mormon under their arm. They approached us with a friendly greeting and started talking to us about where we were from, what we were doing, if we had found Jesus, I felt like I was back in the states. They were on their two year mission in Korea, loving it, before they went back to school in Utah for college. They walked us down the street to the hidden bus station then when there weren’t any buses, they put us in a cab to bus number 107 so we could get on without getting lost on 105. When Elder Anderson told us we would have to take the city buses, I responded oh ya the 105 to the 107 and he was shocked and believed me to be a bus specialist when really it was all from the kind woman in the family mart. It was hard to part with our new Mormon friends, Elder Anderson gave his card to Jesa to catch up sometime. As we got in the taxi and headed off Devin asked who those Jews were and we all had a good chuckle at his stupidity. We got on bus 107 and endured the hour ride to Gyeryong-san National park. We arrived around one and immediately set off in search of the trail. It was a glorious day, it was a little cloudy and cool, probably around 80, but don’t worry I still sweated through my shirt and backpack. The trail was about 4 km to the peak and once again we were walking on boulder stairs and a boulder trail, I don’t know if I could ever grow accustomed to their cruel steep inclines. The boys took off and Jesa and I enjoyed our leisurely pace. This was our first clear day of hiking where the mountains weren’t covered in mist and clouds so the views were absolutely breathtaking. We came to an observation deck about halfway up and got our first glimpse of the peaks and the rocky outcrops jutting above the trees. The rocks were fairly slick, lots of streams and such around, so the last km was a rough one. I slipped and smacked my camera against a rock, thankfully I had invested in lens protectors and only the cover shattered not the actual lens. Finally we made it to the top and nothing else mattered. It was very worth it. We took lots of pictures and looked over the ridge line that lead to the second peak, it was too late for us to hike it ourselves but it was something to look at and watch the other Koreas do. After an hour of time well wasted we decided to make our decent. My small feet led the hop down the slick mountain, I fell twice, but finally we were back at the bus stop around seven pm. After indulging in a grape Popsicle, probably the best Popsicle I have ever in my life tasted, we boarded the bus and found the KTX train station back to Daegu. We hung out in the station for about an hour, eating and turning into ice cubes sitting next to the huge air conditioner. We had a family car on the way back and we got into a ridiculous argument that left the fifty minute train ride back silent. That night James, Jesa, and I watched most of wedding crashers and were asleep around 11:15.
Sunday morning I woke up around 6:40 to go with James to the base club house. He had signed up to play golf at 7:26 with a group and was nervous to go alone. I walked him over and waited with him to T-off, he tried to explain the many rule of golf to me as we waited, no compredo still. I headed back to the hotel and got dressed for church and headed off to mass where I sat by my camper Jonathon and around a few other campers. After mass I hung out, took a nap waiting for Jesa to get back from church and James to finish golfing. James was in such a good mood after his great game that he took Jesa and me out for brunch, his treat at the Evergreen. It was delicious. After lunch we met up with Devin and the four of us headed out for a day of shopping. We went down town first and split up boys and girls, Jesa and I bought some typical Korean t-shirts and socks. Koreans are crazy about socks and they have crazy designs and are very cheap, I have purchased too many socks. We took the subway from down town to Seomun Market, the market I have visited twice previously. We split up and conquered the market. I got all my siblings their gifts and another purse for myself, whoops! I had some spare time after shopping to browse the food section and I found the live animal aisle. There are cages, and no cages, of chickens, ducks, rabbits, pheasants, and puppies! You would think you were in a pet store aisle not meat aisle, oh and in one freezer section there was a skinned dog head, I am getting closer to my dog eating goal. After the market we taxied back and Jesa and I stopped off at the bootleg DVD store before calling it a day, you can’t not go to Korea, where you get five illegal movies for 20,000 won, and not buy them, trust me! That night we watched clash of the titans, one of Jesa’s purchases and I was asleep by 9:30!
All in all I would call this weekend a success, I feel very comfortable here in Korea and I cannot believe how my time is ending so quickly! Hopefully my camp kids shape up so I am not constantly losing my voice, but I still know the last day will be a tearful one! I miss you and look forward to sending you a report next week about my final weekend vacation in Korea!!
All my new found Asian love,
Elizabeth
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
시간 때 재미 날아!
My, my, my, what a week it has been since we last spoke. This was a Crazy week at camp, and I mean crazy. Our capacity, maximum capacity, is around 56 kids and we well exceeded that all week. We had about fifteen new Korean kids this week, school just let out and rich parents pay a hefty price to get their kids in an American camp program. Monday was the wildest day, we were given no warning about the amount of kids to come and were bombarded about fifteen minutes before camp started with the realization that there were about fifteen extra kids, a mix of Koreans and Americans, apparently we are doing a good job and word of camp is spreading as many parents try to sign up their kids. We had to switch around small groups to adjust to the size. My small group is generally 12-16 kinders, changing daily, in a room with a fire capacity of 18 children. This week I have had a constant 20 campers a day in the same room. I know have all the kinders and about half the first graders, the spawn of Satan half. Normally in small group time in the morning we go around and share something individually, then learn six new words, then do a coloring art project. When you have 20 kids in the room you can’t have individual time and expect the other nineteen to sit quietly and listen. The coloring activity went decently but the older kids kept saying it was for babies and had stinky attitudes. Everyone was just testing their boundaries on Monday since the routine was basically shot and we did a lot of sitting quietly and I was without a voice by the end of the day from shouting. Lunch was a disaster. Normally it is hard enough to get the kinders quiet and fed, but we had no extra room and were just pulling chairs up to tables and scrunching chatting kids. My camp this week is musical theater camp, basically my sanctuary from the craziness. We have been singing Disney songs and the kids get really into it. Two in particular, brother and sister, Shyana and Jerrell sing their hearts outs, eyes closed, hand motions; it takes all I have to not laugh. I also taught them the doe a deer a female deer song from sound of music which they sing all the time like opera singers. Monday afternoon rotating activities were also stressful because I was in charge of painting and fifteen kids painting isn’t hard, 20 each rotation is. I had paint everywhere on my uniform, which is about normal for any paint activity. Monday night was filled with programming for our last few weeks of camp and getting into a heated, ugly debate about the rock cycle.
Tuesday was a better day, thank goodness, still rough though. The kids realized the way small group would be this week and have accepted it more or less. In musical theater camp we continued to sing from the nine songs I printed out lyrics for. I had all the song lyrics in stapled packets and as we sang I had them go to the back table and put a smiley face next to three songs they would like to perform on Friday in Camp A presents. I thought they would put simple little smiley faces, but to my delight I noticed when I picked up the paper and tallied the marks they had intricate, unique faces with hair styles and it was really cool to see their inventiveness without specific instructions. That afternoon we went to the pool and enjoyed lots of fun times swimming and having them hang on me. I probably hear my name 15 times a minute, miss smartie wanna watch me float, miss smartie dunk me to the bottom, miss smartie how long can I hold my breath, miss smartie watch this, miss smartie will you pick me up, miss smartie watch me swim, stand there miss smartie and I’ll swim to you. I’m constantly moving in a circle applauding small swimming accomplishments and pretending to be interested in how long they can hold their breath. Closing was fun, swimming tires them out so when it’s time to sit in a circle and sing songs I put my legs out straight in front of me and four kids will be asleep on my thighs by the end. After work Tuesday night I convinced Jesa to skip our work out and instead go for a long walk off post down by the river. We walked about fifteen minutes to find the river we taxi past all the time, we walked and talked and jogged for about two and half hours enjoying the Koreans and fountains and amazing environment. We got slightly lost and had to do a bit of wandering to find base. We often get to chatting and don’t realize how far we have gone. On our way back we walked through a small forest grove around the sidewalk between the main road and the river. The cicadas were so plentiful and loud that we literally couldn’t hear each other talking, they were deafening. We would look at the trees and they were covered with exoskeletons and living cicadas climbing up and down the trees, in my opinion it was one of my favorite Korea experiences. I have never heard them so loud that I couldn’t hear anything else, or seen so many up close with their claws and wings.
Wednesday was a fun day at camp. We practiced very hard in musical theater camp and we were trapped inside due to rain for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon we went bowling and I again sat in the lane with a bunch of first grade boys and Jirah and Kalisha. We again played crack the egg and tickle monster while they bowled around a 60. Wednesday night one of our campers families, Dawson, invited us over for dinner. We enjoyed a delicious steak, cuscus, Asian pear, salad, desert home cooked meal that my mouth was salivating over with delight. They were the cutest married couple ever and had been all over the world. Their living room was littered with trinkets from far off lands and she had the most incredible stories to share.
Thursday was a long exhausting day, field trip day. We loaded the buses bright and early, eight thirty, Devin and I with our 18 kids, 57 total kids that day. The bus had one small TV screen in the front and we decided to play the lion king. First problem, the kids sitting in the window seats were too short to see above the seats in front of them, thus we entered into a tear fest for the first twenty minutes. The bus ride was our longest one yet, two hours, and of course we had to make an emergency bathroom break. One of my little trouble makers Sammy, who happened to be sitting next to me, was crying because he had to use the restroom so bad and the bus driver took his sweet time getting there. After our break we reloaded and about ten minutes into the ride Sammy throws up, luckily I see it coming and dump out an old ziplock with toys in it to catch his puke. I thought we were in the clear until the bag of vomit began seeping and leaking all over my hands and down one leg, I almost lost it. After cleaning up and rubbing his head, he puked up the rest of his stomach contents, this time in a sealed bag about five minutes later. We finally arrived in Tongdo Fantasia amusement park. We rode the carousal, balloons, some other circle ride, and mini rollercoaster. We attended a 3-D dinosaur show which was hysterical in his awfulness. These small terrible glasses made me sick so I watched without. The entire movie was about a dinosaur who’s egg was beamed up onto a spaceship so he has to save it from the alien robot dinosaurs. The whole thing was without any dialogue and it contained more sound effects than every action movie I have ever seen put together. When he blinked there was a sound effect. After a tiring bus ride back, I sat next to Keyona who was hyper on life for an hour before crashing hard, we left work and Devin, James and I went out to dinner at some BBQ chicken place. They had the spiciest wings available and cried openly at the dinner table, why would you want to eat something that physically causes you pain. After dinner we all piled into James room, Jesa included to watch thank you for smoking, which was pretty funny.
Friday was a generally good day at camp. We had Camp A presents and the Musical theater camp had their big performance. You should have seen the kids freak out in the hour before club time, the pressure of the performance must have been getting to them because I had four different kids crying in the separate corners. The day dragged on and I anxiously waited four thirty, when cream the counselor would be over and I would be free at last, at least for two days. After work Jesa and I decided to spend some quality time together and go downtown for some shopping while the boys headed to a baseball game with a staff member. This girl time was much needed. We stopped in Baskin Robbins and enjoyed the taste of home. We then spent too much time and too much money shopping the streets of Daegu, trying to find the best deals and think of gift ideas. We are also trying to Korean ourselves up before leaving the country so we are desperately trying to copy the dress of one of our coworkers Miss Moon with little success. We returned enjoyed a relaxing night of staying up late, chatting, watching a movie, and braiding hair.
The next morning came very early and I was not excited to hear the 7 am alarm chime. We met up with the boys and headed for the bus stop where we caught the 8:30 hour long bus to Gyeong ju. Gyeong ju is the historical tourist attraction of South Korea. It has a bunch of history and artifacts from the Silla period and we were looking forward to a traditional, educational weekend. We discovered that none of us really get along till after two pm so the morning was argument after argument and very tension filled, but that won’t bring me down. Our first stopped were the Royal mound tombs. We walked for about ten minutes and were surrounded by grassy hills, right between buildings and next to gas stations. These hills were old burial mounds during the Silla dynasty and have been excavated to reveal some of the nation’s most prized national treasures. We found a small park, Daeneungwon, and spent time wandering around the mounds, lotus ponds, and taking pictures of the many dragon flies. Next we headed back to the bus stations, after failing at figuring out the bus schedule, to ask the tourist information desk how to get to Bulguk-san temple. We were overly confident with our transportation skills coming into this weekend and karma several times spit in our face and made us problem solve and wait patiently. After finding the bus and boarding we enjoyed a short bus ride to the temple. The temple was incredible and I am so glad we were able to find it. This temple is the best known in all Korea and we were able to spend a few relaxing hours in it. Oh I also completely forgot to mention that this was the hottest day I have ever experience in South Korea. There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was beating down on us in this 100+ weather. So obviously we were shade seekers and wandered around the lotus pond and shadows of the temples. We were asked to pose with Korean military men in a picture, and took a picture with our camera too. We found a ton of pagodas, small rocks stacked on top of each other to make a tower, behind a tower and enjoyed seeing their different shapes and stacking strategies. We decided to next head out to the coast and see the Underwater Tomb of King Munmu. We have heard so much about this tomb that we figured it was a must see, people have said you have to get there at low tide to see it and it’s so beautiful so we were determined. We sat at a bus stop for an hour, we were seeking bus 150 and we sat and watched bus 100 pass by 3 times and bus 10 taunt us 5 times. Eventually an impatient Devin decided we should get on bus 100, heading in the direction of the coast and work with what we get. So we bused and got off in a strange town on the coast, north of where we wanted to be. There were tents everywhere, Korean camping is very weird and different, and we began our search for a connecting bus down to the tombs. After walking in one direction, turning around and walking back, and looking confused I popped into a convenient store to ask the shop owner directions to the tombs. He said one block, said ten minutes, and pointed straight. We wandered and he came huffing and puffing after us pointing that we had traveled too far. We boarded a questionable bus that rolled in right at the ten minute mark and it fortunately took us right to the tombs. We got off the bus and were instantly disappointed. Our two hours of problem solving and patient waiting had gotten us to a pebble beach and a small rock formation off the coast, where supposedly, possibly his ashes remained. After a good laugh we ouched and oohhed our way across the pebbles to the water. We spent a good our rock collecting, everything was covered in water and smooth like it had just gotten out of a rock tumbler and they were made up of magnificent colors. Obviously I brought home around four handfuls. We met a tall, skinny, red headed, British boy that was just traveling around South Korea alone for two months. I enjoyed his accent, especially when talking about “contraband activities.” Finally it was leaving time and we were all in high hopes that the buses would be much easier to figure out. We found the stop and waited 45 minutes for the fabled bus 150 to pull up. The bus took us back to the bus station and we bused back to Daegu. On our way back to our hotel we stopped at a rest and hof and spent the rest of the evening chatting and winding down. All in all it was a relaxing, spectacular, hot, great day.
Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to hit up church before moving onto our festivities. We decided to head out to Busan, beach, for potentially our last ocean excursion. It was another hot day and busan is just a 7000 won hour and a half train ride and 30 minute subway ride away. We played Euker on the train down, stressful as always. James and I vs. Devin and Jesa, and the boys don’t like when you lose. The subway was packed which was clue enough for how the beach would be. If you will recall back to the first time we visited Busan it rained the entire time and we were four of 75 people on the beach. Take that number and add about three zeros to the end and that is still less people than those on the beach. All you could see were people laying out under rows and rows of umbrellas and people stretching down the beach playing in the ocean as far as you could see. We were luckily able to find a small patch of sand to lay our towels on. Jesa sunned and read while the boys and I went out to play in the huge crashing waves. They yelled their catch phrase, como se dice, and we drank our fair share of sea water. After about three hours of playing on the beach and laying in the sun it was time to head home. We got back on the long subway ride and grabbed some burger king before boarding our train home. Unfortunately we were all in separate cars on the way back but we were able to relax and read alone. That night back in our hotel we hung out and prepared for the next week of camp, the weekend was very refreshing and relaxing and exactly what the doctor ordered. I can’t believe I only have three more weeks left in this beautiful country, poo poo.
Miss you,
Elizabeth
Tuesday was a better day, thank goodness, still rough though. The kids realized the way small group would be this week and have accepted it more or less. In musical theater camp we continued to sing from the nine songs I printed out lyrics for. I had all the song lyrics in stapled packets and as we sang I had them go to the back table and put a smiley face next to three songs they would like to perform on Friday in Camp A presents. I thought they would put simple little smiley faces, but to my delight I noticed when I picked up the paper and tallied the marks they had intricate, unique faces with hair styles and it was really cool to see their inventiveness without specific instructions. That afternoon we went to the pool and enjoyed lots of fun times swimming and having them hang on me. I probably hear my name 15 times a minute, miss smartie wanna watch me float, miss smartie dunk me to the bottom, miss smartie how long can I hold my breath, miss smartie watch this, miss smartie will you pick me up, miss smartie watch me swim, stand there miss smartie and I’ll swim to you. I’m constantly moving in a circle applauding small swimming accomplishments and pretending to be interested in how long they can hold their breath. Closing was fun, swimming tires them out so when it’s time to sit in a circle and sing songs I put my legs out straight in front of me and four kids will be asleep on my thighs by the end. After work Tuesday night I convinced Jesa to skip our work out and instead go for a long walk off post down by the river. We walked about fifteen minutes to find the river we taxi past all the time, we walked and talked and jogged for about two and half hours enjoying the Koreans and fountains and amazing environment. We got slightly lost and had to do a bit of wandering to find base. We often get to chatting and don’t realize how far we have gone. On our way back we walked through a small forest grove around the sidewalk between the main road and the river. The cicadas were so plentiful and loud that we literally couldn’t hear each other talking, they were deafening. We would look at the trees and they were covered with exoskeletons and living cicadas climbing up and down the trees, in my opinion it was one of my favorite Korea experiences. I have never heard them so loud that I couldn’t hear anything else, or seen so many up close with their claws and wings.
Wednesday was a fun day at camp. We practiced very hard in musical theater camp and we were trapped inside due to rain for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon we went bowling and I again sat in the lane with a bunch of first grade boys and Jirah and Kalisha. We again played crack the egg and tickle monster while they bowled around a 60. Wednesday night one of our campers families, Dawson, invited us over for dinner. We enjoyed a delicious steak, cuscus, Asian pear, salad, desert home cooked meal that my mouth was salivating over with delight. They were the cutest married couple ever and had been all over the world. Their living room was littered with trinkets from far off lands and she had the most incredible stories to share.
Thursday was a long exhausting day, field trip day. We loaded the buses bright and early, eight thirty, Devin and I with our 18 kids, 57 total kids that day. The bus had one small TV screen in the front and we decided to play the lion king. First problem, the kids sitting in the window seats were too short to see above the seats in front of them, thus we entered into a tear fest for the first twenty minutes. The bus ride was our longest one yet, two hours, and of course we had to make an emergency bathroom break. One of my little trouble makers Sammy, who happened to be sitting next to me, was crying because he had to use the restroom so bad and the bus driver took his sweet time getting there. After our break we reloaded and about ten minutes into the ride Sammy throws up, luckily I see it coming and dump out an old ziplock with toys in it to catch his puke. I thought we were in the clear until the bag of vomit began seeping and leaking all over my hands and down one leg, I almost lost it. After cleaning up and rubbing his head, he puked up the rest of his stomach contents, this time in a sealed bag about five minutes later. We finally arrived in Tongdo Fantasia amusement park. We rode the carousal, balloons, some other circle ride, and mini rollercoaster. We attended a 3-D dinosaur show which was hysterical in his awfulness. These small terrible glasses made me sick so I watched without. The entire movie was about a dinosaur who’s egg was beamed up onto a spaceship so he has to save it from the alien robot dinosaurs. The whole thing was without any dialogue and it contained more sound effects than every action movie I have ever seen put together. When he blinked there was a sound effect. After a tiring bus ride back, I sat next to Keyona who was hyper on life for an hour before crashing hard, we left work and Devin, James and I went out to dinner at some BBQ chicken place. They had the spiciest wings available and cried openly at the dinner table, why would you want to eat something that physically causes you pain. After dinner we all piled into James room, Jesa included to watch thank you for smoking, which was pretty funny.
Friday was a generally good day at camp. We had Camp A presents and the Musical theater camp had their big performance. You should have seen the kids freak out in the hour before club time, the pressure of the performance must have been getting to them because I had four different kids crying in the separate corners. The day dragged on and I anxiously waited four thirty, when cream the counselor would be over and I would be free at last, at least for two days. After work Jesa and I decided to spend some quality time together and go downtown for some shopping while the boys headed to a baseball game with a staff member. This girl time was much needed. We stopped in Baskin Robbins and enjoyed the taste of home. We then spent too much time and too much money shopping the streets of Daegu, trying to find the best deals and think of gift ideas. We are also trying to Korean ourselves up before leaving the country so we are desperately trying to copy the dress of one of our coworkers Miss Moon with little success. We returned enjoyed a relaxing night of staying up late, chatting, watching a movie, and braiding hair.
The next morning came very early and I was not excited to hear the 7 am alarm chime. We met up with the boys and headed for the bus stop where we caught the 8:30 hour long bus to Gyeong ju. Gyeong ju is the historical tourist attraction of South Korea. It has a bunch of history and artifacts from the Silla period and we were looking forward to a traditional, educational weekend. We discovered that none of us really get along till after two pm so the morning was argument after argument and very tension filled, but that won’t bring me down. Our first stopped were the Royal mound tombs. We walked for about ten minutes and were surrounded by grassy hills, right between buildings and next to gas stations. These hills were old burial mounds during the Silla dynasty and have been excavated to reveal some of the nation’s most prized national treasures. We found a small park, Daeneungwon, and spent time wandering around the mounds, lotus ponds, and taking pictures of the many dragon flies. Next we headed back to the bus stations, after failing at figuring out the bus schedule, to ask the tourist information desk how to get to Bulguk-san temple. We were overly confident with our transportation skills coming into this weekend and karma several times spit in our face and made us problem solve and wait patiently. After finding the bus and boarding we enjoyed a short bus ride to the temple. The temple was incredible and I am so glad we were able to find it. This temple is the best known in all Korea and we were able to spend a few relaxing hours in it. Oh I also completely forgot to mention that this was the hottest day I have ever experience in South Korea. There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was beating down on us in this 100+ weather. So obviously we were shade seekers and wandered around the lotus pond and shadows of the temples. We were asked to pose with Korean military men in a picture, and took a picture with our camera too. We found a ton of pagodas, small rocks stacked on top of each other to make a tower, behind a tower and enjoyed seeing their different shapes and stacking strategies. We decided to next head out to the coast and see the Underwater Tomb of King Munmu. We have heard so much about this tomb that we figured it was a must see, people have said you have to get there at low tide to see it and it’s so beautiful so we were determined. We sat at a bus stop for an hour, we were seeking bus 150 and we sat and watched bus 100 pass by 3 times and bus 10 taunt us 5 times. Eventually an impatient Devin decided we should get on bus 100, heading in the direction of the coast and work with what we get. So we bused and got off in a strange town on the coast, north of where we wanted to be. There were tents everywhere, Korean camping is very weird and different, and we began our search for a connecting bus down to the tombs. After walking in one direction, turning around and walking back, and looking confused I popped into a convenient store to ask the shop owner directions to the tombs. He said one block, said ten minutes, and pointed straight. We wandered and he came huffing and puffing after us pointing that we had traveled too far. We boarded a questionable bus that rolled in right at the ten minute mark and it fortunately took us right to the tombs. We got off the bus and were instantly disappointed. Our two hours of problem solving and patient waiting had gotten us to a pebble beach and a small rock formation off the coast, where supposedly, possibly his ashes remained. After a good laugh we ouched and oohhed our way across the pebbles to the water. We spent a good our rock collecting, everything was covered in water and smooth like it had just gotten out of a rock tumbler and they were made up of magnificent colors. Obviously I brought home around four handfuls. We met a tall, skinny, red headed, British boy that was just traveling around South Korea alone for two months. I enjoyed his accent, especially when talking about “contraband activities.” Finally it was leaving time and we were all in high hopes that the buses would be much easier to figure out. We found the stop and waited 45 minutes for the fabled bus 150 to pull up. The bus took us back to the bus station and we bused back to Daegu. On our way back to our hotel we stopped at a rest and hof and spent the rest of the evening chatting and winding down. All in all it was a relaxing, spectacular, hot, great day.
Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to hit up church before moving onto our festivities. We decided to head out to Busan, beach, for potentially our last ocean excursion. It was another hot day and busan is just a 7000 won hour and a half train ride and 30 minute subway ride away. We played Euker on the train down, stressful as always. James and I vs. Devin and Jesa, and the boys don’t like when you lose. The subway was packed which was clue enough for how the beach would be. If you will recall back to the first time we visited Busan it rained the entire time and we were four of 75 people on the beach. Take that number and add about three zeros to the end and that is still less people than those on the beach. All you could see were people laying out under rows and rows of umbrellas and people stretching down the beach playing in the ocean as far as you could see. We were luckily able to find a small patch of sand to lay our towels on. Jesa sunned and read while the boys and I went out to play in the huge crashing waves. They yelled their catch phrase, como se dice, and we drank our fair share of sea water. After about three hours of playing on the beach and laying in the sun it was time to head home. We got back on the long subway ride and grabbed some burger king before boarding our train home. Unfortunately we were all in separate cars on the way back but we were able to relax and read alone. That night back in our hotel we hung out and prepared for the next week of camp, the weekend was very refreshing and relaxing and exactly what the doctor ordered. I can’t believe I only have three more weeks left in this beautiful country, poo poo.
Miss you,
Elizabeth
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