Behold - the last of the catch-up blogs, which also (sadly) means the last of the awesome photo documentary a la Jill (I'll try to be better, I pinkie swear!):
Since the bulk of what I do here is teaching, that was what I was most excited to share with Jill. I was excited to show her around the school. have her meet my co-workers and experience firsthand my purpose in this country. Jill was a more than willing participant and she fit right in. Everyone loved her!
Before school each day, Chan Yang ordered lunch for delivery at the school. This was perfect because not only did it give Jill a chance to try several different types of Korean food, but it was free! It was fun to share a daily meal with Jonah, Mr. Shin and Chan Yang.
All of the students who attended our two week Winter Camp were new students to us and will be some of the incoming first year students. We tried to create a fun environment for them and I think they enjoyed themselves... The first day was spent creating name tags and playing ice breakers like Two Truths and a Lie and untangling a human knot. One girl sat next to Jill and told her all about her pet hamster. They were fast pals. The next day was devoted to teaching (read: reviewing, since these girls seemed to be ahead of the curve) past tense and playing a quick game of Pass the Paper. Wednesday was present tense day. The girls created personal ads, as did Jill and I. I should have written down some of the posters' contents - they were adorable. The next day was future tense and we tried to play the famed elementary bus game of M.A.S.H. to predict their futures, but it didn't work out quite like I had hoped... Oh well. Much of this camp was trial and error with little time to fix the things that didn't work out well...
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| These two were a hoot. |
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| My, what diligent listening skills they are displaying... |
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| Giggling during the Bomb game later in the week. These girls were such sweeties! |
The last day of the week, we played a revised version of the BOMB game and baked chocolate chip cookies. I measured out the ingredients and they mixed the dough. It was fun to watch the girls cook. Unfortunately, our toaster oven situation proved disastrous given my oven's apparent and surprising inability to bake a proper cookie. Almost immediately upon inserting the cookies into the oven, it produced billows of smoke, a foul smell and instantaneously burnt (albeit gooey and delicious) cookie dough. Rats. Despite my oven's malfunction, Dionne's oven prevailed and slowly produced enough cookies for each students to enjoy one. Jill and I tried to teach Chan Yang the wonders of eating cookie dough. He was not a convert. As I poured the horrid amount of sugar into the girls' bowls for them to mix, Chan Yang explained that we were making American Style cookies. That distinction didn't stop Jill and I from ingesting cookie dough at any possible moment. That is, after all, the best part of baking cookies, in my humble opinion.
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| Cutting chocolate for our cookies |
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| This girl was one vigorous mixing machine. Wow. |
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| The other table hard at work - they were so cute to watch! |
Jill's last day of camp was Monday. We had the girls create their own categories for Charades and spent the remainder of the class time playing Charades. The girls were pretty good and really creative. It was fun to watch them forced out of their comfort zone. Once each of the girls had a chance to act out the contents of their card, each of the teachers took a turn, including Chan Yang. Awesome.
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| Chan Yang acting out his card while Dionne tries to figure out what he's doing with his hands |
The girls were sad to hear that Jill would be leaving and I'm sure she will be the topic of many a question at the beginning of the new school year. At the end of the day, the principal (who had come to school that day for this express purpose only) invited us into her office for tea, cookies and a chat. She was so appreciative of Jill spending time at our school and extended an invitation for her to return anytime. Then, to all of our amazement, she, the vice principal and Mr. Shin presented Jill with gifts of appreciation, including our school's clock (which was also given to all of the teachers as a Christmas gift) and a beautiful handmade traditional Korean mirror. Jill was taken quite by surprise.
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| Tea in the Principal's office |
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| Most of the campers and all of the teachers. I like to think a good time was had by all... |
The girls were sad the next day at camp when they realized Jill really wasn't coming back, but they soldiered on. The rest of the week was pretty no big deal...until Friday. We created a list of challenges for the girls to complete, some using English that they had learned over the week and others making the girls perform random tasks that Dionne and I thought would be fun (or at the very least funny). We had them put together puzzles made from pictures of Justin Bieber photo spreads from Tiger Beat magazine that Jill brought, sing songs, whistle with a mouthful of crackers, unwrap chocolate wearing oven mits, and tell stories using flashcards, among other things. My absolute favorite task was having them make another team a fruit salad with some pretty nasty condiments and then eating the salad that was concocted for them by another team. Some teams were ruthless, making their fruit salad super spicy with mustard, pepper paste and vinegar. Other teams were super sweet to each other, asking each other what they wanted in their salads. It was, surprisingly, a pretty true testament of their personalities and character.
Winter Camp got me pretty jazzed for the upcoming school year. More than that, however, getting the chance to share this chunk of my life with Jill was pretty dang special and I'm so thankful that she would take time out to come to Korea to visit! Seriously, words cannot accurately describe how delightful it was to have her here! It was just the taste of home, kinship, pure joy and uncensored laughter that I had (unbeknownst to me) been craving. Thanks, again, for the magical time pal!
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