Camp Rundown

I'm halfway done with this monster! Here's a list of some highlights and pitfalls...

- (during a "If you're happy and you know it..." activity) "If you're tired and you know it crazy..."

- Being told 5 minutes prior that we had to teach until 9pm when we had been told all day that we would only teach from 7:30 - 8. Why? Because the visiting parents were angry their kids would only be in class for 30 minutes that day - the one day when they weren't in class for 10 solid hours.

- Seeing the sun come up from the roof of our dorm complex (shhh...)

- Completely lucking into a single room.

- Being told by an 11 year old girl that she likes beer (pitfall)...

- Being told I look bad/tired after a marvelous 8 hours of sleep (pitfall)...

- (Upon entering a freshly smoked-in room) "Teacher, this is [like] my house!"

- Playing duck, duck, goose and watching a girl idly stand there smiling once picked. At first you think she doesn't know how to play, though there's no way she couldn't, and it soon becomes clear that she simply doesn't want to. Only, instead of complaining, she just stands there smiling as if she just pulled a prank on you. (Maybe you had to be there...)

- (the captions of a student drawing depicting the final scene of The Three Pigs) "Hahaha. Silly wolf!"

- For whatever reason, when I turn on my ipod, the only thing that seems to make sense is Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away".

- As much as my arm hair had baffled students before, nothing has reached the hysteria it has caused out here. There's not a single class period that goes by without a solid shucking of my arm.

- Drinking beers in our temporary dorm homes has caused collegiate nostalgia like never before.

- Playing a spirited rendition of Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down the Schoolyard" for 250+ captive Korean parents.

- Staring in awe as one of my Korean co-teachers, who insisted he was not very good at guitar, casually ripped through 30 minutes of flawless 4-finger picked classical pieces.