First Week of Camp

Hi again,

So, we're nearing the bench mark of our first week of camp.  I'm in a cabin with Eunji unni and 7 two week villagers that range from 12-18 years of age.  They're all really sweet and things are working out fine so far.

I'm teaching two classes a day, but I've been super busy because I was also helping out with two evening programs and my group (counselors) had to prepare a skit/scene from a Korean folktale "선녀와 나무꾼" aka "The Sky Fairy and the Woodcutter."  Lights out are at 10:30 so we really can't meet until after that, so I've been going to be rather late.  But its fun.

The first class I teach is a rotating class, so I teach the same lesson everyday. Nice ^^  Its really basic just to give the kids a taste of drumming and to give them a chance to try all the different instruments.  The second class I teach is in the afternoon and is an elective, so the kids choose to be in that class.  That class is longer and more involved.  I was trying to teach a new rhythm today but I think it may have been a bit too hard... I'll need to figure something out tomorrow to make sure everyone is understanding it.

I should go to bed... Tonight's evening program was called "숲 속의 대조" or "Welcoming to the Forest".  It was really neat, but I swear I have a tick somewhere on my body. I really hope not...
Somehow I got volunteered to sing with one other counselor, Jenny, while Eunji (my cabin mate) played danso, traditional flute.  We dressed in hanbok (traditional dresses) and sang arirang, a folk song.  But the whole program was supposed to be very calming, so we needed to wait til dark.  So at dusk, we walked into the woods and literally stood in the middle of the forest with one lantern and waited for the kids to come.

When they came, we sang our song and then they continued down the trail to the main area where the main performance was.  I was really impressed with everyone.  No one spoke a word. It was dead silent the entire time, which is what they were supposed to do.
The main performance was Saejin oppa painting traditional style calligraphy on a huge white piece of paper lit by lanterns while Jinwha unni played gayageum (12 string zither).  He painted it from the back so it looked like it was magically appearing from the front, as we could only see the lines from the paint appear on the paper.  Then Soonyoung came out and did salpuri, a traditional korean dance.  Afterward, we all went back and took turns burning a wish we had written on a piece of paper in the camp fire.  Traditionally, Koreans would write wishes and burn then and believed the wishes would be carried to heaven.

Because we had to wait until it was dark, we finished late and didn't get back to our cabin til 11:00.  Unfortunately, tomorrow is our cabins turn to wake everyone up so we have to get up extra early.... Each cabin takes a turn at waking everyone else up in the morning with korean drums (its early but really fun. I remember thinking it was the greatest idea when I was a villager), doing meal presentations, which are short skits to introduce the food and new vocabulary, and setting the table at meal times.  Wish me good luck on waking up... Ugh.

Anyhow, we did our big skit today for the villagers at 근마당 this morning.  I was the maiden aka the pregnant lady wearing purple who bore 3 children in 15 minutes. haha.

If you want to catch up on the story, as we were the third scene, check out
Scene 1:
click here or go to
lhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N99SVk5OwE&feature=channel

Scene 2:
click here or go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciwfJvPvDc


Here is part 1 of our scene:
 click here or go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjaBLaHdD0&feature=channel

Part 2 of our scene:
click here or go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPCqH8bnRNQ&feature=channel


Also, the camp, Sup Sogui Hosu also has a blog (click on "blog" to get to the link) that has videos, photos and blog entries written and compiled by Kyungmoon (you may remember her from previous entries as we were in Korea together).

The link is:
http://supsoguihosu.villagepages.org/blog/

Hopefully I'll get around to adding pictures at some point. I don't have a lot of spare time, but I'll try~
Good night!

Camp Orientation

Hi Hi Hi~

So, today is my last official day of CLV (Concordia Language Village) orientation.  I got here last Sunday and we will pack up and leave for our camp site tomorrow afternoon.

I'll be working at Sup Sogui Hosu (again) as a Samulnori drumming teacher and counselor.  So, before we get to camp we have CLV orientation.  Our session had 5 villages (camps) here: Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and French.  We have whole group meetings as well as individual camp meetings.

We have breakfast from 7:30-8:30 and then various meetings throughout the day until 10ish at night. I think the earliest I went to bed was 1am this entire week.  Ugh.

The whole group meetings range from everything from health and safety to conflict resolution strategies.  Some of them were helpful and interesting, especially in relation to my education degree, and some were extremely boring...

Our individual site meetings were with all the Korean camp staff.  The meetings were all conducted in Korean... wow. at times I was sure my head was going to explode.  It was pretty overwhelming and I felt  bad because I think it seemed like I wasn't really contributing, but by the time I figured out what was being said and came up with my own thoughts or ideas the moment was long past... Plus, our camp site has a total of 6 other children under the age of 6, so they were often running around (literally) in the middle of the circle of people, which was rather distracting.  They were so cute, I would watch them and then realize I wasn't listening anymore.  But by that time, I was way lost on the direction of the discussion.


However, we also did fun things (in Korean) like learn new songs and dances, play new games that we plan on teaching villagers, and create skits.

We did have a fun adventure in Bemidji on Thursday.  We wanted to go see the movie Inception but our meeting didn't end til 9:45ish. So, we got to the theater about 20 min. after the movie had started.  We got there and the doors were locked. There were 8 of us! A few girls knocked on the windows and the girls inside sat there eating popcorn and ignoring us.  Finally, a guy came to the door and told us that their ticket machines shutdown at 10pm. What!  That's what we get for being in Bemidji.  So, we ended up at Applebees.Then we took Bob the construction cone around for a photo shoot in Bemidji. 

Overall, its been a fun although tiring experience.  I think the immersion aspect of orientation made it rather stressful but also good.  At least this time I'm getting paid for doing language immersion instead of having to pay for language immersion.

*pics will come soon

Back in the States

*I posted another unfinished post I found under May 24, 2010 titled something like 'Soraksan = Buddha's Birthday.'  So to check it out go to the May section on the right hand side, click May, and then choose the new entry~


Hi~ So, I've been back in the States for nearly 2 weeks now.

I flew from Korea to Chicago with Mary, which was really nice!  The flight was roughly 12 hours (thanks to the tail wind!) and went by surprisingly fast!
We had different connecting flights from O'Hare to MSP, but there was some crazy weather storms, lightening in the air, so both our flights got canceled!  Over 30 flights in all that day.  Luckily, I got on as standby on another flight into MSP airport. Mary could only find a flight to Duluth! so her parents picked her up there.  Wow, what a trek!

Anyhow, no real big culture shock or anything too exciting to report.
I think the hardest thing I've found is getting used to living in a suburb and not being able to go out whenever I want to where ever I went.  I'm used to Seoul, where everything is accessible by subway, bus, or walking.  I definitely miss that.
And I'm not used to driving everywhere.
I'm also not really used to air conditioning anymore... That's weird because I used to not be able to stand heat.  I don't think I like it any better, but its kind of weird feeling cold in the middle of summer, especially when you know its like 90 outside... 
It's nice being home with my parents and see friends I haven't seen in a long while! I also got to eat Chipotle, which was unavailable in Korea.

 eating Chipotle~

trying on Susie's amazing dress she got as a gift from her host family (both of us are now back in MN)

 Becca took me to a show for my birthday! afterward, she needed to finish an online quiz for her summer course ^^

I'll be leaving to work at Sup Sogui Hosu, the Korean language camp the 18 of July and will be there for 5 weeks.  It should be fun, but I'm really nervous about my Korean language skills... Last time, since I was kitchen staff, I wasn't really required to speak in Korean the entire time. However, this time, I'm a counselor and will be teaching a drumming class, which I'm supposed to teach in Korean. Ugh. Wish me good luck!! I think I need it.

Til later!