So heres a brief run through about the rest of camp. I was so busy, I never got a chance to update after the first week!
The first session was awesome! I think I already talked about the girls in my cabin etc. But they were great! Most mornings they would wake up before the 7:30 alarm and I'd find them studying Korean! They cleaned the cabin daily without prompting and when it was our turn to do wakeup duty and meal presentation, they spent a lot of time planning and practicing for our presentation, pan-chan yeonguk (we had to do breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Here is a link to one of their best ones:
video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6HYGXcfp-0
During the first two week session I was also teaching samulnori, traditional Korean drumming twice a day. Once in the morning to the two weekers, who rotated everyday and later in the afternoon as an elective to villagers who had chosen to take my class.
At the end of the first two weeks, my elective class gave a performance at the talent show. I spend hours making the goggal hats for them to wear for their performance. I taught them a standing piece, which was pretty difficult to do within such a short span of time. But they did a great job, although they loathed the hats I made them wear. ^__^
video link to one of our practices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJ6YFs7U6w
video link to their performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jro8lKsFxtY
Pictures from the first two week session:
진혁 and 한용 the camp's two biggest eaters!!!
some of the staff at Casion Night
~me and a hundred rolls of kimbap~
Oren (3) and Soru (18 months), kids of some of the staff. Aren't they adorable!?
Our Kwangju Cabin!
All the first session two week campers
In between sessions, staff gets one day off during the weekend. I went with the credit kids into town on Saturday while they did laundry, went to Target, and out to dinner. That is the only day within the month that they are at camp that they are given back their contraband ( cell phones, ipods, books in English) and are allowed to eat Amerian junk food. And the kids go nuts! They buy loads of junkfood at Target and inhale it as fast and as much as they can before the end of the night, when everything is taken away again.
Credit Weekend Pictures:
campers invading the laundromat in Bemidji
Miseol, Youngeun, and Solmin at the laundromat
Mingee, Gayeong, Minji and me waiting for our laundry
Credit kids pigging out on junkfood at Target
(note the multiple gallons of ice cream)
Gross. The kids ate all this within a span of two hours.
and this is how the table looked after all the junkfood was devoured. Stomach ache...
I had my day off on Sunday and went into the town of Bemidji with a bunch of staff. It was sooo much fun! Honestly, we didn't do anything particularly exciting, but I think it was all the more fun because we were stuck on campus at camp for so long. haha! We walked around as a huge group and explored Bemidji and acted as tourists. We ended up eating dinner at Green Mill and ate ourselves silly.
Day off Pictures:
Our Day Off!!!!
Staff with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox, Bemidji icons
Minji and me with Paul Bunyan's moccassins
Staff wearing Minnesota T-shirts (they were 3 for $10 at Walgreens)
getting ready for a cold Minnesota winter???
After dinner at Green Mill
At the Bemidji State Park
We watched the sun set and the beach was beautiful
walking the trails
*group shot*
Right after the first session ended I had to start getting ready for our I-Day performance. That was an undertaking. I-Day is when all of the language villages that are insession at that time get together to exchange music, dance, foods, and at the end each village gives a brief performance of some sort. Most are dance, theatrical, or musical performances.
Getting ready was rather stressful, but in the end it all turned out well! 수고했어요! It was a combination performance of taekwondo (martial arts), samulnori, gayageum (12 stringed zither), and b-boy (break dancing).
Because our performance plan kept changing, it was only finalized three days before our performance. So that meant the kids had one day to learn it and one day to practice it, and then it was show time! I had them practice from nap time through class time one day for a total of two hours! with a 7 minute water break. But afterwards, to try and make it up to them, I bought them all snacks.
It was really hot that day (of course) and I was literally tying ribbons on the kids uniforms as they were walking to the performance area, minutes before the ending ceremony started. Whew. ^^;;
Link to the big I-day performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n18OfqrCGks
Pictures from I-Day:
SupHo's grand entrance to I-Day
Charlie and Youngeun give Concordia Language Villages a special birthday wish
for their 50th Bday and introduce Sup Sogui Hosu
Junghye unni with her niece and nephew. So cute!
Amazing fruit stand put on by the French camp
Soru eating a snack
After I-Day, our class could finally relax, but just a bit. We still had to get something ready for the talent show/closing program. I decided I wanted them to do seol changu, or a changu solo. Some of the kids had never really played changu before, as they preferred one of the other three instruments. In the end, we did a bit of the changu solo and then transitioned into other beats that included the other instruments.
One of the beats we did has a chant that goes with it. I had the kids come up with new lyrics for the chant to use vocabulary they they knew and understood instead of the traditional chant which talks about having a good harvest.
This is what they came up with:
모기 모기 싫어 싫어 아! 아! 아! 아!
mosquitoes mosquitoes hate hate ah! ah! ah! ah! (direct translation)
김치 김치 좋아 좋아 매워! 매워! 매워! 매워!
kimchi kimchi like like spicy! spicy! spicy! spicy!
숲호에서 재미있는 사물놀이 앗싸!
At SupHo we play fun Samulnori yeah!
가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하
(the Korean alphabet) gah nah dah rah mah bah sah ah jah chah kah tah pah hah
It was a hit. The kids nailed it. It was awesome.
Here is a video of their performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RySRQtxU_Dw
On another note, the second session was for the younger kids and there was low enrollment for the younger two weekers this year. So there were only 7 girls and 2 boys! Since there were only 7 girls, we didn't need the two 2 week girls cabins that we had had the first session (there were ~25 two weekers the first session), so Eunji unni and I moved from our beloved Kwangju cabin to Busan along with Kyungmoon and Jenny, who were the counselors for the other former two week cabin.
Busan was much larger, but our first night with the second session girls we had three bats in our cabin! So we had to call the bat catchers aka. some of the boy counselors. One of the guys came and searched for an hour. He found two bats and the girls had to move rooms. Needless to say, the girls were a bit freaked out.
poor little bat. you are doomed.
As long as no one is asleep while there are bats in the cabin, there is no problem. The problem occurs when someone is asleep in a cabin with bats because bat bites are so small you may not be able to see them. In that case, everyone who was asleep while the bat was there needs to get rabbies shots, which cost $3,000 a person!!!!
I think over the span of our four weeks at camp, there were something like 40 bats caught in various cabins and camp buildings. After they are caught they need to be sent in for testing and then are euthanized. Sad.
In comparison to our first session with the older campers, it was definitely different having younger kids our second session. They were much more active, impulsive, and full of energy!!! haha. But also lots of fun and very cute!
Here is a video of them doing their meal presentation. They presented the food to the melody for "doe a deer." So cute!
Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEklLss-wS8
Pictures from Second Session:
Doesn't my class look like a blast?...
That's better
much happier looking
my drumming class - group shot
2 weekers burying Joonsu in the sand pile
girls putting makeup on male counselors
good job. Pil looks beautifully creepy...
Soru followed trend and got a faux hawk
kids during evening program playing "Golden Bell"
to test their Korean vocabulary knowledge
campfire
2 weekers at the campfire
Minji, Jinwha unni and me out on the lake riding the pontoon
being silly during meal time
Gayeong and I during meal time
Okju eating a baby octopus!
saying goodbye
Session 1 (ages 14-18):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8723rUfInI
Session 2 (ages 8-13):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6kmw9sXJxs
They all did a great job and the videos turned out hilarious!
