Summer Camp: An Exercise in Biting off More Than I Can Chew

There's no such thing as an extended period of time off without strings attached in Korea. Teachers here are forever writing reports and undergoing training to justify their holidays, the Department of Education here seems to take the view that it would be outrageous for their workers to have some time to simply relax. Good lord! If they had time to relax they might be happier at work.... and we couldn't have that, we just couldn't! So, when summer "holidays" rolled around, I wasn't surprised to discover that I would be working more weeks than I would have off. I was to conduct a three week English Camp before I could have two weeks off. And I was lucky to get two weeks off! In fact I had to write a report to satisfy the (useless) Department of Education, because I was technically only supposed to have one (totally reasonable given 20-something week long semesters.... NOT!)

I knew summer camp wasn't going to be easy, afterall, the kids wouldn't want to be there and neither would I, so I set about planning some fun things to make it a little less painful for them and for me. The first week went well with activities such as building houses out of newspaper, having a water fight and even learning the chicken dance. Of course there were problems, like the children completely misunderstanding that they needed LOTS of newspaper in order to construct a house that they could fit inside (one child brought one newspaper and then said to me "teacher, we build one house with one newspaper, right?") and the discovery that there was only one working tap outside because school turns the others off during the holidays (this made the water fight interesting). Still, I made it through the first week and I was feeling pretty good about it all. I was only two weeks away from holidays and three weeks away from our first visitors from home! It was an exciting time!

For the next two weeks of summer camp, I had my advanced class. I already knew these kids as I had been teaching them for most of the semester before. I also knew that their English was quite good and therefore thought they could handle a few slightly more elaborate activities. For the most part I was right about this, but I will never, ever be attempting papier mache with 20 children again....

I came up with the idea for making papier mache hot air balloons long before summer camp and I was convinced it would run smoothly. I was determined to have it all organised in a way that would make it impossible for it to go too wrong. The first stumbling block was the fact that I couldn't track down the proper glue. I solved this problem by deciding to make the glue out of flour and water, easy fixed, or so I thought... Day one of the papier mache project arrived and I hadn't made time during the week to lug home enough flour (mainly because it was stinking hot and I didn't fancy dragging that many kilos of flour home in it) so I arrived at school, put my things down and dashed out to find flour. Unfortunately, the nearest supermarket didn't open until 10am and with my class starting at 9:30am, that posed a problem. Luckily, I was saved by several convenience stores and after I had purchased all the flour they had in stock, I was feeling back on track again. The day got underway and the kids made a foul mess (as I knew they would) but they had fun so it was a success. The balloons were placed on a table covered in newspaper to dry over the weekend and once the kids had cleaned up (sort of) they went home. Then I looked at the floor. There were drips of glue mixture EVERYWHERE. It took me a good hour and a half to scratch the dried glue off the floor and let's just say I wasn't so pleased with my "great idea" once I'd finished.

Monday rolled around and the kids were to paint and decorate their balloons, it was supposed to be a fun, easy day. As I approached my classroom on Monday morning however, the smell that greeted me told me I was in for a nasty surprise. I walked in to find that 17 out of 20 balloons had gone mouldy.... very mouldy! The stench was awful! I flung the windows open and turned on the fans as I thought about what on earth I was going to do. I called the teacher I was working with for summer camp, Anna, and told her what was wrong. We decided to save the three non-mouldy balloons and have the students work in teams to decorate them. It was the best we could do. The kids arrived and we explained the situation. We set them to work and bless them, they really made the most of what was very nearly, a complete disaster. But, I was in for one more surprise. The day was nearly over when it became apparent that the kids were somehow of the belief that the balloons could fly! Oh dear, I think I destroyed a few dreams when I told them that they had not in fact made real hot air balloons! Still, the decorated balloons looked good and they're actually still on display in my classroom.

Now, with winter camp fast approaching (I only have to do two weeks of it this time) I'm taking the time to reflect on what I learned from summer camp and, well, I'll be keeping it simple this time, that's for sure! Nevertheless, I'm sure there will still be some stories to tell...

Lucy