Winter Camp

Having learned some valuable lessons from my summer camp experience, I approached winter camp with one clear objective: keep it simple! Still, I knew I was in for a bit of a challenge no matter what tasks I set for the kids...

I arrived at school on the first day of winter camp to find that a) school was freezing and b) no, they couldn't turn the heaters on because they didn't have the budget for that (yeah, right). Luckily, there was the option of using the science lab which had a heater I could turn on without school having to run the heaters in every room. So, down to the science room I went and, as it turned out, it was the best place to run the camp anyway! For the first week I had two separate classes one after the other. Class A-spoke pretty good english, and class B-well, they didn't really speak english at all. It was pretty exhausting but we made it work and I think the kids even had fun!

Things really did go quite smoothly this time around, with the exception of one little thing...

On the third day of camp I got a phone call in the morning from Anna, my co-teacher for the camp, saying that she had a couple of broken ribs and was therefore bedridden. Well, I couldn't exactly argue with that! It did however, leave me with the problem of what to do about class B and if there's one thing I've learned from teaching in Korea it's how to be clear and assertive. I told Anna that I understood that she couldn't come in but that didn't mean I didn't need somebody to help me. She then mumbled something about Ellie being busy and not knowing who else to ask. I told her that if she couldn't find someone to help me then I would cancel the camp and amazingly enough, she found someone. So, the camp went ahead and with a little more persistence I had somebody to help me every day.

I spent the second week of camp with my advanced class and things went well, in fact, I even found myself enjoying their company! On the last day the students requested that I be a little late to class and when I arrived they had prepared a cake and a slideshow to thank me for teaching them and to say that they'd had fun with me and would miss me. It was really lovely! And, to make things even more special, it was snowing! The kids asked if we could go outside and play in the snow and when I said yes I think they nearly fell over backwards. We played in the snow for a good hour, I don't know what anybody watching from inside thought but I like to think that by now they just shake their heads and think, "well, there's no use trying to stop our Australian teacher...."

So, with winter camp well and truly wrapped up and our regular classes finished, home is starting to feel very close indeed. I've learned a lot from this experience and I know I'll never forget it but I'm so excited to be heading home. Before I left for Korea somebody said to me, "Australia is the best place in the world to live, why go anywhere else?" to which I replied, "I know that, I'm just making sure". Well, I've done that now and it's true, there's no place like home and I can't wait to get back there.

Lucy