Kids' Camp

Well, it's that time of the week again. For those of you who remember, or have just been paying attention, seven weeks ago I decided to start video blogging. Every week. On Tuesday. And I've been very good about it.

However, I am currently teaching extra classes, yesterday and today we had testing - which meant even more work (11 hrs total each day), and I was gone all weekend at a summer camp.

Summer camp would have been a great opportunity to take videos, right? And I thought I took a few, but I think that a couple of them may have accidentally been deleted (alternatively, I may have just imagined them). Consequently, here it is 11:00 pm on Tuesday night and all I have to share with you is one rather pathetic excuse for a video clip. In the spirit of consistency, I'm going to upload it anyway and supplement it with a few pictures and a blog about the camp, ok?

So here it is, the camp report.

Camp was great. I'm really glad I went, even though I didn't know anyone before Friday. Two weeks ago, I saw a notice in the bulletin saying that they were looking for volunteers for Vacation Sunday School for the weekend of Aug 8-10. I assumed that it was VBS and they just needed someone for a few hours during the day. I tried to talk to someone after church, but nobody was available. So I tried again after church last Sunday. This time I was able to talk to one of the children's church leaders and later, the children's pastor. At this point I found out that it was a children's camp. The leader that I talked with was very excited that I was volunteering and said that they needed more volunteers. They were heading out on Friday morning, but he said I could carpool with some other people who weren't able to make it Friday night.

So after work on Friday, I met up with some other volunteers and headed out to the camp. By the time we got there, it was nearly 11:00 and most people had gone to bed. I was fortunate enough to be sharing a room with three other women, rather than a room full of kids. Don't get me wrong, I love kids. But after teaching all week and having extra classes, then spending the weekend at a kids' camp - it was nice to at least get a break at night!

I had a group of 6 six kids - 3 boys and 3 girls. But most of the time, we combined our group with another group. A lot of the kids were friends and a few of them could be a bit difficult, so it was easier for Misol (the other counselor) and I to combine the groups. Here we all are!:

On Saturday, we went on some waterslides. We only had about an hour, though, so I decided that it was not worth the effort for just an hour and I wasn't going to participate- I'd just go alone. But when we got there, I saw that these were not your typical waterslides. Behold:
It appeared to be astroturf with hoses spraying it down. After a bunch of people went down, they told us that you really don't get all that wet - just a sprinkle on the legs - but it was a lot of fun. So Misol and I caved. Naturally, just as we were about to go down, tons of water started spraying everywhere. We got wet.

It was fun, though. I'm glad we went.

Kids' camp in Korea was a lot like kid's camp in the states. We had Bible stories:

In this picture, the kids were acting out the story of Jesus coming to see Mary and Martha after Lazarus died. The kid lying down isn't just taking a nap - he's supposed to be Lazarus.

We had crafts and games:

Our group won the games on Saturday night, which meant they got all the snacks they wanted. You can see that they were pretty happy about that.

We even had a campfire. Alas, there were no smores to be had, but this kid seemed to be enjoying the fire anyway.

We also lit candles to symbolize a commitment to share Jesus with our friends. This is where my ever-so-brief video comes in:


Campfire from Marianna Willey on Vimeo.

Like I said, I'm really glad I went. I haven't really been involved in my church since coming to Korea. I didn't know anyone before this weekend and I basically just go to church and leave right after the service. But helping out at kids' camp showed me how much I miss being involved and now I know some people, too! It was also a good opportunity to spend more time hanging out with Koreans. Including me, there were only three foreigners at the camp this weekend. I have a few Korean friends, but I spend most of my time hanging out with foreigners. So it was nice to get to know more Koreans.

I said that kids' camp here was a lot like kids' camp back home, but one thing that was a lot different was the food. Although I like Korean food, after eating kimchi and rice with every meal for two days, I was happy to come home and have a salad for dinner and breakfast food for breakfast the next morning.

So that's it for today, folks. I'll do my best to have a better video for you next week!

Galbi

Galbi (갈비) is one of the best things in Korea.

Really.

Watch the video.

Intro to Galbi 101 from Marianna Willey on Vimeo.

Wanna try some? All you have to do is come visit me, and we'll go enjoy some hot, tasty 갈비 on me. That's right, I'm offering to buy you dinner! How can you pass that up?

So, who's first?

Science Class

As I mentioned in my last blog, we're currently in the middle of intensives.

What are intensives?

I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you...

In Korea, the school system is year-round. There is a one month break in January and a one month break in August (actually late-July to late-August). So during the school break, kids take extra classes. That's right - for vacation, they spend more time at academies.

I'm not sure if I've really explained this before, but I teach English at an academy. There are academies for all kinds of subjects - my students have mentioned Math, Science, and TaeKwonDo as some of the academies they attend. I think most of my students attend at least 2 academies. They do this in the evening, after spending a full day at school. Where I work, the kids are there for almost 3 hours, 2-3 times per week. Kids here study hardcore. They have school on Saturday, too!

Anyway, back to intensives. They're a lot different from our regular classes and a lot more laid-back. I'm teaching two science classes and two literature classes. Anyone who knows me very well knows that I hate science and love lit. So my reaction was a bit like this, "Ugh....Yay!"

But actually, I don't mind the science class. I guess when I really think about it, it's mostly chemistry that I hate.

So anyway, we did an experiment in one of my classes last week. I thought it was worthy of a video. What do you think?

Science Class from Marianna Willey on Vimeo.

In case you're wondering, I do usually keep a bit more order in my classes, but there are only 4 students and like I said, it's intensives. These poor kids are on vacation, for heaven's sake.

One other little note, did you notice the cute kid playing the part of class clown? He's one of my favorites, even though he acts up. Anyway, I made him cry yesterday. Yep. Way to go, me.

Get Down

Work lately has been NUTS. We haven't gotten a replacement for a teacher who left three weeks ago, so a few of us (ahem... me) have had to pick up an extra class. Then last week, we had two teachers sick on Monday, one on Tuesday and Wednesday, and one teacher left for vacation on Wednesday. I taught an extra class every day except Friday. Yuck. We have another teacher leaving in a couple of weeks and two more teachers have vacation next month. All I can say is that they better get us a couple of new teachers soon!

On top of this, I have essays coming out of my ears. They're all between 300-600 words and Definitely Not Fun Times to grade. Then yesterday, intensives started. This means that I teach an extra 2-1/2 hours per day. So right now, I'm teaching about 6-1/2 to 8 hours per day - which wouldn't actually be that bad if it weren't for all of the prep work.

But anyway, with all of the craziness last week, there just weren't enough teachers to cover all of the extra classes, so we ended up having to combine some of them. One of my friends had to teach one of these combined classes and was determined to make it fun.

Behold the results:


D.O.W.N. from Marianna Willey on Vimeo.

Neighborhood Tour

Today's video clip is a tour of my neighborhood. Please be forewarned that I am not a professional cinematographer and anyone susceptible to motion sickness might be better off skipping this week's video clip.

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Coffee in Korea - Episode 1

Coffee.

It is a wondrous thing.

Naturally, in moving to Korea, one concern at the forefront of my mind was, "How will I get my hands on some decent brew?"

Fortunately, I have found some great coffee here.

I have also found some crap coffee.

Join me, on my quest for the bean in Korea.

It may be a bumpy ride, but we are sure to be rewarded in the end. If we are lucky, we might even find a nice cup of medium-bodied South American coffee with mild acidity and cocoa undertones. Or perhaps a rich African coffee with citrus notes?

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Still Getting Back into Blogging

K, let's try this again.

I'm not sure what else I was going to talk about in that last "to be continued" post. Besides teaching and running, the rest of my life is pretty standard. I buy groceries, clean my house, take out the garbage, pay my bills, watch movies, hang out with friends - pretty normal stuff, right?

But then again, because I'm living in Korea, this "normal stuff" can be slightly different from what you're used to. So here's my latest idea. I'm going to blog a video every Tuesday. These videos will contain bits of my normal, everyday life as a foreigner in Korea. Any thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Feel free to leave a comment with your two cents worth!

And without further ado, today's theme is...

Eating Out.. Korean Style - Part 1

Video Credits:
Starring: Marianna Willey
Filming and Narration: Veronica Navarro
Random Side Comments: Walter Demesa and Brittany Maxey