24.8.08

lots and lots...

so here they are:
team 3 the first week of summer camp. some of the kids i remembered from regular weeks at the village, and luckily i remembered them for good reasons. this group is how i'd like to remember summer camp.

other highlights:

swimming!

being in bathing suits in front of the kids was a bit of an issue. no one was really sure what was ok, so most of us just wore shorts and tshirts. as you can see, some of the guys took their shirts off, and got some interesting comments. for instance, one boy very innocently complimented mike: "teacher, you have very nice fur."


mini-olympics!



apparently i've never seen anything more wondrous than a descending birdie, or shuttlecock, if you prefer.



haunted house!


not really a highlight, but who doesn't love staying late to frighten unsuspecting victims, i mean children. (that is me. that mask smelled like expired milk.)



and of course, the best part of every week
graduation!

actually, the best part is the end of graduation. and this picture isn't from graduation, but "recreation" - otherwise known as four hours of drama, limbo, dancing, karaoke (to the same 3 songs), and professionally administered guilt trips, and crying.

ok, so there's camp finished.
and of course, we had a big staff piss up at the end of it all. and i won't go into detail, because what happens at these things should stay at these things.
but it was fun.

the next day, collin and shanda waited an extra half-hour while i tried to recover, and then we headed to jamsil for krazzzzeeeeeeee burger! and oh yeah, Cats.

i was too hungover to really enjoy my burger; it's hard to really taste anything when all your sense-power is going to your eyeballs, searching frantically for a bathroom, just in case the next bite doesn't go down so well.

but as everyone knows, there's no cure like men in tights. and the cure's even quicker when said men are also in the heaviest hair and makeup i have ever. seen.
to be honest, the first half hour or so of Cats made me feel even queazier. at the same time, i couldn't stop laughing.



really?
what. the. fuck.
this has got to be one of the strangest spectacles. ever. and the fact that it's so famous and long-running both boggles my mind, and sort of restores some of my faith in humanity. i mean, if the minds of the masses (or at least the theatre-going contingent) are so open that they can covet something like this, well, there's hope for us all.

k, this is enough for now.
post of this past weekend (rafting and Nanta) pending.

21.8.08

it's almost been a month...

since my last post.
how to describe the time that's passed:
ups and ups and down down downs.



let's see...there was summer camp - which we all dreaded, but actually turned out to be a couple of my most enjoyable weeks here. it was a nice change from the usual, with some new classes and the odd mid-weekday off here and there. it seems disorder suits me.



after the first week of camp, a group of us went to firebox in hongdae for the tattoos we've talked about since i got here. i wasn't sure how to prepare myself, or what to expect when i heard the first zzzzp zzzzps of the needle.

ink met skin, and for the first ten seconds or so i was like, please - not as in please. stop. but as in, i'm tough and this is nothing. then...the burning. whatever. it was bearable. once it was done i was excited, but i'd imagined this tattoo in this spot for so long, it almost felt like it should have been there all along. so instead of, yes! wow!...the finished product was just, yes, ok. next one.
anyway, here it is.

and here we are at firebox, sometime during our five hour stay.


there was a cocker spaniel in the studio. we learned its name was cola. because it's not uncommon to hear "coke" pronounced "cock", so it makes sense the name seemed fitting for a coker spaniel. he was cute, and helped keep us entertained while shanda got star arms and nick got the world on his delt.



here she (he?) is
with her (his?) new friend,
collin.

after tattoos we got mexican at dos tacos (because that's what we do when we're in hongdae), and came home, ready to start summer camp round 2. it went well. not as well as the first, but ok. and that was followed by summer camp round 3, which was even worse than the first, but still ok. mini-olympics and swimming with the kids was so much fun!

coming up:
camp pictures, end of camp staff party, hongdae all-nighter, Cats, rafting, and nanta.