Last published on July 3rd? Really? I'm getting even lazier than I'd thought...

So now it's summer vacation, and I get to do English camp, which is fun. Two hours a day with small classes and no coteacher and free license to do whatever I want. The biggest problem I'm going to face in class at this school is that so many of my students are so afraid to speak English. I mean, I'll try to get them to repeat something easy like "I like apples" after me, and they're shaking their heads saying they don't know any English. I do have a few bright spots in English camp. Jason (whose Korean name is, in fact, Je-i-sun) has dyed blond hair and speaks well enough to communicate. I'm not sure if he's half-and-half or if his parents just really really wish they had a foreign kid. When we did orientation and Chan, my coteacher, asked for names, one girl triumphantly stated, "My name is NO JI-YEON!" She's approached every situation since then with the same confidence and air of mastery and is one of those kids who has her hand up in the air the minute I even start to think about asking a question. She's gonna be a really fearsome ajumma later in life.

Camp is cool because I get to have fun with the kids in the morning and then no one bothers me in the afternoon. Most of the other teachers are, and will be, off doing training and stuff and so the school operates with a skeleton crew, and as it's vacation there are no students. I really ought to befriend the librarian, who's here, and was really nice to me on the teachers' trip, but I'm shy.

The teachers' trip was on Saturday and was a better day than I expected, meals aside. Before the bus even left the school the guys had set up a soju table in the middle of it and were getting started. We went to an eel soup restaurant for lunch and there was actually plenty of non-fishy food, but no one would believe I was okay with it and so it was all way too much of a big deal ordering me more food that I then had to eat out of politeness. The same fiasco was repeated at dinner which was a seafood buffet. It was really a fantastic meal, the table piled high with all kinds of aquatic delights cooked inventively. Just, you know, not my style. And I had to explain about ten times to the same people after being offered every kind of platter on the table that no, I don't eat ANY seafood. And the worst part about all this is that it's terribly ungrateful of me to complain when people have gone to such trouble on my account. Even though I didn't ask them to, didn't want them to, and found all their efforts only created more trouble for me as well.

But as I was saying, apart from that, I had a good day. They gave us each a giant bag of snacks at the beginning and I do love starting off a day with a giant bag of snacks. Then a few of the teachers turned out to actually speak good English and they were all really nice. The special ed teachers in particular speak no English whatsoever but went out of their way to try to befriend me, and I really, really do appreciate that kind of effort. We went to a botanical garden where the other teachers found my devotion to my mother (i.e. taking photos of all the flowers for her; not exactly a task requiring much devotion, but hey, I'll take the compliment) to be quite touching (as family is so very, very important here). Then there was a beach where I was left on my own for a while and some guy came running out of a restaurant, across the street, and down to me, asked where I was from, and then, when I said Canada, called across the street and insisted his wife come over as well. She greeted me "Canada-style" with a hug (yeah, that didn't make me uncomfortable at all...) and then I had to answer a bunch of questions and was pretty relieved when I could finally make an escape.

On Sunday I could hold out no longer and went to Seoul to enjoy my newfound wealth (i.e. a regular salary). This led to the purchase of three Korean textbooks, a new video game I've really wanted, multicoloured pens, an array of bath/body products in my favourite fruity scents, and some other stuff I can't think of at the moment. Basically I had a $200 budget for fun stuff and went nuts.

Still hanging out with the Air Force officer with some frequency. He's gonna get me cooking supplies from the base and that also makes me happy. Still trying to meet other people, with some success, and already beginning to plot my next travels. So far I'm thinking Jordan in the winter and Europe (Germany/France/Switzerland perhaps) next summer, but we'll see.