This week is the grade five camp. It's not going as well as the grade threes, partly because grade fives are more susceptible to peer pressure and less susceptible to stickers, and partly because I was sick the first two days and really in no condition to give the kind of cheerful encouragement I gave the younger kids. Shopping was fun, again; this time the shop names included Animal Farm and Surprised Fruit Store. Some of these kids are actually rather fluent and so I'm not sure if Animal Farm was a weird coincidence or if one of the girls heard the name somewhere (and, most likely, imagined it as a happy story of animals living together in harmony...)

I've got one kid, Tae-Min, who's an absolute riot but seems determined to get through the camp without speaking a word of English, plus two girls who try reeeeeally hard to disappear when it's speaking time. I got one of the two to say a few lines during bingo and pestered Tae-Min during the shopping role-play until he at least came out with a few "Hello, can I help you" and "Thank you, goodbye"s.

The sickness thing was quite scary at the time, though I was probably in no real danger. I was afraid it was another attack of ketoacidosis and the thought of going to a Korean hospital for ANYTHING diabetes-related is even more frightening than the illness itself. Plus, I have no gallant Dutchman around to save my ass this time. Plus, I had no way to check my blood sugar because I had run out of strips for my machine and been unable to find the right kind. anyway, on Monday when the pharmacies were all open again, I dragged my sorry ass out to Pyeongtaek to a pharmacy where I had seen machines for sale and just bought a whole new one. It told me I probably wasn't dying but probably should take some insulin. Anyway, in the end, the most probable cause seems to be food poisoning with later complications. I couldn't find American products to help me out in the black market and whatever the Koreans gave me at the pharmacy was totally useless.

Anyway, it's all a long story which boils down to "Being sick and alone in a foreign country really sucks".