July 11, 2011
Summer camp is going to leave me exhausted! It’s 730 and I want to go to bed! Today started with breakfast at 7 am, and orientation at 8:30. Orientation gave us some information about the school and the way summer camp is set up, and then we went on a campus tour. It’s pretty big! There is a field for both elementary and middle/high school, along with a gym for each. There is also a cafeteria for each school, and the cafeteria for the Westerners. I learned that the building on the other side of us is the President’s residence and guest housing, and across the river is elementary school housing. The building we are in, and the building next to us is the teacher housing, for all the teachers – both international and national. We have a campus store where we can buy snacks, personal supplies and some school supplies if we need it without having to go to town. Orientation ended in time for us to have lunch, which we had in the middle school cafeteria today (normally we will eat in the elementary cafeteria for lunch – we will eat with our class). The cafeterias offer only spoons for utensils. It’s hard to eat with just a spoon as well! After lunch we had a couple of hours to kill. Colm came back to my room with me to use Kalyn’s Wi-Fi and with his help and the help of many YouTube videos; I came up with a chant for my classroom. Hopefully it goes well! At 3 pm, we returned to the building we had our orientation in, and made signs for our doors about country. I liked mine until I tried to make it prettier… then my art work failed me.
When our national teachers were ready (they had another camp up until this afternoon), we were introduced to them. My Chinese teacher is Sophie; she is 25 years old and is a teacher here at the camp during the school year. We have a classroom helper (a volunteer) who is in her second year of marketing at university, her name is Nelly. They are both really sweet girls. Sophie’s pay depends on her ability to keep my classroom clean and ready for me to use. The girls (I know they are not girls, but it’s just what I say!) helped me set up my classroom in an oval and helped me decorate. We had to decorate the ceramic wall outside of our room too, and once I got them painting, they didn’t stop. I asked Dave’s teacher helper if he could draw some moose or bears for me (he’s an art teacher) so I have a family of cartoon-like moose on my wall too! It’s cute. Sadly, I took pictures of my classroom before the moose, so I will have to show you that later. We finished decorating just in time for dinner which we had in the Chinese cafeteria with our teacher’s helpers. It looked to me like I was the only one eating with my new friends, but it gave me a chance to get to know them a little better.
I just spent an hour discussing how tomorrow will look with Dave, Kalyn and Danielle. It’s a bit of a mish mash of a day. Our students will arrive anywhere from 8 am until noon. At noon, we have lunch and our siesta, and we meet the students again for the afternoon where we actually do a lesson. In the morning its introductions and stuff, but it’s tricky when the students trickle in! I am still looking forward to it!
But, I am exhausted and need to make a plan of some sort for tomorrow still, so that’s all for tonight! As always, I am sending much love back home to you! Thanks for being awesome!
