Adventures in South Korea!

We got back from Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon and the next morning we had to be up bright and early to board a bus headed to our 3 week long Dream Toward the Future Summer English Camp. This marked our third stay at Sorabol College in Gyeongju, a place no one should visit, period. (Our first Sorabol experience was orientation when we first arrived in August of last year and our second was our Fun & Up! Winter English Camp in January.) During our winter camp, we had 6th graders, and it was OK, but this time our camp was all 5th graders, which we were really excited about. 6th graders can get a little 'too cool for school,' but 5th graders are so young that almost all of them are still cute and innocent.

As in the winter camp, the classes were all given names to go by instead of numbers. At winter they were all named after cities, but for summer they got a little wilder and named them all after constellations of the zodiac. Judy's class was Orion and Andrew had Scoprius.

*Andrew had the camera almost the entire time while at camp, so the majority of the pictures are of his classes and his activities. Sorry Judy fans...

Orion Class for Reading

Tony's rockin' Carol Brady-esque mullet

The girls playing games between classes

Sweet 'lil Sally

In the beginning our classes consisted of lessons and activities and then a game at the end if there was time left, but as the days went by, the lessons and activities went to the wayside and the games got longer and longer. This particular game is a chair switching game that Andrew used in his 'reading' classes. It in no way involved reading, but it kept the kids' attention so he'd play it as long as humanly possible.

This is another good game. Andrew used it in his writing classes. Again, it has nothing to do with writing, but it kept the kids entertained so he used it as often as he could. The students would have to say the name of the sport as they hopped over it, while hopping towards each other. When they'd meet, they would 'rock, paper, scissor' to see who could continue and who would have to go to the back of the line. If a student successfully hopped to the other end, their team would get a point.

Orion Class again...

The boys team

And the girls team

Rock, Paper, Scissors!

The girls ended up winning, so Andrew promised them stickers. The camp reward system was sticker based, so the students got pretty scary when they were being handed out. Conveniently, Andrew was out of stickers so Judy had to give them to her class when she returned and Andrew managed to avoid the mob of sticker hungry girls.

Lindsay
She described Andrew as: "He my style."

Here is one of the only non-game activities that Andrew did. It was a reading class about bugs and adjectives so he had the students make fortune tellers and write Who Am I? riddles on the inside. It was great because it took 35 of the 40 minutes of class to make them and write the riddles!

I am red or black.
I am very small and have 6 legs.
I am very strong.
Who am I?

I am beautiful.
I have two colorful wings.
Who am I?

Back to the hopping game...

Scorpius Class (Andrew's homeroom)

Sally vs Kevin

Don't Remember Her Name vs Ronaldino

Another Forgotten Name vs Erik

*During camp, Erik had some wicked dry skin problems on his face. By the end of each week, he'd have a really gross, dried out goatee. It was nice...

Ray from Aries Class
He had a mullet and wore acid washed jeans everyday.

I am black and yellow.
I like honey and I have a queen.
Who am I?

The first Friday of our Summer Camp was Amy's birthday celebration. The plan was for everyone to meet at the train station in Ulsan and head to Busan together. Due to traffic and the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere, we missed that train. Instead, we had to take a later bus. The party had already started without us, so we started our own party in the bus terminal. At 7-11, we picked up some soju and Tropicana Spirit 100 and mixed some roadies to take with us on the bus.

Roadies!!!

The biggest MP3 player ever

Korean women are hardcore. It was a full bus, so she stood in the isle wearing those shoes (and a nice one piece outfit) for an hour and half.

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The theme of Amy's birthday was 'couples,' only you couldn't match someone you were actually dating. Couple outfits are one of our favorite things about Korea, so we went a little wild with the couple wear. Since we couldn't match each other, we decided to couple-swap for the night with Dave and Teresa.

Judy & Dave
The fashionable couple

Andrew & Teresa
The touristy couple

Ohhhh Snap!

Self-timer time!!!

Sinan

Excellent pose...

It's hard to see (thankfully), but Sinan (and the other member of his couple) had on disgusting, faux leather leggings that were far too tight and showed off more of his 'goodies' than anyone wanted to see...

The birthday girl!

Hello, ladies...

Oh Adam...

A failed attempt to get the muscly Korean to dance

"C'mon ride the train, it's the choo, choo..."
- Quad City DJ's

Classy

RIP MJ

When we got tired of the first stop, Adam, the super drunk one that lived in Busan, lead us to Club Maktum. Adam, missing his shirt by this point, recognized that not all of us were dressed appropriately for a club, but he didn't let that deter him. His drunken determination (and massive size) got us around the dress code and into the club.

The Entrance

Passing the time while waiting in line

On the stairs, still waiting

As we were going in, this painted and feathered, mostly naked tribal man was coming out. At this point, we had no idea where Adam had steered us, but we were excited!