Camp Korea, part II, the return

  Chuncheon, Korea Rep.
Sunday, August 22, 2004

************************************** Update - January 2006 ***************************************

I've been fortunate enough to get back to South Korea and teach in Camp Korea for not only a third, but a forth time, and both as part of the same trip. Check out my other camp experiences, in July 2005, and January 2006.

************************************** Update - January 2006 ***************************************

************************************ Update - September 2007 *************************************

As if 4 times wasn't enough, check out my latest, and 5th, visit to Korea (September 2007 - February 2008), all part of 'The Honeymoon' .

************************************ Update - September 2007 *************************************

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes
- Marcel Proust

Time To Go To Work
After a little over a week in the country we had to report to the northern provincial capital city of Chun Cheon,

01 Henna

a university city about 200km east of Seoul. Its here, on the campus of Hallym University, that Camp Korea is to be found, the 4-week, bi-annual English camp for Korean school kids. While there is not much to report from the 4 weeks themselves (you quickly get into the daily routine of rising early, following the camp schedule for the day and having the evenings and weekends to yourself) I was a bit surprised, pleasantly so, by the slight change in the camp format. Whereas last time I had one class for 3 weeks and another class for 1 week, this time I had 2 classes, one for the first 2 weeks of camp and one for the final two weeks. It allowed enough time to bond sufficiently with all the 20 kids I taught (10 per class) while never growing tired of them. A nice balance, I found. All in all camp was an absolute blast. The only down side to the whole experience was the summer heat. I hear it was an especially warm, oppressive summer, with an unusual shortage of seasonal downpours to help clear the air. This I found ironic considering the constant rain we had to endure weeks earlier in Seoul. The heat, coupled with the surprising lack of air conditioners, created a lot of sticky moments during our month in Chun Cheon, a month when waking up sweating was a daily occurrence. While it was uncomfortable, I seemed to handle it better than most, with some fellow teachers swearing never to return. But not me. Quite the contrary. I never though it possible but, the heat aside, I actually enjoyed my second stint in camp more than the first one. The usual amount of fun, dodging curfews and sociable drinking took place. And like the first camp I met some great folks, both Korean and foreigners alike, making some great new acquaintances. So much so that it was quite sad when everyone went their separate ways at the end of all the madness, a sadness we quickly got over considering we had a trip to Beijing to look forward to.