When in Doubt, Dance.

I have great story about Tuesday to tell, but it's going to have to come later. It was just so strange, so epic of a day that I want to recount it for you with all of the details and pictures that a day like that should have. You know, those great days that come out of nowhere because the people you meet are so incredibly interesting? That's why I love traveling, not because of the great scenery. Although I have photos of that, too.

So far I'm really loving it here at Damyang. It's certainly not a big, cosmopolitan city with lots of things to do and places to see, but there's actually buildings, bars, cafes, grocery stores, cars, and people. If I venture out of the college, I pass a bamboo forest, walk down a bridge, and go past little stalls serving street food such as fried fish, barbequed chicken, and fried green tea pancakes that taste like funnel cake and are filled with melted brown sugar, honey and finely chopped nuts.

My camp is amazing, filled with such a great mix of energetic and laid back individuals. And I absolutely love my co-teacher, Ja In, who speaks great English and has been a very good friend and co-worker to me. On the first day we met, she offered to take me to Gwangju to shop, but we weren't allowed to leave until the principal arrived at camp. We missed our chance to go, but she bought me ice cream and chips at lunch that day. Later on, we went with Jessica, another co-teacher, and other native English teachers to a hof, which is what they call bars. We all had a bottle of beer and ate fried shrimp, melon, and fried pork.


Yesterday I met my homeroom, and they were so quiet at first. However, I think they're really starting to warm up and have become more talkative. I have seven girls in class and three boys, and the girls are such bullies. One boy is really cute and endearing in a way that is at both rebellious and a little embarrassed. Everyone in class loves him: loves to talk to him, hit him, make fun of him, volunteer him to do something, or whatever. He won't speak to me in English very much, but he'll tell me stories in Korean about how he got punished by the discipline teacher and had to go over eighty frog jumps.

The girls are so sweet to me. They're teaching me the Wonder Girl's "Tell Me" dance, and ask me energetically, "Teacher! Valerie! Do you have a boyfriend? How old are you? Ah! So young!" During the activities tonight, I volunteered to help with a demonstration (I stood in a line). When the emcee announce my line, my class cheered for me and laughed when I gave them the heart symbol in return.

Besides teaching a shopping class, I have to organize my kids to do an English song and dance. We're using the aforementioned "Tell Me" song in English and the popular dance. And, oh yeah, the girls are making the boys crossdress. And we're going to throw candy. It's going to be awesome.

I taught one other class today besides my homeroom; a quiet bunch of kids, once again mostly dominated by girls. As soon as I asked them to teach me dances from 21, Girls Generation, or Wonder Girls, their affection for me and enthusiasm for my class doubled. All of the girls were trying to teach me the dances or trying to get my attention so they could tell me jokes. "Teacher," they said, and pointed to a friend of theirs. "She's my grandma. She's 76 years old and has a bad back."

A cute, chubby boy from that group would try to talk to me every time I was near him, but it seemed like he didn't know where to go after saying, "Hello. Nice to meet you." He probably said this to me in some variation about 20 times, and each time was even more adorable.

What else? A girl from the class I'm teaching tomorrow drew a cute picture of me and gave me a hug. The food here isn't very good at all. We don't have our own rooms after all, but I do have air conditioning, internet, and the dorms are in much better condition. I'm happy here.

Ah, I just love these kids. They are so, so funny. Teaching is so hard, and I feel like most of the kid's language skills aren't good enough to pick up on the english used in the camp, so having the coteacher to translate is more normal than I would have thought. However, I feel like if I can at least make my kids excited to learn more, I've done my job well.

Oh, and I got another email from my host family. Apparently we're going to Gujo Hachiman, an old town that has preserved a lot of old Japanese traditions. We're in time for the Bon Odori dance festival, and we're going to eat grilled eel, or unagi, which is one of my favorite foods. This trip is shaping up to be amazing!