ENGLISH CAMP

Why is that in all caps? Because they were screaming it for 2 days straight, and I want you to get the full effect.

ENGLISH CAAAMP!

My last 2 days on campus were filled with the joy of English Camp. 2 days of teaching our Matiyum 4 kids how to clap, dance, scream and generally be obnoxious while occasionally communicating their joy in my mother tongue.

It wasn’t thaaat bad. I’m just tired.

Sunday afternoon I got a call from my coordinator asking me to IMMEDIATELY email him some lyrics for one of the games. “I will be waiting to see it soon please.”

6 hours later he called back to let us know that the entire international email network was out, (his personal theory when things online don't work) so he wasn’t able to access it. He had just noticed … because he had just looked for it. Way to make me jump for nothing, huh?

We agreed to meet him bright and early at 7am for camp prep the next morning. Nate banged on my bedroom door to wake me and successfully got me out of the house on time. But it was for NOTHING – our coordinator didn’t roll in until 8am.

I called this one. Nate didn’t believe me.

A lack of structure was basically the theme of the camp. Things were supposed to start at 8:30am, but didn’t commence until 10:30am. Whole activities were scraped, water balloon fights broke out. Dancing and singing was all done in Thai, even though it was ENGLISH camp. Whatever.

The day was just long. At 10:30pm things finally started to wind down enough for me to duck out, but only after rocking out at the dance party. Apparently the whole thing still went on for some time. I went home and immediately crashed.

The next morning I attempted to lead an intro yoga session – at 6:30am – to kids who don’t understand English or give a damn about physical fitness. So I made Nate demonstrate to add an element of entertainment. I wish I had pictures for you.

NONE of the adults showed up to my session. Bitches.

To retaliate, I skipped the intro and breakfast session to go home and do laundry. Haha.

The rest of the day was calm – said my goodbyes again, and gave my goodbye presents to some teary-eyed teachers. For the first time I realized that they were really going to miss me.

The kids all headed home around 3pm – I went home to pack and clean like a madwoman. And just like that, it was all done.