The past few weekends have flown by! The first weekend of July was what my last blog was about...hiking. The next one was spent in the rain on Jangsa beach. A few friends of mine and I decided to pay for this organized camping trip on a beach for the weekend. So that Friday night I had a sleepover with a couple of the girls in Daegu since that's where we were meeting to take the bus to the beach. Saturday morning we wake to pouring down rain! OF COURSE! But, despite the constant downpour of rain, we managed to make the best of the situation. We started partying on the bus on the way to the beach & continued the fun by dancing in the rain & sleeping in water filled tents. Lol, ok so that last part was a little bit of sarcasm, but we survived!
on the bus
check out those rain clouds
umbrella time on the beach
love these crazy girls!
The next weekend I took it easy & chilled with some friends in their town. I need one of those kinds of weekends every once in awhile. It's really easy to get caught up in the non-stop party scene on the weekends here.
The weekend of the 23rd was my English camp for my middle schoolers. Since it was on a Saturday and Sunday I did get paid extra, so that was nice. BUT, I definitely earned every last "won"! No other teachers really consulted with me about what kind of activities to do with the kids. They gave me last years outline & said here...plan for 12 activities. So that's what I did & only two of five co-teachers talked with me about what I had planned. The result of this was that I was basically in charge of EVERYTHING! The budget they had wasn't that great so I ended up spending a bit of my own money, but that's the life of a dedicated teacher! :)
setting up for our "egg drop" project
after our "egg drop"
english camp is complete, yay!!
Overall, the camp was a great success. I had a few cheaters who spoiled a couple activities for the rest of the kids, but nothing too bad. Dare I say, I even enjoyed it! :) But, after two days of being a circus leader, Sunday had me exhausted!! And of course a few of the teachers wanted to go out for dinner and "a couple drinks." What time did I go to sleep that night? Sometime after midnight when I finally returned home from "a couple drinks" haha :)
Then there was another whole week of work to deal with after that tiresome weekend! Oh yea, I'm also crazy because I decided to take on an extra project for the summer. Since my summer schedule has me seeing each class about 3-4 times each for the 3 weeks of "summer term," I thought it would be a great idea to have them perform short skits from Aesop's fables!
Was it a good idea? Probably not the easiest, but most of the results I've received have made it worth it. Especially the groups who performed yesterday. They did awesome! Now today might be a different story because I have some lower level classes. Oh yea, did I mention I haven't had a co-teacher to translate for these 3 weeks?! Which is why I'm crazy for taking on this project. I've spent many hours preparing and organizing all of this with only the un-reliable "google translate" to assist me. Also, many students have been absent due to some other camps and academies that they had to attend, so I have taught my students the term "understudy." Except that the day of the performance I say "Candy for the first volunteer to play the part of the rabbit!" It works, lol :)
And finally to sum up my latest adventures, last weekend I decided to journey a few hours away (turned into almost 5 hours on the slow buses) to see a friend of mine. He lives in a small town, but it has a beach! I was so excited for sunshine on the beach & swimming. What do we awake to Saturday morning? Overcast & drizzling rain. I have NO LUCK when it comes to planning beach activities. If this is any hint of what Thailand will be like, I'm screwed! But, as usual, I still managed to have a good time. We still went swimming & even got to ride on this inflatable chair that was pulled by a boat. Pretty much like tubing on the lake, except this was a chair...in the ocean, haha! It could hold 2-3 people and you had straps that you had to hold on to for dear life as the boat driver tried his best to make us fly off into the water. So much fun!! :) But definitely made my arms sore!
On Sunday I met up with a couple friends in Daegu to shop for a few things for vacay. My backpack that I brought with me to Korea sucks & is already broken, so I definitely needed a new one! I found one that I loved, but it was $150. I settled for a diff one for $80. It should be perfect for packing for Thailand...I hope!
Back to talking about my vacation this Saturday...I'm sooo anxious! The best part is that one of my bests, Ms. Jenna Schramm, is meeting me there! Wish Leigha could come too, but I will see her soon enough hopefully! Jenna's getting there Thursday so she will already be there when I arrive. My plane lands in Bangkok at like 1AM, so it kinda sux, but oh well. As long as I make it there! So once we meet up we will explore Bangkok on Sunday & then take another flight on Monday to the lower part of Thailand called Krabi to check out the beaches.
I can't wait for our elephant trek, rock climbing course, & snorkeling! We 're also gonna camp on the famous Ko Phi Phi island beach, where Leonardo DiCaprio's movie, "The Beach" was filmed. We will spend most of our time in this area, then ferry to another place to take part in the Full Moon Party! Google it if ya wanna know what it's about. Basically it's just an excuse for a massive beach party lol. The last part of the trip is to check out Phuket before we head back to Bangkok for our final night. My flight leaves on the 17th. Jenna and I have been going crazy trying to figure out details and planning things, but ultimately we have no idea what it's gonna be like until we get there! Wish us luck! :)
That's all for now. I will update on my vacation as soon as I can when I return!
XOXO,
Amanda
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