The first blog is here! :)

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it took me a while to get the first blog up! We didn’t have Internet in our housing for a while, and I have been too busy to find a time to sit down and type. I originally wanted to make a Vlog (video blog), but after talking to myself for 25 minutes and then it didn’t even save I was too embarrassed to try that again!


I made it safely to South Korea on Sunday with no big incidents happening on the way over. My flight went straight from SFO to Seoul, South Korea. It was a little under 12 hours long, but didn’t feel that long at all. I watched a few movies, did some paper work for camp, and took a few naps. There were four of us traveling together, and when we arrived we met Kristine, my PD (boss), in the airport. We waited a couple more hours for two people from Oregon to get in, and then we headed to base. It was about an hour-long drive to Yongsan, which is just a part of Seoul. We got to drive through Seoul though on our way and it is huge! The buildings are all so tall and stacked right next to each other. We all noticed how different the bridges were than the ones we have in the states too.


We got to base at about 8pm. The base is so huge that it really just feels like you are in a city. They said that the base can have anywhere between 30,000- 60,000 people living on it at a time. We are living in barracks that aren’t being used anymore. They are not the newest, but they’re right next to everything we need to be close to, so we’re not complaining! After we grabbed something to eat we all passed out. At about midnight 29 more counselors from Iowa and Ohio got in.


Monday morning we met at 645 to all go get our base ID’s. The rest of the day just consisted of relearning songs and attention getters, and working on programming. Some of the counselors left during the day to go to the bases throughout Korea that they would be working on this summer. Later in the day I met with the Child and Youth Services Director that I will be working with and talked to her about ideas I had for this summer’s camp. It went really well and she seemed excited for what I had come up with, so I was relieved. That night we walked to the PX, which is like a Target. We were able to get little things that we hadn’t brought with us like shampoo and conditioner. After dinner we had another meeting, but it was more for bonding and trying to get to know one another better. We all made up skits about our partners life, which got pretty funny. After the meeting everyone went straight to their rooms and to bed. You know were tired when a group of 22 college students are all asleep before 1030!


The rest of the first week consisted of eight hours of training everyday. We were briefed on what to do if North Korea attacks. The person who was briefing us on this looked highly disappointed when she found out they did not supply us with gas masks, which, naturally, made us all a little nervous.


We were also informed that a typhoon was supposed to come on Monday. After I googled what a typhoon was I became a little excited. With typhoons and monsoons happening almost every other day I am definitely realizing I ma not on the west coast anymore! Wednesday night was our first family fun night! All 22 counselors went to the zumba class at the gym on base. It was so much fun, and a great stress reliever!


Friday night was the first night we were allowed to leave base. We had been in Korea for almost a week, but it definitely still felt like we were just in a different city in America until then. We took the subway to the University district of Seoul. When we got there we all split up into smaller groups. We went and had dinner, then walked around and looked at different shops. We found the Hello Kitty Café and had a coffee. The café pretty much looked like a pepto bismol bottle threw up in it. When you ordered the coffees though they came with Hello Kitty designs in the froth.


On Saturday we went to Osan. Since there is an air force base there we were able to take the military bus, which only took about an hour. Osan is really big for shopping. There are a lot of “custom made” Korean purse shops that we all definitely checked out. They also sell these really soft blankets that a few people bought. I am definitely going to go back soon and get one though, because Army issued blankets are not cutting it anymore!


On Sunday I stayed home and got ready for the first day of camp. I had to make sure all of the programming was done, rosters were made, and that the counselors felt comfortable for the next day. I was excited for camp to start, but nervous because I had heard some interesting stories about the children that go to this camp.


Monday morning came and the madness began. That whole day I just felt like I was trying to keep my head above water. I was running around like a mad woman putting out fires, writing up kids, and making sure that everyone knew what was going on. Tuesday went a little smoother, but was still pretty crazy. Wednesday and Thursday are field trip days. Half of the children go on one day and then the other half go the next day. Wednesday was our first real monsoon. There was so much rain and water on the ground that they were closing parts of base because of flooding. We ended up not being able to go on the field trip because it was too dangerous to drive in the rain. The children were really bummed, especially when the next group got to go the next day.


Friday we all got dressed up for the fourth of July. We also talked for most of the day with British accents, which we realized didn’t go together, but it was still fun. Plus we felt like the children listened better, because they actually had to really focus to figure out what we were saying.


On Saturday morning, a group of about six of us woke up early and left at about 630 to take a bus to Sokcho, a little city next to Seoraksan Mountain. We got to Sokcho at about 11am, and got in a cab to go check into our Hotel. One of the girls said she saw it as we passed by on the bus, and when the taxi driver dropped us off at a sketchy looking building downtown we definitely knew we weren’t in the right place. Apparently there is a Ritxcar Hotel AND Motel in Sokcho, and we definitely wanted the Hotel. After we finally got to the right place and checked in, we headed straight for the mountain, because the Koreans were saying it was supposed to rain the next day.


When we got to the mountain we knew there wasn’t enough daylight left for us to hike the whole thing, so we took the cable car partway up and then hiked the rest. It started out with a lot of stairs, and then we got to a large rock portion at the very top of the mountain. We started climbing up, and up, and up. There got to a part of the rock where I looked down and realized that one tiny slip would not end well. We stopped for a second to determine where we should step next, and this Korean husband and wife flew passed us in moccasins. MOCCASINS. These Koreans are crazy. They saw that we looked a little nervous though so they stopped and showed us where to step, and then how to use the rope that was there to help us get up. When we got to the top of the mountain there was a Korean flag, so we all took pictures by it. It was so windy and cool up there, so we stayed at the top for about 15 minutes…. And then started the even scarier trek down. If anyone knows me, they know that I definitely slid down the entire rock on my butt. There was no way I was going to risk falling down that mountain!


(Okay, I have to go to bed now for work in the morning, but I will pick up from here soon! Ps. I am too tired to spell check, so sorry if there are any errors!)