Yesterday we got our scripts for the skits we will do with our middle school groups. Mine is a very different version of Cinderella, it goes like this: Cinderella begs the fairy to make her a pretty dress and ends up bribing her with a nice bottle of aged whiskey. The drunken fairy then proceeds to sing an awful song in a singing contest and Cinderella wins a dance with the prince. It was very surprising. Apparently that is ok here.
On the downside, quarantine has progressed into feeling like an episode of Real World: South Korea. Being cooped up with a group of people will inevitably cause some people to behave in ways they wouldn't normally. Basically we had some interesting confrontations with people as they became frustrated with us for various reasons. It was brought to our attention that some people were upset (for lack of a better word...maybe disappointed is better) because they didn't get to eat any of my birthday cake. I actually felt really bad about it on the night of my birthday because it was a very small cake and there are over 70 people here so we decided to share with the people who have to stay at camp Wando (since isn't the best in terms of facilities). Anyway, after much discussion we decided that the best way to express our feelings is in a short monologue about how ridiculous this whole situation is. Hopefully I can figure out how to post a video on my blog so you all can see it. Tonight the Koreans are buying us pizza and beer and the americans are going to put on a talent show. After the skit we are going to pass out the cake in the Korean style which is to give everyone a fork and put a large slice of cake on each table so that everyone has a chance to get at least a bite. sigh. I am not goin to apologize though. This whole situation is rather ridiculous and childish so I won't waste any more time talking about it. Last night was fun, Aly and Susan and I stayed up talking and giggling like a real sleepover.
Today has been the weirdest so far. Christine and several of the camp members began to feel ill today (uh-oh). 6 people either felt ill or were running a temperature this morning so they informed them that they would all need to go to the hospital to ensure that their illness is not of the H1N1 variety. Christine was very upset, needless to say, so I offered to go along and be a cheerleader since it is such a weird, silly situation. Foreign hospitals can be scary places, after all. SO we all piled into a van and drove into the actual town of Wando. On the way there we discussed how odd it is that they all suddenly got sick on the same day. Someone pointed out how yesterday we volunteered to help clean the nasty building and were all doing things like stirring up dust and cleaning black scary mold off of walls and windows. Have I mentioned that this place is DISGUSTING? This is the perfect environment to ensure that all of us get sick. I think that was their master plan.
Anyway we all had to put on face masks and they wouldn't even let us stay inside the hospital. We had to sit outside while they asked the sick people questions and swabbed their throats. We waited for quite a while so that they could write prescriptions and I don't know what else. Our Korean hosts were very nice and still don't feel the need to wear face masks around us and agree that this whole thing is silly. One of those people is Ethan (that's his "american name"), he drove us around the city of Wando (which is big and busy to our surprise!). We got to go into the grocery store (does anyone else see the irony that only the sick people got to go out into the city to explore?) and buy candy and soda. Then we went to a little store called a "Moon-goo" which I was told basically means "stationary store." It was like a really cute little dollar tree. I bought some cute little notebooks and laughed at all the funny English words and phrases on the front: "A loveful scheduler," for example. After walking around in the streets for a few minutes we piled back into the van to head back to camp. It was really fun to explore and I was really glad I went. Looking around was exciting because I could tell that we are in another country and not just some weird dirty detention center.
We missed lunch and part of our orientation so we ate quickly and split into groups to present our lessons. I think mine was really bad and they are probably wondering how it's possible that I have taught English for 2 years...oh well.
Now they are making all the sick people wear face masks. This is all such a weird experience. I sortof feel like this is a bad dream and am really hoping that the teaching aspect of this whole experience makes my trip worth while. I hope tonight's talent show and pizza make everything and everyone better :( I hope Christine feels better soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment