One week down at the summer camp and two more to go. It’s been an interesting and for the most part fun time so far. I now know at least 5 different dances to random songs, 3 different chants, and can now sing loads of songs. I also have to pretend that I can’t speak any Chinese (which isn’t too hard), I take at least $2 from a kid if he or she speaks Chinese, and another $2 if they call me “Teacher”. I have a name, it’s not that hard, I also wear a name tag all day long.

The days are long, and start at 6-something with a shower; dancing warm-up follows at 7:20, then breakfast, classroom teaching, activities, and situational teaching. Next is lunch, more situational teaching, activities including chants and dancing and acting (being somewhat of an actor is helpful here). Dinner comes next at around 6 PM, followed by a meeting and then followed by an activity of some sort like dancing, or games, then there’s night snack before kids get ready for bed. By 10:00 PM all the kids are in their rooms and presumably in bed (of course they aren’t really, they’re watching TV quietly till midnight I’m sure). That gives the teachers and teaching assistants time to shower, relax and take care of their own business. If I actually went to bed at 10 like the kids did, I probably would be so tired, but like that would actually happen. I don’t think I’ve gone to sleep before midnight here, usually 12:30 – 1:00 AM.

To my surprise, the camp is actually still run by Taiwanese, and not an American (or other English speaking native), which baffles me. But, my guess is it comes down to money. A Taiwanese person will probably do it for a lot less than a foreigner would want to be paid. Coming here I see all kinds of ways I think the camp could be improved, like teaching materials (some are pretty bad), more western food (maybe it’s too expensive, they don’t know how to make it, or the kids wouldn’t eat it), and of course, logic. There’s something that the Asian culture seems to lack sometimes, and that’s logic. We could give the teachers and other staff rooms before the students, and allow them to stay there the entire 3 weeks instead of playing musical rooms every weekend. Yeah, it’s not a big deal to move rooms in a hotel, but why? It’s just a pain in the ass and makes everyone annoyed. We could also take care of business items before sitting down in the cafeteria and then wasting 15 minutes while all the food gets cold. Most importantly, I’m gonna be very angry next time someone comes to ask me to check out of my room at 9:00 AM on my day off, I want to sleep and there are 30 other empty rooms you can clean and rent to guests, kindly fuck off. This time I was only annoyed and told them “no, I’m sleeping, maybe lunch time”, next time I won’t be so nice.

Overall, I don’t mind it. It’s good experience, Taiwan is nice, I’ve made some new friends, the kids love me, I get paid decently and while I’m here at camp I don’t really have to spend a dime. So while It might not be ideal, it’s not bad at all.

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