English Camp

Stress for me is usually something that operates beneath the surface. It's like dirt being sprinkled into clear water; evenly distributed, tinting everything without changing the actual form of the water. Eventually it all settles and is forgotten. This weekend, however, I got to experience a new kind of stress. This one was more like a rock being tossed into that same water, throwing up a big splash and relentless waves. Unlike that ambiguous, dirt sort of stress, this rock kind made it very easy to pinpoint the reason - English Camp!

Every year my school puts on an English Camp for the 1st grade (10th grade) students. 30 students sign up, and 10 ALTs volunteer to help run workshops, play games, and be genuine native speakers for the students to talk to. Actually, 8 ALTs volunteer, and the two unfortunates that work at Kitako are told to create and run the camp. I happened to be in that later half.

So in January, Thomas and I began preparations for this weekend. There was the deal of figuring out how to arrange the schedule, then finding activities to put into every time slot (36 hours is a LONG time when you have to keep 45 people occupied for every minute of it!), convincing other ALTs to give up a weekend to help, organizing workshops, and finally keeping everyone in the know of all the latest information they need to know. If it had ended there, it might have been ok. But then came this weekend.

The weekend started for me Friday night when I started eating the oncoming stress through pudding and cookies. When Saturday morning came, I tried to ignore it by having a cleaning frenzy, but eventually was off to school. When we got on the bus, I had a terrible stomachache and headache, and every nerve in my body was taut. Although this lasted all day, I simply wasn't allowed to be sick, so plastered a smile on my face and tried to ignore it.

Luckily Thomas was there to take the reins and direct the opening activities. We all introduced ourselves, and played To Tell the Truth with interesting facts about ourselves. My lies were horribly unconvincing... Next we played a Matching Game, where students have to guess the ALT's answers to questions like "Favorite fruit?" "Name a cold thing", etc. We did pretty well! Lunch was a delicious buffet. After that all of the ALTs did their workshops, with 6 students rotating in for 40 minutes each. In Katie's and mine, they had to solve some English riddles.

Things began to fall apart after that. Everyone was tired and needed an improvised snack break, so we busted out the snacks that were for the party later on. Then there wasn't enough time for the scheduled Skit Practice, so we had to break it up so that everyone could go to the campwide (the facility was a kind of retreat center with other groups staying at the same time) assembly, lower the flagpole, eat dinner, and come back for some people to practice skits and others to just hang around. Then students went off to bath time, ALTs hung around, and a final party to end the night before bedtime.

Without describing everything in detail, we had a lot of problems. Pretty much between every activity there were debates between me and Thomas about what to do next, given the time we had or didn't have. Then the JTEs, who mostly hid out in their secret room and had nothing to do with us, would randomly appear and tell us to do something at a certain time and start more debates and more delays. The party is where everything really melted down. A third of the group started their own game to pass the time and started having a blast, so we didn't want to break them up, yet everyone else was sitting around waiting to be directed on how to enjoy themselves. So we started a bit late, then went through a couple games, but a faction broke off for snacks in the middle. "Should we start snacktime early? Should we go ahead with charades?" We ended up giving up on the group games and just breaking out with more snacks until blessed 9:15 and we sent the students to bed, and ALTs to bathe. It was a great relief.

Sunday was a bit better. Thomas had about given out by this time, but I regained my feet and was able to finish out the day's activities at long last. It seemed like there must have been some secret energy reserve stored in me for this day, else my visions of fainting from overwhelmsion might have come true. My last act of endurance was to have a cohesive stream of conversation between me and my bus neighbor on the hour long ride back to school instead of lapsing into a stupefied daze.

Ok, ok, I'm making the whole thing sound pretty bad. That's just because I'm writing it right after I got back from the grueling weekend. Really, I think the students had a good time and were able to use plenty of English, so in that sense, it was a job well done. The other ALTs were really helpful and flexible, and ready to spice up all the games with the humor and energy that neither Thomas nor I had the strength to muster. And, believe it or not, I even heard rumors that it was fun!

Little too cold for swimming, but the view was great!

Not only that, but I learned some lessons from the experience.

• Leaders of big events like this shouldn't be in one of the groups as well. It's almost impossible to direct activities, keep track of time, and prepare for whatever is coming up while still trying to socialize with your group and be involved in whatever they're doing. 
• Onsens are extremely dehydrating and you need a jug of water upon coming out (actually I learned this at the last English Camp (that I wasn't in charge of), but only just remembered when it was too late this time). 
• People who try the hardest are the first to get blamed when things go wrong. (as poor Thomas will be when we get to school tomorrow)
• Even when my power tank completely runs out, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that with a smile! Saturday might have been on my own power, but there is no way I could have done Sunday without snapping at people, running away, or simply wilting in front of everyone.