outta pictures

so yeah, camp is here in full force, the first week went suprisingly well, actually made me like Jr. High students again, though there were a few frustrating moments. For the most part the kids were really excited to be there and eager to talk to us (in English or Chinese) there were quite a few of our old students and church kids, which also made the atmosphere a little better (many of them taking the first step in talking to us, participating in class etc.). We had a lot of fun, and I'd have to say one of the highlights was watching them all perform their amazing dramas on Friday afternoon. Though everyone complained that they were too hard, the students pulled it off extremely well! They were highly entertaining, though I think Hope and I were laughing the most! Some of the highlights of the dramas were:

• the smallest student in my "A" class doubling as a ferocious tree in sleeping beauty... I don't know what was cuter, him hopping out in a tube of brown paper taped around his body, his deft blocks of the princes' swords, or his facial expressions!
• a team leader acting as Snow White, she really played it up
• the evil queen in Snow White - this girl should go into acting, she was amazing
• little red baseball hat (aka. Little red riding hood)
• Johnny, the most outgoing student in my "B" class as the shoemaker demanding of his little family "Did you make the shoe!" and his "dear wife" (also played by a boy in an apron and bonnet)
• sleeping beauty, played by a boy, who had some wonderful "beauty poses"
• the stagehands who kept donning various costume castoffs in between each skit - including fairy wings and pig noses

Anyways, I'm sure they will do just as well this week. We are also planning a suprise for the students, we are going to do a Chinese drama for them - our rendition of Hansel and Gretel, from now on known as Xiao Wei and Xiao Rei.... We wrote it in English and Peggy helped us translate it into Chinese. The best lines are when Hansel is telling me not to eat the candy house "Be careful, that's not your house" and Hope as the witch saying to us "Wo zui ai chi xiao hai, bu bu bu, wo shi shuo, wo zui ai xiao hai" which means, "I love to eat small children.... I mean, I love small children!"

This weeks camp is off to a bit of a slow start I'd say... I don't remember last week's students being quite so shy. Three of my San Min students came, which is fun! Anyways, we'll see how it goes! Actually, I remembered that I have another picture to share. A couple weeks ago when we were having dinner at Dr. Su's house his friend from Taipei was here. He works for a magazine and is an avid photographer. He kept snapping pictures of us throughout dinner, which actually got a little annoying after awhile, as you can see from this picture......