English Camp (a.k.a. English Lock-in)

Back in January, Colin and I did a lock-in at the Komu. For those of you who might never have had the joy of a lock-in, it’s basically an overnighter in a place that is usually off limits. In the U.S., they usually happen in places like churches, but occasionally you get lucky enough to go to one in a museum, zoo, or other cool place.

A long time ago, Aaron and I decided it would be very cool to have a lock-in at the Komu. It’s such an awesome place that it just begs to be taken advantage of. Also, part of our job here is to teach culture, right? Well, a lock-in is totally American, in my opinion. To make a long story short, I was finally able to pull one off in January, with Colin’s help, and it was a huge hit. We had sixteen kids who all had a wonderful time. Well, except for the fact that I fed them instant oatmeal for breakfast. That was NOT a hit. At the conclusion of English Camp I (“lock –in” is really hard for Japanese people to say), Mr. Kamaya asked Colin and I to do one more before we left. So we did, the same day as Undoukai – back around the second of June.

This time around, I think word had gotten out, and before I knew it, 33 kids were signed up. That was 3 over my limit! I was excited, though, and just took it all in stride, happy that so many kids wanted to come to my little “to-do”. I also figured no one would be staying awake until 4:00 a.m. like last time, since they were sure to be tired from Undoukai. I can’t believe now how naïve I was.

As before, we began at 7:00, starting with a group game. Right away I could tell this was going to be a lot more work than I had bargained for. Keeping track of 33 kids who speak English is a challenge, but when you don’t even speak the same language…wow! Colin’s Japanese is great, but they were still a little out of control. I managed to rein them in somewhat and divide them in to two groups, just like before. Colin and I each took a group and taught a set of Alaska themed vocabulary to them, and after half an hour, the groups switched. By the time I got my second group and began our games, I had sweated about a bucket’s worth and had one girl in tears. I promise, it wasn’t my fault! She’s prone to crying, anyway, whenever she thinks one of the other fifth grade girls have been mean to her. It’s no big deal, but it’s very distracting and I’ve never acquired the Japanese to be able to deal with it. I always have to allow the students to sort things out themselves.

We still managed to have fun, though, and by 8:30 we were ready to break out the snacks. I had made brownies (a very sought after treat, here, since they can only get them from me), oatmeal cookies (a personal joke of mine, based on the fact that they hated the oatmeal last time), and popcorn (poor Aaron popped 10 bags of microwave popcorn and brought it to me). The kids loved it, but there were so many of them that I really couldn’t get anyone’s attention to explain what the food was (i.e. if you don’t like raisins, don’t eat the cookies). By this point, I began to feel like I was herding cats. Keeping a positive outlook, I observed that, except for the third grade boy who was now sobbing for some unknown reason off in a corner, everyone was having fun.

I quickly came to the conclusion, though, that trying to teach them how to play capture the flag was insane. So, we turned off all the lights (can you believe they gave us FULL run of the place?) and played hide-and-seek with flashlights. This was an enormous hit and went on for nearly an hour. I made Colin play and sat in the darkness of the office, watching kids run by, resting.

By 10:00, I declared, with the help of a sixth-grader named Musashi, who was very good at using the loudspeaker system, that it was time to get ready for bed. My idea this time was to separate the boys and girls. I felt that the sixth-grade boys were a little too interested in hanging out with the sixth-grade girls. So, the kids sorted their things out and picked spots to claim as their own. By 10:30, I had started “Brother Bear II” and set out some games for the kids to play. They went nuts over the cards, UNO, and the two checkers games I had made. They had never played checkers (it was impossible to find a game here), and loved it when I taught them how. Many of the older kids had, unfortunately but not unexpectedly, brought their little Nintendo games to play with each other.

By midnight, I decided things needed to wind down. After all, everyone had had a very long day, right? I declared “lights out” and made sure the boys went to their part of Komu to sleep. Colin would stay with them. The girls settled in, with no intention of sleeping of course, and I laid out my sleeping bag in the hallway so they couldn’t sneak past me. One of the middle school teachers had encountered some trouble in the form of kissing games last summer on their class camping trip. Though these kids were younger, I just didn’t want to take any chances. That middle school teacher caught a TON of grief over that situation!

By two o’clock, only five kids were sleeping, and I had not slept a wink. Colin and I were walking around at this point, and agreed to let the kids have one room that they could be in and be awake. The instant we game them permission, 22 kids thundered into the room, broke out the checkers, cards, UNO, and electronic games, and the building came alive with their sounds. By four a.m., some of the sleeping kids had woken up and the sun was fully risen. There would be no sleeping now, that was for sure. By four-thirty, they began begging for breakfast. This was a request which I just laughed at. By five, they were really slowing down and whining incessantly for food. Finally, at 5:30 I complied and began to warm up the breakfast sausages.

Breakfast was sausages, muffins, and milk, and it was a very quiet affair. About a dozen of the kids had never so much as layed down during the entire event. Amazing! We finished eating about 6:30 and several of the kids promptly fell asleep. However, we weren’t done yet! I still had an art activity planned. At 7:30, we made everyone get up so they could decorate an Eskimo mask. They actually were more interested in it than I thought they would be, given their lack of sleep.

The original schedule had been for the event to officially end at 9:30, but by 8:45 I had declared English Camp II to be finished. Though I had not expected to get much sleep, I had not at all anticipated the kids staying awake all night. By 10:30, I was home, showered, and in bed, not to rise again until 2:30 in the afternoon. What an experience! After I had rested, I decided that I had really enjoyed most of the event, but Colin and I also made it clear to Mr. Kamaya that, under no circumstance, should the next English teacher do an English camp with more than 16 kids!