Korean Heritage Camp

Summer is here, and it's FINALLY time to get out and enjoy the sun! This whole office thing is...something I'm getting trying to get used to. haha.

Korean Heritage camp is the one time of year that all of the adopted Korean kids and their families, are in one place at one time! It's pretty remarkable when you think about it.

It's been 5 years since I first went to be a Korean Heritage Camp Counselor up at Snow Mountain Ranch, which was also the same summer I went to Korea for the first time! I remember thinking, "This will be a great introduction to Korea." And, WOW, yes it was...being in a room with 40 other people who looked just like me was something I didn't do everyday. Everyone had my same color hair. Everyone had my same eyes. And everyone spoke English. Crazy! It was the first time I ate kimchi, and I hated it.

This year, I thought it would be fun to return to Korean Heritage Camp as a counselor, since I am now so familiar with all things Korean! I've been to Korea 4 times since the then. In those 4 summers abroad, I learned survival Korean reading and speaking skills, following Korean subway maps, bargain for clothes in underground malls and ordering food in restaurants. Meanwhile, I had fun, made good friends, and taught some Korean kids a bit of En-gr-lish-ie.

Recently, I've realized a few too many of my sentences are beginning with , "In Korea....they have blablabla..." "When I was in Korea, blablabla," and I've been making the long haul to Aurora to visit H-Mart and Seoul BBQ a bit regularly. It seems like it's time to go back to camp and eat me some kimchi!

It was fun to chat with the other counselors. Some were so connected to the camp, they flew in from LA and Chicago and even Seoul be there! It's amazing that such a community exists. It was a little disappointing that I couldn't get the day off work to attend the full duration of camp--I never got a full breakdown of who's who or what's what. But, regardless, I learned that there is a community of Korean adoptees who are very in touch with their Koreanness and that's cool.


The parents were excited to talk to the counselors, and it was nice to show them how great their kid will turn out. :) And the kids were just normal kids, excited to learn a little bit about Korea and play in the warm mountain sun. Aren't they so cute!!!






It was definitely a good trip for the soul.