Welcome to America..better yet...Utah

Today was the first official day of summer camp for the Chinese students. I fell in love with the Russian and Ukrainian students and I can tell I will do the same with the Chinese.

 I certainly get more laughs out of the Chinese. It's extremely interesting to see my job description and duties change depending on the group and culture. This time around I feel like I repeat myself a thousand times, break everything I say into the simplest form of English, and wrangle my kids into lines and groups. At least they follow you like an obedient puppy when you want them to go somewhere (it just takes 10 years to do it).
One of my favorite things is the variety of American names I get. Here are just a few: Biscuit, Oreo, Candy, Yo-Yo, Ho-Ho, Angle, Yumi, Blue Ice, and Madam. I think they are pretty legit, BUT I feel slightly awkward saying "Ho Ho, come over here" or "Hey Oreo, English only please." We got some really awesomely weird looks today.
We went to the Sweets Candy factory in Salt Lake to take a tour. Everything the tour guide said went beyond over their heads but what can you do. They did, however, enjoy buying tons of candy at the gift shop....too bad all of them wanted to pay in 100 dollar bills for $5 worth of taffy.
We also went to the Great Salt Lake. What a frickin disaster! Apparently I must now add "water, bugs, dirt, lakes, dead birds, wind, sun, and rain" to the list of their fears. It was flaming hot outside and they insisted wearing jackets, holding umbrellas in the wild wind, and hiding behind each other from the sun. We finally had an intervention and my boss said, "Stop being wimpy, you are in America. There is sun, it is hot, and there is rain. You need to deal with it." Then one very concerned student (with the help of a translator) communicated his intense and biggest threat to our group. Behold...enemy #1...

There were a lot of little gnats and mosquitoes near the water edge. From what I understand, this particular student had recently watched a documentary on mosquitoes in a jungle and how they could give you diseases and kill you in an instant. After connecting the previous melt down-freak outs, and his story, I burst out laughing. Sure, it wasn't nice but the thought of these kids thinking they were going to die a horrendous and painful death from the mosquitoes cracked me up. Nevertheless, we survived and walked about disease free and full of retarded souvenirs. Although, I can't complain..the gift shop owner gave me a free Dr. Pepper.

I do still believe that I have the best job ever. I spend the majority of my time (personal or professional) stressed out so to see all the little Asian girls cover their mouths when they giggle, the boys hold hands, or watch them bright eyed and excited about things totally makes my day. I can't help but smile when I see them take pictures of literally everything they behold with their ipods, cameras, or phones... they would be perfectly content driving around and taking pictures of nothing all day. I'm a lucky girl :)