Back to Camp

Once again I spent an August week at Camp Sejong, a Korean culture camp in New Jersey, my fifth time as the Creative Writing teacher. It was such a pleasure to be back in this remarkable, multi-age Korean American community of staff, teachers (including a 13-member delegation from Ewha University in Seoul), teen and young adult counselors (including many former campers), and campers from age 7 to 15.

This year the theme was Life Cycles, with a particular focus on the first and 60th birthdays. In writing sessions, we brainstormed about birthdays, birthdays and adoption (about half the campers are adopted; the other half from 2nd-generation Korean American families), and Korean birthdays.

I shared a book I illustrated, What Will You Be, Sara Mee? by Kate Aver Avraham, about the tol, the first birthday celebration.

 

Then we constructed tol go-im - first birthday towers or pillars...

 

but instead of rice cakes, candy, jujubes or beans, we built the towers with strips of paper in the traditional colors seen in sek dong, the rainbow stripes typically used for children's clothing.

Campers chose whatever they wanted to include - significant events, people, trips, things they learned, school, connections to Korea, and other aspects of their lives. Each stripe represented a year and each completed pillar the story of a life.

 

Some used pictures and symbols as well, and one girl even drew her complete fashion history - including hairstyles - from infancy!

Already looking forward to next year's camp, with the theme of Contemporary Korean Culture, including K-pop and Korean drama. In writing we'll be creating man-wha, or comics.

Dreams Coming True

This week I'm transported with love, joy and wonder: Our daughter Yunhee married her beloved Josh (ours, too) on July 31. The night before we held a Korean ceremony complete with traditional wedding hanbok and ritual bows.

Tomorrow I arrive at Camp Sejong in northwestern New Jersey, where I'm the creative writing teacher for the Korean-born campers, ages 7-14, from both adoptive and Korean-American families. (For an account of my first year at Sejong in 2007, see "Hong Kil Dong Goes to Camp".)

We'll be creating vision maps, titled "A Bridge of Dreams," imagining their lives in the future and how they'll pull from the strengths of both their cultures. I'll be using Yunhee's wedding photos as an example of what that can look like.