Waking up at 7AM on a Saturday (one of the two days you have out of the entire week to sleep in, mind you) to act as a mandatory camp counselor may sound like pure drudgery. This was my attitude on the whole matter when contacted by Media Kids, my agency here in Thailand, to help organize and lead a high school English camp. After a long week of teaching, the very last thing I wanted to do was travel to Akat Amnuai and act as team leader for a group of kids who would probably abhor participating as much as I would. Oh, how my notions were misguided.

In short, I ended up embracing the day and having a blast with my brilliant students! You're probably wondering: Now just what is an English camp? Essentially, students pay extra money to enroll in English camps that take place every weekend throughout Thailand. The important thing to note here: these students want to be here and are seeking out other methods to learn English. This culminated in a very different vibe than my normal routine, which entails the forcing of kids who are reluctant to learn in a classroom setting. The day is generally scheduled with games, activities, and contests that disguise learning with "oodles of fun." I was a complete skeptic at first, yet I'm pleasantly surprised by how many laughs I had with my crew of youngsters.

The theme of the camp was "ASEAN Community" which stands for "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations." Recently, Thailand has begun to stress its vital geo-political and economic role in the world, in conjunction with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillippines, Singapore, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The Thai government is aiming to embed the motto of "One Vision, One Identity, and One Community" within its schools. This way, students begin to learn more about the history, culture, and politics of the nine other Southeast Asian countries.

As team leader of "The Wolves," (each team was given a diverse animal mascot), I made up quite an impressive chant that had my students swiping their wolverine claws and howling in total badass-ery. We were given the ASEAN countries Singapore and Brunei (which I honestly had zero previous knowledge of). Our teams were asked to build makeshift museums and incorporate aspects of the country's culture in a creative presentation. Their innovation was certainly a sight to behold, as most of my group were phenomenal artists.

A clever exhibit of paper cuisine!

Cuties!

David, Charlotte, and Rina covered in baby powder after a messy game.

Teeeamwork!