Adventures of Grace Tang

A very interesting thing happened to me at camp that kinda blew my world today. Earlier this week on Monday, I was told that I had a child in my group that bit people until they bled. So, of course, I expected difficulties and pain this week. Imagining a rabid, crazy, violent, child in my group, I resigned myself to my fate. However, the group of kids I have this week is probably the best I've ever had so far. No one cried at all for 3 days, and that's definitely a first. My camp group has been excellent listeners, they are enthusiastic, energetic, smart, and maybe a little mischievous. I quickly forgot all about the biting thing as I laughed and played with my kids. Several of my boys were quite cheeky and tended to wander with the excessive energy that is natural in the young. I was forever telling them to stay in line or not to go somewhere unsafe. "Boys will be boys", I often thought. One of my campers, Ethan, was super adorable. He's almost four and talked ...

Course Selections... the hellish process of trying to get into all of the courses I need has been sucking the energy and happiness from me all of yesterday and today. I am not being melodramatic either, my stress level over the past 72 hours has been 300% higher than usual. Because of a glitch in my student account, I wasn't automatically registered for all the courses I needed. So I had to enrol the 7 courses and 2 labs required myself. Trying to fit everything into such a limited time frame was horrendous... So basically, the lesson is to not leave things till the end , THEN try to fix them. All you'll end up with is hair pulling and frantic pacing, trust me, I know... But after hours of stalking and trying, as well as multiple e-mails and phone calls, I finally settled most of my schedule for next year. All that's left is the dreaded organic chemistry laboratory which conflicts with my macroeconomics course... Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying and learn ...

My cousins have been staying with us for over a week now, and they just left today to go travel around the Toronto Area. This is only the second time that I've been with my youngest cousin Alex. It really is a shame that so many of my relatives are in China, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like. Alex, at 5, still remembers me from when I visited him at his house last year. It's been wonderful to spend so much time with my family this week. I feel like sometimes we get so caught up in work and our daily lives that we don't get to spend much time with those who matter most.  Family is something that's irreplaceable. Friends can come and go, but family stays forever. For the past week, Alex and I have been making a great deal of crafts together. He loves superheroes, so we've made a Captain America shield, Batman gun, and Iron Man gloves. My aunt says that he's always excited to see me come home since he loves making crafts with me. I really...

I had a nice day at work today, but was still suffering from a cold on the way home. It was the first time in 5 weeks of camp that no kid in my group cried, yay! However, oh. my. goodness., it does NOT feel like summer right now. I mean, not only is the weather bipolar here in Canada, it's also freezing cold in the end of July! That aside, I was tired and sick when I got back, but I still decided to go blueberry picking with relatives that had come to visit. When we reached the blueberry farm, we were told to go on one row. The girl who was in charge kept her beady eyes on us and was very strict when we wandered off to pick our berries. Also, admissions made us each pick 2lbs of berries when we went in. Since we had 7 people, that equated to 14 pounds of blueberries we had to pick in total! So we set off to work, and we'd wander off to pick blueberries from the bushes on the other side when the girl wasn't looking. When she came back, we'd scramble back to where we ...

Feeling Restless... It's so sad to think about, but there's only a month of summer left! Sigh* And I'm stuck in that plateau where I want to do work, but I just can't bring myself to move. When it comes to going on the internet I can be quite speedy, but when I'm trying to study for accounting or LSAT's... my body refuses to budge. It's like I'm the little mermaid or something, each attempt to get actual work done seems to cause me pain... I feel like I've been way too relaxed and lazy in the summer. The constant pressure of work and projects are over, and I've deflated so to speak, academically anyway. So here I am, at my computer, procrastinating work yet again. The whole situation is scaring me just a bit actually, since I'm usually so on top of things. But I think I'm the type of person who needs pressure to get things done, if there's no pressure then nothing gets done. There's this story in Chinese culture, where a fam...

Enlightening my 3-5 year olds with Greek Mythology. I am an awesome camp counsellor... So I've worked at my Storybook Gardens for 2 weeks now. (The place has excellent perks by the way, including getting into various attractions for free. Toronto Zoo here I come!) But the main highlight of my work so far has to be teaching my 3-5 year old campers about greek mythology. It started on Wednesday when I was taking a group of 6 mini camp kids to the washroom in the park by the wade pool where we were spending the day. They were a bit difficult to manage, with some kids miles ahead and others scared to walk by the puddles. So as you can imagine, I had to use all my creative powers to keep my "children" safe and together. As I was waiting with the kids by the bathroom, I started telling them a story to keep them from wandering. I guess since I really like history and mythology, I started to tell them the story of Daedalus, the labyrinth, the Minotaur, and Theseus's gre...

It's the 9th of July, meaning that the suffocation of summer heat is at a high. As a mini camp counsellor at London's Storybook Gardens, not only did I suffer due to the temperature, I also had to chase excited 5 year olds around the park while suffering. All in all, it was another stressful yet fulfilling day at work for me :D This camp counsellor job is what I would count as my first REAL job. I've worked and earned money in the summer before, but not with strict regularity and a responsibility to show up every day. I have to say, now I finally treasure every measly cent I am making. It's only been a week and a day for me so far, but I find that I'm learning so many things at work. Not only do I wake up 3 hours earlier than I would usually do on holiday, I'm also learning to go above and beyond at work. I realized that I'm not at the park sweating away to make money and leave; I truly want the bright kids in my camp to have a good time and thrive on the ...