Week 2, Day 1: Metamorphos

By today, the group cheer had progressed to Metamorpho, where everyone did a small dance step to each letter. Today, Eileen, the MC, taught us the next letter, S, which involved the same dance step as H. So after a testimony by an art teacher and a little fashion exhibition by Eileen and some other teachers, we did the group cheer one last time and split up into our own groups.
I had brought my computer today to take pictures to post on this blog but when I took it out of my bag I was dismayed to find that it had run out of battery on the way over (it does that sometimes). So I put it on the side to charge and sat in on the Word of the Day while Calvin, who had come today and would come to help me the rest of the week, filmed.
After the word or the day, or the words of the day as we now seem to have 2, determined and advocate, we went on to help the kids start writing their short stories. I had no idea where that came from, so I just went with the flow and helped Brian, the brilliant writer kid, who seemed to be partnerless. He was obviously planning a novel and not a short story by the look of it, just like I used to do in elementary school (He's not in elementary school, I'm just saying that because I left the american system in 5th grade). I just hope he finishes it, unlike me. So after we had planned out chapter one, which took up a whole sheet of paper, he went on to start writing it.
After the amazing story writing, we had snack break, which was amazing little gummy snacks and cool-aid juice box thingys. I also took pictures with my now charged computer during that time. That's me above. Here are some of the pictures the kids took when they were fooling around with photobooth:

 

So we had a lot of fun with that until Olivia came and shut us down! Ok she isn't that bad but we had to start class. So we had a bible story and I took over the camera, which is obviously... boring, to you. NOT the bible story, the filming. Yaaaa, you knew that. Anyways, we finished early, and then started our cheer, which had CHANGED! Yes somehow they had gotten a new cheer which I must admit wasn't that bad, but of course could have been better, and replaced mine. we voted of course, but only me and my trusty disciple, Brian, voted for daft punk. Psh, girls. So we practiced their extremely wordy cheer which was a struggle for even me as a native speaker to recite, and by the end of practice I was sure everyone was very tongue-twisted. Someone needs syllable training.
Anyways our time ran out and we went down to perform our cheer, and it turned out that neither Sarah, or her sister Rachel actual did the cheer, but rather it was mainly me shouting it. I'm too tired now to try and remember it all (it was reeeeeallly long).
With a great sigh of relief I was finally set free and I helped Calvin pack up before I headed upstairs for dinner. I tried to take some pictures of Sarah for the blog, but as you can tell, she is totally photogenic. So then I spent the rest of the time teasing Sarah and being teased by the new cameraman, Stan, who I wasn't sure if i was ready to go at with my comebacks yet. It was pretty fun, but eventually I was somehow excluded from the conversations, Sarah and Olivia talking some kind of girl dialect, while Calvin and Stan were going over documenting stuff. So I turned to my computer, and it's infinite attention span that lasted as long as the battery was not depleted, and started cracking at my story. Yes I'm writing a book, you can contact me if you want a copy. So anyways, after a few minutes of writing, Calvin called me back to pray, which we did, and then Sarah asked to see my Ipod, during which she took her chance to diss all of the music I had that she didn't like. Juan, my good friend, happened to be passing by and took his chance to throw in some cutting comebacks, as he is a major music jock (don't mess with Juan when it comes to music!). So we ended with an uneasy truce as I left with Calvin, Juan, and his brother, Emilio for home.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Day 3: A chocolate chip cookie

Today we arrived on time, as traffic seemed lighter than usual, not that I'm complaining. Light traffic is good traffic right? Anyways so the assembly was pretty cool, and the family of one of the dance teachers (I recognized her from the year before), came up to speak about how their family had gone through a life changing metamorphosis. Everyone was so touched we had to wait 15 minutes for everyone to stop crying. ... Ok maybe not that touching. But their testimony was pretty good.
I got a few shots of my charges in between the crowd, which I guess could be useful, and then followed them to their classroom like a ninja in the dark, though a quite visible, camera toting one at that.
In the classroom, i noticed we had one more student, and a new teacher, which was good, but for some reason, maybe time constraints, Sarah decided not to play an icebreaker game. Gasp, HOW COULD YOU?
Instead we just played 自我介绍. That means, "introduce yourself" in Chinese. Like you didn't already know that. So we did this thing that I used to do a lot in my youth group. Everyone gave their name, age, and their favorite movie. It wasn't so bad, and I think everyone was quite surprised when the first girl, the new girl, and the youngest girl (All the same girl if you didn't catch that), said "Chuckie". Olivia confirms this several times with her, "Like chuckie, the killer doll movie? That chuckie? Like chuckie the horror movie? That chuckie? Like Chuckie, the evil chuckie, that chuckie?" Nod, nod, nod. "Ok...Next"
Again we were surprised when Bryan, the only boy in the class, said Bambi, and not batman as everyone somehow misheard, except me of course.
After our wonderful introductions, we moved on to the word of the day, and the first thing I caught on tape was Sarah flipping through the dictionary to find it. The word of the day. Naughty, naughty. She told me to stop filming but I obstinately told her with great obstinacy that I would remain obstinate and continue filming. I wonder what the word of the day was.
I continued to film, this time getting a lot of better footage and better angles, since the group had split up into four mini groups, 1 teacher and 1 student. It was overall not so interesting for me, since I was the odd one out and i was basically just trying to get the same shots, but in different frames and at different angles. It worked out pretty well, and I was happy to put the camera down to participate in the Haiku writing.
So after Sarah gave a brief explanation about haiku's and how they are 7-5-7... ahem sorry 5-7-5, where the numbers represent the syllables in each of the 3 lines. After the whole class had squeezed out a haiku about the cold sidewalk and a pretty lady walking on it (The cold sidewalk was my idea), everyone was sent off to write our own.
After looking over my finished work in pride, Sarah and I shared our haiku with each other, on the side, not to anyone else. Hers went like this:
Ok I can't remember, I'll ask her tomorrow (that's not a haiku if you were wondering). I remember the second line though:

My head is melancholy

...Anyways, mine went like this:

Caleb is awesome
something something something some
Let's see some bowing
(I forgot the 2nd line).

Anyways after we argued over who's was better, which was obviously mine, a third contender joined in and like.... blew our socks off. So Bryan asks me if his second line has seven syllables, and it actually has 8, so I quickly changed "will strike" to "strikes" and voila, he had a masterpiece. It sounded just like the cryptic, symbolic, and meaningful lines you'd hear from a Chinese sage:

Life is like a snake
You don't know when it will strike
or when it will yield

Now you can totally understand why I forgot mine and Sarah's.
So yes, after everyone shared, Paulina and Bryan decided to also share some stuff they had wrote. Paulina read one of her short stories, though I must confess that I couldn't hear a word she was saying from the other side of the table. It must have been pretty good though by the way people reacted. So then Bryan shared two other poems he had wrote, which I won't write here for fear of copyright infringement. But they were good, and they drew reactions like "Who helped you write those again?" and "Where'd you get that poem?" They were that good. Hey Paulina's short story was good too. I just didn't hear it, though I will have to do so before Illuminate is over.
So after the poem, or haiku writing, came bible story time, and Sarah went off to do her math. I picked up my camera once more and started filming the kids, and the teachers, until snack time when I quickly rushed of to grab my share, sneaking an extra nutri-grain bar in. During/after snack time, the kids colored and decorated their notebooks, and I went out into the hallway to get some shots of Sarah doing her math. Luckily, she let me film her, and I think Calvin will find use of that shot.
After the bible story, Sarah returned to help the group with their new Haiku chant, and then we were off to perform it. The assembly was the normal, and first everyone did the Illuminate cheer, then their individual one. After hearing all the great cheers, and getting the creative writing cheer on tape, I packed up my camera and headed up to grab my food. Maceo decided he wouldn't be having any, but then regretted it when I opened the food box in the car to discover

...a chocolate chip cookie!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Illuminate Day 2: 1... 2 more students!

So today I was sitting at home doing some work and listening to music while waiting for my other film friend to come pick me up since Calvin, the doc team leader, was at work. So he was supposed to come at 3, but in the end it was more like 3:45, and after hitting some traffic on the 5, we cruised into illuminate 26 minutes late. So we bumped into Eileen, the Illuminate camp coordinator and she told us just to go directly to our classes.
After sorting out the tapes and making sure all the settings on our cameras were set, we split ways, me to my creative writing class upstairs and my friend to the dance class just next to where we were setting up.
I grabbed a bag of cheez-it's from the snack box and headed out. Approaching the "white door", I held my breath, only to let it out in relief to find it open. I wouldn't be making 7 more trips to and from that door today.
When i reached the classroom, or rather the creative writing section of the room (there are 3 groups that share that room, separated by dividers), I set down my camera and participated in the initial icebreaker game, as we had one new student. At first I spaced out as Sarah, the lead teacher, asked me repeatedly whether I knew what game they were playing. after what i would have to guess was the 6th time, I finally managed to pull my head out of the clouds and everyone had a good laugh.
This time we played two truths and a lie, and I managed to trump everyone with mine. After everyone had gone, I guess Sarah decided one game was not enough, so we played fruit basket, a game like I have never but slightly different as you say what people have done or have on rather than saying something you haven't done and everyone who has done it has to switch seats. I had a lot of fun as I decided not to follow the normal pattern of rotating to counter-clockwise and rather quickly grabbing the seat of the person I wanted to get in the middle. So I guess you could say i was somewhat in control?
After the Ice breakers, an assistant teacher took over as Sarah had to do some math homework, most likely preparation for the geometry final she had mentioned to me yesterday.
For some reason I didn't seem so in touch today. Maybe it was the fact that Calvin, the team leader hadn't been there, or that we hadn't prayed, giving glory to god, or maybe it was because I had slipped more into my role as a documenter and observer. Most likely, it was a combination of all of those factors put together. As you see I'm also not to "in it" in this post, as it is both short and boring. I will apologize for that.
Anyways, I must say the day went by too fast, or rather, the days, as I have so much to do on top of Illuminate. But that is another story.
Back to Illuminate, right after the introduction of the word of the day, metamorphosis, another student arrived. Her name was Erika, and she was shy at first, but started to slowly come out of her shell. She also wasn't very camera shy as far as I could tell.
So after the word of the day I stood off to the side to film, and sometimes when your only link into the world is the electronic screen of the camera, it is easy to get disconnected and be consumed by the documentation. Should I capture the kids or the teachers? Close up or wide shot? How can I shoot good shots with only one angle to work with? Why is it so bright today? Have I shot too much?
Now with these thoughts running through my head, and also just that nervous twitch that comes with the first day of filming, especially by yourself, I found my mind wandering off even during snack time.
Though through my camera eye I was able to see the teachers beginning to breakthrough with on girl, Paulina, so I mainly focused on her. She really opened up, as she was quite shy the day before. Also very helpful to her classmates and eager as well to write the poem, though we never got to it since we had to prepare our group chant. It went like this:

There's no other class like us
Our rhymes are a must
don't make a fuss
to be like us!

I won't say anything, as I didn't contribute, but I'm sure WE can do better. The other chants were pretty ok as well, which was comforting, though I remember one group had a really good chant. Mini Illuminate had the best chant! They all just jumped up and shouted "Mini Illuminate!!!"
Ya so after repeating the Illuminate chant, which they had added onto that morning at the assembly, everyone dispersed and my friend and I quickly packed our gear up and rushed to the teachers office to grab dinner before rushing off. Maceo, my film partner, has to get up at 3:00am for work so he has to go to bed really early. It's really cool that he can take the time to serve with us at illuminate though, because I'm sure his schedule is plenty grueling.
So that was Illuminate for today, and I hope sometime later on I will come back and rewrite this because the words just aren't flowing... Better luck next time then.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Day 1: Creative Writing

So today was day one of Illuminate. I'll start with some background for those who don't know me or the Illuminate camp. So my name is Caleb Lin, and I'm an intern at the Illuminate camp from Beijing. I'm part of the Illuminate documentary team, in charge of documenting everything that goes on at the camp through different medias. Now the Illuminate camp is an arts camp for kids in eastern LA, where they don't have as much chance to participate in arts and media inside their public school system. The volunteers there teach Music, Art, Dance, Drama, Creative Writing, publishing, and of course, babysitting. A new addition this year is parental guidance, targeted towards the kids parents, teaches them about good parenting skills. My job on the doc team is to capture on film, the Illuminate camp through the perspective of the Creative writing teacher, a 16 year old girl named Sarah.
This is my second year at Illuminate, and it's really a great experience to be around so many Christians with that desire to help others. Last year I was assigned to the Dance group, which was a very fun experience since I got to participate and learn a few moves when I switched off with my partner.
Today started with the opening ceremony and I got to see a few familiar faces, some staff, some children. After debriefing with the doc team, I was told to film the creative writing group along with Calvin, the leader of the team. So we sat down and played a game of simon says just to break the ice, then a game of duck duck goose. after everyone had a good laugh at the people who were outrun and the people who outran, we all stood up to learn this year's Illuminate cheer. The theme being Metamorphosis, and the cheer having something to do with each letter, we only got through "M" and "E". "M!" stomp, "E!" stomp stomp. With the final stomps echoing through the gym, the different classes were announced and the kids rushed to the groups they would be in. Calvin and I were quite surprised when only one kid showed up at creative writing, a slightly shy girl named Paulina.
The groups dispersed and the doc team got together once again to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, then went off to our individual classes. I strode casually to the snack machine only to find, to my dismay, that I had no change, only a 5 dollar bill. Luckily Calvin was feeling generous and gave me a dollar for a bag of Cheetos. With snack in hand, we headed outside to the outside staircase that led up to the creative writing classroom, not taking the one inside so as not to disturb the music class. In the end we were still forced to go up the inside staircase as the outside one was locked.
Returning inside, I looked from the snack machine back to the bag of dwindling cheetos in my hand, and decided I wouldn't be needing another bag. We headed up the inside staircase and knocked politely on the door to the 3rd floor, and inside it, the music class. When there was no answer, Calvin knocked again. Still no answer. I knocked harder. Still no answer. Two other people trying to get up to the 3rd floor came to watch our endeavors, but after several minutes of trying, we headed back down, one of the two bystanders supposedly knowing of another way up. So we followed her to the outside staircase that I dubbed the "white door" since that was all I saw of it for the 7 times i visited it. Yes, 7 times. After the woman took us there and found it locked, we walked to and from many other entrances, hearing from different people that the door was now open. It was not until about half an hour that someone finally unlocked it and we were able to join our group.
When we walked in, I was surprised to find the room had changed quite a lot. There were three sections now, and one was a computer lab, though not in use by Illuminate. So at first we just sat on the side watching them play, but the pattern of the game became obvious. The person in the middle said "I have never..." and then everyone got up, rotated clockwise, and then the cycle continued with the next person. Occasionally only two people got up, and even one, but it was still very routine. You can't really steal a seat in a small 4 person circle, including the person in the middle. Calvin suggested that we not film much the first day, so as not to intimidate the sole student, and I agreed, fitting in a remark as to how I should join the game to make the circle a bit bigger.
After a few rounds Calvin told them I was going to join, and so I did. At first it was slightly awkward for me, as it was such a small group, and I did not know any of them. But playing an icebreaker game, it is hard not to become familiar with the other players, especially in such a small group. So we moved into the word of the day time as somewhat comfortable friends, acquaintances. The word of the day was Audacious, and it immediately made me think of the program audacity that I used so many times at school to edit audio tracks. Anwyays, I was soon reeled back from my untimely flashback when Sarah asked Paulina if she knew what Audacious meant. When Paulina shook her head, Sarah explained that Audacious meant brave, or courageous. I immediately thought, "How dare you have the audacity to challenge my authority!". Not the most positive context for Audacious, but then my experience with that word were mostly negative.
Now back to subject, after explaining the meaning of Audacious, Sarah told everyone in the group, yes even the me the cameraman, to write down our definition of Audacity, as well as a sentence to go with it. The first positive sentence that came to my mind was "David swung his sling and looked Goliath audaciously in the eye." It turns out, our next activity was to read a bible passage, one on David and Goliath! what a coincidence, or maybe the hand of god? I believe partially the latter, if only for the sake of the single student.
Paulina read the bible passage all by herself, only tripping on a few difficult words. The 3 teachers took turns asking her questions so as to make sure she understood the passage, and then we took a short snack break. After everyone got their juicebox and chewy bar, I glanced around in the silence, finding that most of the group, all except for Joe actually, had chosen the s'more flavored chewy bar. Almost as if they'd read my mind, the group started to talk about Joe's dislike of chocolate. I chuckled inside and listened, all the while taking small bites out of my chewy bar.
After finishing my snack and sucking the last few drops out of my juicebox Joe asked me where I was from and I explained, "Oh, I"m from Beijing." Then i continued to tell them where I was staying, how my stay was so far, whether I was having a good time, and what Pre-olympics Beijing is like. The answer to those questions is, "I'm staying with Calvin, my stay is pretty good and I'm quite enjoying my stay, and in fact, Beijing weather has been it's worst all year, though the city itself is pretty great."
So we made small talk and got to know each other more as Paulina finished her snack. I found out that Sarah is quite cool, as she is only one year older than me and also loves to write.
And then, after we had tossed our personal information around the table for about 15 minutes or so, we cleaned up the trash and started writing I am poems, a special moment for Paulina as it was her first poem. The poem format was like this:

I am...
I believe...
I want...
I find...
I make...

I am...
I feel...
I need...
I think...
I create...

Or at least that's what I can remember of it. We spent the rest of the class doing that, and at about 5:50 we all shared what we had wrote, and it was all very good. So we put away our poems and took out a large white cloth, the beginning of our banner. I quickly suggested we make the banner look like the standard blue lined paper with red margin lines, and we used the banner's sticks as rulers. After that, I drew the outlines for the block lettering of "Creative writing". I all went smoothly despite the difficulty of writing on the somewhat stretchy cloth until I came to "writin". As I was focused on drawing the block letters, I made a mistake that was near fatal to the "creative writing group". I spelled "Writing" wrong. Aghast, my mis-spelled word looked like this: "Writini". Writini anyone? Oh it's a cocktail with wine and vermouth. No it's not a martini.
Anyways, we got a good laugh about it, and decided to color the letters in while turning the "i" into the hook part of the "g". It worked out, and I escaped getting my group embarrassed. Yes, my group. After the banner was done, so was the lesson, and by then I was no longer a tagalong, but a real part of the group.
After final assembly and another doc team debriefing, I went up to the Illuminate office to grab some free dinner, and sat with with the creating writing group. I was, after all, a part of that group now. We chatted over dinner, commenting on how hard it was to hear anyone with two large fans blowing directly behind us. We turned them off only for someone to come and turn them on again.
After listening to the other groups Praise and prayer points, we gave our own, and then everyone prayed for the next group on the list's prayer points. Then Calvin and I went home where we split ways, him off to his Monday night's hip-hop/breakdance group/practice thing and me to my writing. Did I mention that I'm writing a book?