I was 8 years old when I first visited my aunt's house in South Carolina. It was not a family trip. Only my brother and I flew on the airplane without our parents. It was not a usual experience for an 8 and 10year old children to go on a trip without adults. Even before the airplane departed I shed tears and told my brother, "I miss my parents so much." It was a very long and lonely flight. I was almost terrified by the fact that there was no one to depend on in this large plane.
After a long 14 hours of flight, we finally landed on the airport of Atlanta and met my aunt and uncle. My uncle, an American soldier, loved us very much and was very happy to see us. We drove for another hour or so to arrive at my aunt's house, which was located in the Fort Jackson Army base. And after a few days of trying to get rid of the jet lag, we went to visit the Youth Camp. My brother and I registered and started going the day after.
To describe the Youth Camp for a little bit, when you enter the building there was this huge gym on the left. This gym was also used as a cafeteria where students would come and eat breakfast and lunch. At this very moment, I can almost hear the students chatting and smell delicious food being served. It was certainly a place filled with laughter. In addition, on the right, there was a teenager room. By saying teenager room, it literally meant "room for teenagers" and students over 12years old were allowed. There was no room for junior students like us and we could just use all the rooms except the teenager room. Right across the teenager room was the snack bar where you could buy ice cream or crackers. I remember buying my favorite ice cream sandwich. The chocolate biscuits on the outside and the vanilla ice cream on the inside tasted like heaven. And behind the snack bar were all kinds of rooms including the game room, arts and crafts room, karate room, and so on. In the backyard of the Youth Camp, there was a parking lot and a place for students to gather around and hang out.
When I first started going to the Youth Camp, my brother and I were the only Koreans and most of them were African American. Therefore, for us, "Are you Japanese? Are you Chinese?" was a common question. But they never got to guess that we were Koreans because they did not have the slightest knowledge about Korea. During the 2months in the camp, I introduced them a lot about Korea. I introduced them how to play with the jackstone, which is Gongi, a Korean traditional game. Also, I taught them how the Korean character looks and one of them even said that she would get a tattoo of "자유", which means freedom in Korean.
After spending my summer vacation in the Youth Camp, I was so sad to return to Korea, despite the fact that I was terrified to come here at first. Therefore, I almost annually visited the camp during the summer vacations when I was in elementary school. Now, I do not have an opportunity to go there and register again but one day I truly wish to visit the camp and pull out some old memories.
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