The Meet & Greet

Today just solidified the fact that this camp is going to be awesome. Let's begin with the morning. Last night, I went to bed after the beans were completely cooked and I left them in the fridge overnight, to be mashed in the morning. When I woke up at 8 AM, I began to prepare my burritos. I first mashed the beans, without a masher, using a serving spoon to try and find every bean. Then, I had to heat the tortillas, but I didn't want to use the microwave. By this time, Ekta was finishing her curry on the stove and Lessya had taken over the table to use as a dough cutting station to wrap her beef into beef pastry-type things. I was using the window sill to prepare my food because there was no counter space. I was using an open burner on the stove to heat the tortillas, and I began making the burritos. The first few were a little odd looking, but by the third or fourth one I got the hang of folding the burritos and I made a little assembly line. First the tortilla, then the beans, then salsa and then cheese. It was good. I made about a dozen burritos, and I still have extra beans left over. By 9:45 AM, we were rushing out the door. In the last 10 minutes, we wrapped all of our food, gathered all our materials for our tables, and were running out the door with plates, pots and backpacks.

It never fails. Whenever we're going somewhere, we always look like a bunch of clowns when we're traveling around Prague. I'm in a basketball jersey (because it's my "traditional" clothes), and all of us are with plates and bags. Ekta is carrying an actual pot from Jenny's house with curry and of course we have a case of 30 eggs for a game we're going to play with the students after the Global Village. When we got to the train station, we met up with the other four leaders and got to the university just in time to set up. When we got to the university, I realized that I had left my American hat and t-shirt at home, along with the American flag I had made on a piece of poster. Great. My table was practically empty, except for some notes I had written down earlier in the week. I had brought my computer, so I was planning on showing pictures, but of course, when I plugged in my external hard drive with my pictures and music and all, it wasn't recognized by my computer...I hope that doesn't mean something bad, but I still can't figure out the problem. We were able to give me a little something by getting me speakers and I used someone's computer to listen to KS 107.5 online, a hip-hop station from Denver, CO. It worked out OK.

At first, no one came to my table. I thought it might be because my burritos weren't hot anymore and if you've never seen a burrito before, they can look kind of weird. Eventually a few students came over, they ate my burrito hesitantly, but after the first bite they realized it didn't taste as bad as they looked. I actually had one and it was pretty good for my first time (they need more salt, cheese and better salsa, but overall B+). I was actually surprised at how interactive the students were during the Global Village. Compared to the other high school students, these were very outgoing and eager to ask questions. There were a lot of questions thrown at me, especially about me being Mexican. They were kind of confused that I had Mexican food and that I mentioned something about Mexico. I had to explain that since America has so many different types of people, it is common to ask people what their heritage is, in order to get a better understanding of who they are. They seemed to understand, but they were also curious about US-Mexican relations. They knew about the drug war and border issues between the US and Mexico and I was surprised how many questions they asked about it. While I was speaking, I tried to focus on the diversity of the US. I talked about the different regions of the US (Northeast, Mid-atlantic, South, Southwest, Mountains, West Coast, Mid-West) and how each region is different in speech, weather, lifestyle and the rest. They seemed to enjoy it.

After the Global Village, we went outside to play some games with them. We played the typical name games and get to know each other games. Which killed time and allowed us to be more comfortable. We also played a game where they had to "buy" materials at an auction and use these materials to build something to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a meter above. We wrapped up the afternoon by taking some time to talk in small groups about their expectations about camp and why they joined the program. We were really tired at the end of the day, but the students had a blast and it was a really great way to start off the weekend.

When it was time to go home, everyone went out to dinner (except Aysegul and Lessya--who wasn't feeling well) at a Czech restaurant. It was delicious food and I got some potato dish with bacon and cheese. Yum. My kind of food--salty, filling, and cheap! We headed home afterward to get ready to go out. I took a nap and when I woke up, I was bummed to see that everyone else had fallen asleep too. Lessya was awake, but she had decided that she wasn't going out. We asked the girls online if they wanted to go out, but they too were not in the mood...I guess we'll just go out the next time we're in Prague. Oh wait, who knows when that'll be. It's kind of disappointing that we're in an amazing city, but can't enjoy the night life because we're "too tired," or maybe too lazy to have some fun time. Or maybe I'm just over reacting, but to me, all work and no play means for a boring adventure.

Tomorrow, we're going to church and then to the Lennon Wall. Afterwards, I have to finish my project and work on the final schedule. I just found out today that I'm also going to have to meet with a university on Monday morning, so the time I had dedicated to sight-seeing and souvenier shopping is now interrupted by a meeting. I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Until next time, take care!