The next day, I was exhausted beyond all means. We had a chance to pack really fast, and us facis had to get ready for our trip to Vienna and Budapest. I had already packed the day before during one of the breaks, but I was so tired I could barely function (that’s becoming a common theme have you noticed?). After breakfast, everyone had an hour to move out. We put everything in the plenary room, and gave them free time to take pictures, write Sugarcubes (notes that are put in special envelopes to be read a few days after going home from camp), and to do whatever they had to do. In between all the pictures and gifts from the students, I managed to write a note to every single student from Camp 1. I’m really going to miss them. We gave Jenny a bottle of wine, as a token of our appreciation as facis for all her dedication and work to MBM. I had received an MBM polo on day 6 and all the facis (including myself) had received a bottle of Moravian wine, hand made in the Czech Republic!! I received a few gifts from some of the students and I gave a few extra things away too. The bus came shortly after noon, and we made our way to Velke Marichi (spelling is wrong, I know!) The final goodbyes were the hardest, with everyone getting sobby and tearful, but I know deep down that I’ll be seeing some of these students for sure sometime in the future. I know it.
As I’m preparing for the second camp, I know that I have to keep an open mind and not compare the next group to the first and to do everything bigger and better than before. We’ve done it once, so now it’s time to do it again. By today however, I’ll be finishing the second camp, with a whole new set of stories to share, but unfortunately you won’t get to hear about camp two, and I think hearing about one camp is just fine! I should be returning to Prague today, to be updating my blog and celebrating one of the most wonderful summer jobs I’ve ever had in my life. It was certainly one rewarding life experience that I’ll never forget!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Day 11: I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life
This was the last day of camp, and I woke up even more exhausted than ever. After staying up till 4 AM on the house of feelings night, and then having only 6 hours the night before, I knew that I was in for a treat today. Ekta and Harrison finished the last part of their project in the morning, which went a lot better than the previous day, but when Prague College came in the afternoon, the presentations were terrible. It was partially our fault and somewhat the student’s fault. We didn’t have a clear idea what Prague College wanted the presentations to be on, so we made a very vague presentation topic for the students. The students however, didn’t really listen to our instructions and they all created videos, rather than give an actual presentation. Prague College was doing a presentation skills workshop, but after seeing the videos, they really didn’t have any feedback to give the students, because all they did was stand there and watch the video. Not to mention, the videos (which were about marketing MBM to future potential students) were done very lackadaisical and weren’t taken too seriously. It was safe to say, Project 5 failed big time. But, since it was the last project, the last day, the last university, it didn’t really matter. We had more important things to worry about, like making this last day at camp the best and most memorable experience for the students.
During the afternoon break, we prepared for the evening campfire, in which all the students went hunting for firewood. Luckily, we had Frank the Fireman (originally dubbed Mr. Funkmaster because he hates to dance in front of everyone just as much as I do, yet somehow always ends up dancing because of someone!), because he got a pile of firewood about 2 m tall and prepared the pre-fire teepee, ready to go for the evening activities. Prague College came and left, and after the disaster of a project was done, we had to wrap everything up. We had a lot to do. We had a feedback session for the camp, we had to fill out feedback forms for the project, we had to spend one last time as a group, etc. During our last group time, team Red had some serious issues to work out. Two of the girls in our group were part of a huge controversy, which caused a lot of drama and even effected the way the project was finished for the red team. I won’t go into details, but we ended up resolving the issue after group time, which was hard for me to do, but necessary. We also had to prepare our final gifts to our Monitos. The Monito program was started sometime around day 4 or 5, where we had each student pick from a hat a name. This person was their secret friend, to whom they had to do something nice, give a note or gift, or something. People often mysteriously received ice cream bars or cheerful letters during lunch or at the end of the day just to let them know that their secret friend was thinking of them. The monitos were going to be revealed during the final campfire.
When the sun began to set, we all moved our chairs outside and began the final ceremony. We had on the ground taped in masking tape the letters “MBM”. We sat around them and were each given a candle. Aysegul started the night in the center, sharing her favorite moment of the camp and any feelings she had to share. I could tell right away that this was going to be mushy-gushy, but hey, it’s summer camp and these kind of things are necessary every once in a while. After sharing her thoughts, she then passed her candle flame to the next person, who was Jenny. Jenny passed to me, and I was really surprised to go third. You know, with these kind of things, you don’t just want to get up and babble on about your feelings, and for me, I always have to be the funny guy, but I couldn’t think of anything good to say off the top of my head. I was a little unprepared, but I basically told the students that the camp was everything I wished for. I remember not wanting to work with a bunch of little kids, because I didn’t want to babysit anyone (even though I sometimes had to babysit them—haha). I thanked them for letting me have conversations with them, for sharing their country’s culture and history with me, for sharing their family life, their dreams, their goals, their aspirations and even their political views. I thanked them for asking questions about me, for talking to me, for joking with me, for embarrassing me (all day every day!), for playing volleyball with me, for soaking me in the waterfight, for teaching me every single curse word in Czech (and laughing when I couldn’t pronounce it right or when I said something I had no idea what it meant!). But most of all I thanked them for letting us teach them. The camp was awesome and there wasn’t really more I could say.
It went on like this, for all twenty students, and each faci. During the sharing, a few girls cried, some surprising things were said and done, and then it was over. We moved to the camp fire, which was set ablaze by Frank. Hey Dad, you’d be really jealous of the bonfire we had on the last day! Every year my family goes on a backpacking trip into the Colorado Rockies, and each year we have one super-duper camp fire, but this one was one for the records. It was like 3 m high, (9-10 feet) and I was laughing as Frank kept feeding it more fuel. It was so hot, we were in t-shirts standing around the fire. The night went on to have the revealing of the Monitos, and we all just sat around talking. The students hung out and talked, and only a few people wandered off to “hang out” in their cabins (they were probably drinking but I don’t think anyone cared). It was great to have those last few hours with them to talk about all the things we didn’t get to talk about during camp. Nothing mattered, no one cared what was said, because it was over.
That night, whoever wanted to was allowed to sleep in the plenary room. We moved a bunch of mattresses in, and had the students bring over pillows and blankets. When we went to bed, it was around 4 AM. But then a crazy pillow fight attack happened and things got bloody. I got whacked in the face with a huge slammer (even though I wasn’t participating and actually trying to sleep!), and it made my nose bleed. I had gotten a nose bleed sometime during camp during the shower, and I got it to stop afterwards, but then a few days later I got a volleyball to the face and it started to bleed again, and then Ana grabbed my nose the next day(saying something in Portuguese the way she always does) and made it bleed again (accidentally), and so on and so on. I don’t think my nose ever had a chance to heal properly, so I wasn’t surprised when it started bleeding. I don’t think we went to bed until 5:30, and we had a bright and early wake-up call at 8 AM.
During the afternoon break, we prepared for the evening campfire, in which all the students went hunting for firewood. Luckily, we had Frank the Fireman (originally dubbed Mr. Funkmaster because he hates to dance in front of everyone just as much as I do, yet somehow always ends up dancing because of someone!), because he got a pile of firewood about 2 m tall and prepared the pre-fire teepee, ready to go for the evening activities. Prague College came and left, and after the disaster of a project was done, we had to wrap everything up. We had a lot to do. We had a feedback session for the camp, we had to fill out feedback forms for the project, we had to spend one last time as a group, etc. During our last group time, team Red had some serious issues to work out. Two of the girls in our group were part of a huge controversy, which caused a lot of drama and even effected the way the project was finished for the red team. I won’t go into details, but we ended up resolving the issue after group time, which was hard for me to do, but necessary. We also had to prepare our final gifts to our Monitos. The Monito program was started sometime around day 4 or 5, where we had each student pick from a hat a name. This person was their secret friend, to whom they had to do something nice, give a note or gift, or something. People often mysteriously received ice cream bars or cheerful letters during lunch or at the end of the day just to let them know that their secret friend was thinking of them. The monitos were going to be revealed during the final campfire.
When the sun began to set, we all moved our chairs outside and began the final ceremony. We had on the ground taped in masking tape the letters “MBM”. We sat around them and were each given a candle. Aysegul started the night in the center, sharing her favorite moment of the camp and any feelings she had to share. I could tell right away that this was going to be mushy-gushy, but hey, it’s summer camp and these kind of things are necessary every once in a while. After sharing her thoughts, she then passed her candle flame to the next person, who was Jenny. Jenny passed to me, and I was really surprised to go third. You know, with these kind of things, you don’t just want to get up and babble on about your feelings, and for me, I always have to be the funny guy, but I couldn’t think of anything good to say off the top of my head. I was a little unprepared, but I basically told the students that the camp was everything I wished for. I remember not wanting to work with a bunch of little kids, because I didn’t want to babysit anyone (even though I sometimes had to babysit them—haha). I thanked them for letting me have conversations with them, for sharing their country’s culture and history with me, for sharing their family life, their dreams, their goals, their aspirations and even their political views. I thanked them for asking questions about me, for talking to me, for joking with me, for embarrassing me (all day every day!), for playing volleyball with me, for soaking me in the waterfight, for teaching me every single curse word in Czech (and laughing when I couldn’t pronounce it right or when I said something I had no idea what it meant!). But most of all I thanked them for letting us teach them. The camp was awesome and there wasn’t really more I could say.
It went on like this, for all twenty students, and each faci. During the sharing, a few girls cried, some surprising things were said and done, and then it was over. We moved to the camp fire, which was set ablaze by Frank. Hey Dad, you’d be really jealous of the bonfire we had on the last day! Every year my family goes on a backpacking trip into the Colorado Rockies, and each year we have one super-duper camp fire, but this one was one for the records. It was like 3 m high, (9-10 feet) and I was laughing as Frank kept feeding it more fuel. It was so hot, we were in t-shirts standing around the fire. The night went on to have the revealing of the Monitos, and we all just sat around talking. The students hung out and talked, and only a few people wandered off to “hang out” in their cabins (they were probably drinking but I don’t think anyone cared). It was great to have those last few hours with them to talk about all the things we didn’t get to talk about during camp. Nothing mattered, no one cared what was said, because it was over.
That night, whoever wanted to was allowed to sleep in the plenary room. We moved a bunch of mattresses in, and had the students bring over pillows and blankets. When we went to bed, it was around 4 AM. But then a crazy pillow fight attack happened and things got bloody. I got whacked in the face with a huge slammer (even though I wasn’t participating and actually trying to sleep!), and it made my nose bleed. I had gotten a nose bleed sometime during camp during the shower, and I got it to stop afterwards, but then a few days later I got a volleyball to the face and it started to bleed again, and then Ana grabbed my nose the next day(saying something in Portuguese the way she always does) and made it bleed again (accidentally), and so on and so on. I don’t think my nose ever had a chance to heal properly, so I wasn’t surprised when it started bleeding. I don’t think we went to bed until 5:30, and we had a bright and early wake-up call at 8 AM.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Day 10: I’m Proud to Announce: Mr. and Miss MBM 2010
The next day began the last project. Poor Ekta and Harrison. The students were all completely dead by the time the project started after breakfast. The project was self-management, which requires a lot of self-reflection and goal setting. I felt pretty bad for them trying to give a presentation, where they want the students to close their eyes and meditate and reflect. It was a hard balance to get them to reflect without falling asleep in their chairs. To make it even worse, the rope center was planned for the afternoon. This was a chance for the students to get out of camp and to head to the forest for harnessed zip-lining, rope climbing, and other activities. Ekta and Harrison had the lovely task of educating them on the project after they returned from the ropes course.
During the first part, the students were really tired. After lunch, everyone wanted to sleep, but of course at camp MBM that is nearly impossible to do all the time. The other facis and I decided to have a water fight in honor of the cancelled one a few days earlier. We filled up balloons with water, and since they were regular balloons, they were giant bags of destruction! We filled up two for each person, and made a few extra. We found the students waiting outside and began to attack. The students knew we were up to something, so they were prepared with water bottles, but they had no water. Our preliminary attack was poorly planned, so the element of surprise was totally defeated. By the time we went back for ammunition, they were ready for us. It became an epic battle between facis and students. They with water bottles, us with balloons. The main flaw we had was that our water balloons were way to thick, and didn’t pop on the students, but instead on contact with the ground. It was terrible! We were getting drenched in every direction, until we ran out of ammunition and began to use our own bottles. Then the war got even better. Martin found a bucket lying around, and filled the entire thing up with water. It then became a war between boys and girls. Everyone had a blast. By the time it ended, it was time to go to the ropes center.
Me, Tete, Ana and Ekta stayed behind for this rope center and plan on going to the next camp. Each faci can only go once, so we are saving ours for the second camp. The rest went to the ropes center and for once I had an entire afternoon with absolutely nothing to do. I took a nap outside, enjoyed the weather (although it was way too hot!) and worked on preparing my final night activity with Ekta. When the students returned, they were even more exhausted than they were during the morning. The ropes course took every last drop of energy out of them. The second part of the last project bombed completely. Everything Ekta and Harrison said during their education went in one ear and out the other. It was my fault for scheduling their session after such an intense day, but there was no other time for me to put the education and it had to be done. I felt really bad.
After the project, the students got ready for Mr. and Miss MBM. This night activity was my idea (after Ekta propsed a “fashion show”) because I had done something like this when I was in high school. The basic idea was that each team chose one representative, who competed for the title of Mr/Miss MBM. This meant they had five rounds: swimwear, sleepwear, sportswear, talent and question. This was such a great event. The guys that competed were completely hysterical and they surprised me so much with their creativity. The girls were even better! One girl, Lenka, normally quiet and shy, was forced to compete because the other girls on her team refused to participate, was my favorite girl.
When the competition was over, and before we announced the winner, Ekta and I decided to give out our own special awards to each student. We had Johnny—“Mr. Congeniality” and Denisa “Miss Dancing Queen”. Oskar—“Mr. Zesty” and Miša—“Miss Genuine”. I could go on about why each student received such nicknames, but really, I would be going on forever. Each student has touched all of us in such a great way, that I can’t even describe to you all the little moments that make us smile when we think back to our time at camp.
We were proud to crown Johnny and Martina Mr and Miss MBM 2010 and Ekta and I put their toilet-paper sash on them. It was a GREAT event. Everyone was entertained, surprised and had a great time. After it was over, the students weren’t ready to go to bed, even though the day was completely exhausting. It was our second to last night, so we just played music for the, danced a little bit and when people started going to bed, we played a game of mafia until the others were tired.
After reflecting back on this experience, this was when I realized that camp was ending, and the last day was next. Our little family had grown so much in such a short time. They knew each other’s personalities, they were working together as a team, and they were enjoying their experiences together. There were many strong friendships that were being formed, not only within the students but between us and them. It was a really great night, just hanging out, as a family away from family, and it’s something I’ll never forget.
During the first part, the students were really tired. After lunch, everyone wanted to sleep, but of course at camp MBM that is nearly impossible to do all the time. The other facis and I decided to have a water fight in honor of the cancelled one a few days earlier. We filled up balloons with water, and since they were regular balloons, they were giant bags of destruction! We filled up two for each person, and made a few extra. We found the students waiting outside and began to attack. The students knew we were up to something, so they were prepared with water bottles, but they had no water. Our preliminary attack was poorly planned, so the element of surprise was totally defeated. By the time we went back for ammunition, they were ready for us. It became an epic battle between facis and students. They with water bottles, us with balloons. The main flaw we had was that our water balloons were way to thick, and didn’t pop on the students, but instead on contact with the ground. It was terrible! We were getting drenched in every direction, until we ran out of ammunition and began to use our own bottles. Then the war got even better. Martin found a bucket lying around, and filled the entire thing up with water. It then became a war between boys and girls. Everyone had a blast. By the time it ended, it was time to go to the ropes center.
Me, Tete, Ana and Ekta stayed behind for this rope center and plan on going to the next camp. Each faci can only go once, so we are saving ours for the second camp. The rest went to the ropes center and for once I had an entire afternoon with absolutely nothing to do. I took a nap outside, enjoyed the weather (although it was way too hot!) and worked on preparing my final night activity with Ekta. When the students returned, they were even more exhausted than they were during the morning. The ropes course took every last drop of energy out of them. The second part of the last project bombed completely. Everything Ekta and Harrison said during their education went in one ear and out the other. It was my fault for scheduling their session after such an intense day, but there was no other time for me to put the education and it had to be done. I felt really bad.
After the project, the students got ready for Mr. and Miss MBM. This night activity was my idea (after Ekta propsed a “fashion show”) because I had done something like this when I was in high school. The basic idea was that each team chose one representative, who competed for the title of Mr/Miss MBM. This meant they had five rounds: swimwear, sleepwear, sportswear, talent and question. This was such a great event. The guys that competed were completely hysterical and they surprised me so much with their creativity. The girls were even better! One girl, Lenka, normally quiet and shy, was forced to compete because the other girls on her team refused to participate, was my favorite girl.
When the competition was over, and before we announced the winner, Ekta and I decided to give out our own special awards to each student. We had Johnny—“Mr. Congeniality” and Denisa “Miss Dancing Queen”. Oskar—“Mr. Zesty” and Miša—“Miss Genuine”. I could go on about why each student received such nicknames, but really, I would be going on forever. Each student has touched all of us in such a great way, that I can’t even describe to you all the little moments that make us smile when we think back to our time at camp.
We were proud to crown Johnny and Martina Mr and Miss MBM 2010 and Ekta and I put their toilet-paper sash on them. It was a GREAT event. Everyone was entertained, surprised and had a great time. After it was over, the students weren’t ready to go to bed, even though the day was completely exhausting. It was our second to last night, so we just played music for the, danced a little bit and when people started going to bed, we played a game of mafia until the others were tired.
After reflecting back on this experience, this was when I realized that camp was ending, and the last day was next. Our little family had grown so much in such a short time. They knew each other’s personalities, they were working together as a team, and they were enjoying their experiences together. There were many strong friendships that were being formed, not only within the students but between us and them. It was a really great night, just hanging out, as a family away from family, and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Day 9: House of Feelings
During the morning, AIESEC Prague had a workshop with the students. I took a nice, long, two hour nap and finally got to shower in the nice shower for us leaders. After the workshop Unicorn University came to do a workshop on logic. This was another perfect opportunity to start working on my blog during the free time. By this time though, the facis, students, and everyone else was getting pretty tired. Camp life had taken its toll, mentally and physically. I know, that even though we were sleeping before 1:30 (latest) every night, waking up at 8 AM and having to use your mental capacity at all times, is a very hard thing to do. It wears you out! After the day was done and the university left, the students were too tired to even do anything during the break. They were complaining that the day was too intellectually challenging and that their brains needed a rest…guess what we had planned for the night activity? A scavenger hunt!
The scavenger hunt was not what they wanted to do, but they did well. Usually when a night activity ends early, we just hang out and watch a movie, but tonight we had something special planned—The House of Feelings. Since the last time we tried to do this we all fell asleep and failed to wake up, this time we thought to do it right and we stayed up until 2 AM until the moment was just right. The House of Feelings is one of those typical summer camp moments where we wake the students up in the middle of the night and blind fold them. We take them out of their cabins and make them do a series of tasks, in which they have to trust us and let us stimulate their senses. First was the sense of taste. We make them go the to plenary room (the common room) and here we made them crawl under a table and go to the other side of the room. In the corner, we had four bowls, one with salt, one with sugar, one with ketchup and the other with hot tea. We made them taste each one, blindfolded. Then we moved on to the sense of smell. Here we had incense from India and a sheet of paper, sprayed with my cologne. Then they left the building and went to the grass, where we laid out corn flakes for them to walk barefoot across. Immediately after the corn flakes, there was some leftover watermelon, smushed up and ready to be walked across. I’m sure they all hated us for using watermelon (again!) because not only were they sick of it from the Amazing Race challenge (the best challenge ever in my opinon!), but it made their feet sticky and gross. They love us anyway. After the sense of touch, the moved on to the listening station. Here, we had two iPods. The first had Enya playing, which is calm relaxing music that is almost dream-like. The second was heavy-metal screaming smash music. We had them first listen to Enya, then to the metal, and then one in each ear. After the listening station, we walked them back to the cabin.
On the way to the cabin, we had pulled out two mattresses and for the last station, we pushed them onto the mattresses. This was the most exhilarating station, because not only were they completely trusting us to do something scary, they were all so relieved to hit the mattress. When all was done, they went back to their cabin to finish their sleeping. There was absolutely no point to doing any of this, but with all their energy in the evenings, we had to think of something to make it a special night with a great surprise.
The scavenger hunt was not what they wanted to do, but they did well. Usually when a night activity ends early, we just hang out and watch a movie, but tonight we had something special planned—The House of Feelings. Since the last time we tried to do this we all fell asleep and failed to wake up, this time we thought to do it right and we stayed up until 2 AM until the moment was just right. The House of Feelings is one of those typical summer camp moments where we wake the students up in the middle of the night and blind fold them. We take them out of their cabins and make them do a series of tasks, in which they have to trust us and let us stimulate their senses. First was the sense of taste. We make them go the to plenary room (the common room) and here we made them crawl under a table and go to the other side of the room. In the corner, we had four bowls, one with salt, one with sugar, one with ketchup and the other with hot tea. We made them taste each one, blindfolded. Then we moved on to the sense of smell. Here we had incense from India and a sheet of paper, sprayed with my cologne. Then they left the building and went to the grass, where we laid out corn flakes for them to walk barefoot across. Immediately after the corn flakes, there was some leftover watermelon, smushed up and ready to be walked across. I’m sure they all hated us for using watermelon (again!) because not only were they sick of it from the Amazing Race challenge (the best challenge ever in my opinon!), but it made their feet sticky and gross. They love us anyway. After the sense of touch, the moved on to the listening station. Here, we had two iPods. The first had Enya playing, which is calm relaxing music that is almost dream-like. The second was heavy-metal screaming smash music. We had them first listen to Enya, then to the metal, and then one in each ear. After the listening station, we walked them back to the cabin.
On the way to the cabin, we had pulled out two mattresses and for the last station, we pushed them onto the mattresses. This was the most exhilarating station, because not only were they completely trusting us to do something scary, they were all so relieved to hit the mattress. When all was done, they went back to their cabin to finish their sleeping. There was absolutely no point to doing any of this, but with all their energy in the evenings, we had to think of something to make it a special night with a great surprise.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Day 8: MBM’s Got Talent
On day eight we finished the fourth project. Tete and I had each team build a monument to a global issue that they felt was important to them as a team. They could use anything they wanted in the camp, and do any type of art medium. In this project, Tete and I focused on them as a leader not only of teams or projects, but a leader in their values, beliefs and passions. The red team did a sketch about pollution, and even used part of the river to show the devastating effects of litter and pollution on nature. They forced the other students to help pick up the trash they had purposely placed around the riverbed in order to make the point that it only takes a few moments of your day to pick up the litter you see when you’re in nature. The blue team did a project on the economic crisis and the global issue they were trying to focus on is the irresponsibility of wealthy nations and the effects it has on the middle class people around the world. The green team focused on natural disasters. Here the pointed out our responsibility as global citizens to help those in need whenever a disaster like this happens. The earthquake in Haiti, the flooding in Central Europe, the tsunami of Malaysia, and the earthquake in China are all examples of catastrophic events that left people with nothing—their lives almost entirely erased. The yellow team focused on the loss of animal habitats and the extinction of animals. Their video was really creative and funny and I was totally impressed by all the groups and the effort they put into their presentations.
AIESEC Prague decided to drop by in the afternoon, which was a great help for us facis. We were getting pretty worn out by this day, and they were the perfect energy we needed to keep the students engaged and active. During the afternoon break, AIESEC Prague took the students to play football (soccer) and volleyball and that gave us some time to prepare for the night activity and have a break.
During the evening, we had a talent show. AIESEC Prague performed a little skit but the real show was the students. Who knew that 20 students would have so much talent. Nataša did a flamenco dance, Igor and Lessya did an outstanding tango dance, Johnny had a few balancing and strength, Jita can juggle and some of the girls did some group dances. And then there was my talent. One of the students needed backup dancers, so Harrison and I were asked to accompany him in his attempt to belly dance, since Aysegul didn’t demonstrate belly dancing on International Dance Night. Let’s just say, I was a great back up dancer and Big John by far performed above and beyond everyone’s expectations during his belly dance. It’s a memory I’ll never forget—that’s for sure. The talent show also included some Indian dancing and traditional Czech songs, and I have to say that it was so much fun to see our young men and women growing up and showing their special talents! It was after this night I realized that the camp was almost half way over and pretty soon we’d be saying goodbye to these students we’ve gotten to know so well.
AIESEC Prague decided to drop by in the afternoon, which was a great help for us facis. We were getting pretty worn out by this day, and they were the perfect energy we needed to keep the students engaged and active. During the afternoon break, AIESEC Prague took the students to play football (soccer) and volleyball and that gave us some time to prepare for the night activity and have a break.
During the evening, we had a talent show. AIESEC Prague performed a little skit but the real show was the students. Who knew that 20 students would have so much talent. Nataša did a flamenco dance, Igor and Lessya did an outstanding tango dance, Johnny had a few balancing and strength, Jita can juggle and some of the girls did some group dances. And then there was my talent. One of the students needed backup dancers, so Harrison and I were asked to accompany him in his attempt to belly dance, since Aysegul didn’t demonstrate belly dancing on International Dance Night. Let’s just say, I was a great back up dancer and Big John by far performed above and beyond everyone’s expectations during his belly dance. It’s a memory I’ll never forget—that’s for sure. The talent show also included some Indian dancing and traditional Czech songs, and I have to say that it was so much fun to see our young men and women growing up and showing their special talents! It was after this night I realized that the camp was almost half way over and pretty soon we’d be saying goodbye to these students we’ve gotten to know so well.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Day 7: I’m Dead!
Day seven marked the beginning of my project with Tete. We educated the students on leadership and and had them make a video about what they think leadership is. We put a very tight time limit on them to make them prioritize and when the time came for the first part to be completed, none of them were prepared. It worked perfectly, because we wanted to make them realize that in life, deadlines are not always flexible and in the real world, when a task is due for your job, university, or other responsibilities, it needs to be turned in on time in order for others to complete their work.
During the afternoon we played a game called Kill. It is kind of like dodgeball, and it’s really fun. I was surprised to see that one of my team members, Zuska (the really quiet one who is so nice!), was out on the field—all alone, dodging every single ball that was thrown at her. She amazed me! Who would’ve thought this little girl could be so quick and agile! Eventually she got hit, but the game wasn’t over! The team captains finish the game with 3 lives and our team captain, Frank, brought us back from Loserville to win the game! It was a great game.
After the games, we had the students get together with the facis for a session on what it is like to choose a university, how we figured out our universities, and what it’s like to adapt to university life and everything. We answered all the questions. I was kind of boring because I knew what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, and everything before I went to college, but typically, many people change majors or cannot decide where to go to get their degree. I focused mostly on taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. I had the chance to go to Europe before starting college—so I did. I had the opportunity to learn Chinese—so I did. I had the chance to go to China, Japan and Hong Kong—so I did. I had the chance to come to Prague—so I did. Life doesn’t serve things to you on a silver platter, but life will certainly let you choose from the buffet.
After the workshop and dinner, the facis prepared a special night event called Clue. In this game, we acted out a Clue plot, where I was the one who was mysteriously poisoned the day before my wedding. Was it Tete, my fiancée, who found out I was having an affair? Was it Lessya, my secret lover and fiancee’s best friend—who just couldn’t stand the fact that I was getting married to someone other than her? Or was it my father Martin, who was upset I wasn’t taking on the family business? Maybe it was his 3rd wife (my stepmother), Ekta, who was angry that I was receiving the inheritance money instead of her? Or it could have been my soon to be mother-in-law Aysegul, Tete’s mother, who invited us to her house that night and served the drinks to us? It could have been Tete’s brother, Harrison, who owes my family lots of money because of his addiction to our “black market” products! The students really had a blast. All of us facis acted out scenes around the camp and the students moved from one scene to the next trying to put the pieces together. Our acting must’ve been pretty terrible because none of them got it was Ekta who killed me to get the inheritance money. Oh well, maybe next camp!
After the Clue game, we attempted to watch a movie again. We had played a movie the previous night, but without subtitles, the students got lost and disinterested, so this time, we chose one with subtitles. My movie selection on my computer isn’t that great, and actually most of my movies are downloaded from the internet, so they don’t have subtitles. I did have one movie, that I purchased in China, with subtitles on my computer. We decided to watch that movie, which was kind of uninteresting to the students, but at least we had a few stay until the end. I guess next camp we know what not to do!
During the afternoon we played a game called Kill. It is kind of like dodgeball, and it’s really fun. I was surprised to see that one of my team members, Zuska (the really quiet one who is so nice!), was out on the field—all alone, dodging every single ball that was thrown at her. She amazed me! Who would’ve thought this little girl could be so quick and agile! Eventually she got hit, but the game wasn’t over! The team captains finish the game with 3 lives and our team captain, Frank, brought us back from Loserville to win the game! It was a great game.
After the games, we had the students get together with the facis for a session on what it is like to choose a university, how we figured out our universities, and what it’s like to adapt to university life and everything. We answered all the questions. I was kind of boring because I knew what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, and everything before I went to college, but typically, many people change majors or cannot decide where to go to get their degree. I focused mostly on taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. I had the chance to go to Europe before starting college—so I did. I had the opportunity to learn Chinese—so I did. I had the chance to go to China, Japan and Hong Kong—so I did. I had the chance to come to Prague—so I did. Life doesn’t serve things to you on a silver platter, but life will certainly let you choose from the buffet.
After the workshop and dinner, the facis prepared a special night event called Clue. In this game, we acted out a Clue plot, where I was the one who was mysteriously poisoned the day before my wedding. Was it Tete, my fiancée, who found out I was having an affair? Was it Lessya, my secret lover and fiancee’s best friend—who just couldn’t stand the fact that I was getting married to someone other than her? Or was it my father Martin, who was upset I wasn’t taking on the family business? Maybe it was his 3rd wife (my stepmother), Ekta, who was angry that I was receiving the inheritance money instead of her? Or it could have been my soon to be mother-in-law Aysegul, Tete’s mother, who invited us to her house that night and served the drinks to us? It could have been Tete’s brother, Harrison, who owes my family lots of money because of his addiction to our “black market” products! The students really had a blast. All of us facis acted out scenes around the camp and the students moved from one scene to the next trying to put the pieces together. Our acting must’ve been pretty terrible because none of them got it was Ekta who killed me to get the inheritance money. Oh well, maybe next camp!
After the Clue game, we attempted to watch a movie again. We had played a movie the previous night, but without subtitles, the students got lost and disinterested, so this time, we chose one with subtitles. My movie selection on my computer isn’t that great, and actually most of my movies are downloaded from the internet, so they don’t have subtitles. I did have one movie, that I purchased in China, with subtitles on my computer. We decided to watch that movie, which was kind of uninteresting to the students, but at least we had a few stay until the end. I guess next camp we know what not to do!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Day 6: International Dance-Off
Day 6 came and the teams finished the third project. Another university came, and they presented the project to them and completed the workshop. At the end of the day, the students were tired, but we still managed to have some fun and play cards in the sun after the university workshop. The evening activity was another party, creatively dubbed “International Dance Night”, which allowed each of us to select 20 minutes of music from our countries to play for the students. Ekta started with Indian music and it was awesome. She wore a traditional sari and did a number of dances, including the Punjabi dance which I’ve become quite skilled at! (haha—but really). Ana did the samba, Lessya tried to do the Kazakh dances, and Zhou Lin did a traditional Chinese dance to some Chinese music videos. It was really great and interactive. Harrison had some Taiwanese rap/hip-hop and Aysegul had music videos of belly dancing, which is traditional to Turkey. Although she didn’t demonstrate, it was great. Everyone was really excited to see me dance to hip-hop, but I guess I disappointed when I couldn’t dance hip-hop, but Yuri can do a drum’n’bass step and Denisa can do a pretty good hip-hop step. It was a really good night.
We finished early (around 11:30 PM) in an attempt to get the students to go to bed. We really wanted to do a special “middle of the night activity” called House of Feelings, but all the plans fell through when we fell asleep and at 2 AM we woke up to freezing weather and none of us wanted to leave our beds. So much for House of Feelings…
We finished early (around 11:30 PM) in an attempt to get the students to go to bed. We really wanted to do a special “middle of the night activity” called House of Feelings, but all the plans fell through when we fell asleep and at 2 AM we woke up to freezing weather and none of us wanted to leave our beds. So much for House of Feelings…
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Day 5: Rainy Day, Amazing Night
Day five was the first day of rain and cold weather. The third project started, and luckily I had some free time off while the students had group education on Teamwork and Communication. I had done laundry the day before, and although most of my stuff had dried the same day, I left some stuff overnight outside and it was damp once again. Laundry is such a pain in the butt. I have to do it every 2-3 days because if I don’t I end up with a pile of socks and underwear and t-shirts that could take me hours to wash in the sink. I take my clothes to the bathroom, with the magic soap bar, and dip the clothes in the water and rub the soap on them. I don’t really know what I’m doing, so I kind of just squeeze the clothes and make the water bubble and then drain it and rinse the clothes and wring them out. It’s quite primitive and I feel very rural whenever I have to do laundry.
The third project was going very well. During the afternoon break, our planned water fight was clearly not going to happen, and I think the entire camp went to sleep. They had more time to work on the project, and this is where my beloved Red Team encountered their first major problem. Jana has a problem with the team and doesn’t feel like she’s a part of the team. She feels that the team gravitates towards Marika whenever they have something to solve or ideas to decide. The rest of the group feels that Jane is missing for a lot of vital conversations, like when they brainstorm or are working on the project. She is constantly late. We tried to explain the need to communicate during the second part of the project, but at the end of the day, we realized the team was falling apart and something needed to be done.
For the night activity, Ekta and I created the Amazing Race Challenge. It was AWESOME! We set up eight stations:
1. Pucker Up: Each team has one stick of lipstick. One at a time, they need to put the lipstick on and kiss a poster and fill the space with kiss marks. The pictures were of an elephant’s butt, a pair of underwear, a pig’s face and other things. It was really funny.
2. Puzzle: Each team had to complete a puzzle of a starfish type thing. It was an easy challenge, so we’re going to change it.
3. Mint-Chopstick: Each team has to put a chopstick in their mouth and transfer, without using their hands, from one end to the other, a lifesaver mint. The first person has to get the mint out of the bucket with the chopstick and they pass it one by one down the line. The challenge required three mints to be transferred. It was funny to watch them become flustered and frustrated with each other but eventually they got the hang of it and were able to complete the task.
4. Sponges: This task required the teams to transfer water from one bucket to a cup using sponges. Three people were near the bucket with water, the other two were near the cup. They ran in the middle, squished water out of the sponges and transferred it to the cup. Simple, but harder than it looks.
5. Watermelon Roadblock: For this task, the clue to the next task was hidden in a cube of watermelon. The problem was that we cut up three watermelons, and there were at least 100+ cubes of watermelon to search through to find the clue. Blue team was first, then Green, and red and yellow were stuck rummaging through the watermelon to find the clue. Eventually I found the clue for the red team and you’ll never believe what happened. Next thing I know, I am being tackled by Frank (a tall guy on the yellow team) and everyone rushed over to dog pile on us. I was laughing so hard, and would not let go of the clue. Eventually, the red team helped me free and I gave them the clue and they were off. Jenny found the next clue for the yellow team soon after and the yellow team followed.
6. Balance beam: the team had to go one by one along a balance beam, which was actually the most challenging of the tasks. There was a problem with the rules when they were read and Jolin confused them by saying only one team can go at a time. It was supposed to be one person at a time, no matter what team, but everyone had to cross. There were some angry words exchanged, but eventually everyone made it past.
7. Human Statue: This task required the team to create a statue of something (ie horse) but we put requirements for what body parts can touch the floor (ie 2 legs, 2 hands, 1 butt, etc). Some teams did this easily, and others were stuck figuring out how to get four people to look like the object with certain body parts on or off the ground.
8. Word Scramble: This was the last leg of the race, but it wasn’t over yet. Each team had to run to the volleyball nets, one at a time, and retrieve bags of puzzle pieces. When they had all the bags, they could begin the puzzle which spelled out the clue to their next task. The clue read, “Go to the finish line.” Ekta and I didn’t realize until the task, just how many English words you can make with these 17 letters, but eventually they figured it out.
9. The finish line: The only clue we gave them to the finish line was, “Find the Jesus, a place where Catholics can pray at camp.” This was referring to the crucifix statue that was located in one of the far corners of camp. Some teams may have seen it during capture the flag, but most of the teams didn’t know where it was.
The blue team ended up winning the amazing race, followed by the green. The red and yellow were in a heated race for the finish line. The red team was ahead after the balance beam, because the yellow team couldn’t get over quickly. But the red team was held up by the puzzle and they finished barely before the yellow team. The best part was that neither red nor yellow knew where the finish line was exactly. The yellow team was very close to finding it, right at the corner of the building it was behind, but they turned away and in the end, the red team found the crucifix as the yellow team ran away from it! The Amazing Race was definitely the most epic night game of the camp and many of the students were quite irritated with the watermelon challenge (my idea). Actually, there were rumors that someone got sick and vomited during the wrestling match after eating so much watermelon, and although I didn’t see anything during clean up, I decided to wash the clothes I was wearing that night, just in case.
The third project was going very well. During the afternoon break, our planned water fight was clearly not going to happen, and I think the entire camp went to sleep. They had more time to work on the project, and this is where my beloved Red Team encountered their first major problem. Jana has a problem with the team and doesn’t feel like she’s a part of the team. She feels that the team gravitates towards Marika whenever they have something to solve or ideas to decide. The rest of the group feels that Jane is missing for a lot of vital conversations, like when they brainstorm or are working on the project. She is constantly late. We tried to explain the need to communicate during the second part of the project, but at the end of the day, we realized the team was falling apart and something needed to be done.
For the night activity, Ekta and I created the Amazing Race Challenge. It was AWESOME! We set up eight stations:
1. Pucker Up: Each team has one stick of lipstick. One at a time, they need to put the lipstick on and kiss a poster and fill the space with kiss marks. The pictures were of an elephant’s butt, a pair of underwear, a pig’s face and other things. It was really funny.
2. Puzzle: Each team had to complete a puzzle of a starfish type thing. It was an easy challenge, so we’re going to change it.
3. Mint-Chopstick: Each team has to put a chopstick in their mouth and transfer, without using their hands, from one end to the other, a lifesaver mint. The first person has to get the mint out of the bucket with the chopstick and they pass it one by one down the line. The challenge required three mints to be transferred. It was funny to watch them become flustered and frustrated with each other but eventually they got the hang of it and were able to complete the task.
4. Sponges: This task required the teams to transfer water from one bucket to a cup using sponges. Three people were near the bucket with water, the other two were near the cup. They ran in the middle, squished water out of the sponges and transferred it to the cup. Simple, but harder than it looks.
5. Watermelon Roadblock: For this task, the clue to the next task was hidden in a cube of watermelon. The problem was that we cut up three watermelons, and there were at least 100+ cubes of watermelon to search through to find the clue. Blue team was first, then Green, and red and yellow were stuck rummaging through the watermelon to find the clue. Eventually I found the clue for the red team and you’ll never believe what happened. Next thing I know, I am being tackled by Frank (a tall guy on the yellow team) and everyone rushed over to dog pile on us. I was laughing so hard, and would not let go of the clue. Eventually, the red team helped me free and I gave them the clue and they were off. Jenny found the next clue for the yellow team soon after and the yellow team followed.
6. Balance beam: the team had to go one by one along a balance beam, which was actually the most challenging of the tasks. There was a problem with the rules when they were read and Jolin confused them by saying only one team can go at a time. It was supposed to be one person at a time, no matter what team, but everyone had to cross. There were some angry words exchanged, but eventually everyone made it past.
7. Human Statue: This task required the team to create a statue of something (ie horse) but we put requirements for what body parts can touch the floor (ie 2 legs, 2 hands, 1 butt, etc). Some teams did this easily, and others were stuck figuring out how to get four people to look like the object with certain body parts on or off the ground.
8. Word Scramble: This was the last leg of the race, but it wasn’t over yet. Each team had to run to the volleyball nets, one at a time, and retrieve bags of puzzle pieces. When they had all the bags, they could begin the puzzle which spelled out the clue to their next task. The clue read, “Go to the finish line.” Ekta and I didn’t realize until the task, just how many English words you can make with these 17 letters, but eventually they figured it out.
9. The finish line: The only clue we gave them to the finish line was, “Find the Jesus, a place where Catholics can pray at camp.” This was referring to the crucifix statue that was located in one of the far corners of camp. Some teams may have seen it during capture the flag, but most of the teams didn’t know where it was.
The blue team ended up winning the amazing race, followed by the green. The red and yellow were in a heated race for the finish line. The red team was ahead after the balance beam, because the yellow team couldn’t get over quickly. But the red team was held up by the puzzle and they finished barely before the yellow team. The best part was that neither red nor yellow knew where the finish line was exactly. The yellow team was very close to finding it, right at the corner of the building it was behind, but they turned away and in the end, the red team found the crucifix as the yellow team ran away from it! The Amazing Race was definitely the most epic night game of the camp and many of the students were quite irritated with the watermelon challenge (my idea). Actually, there were rumors that someone got sick and vomited during the wrestling match after eating so much watermelon, and although I didn’t see anything during clean up, I decided to wash the clothes I was wearing that night, just in case.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Day 4: I’m in the Mafia
Day four brought the end of the second project, and the university really enjoyed the work delivered by the students. I was really excited to see the bonding and teamwork that my team had and it was good to work on a project with my own team and not the blue team (although the blue team is my second favorite team now!). After each project was done, we take the leaders aside and give them feedback about how their doing as a leader. Sometimes we tell them that the need to work on incorporating the shyer students into the conversation, or they need to work on focusing on the goal, but we also don’t forget to tell them how great their doing—and they really are. For high school students, they all have great leadership skills even though this is their first time “leading” a team project.
The food, surprisingly, was also one of my favorite things too. I was always puzzled by my eating habits. I really enjoyed the food—goulash, Czech dumplings, and other Czech cuisine (which is my type of food—Meat & potatoes). I would always eat a lot for lunch and dinner (unless they were being stingy), but would always be hungry. Breakfast, which was always just bread, spread, ham (sometimes), jam and butter, was definitely the worst, just because I’m not a bread person. Even though I didn’t really like the breakfast, I would always eat a few rolls with jam and butter or meat and spread. It is funny to notice that all the Czech students put the butter, jam, etc on the outside of the rolls and all the internationals cut the bread open and put it on the inside. Cultural differences. Anyway, I couldn’t figure out why I was so hungry all the time, and it was just something we all had to deal with. I think that using my brain this much just requires much more calories than the typical day for me.
Day four had a casino night for the evening activity. I designed fake money for the night and we all played. Poker, blackjack, and just regular cards for some, everyone was in the common room enjoying themselves. It was really a lot of fun. Casino night died down kind of early, but not before I had the chance to announce that I needed everyone’s keys to put up the “schedule” for the next day. I took the keys, and the schedules, and me and a few guys went down to the girls cabin with our toilet paper rolls. I felt like a teenager again, even though I didn’t physically put the toilet paper in the rooms, I supervised the action and it was a masterpiece. The first girl who wanted to leave, wanted to leave almost immediately after we had TPed the cabins, but I convinced her to stay a little longer. She eventually found something to do, and another girl was the first to return to the cabin. When J’ita left, she returned about 2 minutes later—“REGIS! What did you do to our room?!” I played dumb and said, what do you mean? I just put the schedule up! She told me about the toilet paper, and I pretended to be confused and asked her about the bathroom and she said, “You did it!” and I said, “I don’t know what your talking about!” She didn’t believe me and she went to the other girls to tell them what happened. I then saw them going to the “Wish Box” and I knew I was going to be in trouble the next morning! I took the blame for the other guys, even though later that night the guys made fun of the girls and they figured out it wasn’t me who actually did it. After casino night, we played mafia again, and this time, I had to stop it around midnight to make sure I wasn’t going to be falling asleep standing up the next day.
At the end of day four, I was completely satisfied. By now the students were getting along great, we were all having fun, the projects weren’t so stressful and camp life was great. And we still had another week!
The food, surprisingly, was also one of my favorite things too. I was always puzzled by my eating habits. I really enjoyed the food—goulash, Czech dumplings, and other Czech cuisine (which is my type of food—Meat & potatoes). I would always eat a lot for lunch and dinner (unless they were being stingy), but would always be hungry. Breakfast, which was always just bread, spread, ham (sometimes), jam and butter, was definitely the worst, just because I’m not a bread person. Even though I didn’t really like the breakfast, I would always eat a few rolls with jam and butter or meat and spread. It is funny to notice that all the Czech students put the butter, jam, etc on the outside of the rolls and all the internationals cut the bread open and put it on the inside. Cultural differences. Anyway, I couldn’t figure out why I was so hungry all the time, and it was just something we all had to deal with. I think that using my brain this much just requires much more calories than the typical day for me.
Day four had a casino night for the evening activity. I designed fake money for the night and we all played. Poker, blackjack, and just regular cards for some, everyone was in the common room enjoying themselves. It was really a lot of fun. Casino night died down kind of early, but not before I had the chance to announce that I needed everyone’s keys to put up the “schedule” for the next day. I took the keys, and the schedules, and me and a few guys went down to the girls cabin with our toilet paper rolls. I felt like a teenager again, even though I didn’t physically put the toilet paper in the rooms, I supervised the action and it was a masterpiece. The first girl who wanted to leave, wanted to leave almost immediately after we had TPed the cabins, but I convinced her to stay a little longer. She eventually found something to do, and another girl was the first to return to the cabin. When J’ita left, she returned about 2 minutes later—“REGIS! What did you do to our room?!” I played dumb and said, what do you mean? I just put the schedule up! She told me about the toilet paper, and I pretended to be confused and asked her about the bathroom and she said, “You did it!” and I said, “I don’t know what your talking about!” She didn’t believe me and she went to the other girls to tell them what happened. I then saw them going to the “Wish Box” and I knew I was going to be in trouble the next morning! I took the blame for the other guys, even though later that night the guys made fun of the girls and they figured out it wasn’t me who actually did it. After casino night, we played mafia again, and this time, I had to stop it around midnight to make sure I wasn’t going to be falling asleep standing up the next day.
At the end of day four, I was completely satisfied. By now the students were getting along great, we were all having fun, the projects weren’t so stressful and camp life was great. And we still had another week!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Day 3: I’m the Favorite
By day three, the students were now making friends and we’ve had enough funny moments to make fun of people. I’m somehow the butt of many jokes, and everyone likes to pick on me and make me dance in front of everyone during the “Morning Energizer”. Each morning we start the day by waking the students up with exercises, funny movies, and some activities. There are two boxes, the Wish Box and the Gossip Box which are open for the students to put notes in. In the wish box, people can say, “I wish the red team goes up and does the chicken dance.” And the red team would have to go up and do the chicken dance. The Gossip Box has all the juicy gossip of the camp, “Frank and Natasha were dancing together last night” It’s all in good fun, and I can’t even describe some of the craziness that happens in the morning. Let’s just say, they’ve all figured out how much I hate dancing in front of everyone and now I have to dance almost every day.
Day three starts the beginning of Project 3, which is about managing their online reputation. It was a really good project to do, because most of the students were aware of privacy issues on the internet, but I think we made it clear that things on the internet are there forever. Each group had to pretend they were “Online Reputation Consultants” and they had to give a presentation about their company’s services on Day 4 to a university.
During the afternoon, we had a volleyball tournament for them. My team won and everybody that participated earned points for their team (Red, Yellow, Green or Blue). I think we had 3 people from the red team on my team, so that was really awesome. The summer sun by this time was getting really hot, and every day I was surprised to wake up to such beautiful weather. The students were really coming together and bonding.
After dinner, the students got ready for the “Masquerade Party” and each person made a special mask for the theme. This was the first party of the camp, and everyone enjoyed it. The music was loud, and everyone was dancing (all 20 of them at least) and it was kind of like an awkward high school dance at first. With only 20 students, there really isn’t that many people, but we made it work and everyone had a great time. The whole night I was trying to get the keys to the girls room from Jenny, because I wanted to start a toilet-paper war with the girls. We had already discussed this before, but Jenny didn’t feel like getting the keys so I compromised and told Jenny I would get them tomorrow. The guys were really excited to start pranking the girls and so was I. (hahaha, you wondered why I’m the favorite!) By this night, I was exhausted. It was becoming a lot of hard work, waking up at 8 am, thinking all day, coordinating the schedule, hanging out with the students, playing volleyball, laughing too much and everything. I was doing great, tired, and enjoying everything. But I could tell that some of the students were really not tired, so after the Masquerade Party ended at 11 PM or so, I suggested playing a game of Mafia (which is too much to explain here, but if you Wikipedia/Google it you can figure it out). We ended up playing mafia, and due to its addictive nature, we ended up playing until 1 AM. Ana, from Brazil, is probably the best Mafia player I’ve ever played with in my entire life. She knows who’s in the mafia after the first round, she knows who to save if she’s the doctor. It kind of took some fun out of the game because she is that good! I went to bed thinking that life at camp MBM was good and I was ready to start the next day.
Day three starts the beginning of Project 3, which is about managing their online reputation. It was a really good project to do, because most of the students were aware of privacy issues on the internet, but I think we made it clear that things on the internet are there forever. Each group had to pretend they were “Online Reputation Consultants” and they had to give a presentation about their company’s services on Day 4 to a university.
During the afternoon, we had a volleyball tournament for them. My team won and everybody that participated earned points for their team (Red, Yellow, Green or Blue). I think we had 3 people from the red team on my team, so that was really awesome. The summer sun by this time was getting really hot, and every day I was surprised to wake up to such beautiful weather. The students were really coming together and bonding.
After dinner, the students got ready for the “Masquerade Party” and each person made a special mask for the theme. This was the first party of the camp, and everyone enjoyed it. The music was loud, and everyone was dancing (all 20 of them at least) and it was kind of like an awkward high school dance at first. With only 20 students, there really isn’t that many people, but we made it work and everyone had a great time. The whole night I was trying to get the keys to the girls room from Jenny, because I wanted to start a toilet-paper war with the girls. We had already discussed this before, but Jenny didn’t feel like getting the keys so I compromised and told Jenny I would get them tomorrow. The guys were really excited to start pranking the girls and so was I. (hahaha, you wondered why I’m the favorite!) By this night, I was exhausted. It was becoming a lot of hard work, waking up at 8 am, thinking all day, coordinating the schedule, hanging out with the students, playing volleyball, laughing too much and everything. I was doing great, tired, and enjoying everything. But I could tell that some of the students were really not tired, so after the Masquerade Party ended at 11 PM or so, I suggested playing a game of Mafia (which is too much to explain here, but if you Wikipedia/Google it you can figure it out). We ended up playing mafia, and due to its addictive nature, we ended up playing until 1 AM. Ana, from Brazil, is probably the best Mafia player I’ve ever played with in my entire life. She knows who’s in the mafia after the first round, she knows who to save if she’s the doctor. It kind of took some fun out of the game because she is that good! I went to bed thinking that life at camp MBM was good and I was ready to start the next day.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Day 2: The 1st Presentation
Day 2 marked the groups first presentation to a university. Tete and I were leading the blue team for this project because we had prepared the marketing strategy education, but we were really struggling to incorporate two girls into the team. The blue team had two guys, both were outgoing and spoke English very well. One girl didn’t want to be there because her mom forced her to come to this camp, one girl didn’t feel a part of the team and never spoke, and the other girl was just shy, but would answer questions when we asked her and participated when she felt the need to. I’ll never forget Johnny (little John, not Big John) and how nervous he was to speak in front of everyone. I had to take him and tell him to breath for a while, but he explained that he doesn’t really like presentations at all, whether in Czech or English.
By day two the students were really starting to come out. The volleyball matches got a little more intense, and the talking increased. All of the faci’s are great. They are easily approachable, fun and outgoing. We were starting to get the hang of the daily routine and were getting more comofortable with our students. We weren’t really prepared for the next two weeks showering in common bathrooms, just like freshman year. Except this time, the curtains blew with the draft winds of the open doors and windows so during your shower, you were constantly warding off a wet plastic curtain from sticking to your behind. Not to mention the breeze was cold and by day 8, the hot water was hit or miss in the mornings. Although the faci’s had a private shower (for one person at a time) that always had hot water, it was much easier to just shower in the common bathroom because of time and you didn’t need a key. But when the hot water became a problem, no one really wanted to shower in the mornings, but we had to make do with what we had.
The second night we had a “Trip Around the World” for the night activity. This was when each faci got to talk for 10 minutes about their country. The students each had a giant map, hand-drawn by Harrison, to fill in at each station. The students really liked this event, but the faci’s didn’t plan properly and some were taking much more than 10 minutes. Ekta was doing sand mandalas and showing pictures of gods and festivals in India. She’s really made me want to go visit India, but only if I knew where to go and what to see (and the right time/place to go). Ana showed a slideshow of Brazil, as did Aysegul. Zhou Lin and Harrison both had presentations on China and Taiwan and Lessya showed pictures from Kazakhstan and explained traditional culture and what it is like to live in Kazakhstan. I only saw 2 teams by midnight, which was when we called it quits. The nights get very cold and the students were tired, so we didn’t get to finish. I talked about a few American holidays that they may not know about. The first was a 2 minute speech about Groundhog’s Day (haha, creative, I know!), then I talked about the 4th of July (which was coincidentally the next day), and then Thanksgiving. I tried to talk about the history of the Fourth and Thanksgiving, but don’t really remember much more than the basic facts. What I did talk about is the traditions of going out to the park on the 4th, having a BBQ, hanging out with friends and then searching for that perfect spot to enjoy the beautiful fireworks, no matter what city you’re in. For Thanksgiving, I talked about how the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day in the US, how Thanksgiving always starts with the Macy’s Day Parade on TV for the entire nation, and how everyone stuffs their face with ungodly amounts of food somewhere between the football game and family chatter. I then discussed the day after Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales. They really enjoyed this and I also mentioned how Black Friday can be used to show the strength of the US economy—that’s how much money is spent this day. I think I did well for not having any pictures or music (my hard drive is useless so I left it in Prague with my other suitcase.
By day two the students were really starting to come out. The volleyball matches got a little more intense, and the talking increased. All of the faci’s are great. They are easily approachable, fun and outgoing. We were starting to get the hang of the daily routine and were getting more comofortable with our students. We weren’t really prepared for the next two weeks showering in common bathrooms, just like freshman year. Except this time, the curtains blew with the draft winds of the open doors and windows so during your shower, you were constantly warding off a wet plastic curtain from sticking to your behind. Not to mention the breeze was cold and by day 8, the hot water was hit or miss in the mornings. Although the faci’s had a private shower (for one person at a time) that always had hot water, it was much easier to just shower in the common bathroom because of time and you didn’t need a key. But when the hot water became a problem, no one really wanted to shower in the mornings, but we had to make do with what we had.
The second night we had a “Trip Around the World” for the night activity. This was when each faci got to talk for 10 minutes about their country. The students each had a giant map, hand-drawn by Harrison, to fill in at each station. The students really liked this event, but the faci’s didn’t plan properly and some were taking much more than 10 minutes. Ekta was doing sand mandalas and showing pictures of gods and festivals in India. She’s really made me want to go visit India, but only if I knew where to go and what to see (and the right time/place to go). Ana showed a slideshow of Brazil, as did Aysegul. Zhou Lin and Harrison both had presentations on China and Taiwan and Lessya showed pictures from Kazakhstan and explained traditional culture and what it is like to live in Kazakhstan. I only saw 2 teams by midnight, which was when we called it quits. The nights get very cold and the students were tired, so we didn’t get to finish. I talked about a few American holidays that they may not know about. The first was a 2 minute speech about Groundhog’s Day (haha, creative, I know!), then I talked about the 4th of July (which was coincidentally the next day), and then Thanksgiving. I tried to talk about the history of the Fourth and Thanksgiving, but don’t really remember much more than the basic facts. What I did talk about is the traditions of going out to the park on the 4th, having a BBQ, hanging out with friends and then searching for that perfect spot to enjoy the beautiful fireworks, no matter what city you’re in. For Thanksgiving, I talked about how the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day in the US, how Thanksgiving always starts with the Macy’s Day Parade on TV for the entire nation, and how everyone stuffs their face with ungodly amounts of food somewhere between the football game and family chatter. I then discussed the day after Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales. They really enjoyed this and I also mentioned how Black Friday can be used to show the strength of the US economy—that’s how much money is spent this day. I think I did well for not having any pictures or music (my hard drive is useless so I left it in Prague with my other suitcase.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Day 1: Capture the Flag
The day after camp started, everything was running smooth. We were ahead of schedule, because things were much quicker than planned, but we corrected it and moved things around to create a perfect schedule. The Czech students love to play volleyball, and I love to too, so we played for hours during the breaks in the warm sun. The first project was challenging, it was about Marketing Strategy of a university (from the perspective of a student). I was amazed by the ideas they came up with. For guerilla marketing, the yellow team came up with putting a “Bathtub of Money” in a public place, with the bills being pamphlets of information about the university. The red team thought of great posters and logos for an international university. The blue team came up with a marketing strategy for a university and told the university what matters to them may be different than what they may have thought. The green team though of a media plan that focused the university’s marketing online and in catchy places. I was really impressed.
At night, it was time for “Capture the Flag”. This was me and Ekta’s night activity, so we had each team paint a flag with their team colors. We divided the camp into five parts, and gave each team a zone to protect. The faci’s played too, and we had our own flag to hide too. There was a “jail” where if you got caught by another team, you were forced to wait in jail until someone from your team bailed you out. The game started out perfectly, but we quickly realized that the zones were too big and it was nearly impossible to steal people’s flags. Not to mention the green team hid their flag in a field of “kopšiva” or the Czech equivalent of poison ivy or something. Needless to say, after an hour and half of battle, the students were tired, but not broken down. The red team managed to capture two flags, the green and the blue team, but not without a price. Poor John had to slather his arms in ointment because of the kopšiva fields he went through to get the green flag. Everyone had a blast and some were frustrated with the difficulty in getting the flags. The faci team didn’t capture a flag, but were so close to the blue team and red team it was not even funny. We literally walked by both team’s flags and didn’t notice they were there, although both were clearly visible, but greatly disguised. Day 1 was a good day.
At night, it was time for “Capture the Flag”. This was me and Ekta’s night activity, so we had each team paint a flag with their team colors. We divided the camp into five parts, and gave each team a zone to protect. The faci’s played too, and we had our own flag to hide too. There was a “jail” where if you got caught by another team, you were forced to wait in jail until someone from your team bailed you out. The game started out perfectly, but we quickly realized that the zones were too big and it was nearly impossible to steal people’s flags. Not to mention the green team hid their flag in a field of “kopšiva” or the Czech equivalent of poison ivy or something. Needless to say, after an hour and half of battle, the students were tired, but not broken down. The red team managed to capture two flags, the green and the blue team, but not without a price. Poor John had to slather his arms in ointment because of the kopšiva fields he went through to get the green flag. Everyone had a blast and some were frustrated with the difficulty in getting the flags. The faci team didn’t capture a flag, but were so close to the blue team and red team it was not even funny. We literally walked by both team’s flags and didn’t notice they were there, although both were clearly visible, but greatly disguised. Day 1 was a good day.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Camp 1--Arrival Day
The first day of camp was crazy. All of us were nervous and excited to begin what has been an intense few weeks of preparation. When the students arrived, we had a welcome ceremony and some “getting to know each other” games. I quickly realized that we were ahead of schedule by at least 30 minutes, and had to change the schedule accordingly. The students were really outgoing and all of us were relieved to see them speaking out and not being too shy. It was perfect. We were still faced with the difficult task of making 20 teenagers feel comfortable with each other so we spent some group time together with them. Tete and I were partners for this camp and we were TEAM RED! (Whoo!) We had a great group which consisted of five students. John, also known as “Big John” was a tall lanky guy who always had a smile on his face and was always laughing, falling down, getting injured and being the funny guy. He was definitely the center of attention for a handful of stories, which hopefully I’ll get to tell you in the next few weeks. Marta was a quiet girl, but very smart and witty. She was educated and well rounded. She was our best actress whenever our team had to perform skits. She moved from being the shy one, to taking a great leadership role in our group, and that made me very happy. Then there was Zuzka, or Susie. Every day she reminded me of my cousin. Quiet and shy, she was thin and small but was never afraid to smile. She was by far the quietest of our group, but surprised me time and time again with her ideas and ability to perform under pressure. She’s one of my favorites and I’ll never forget how much of a leader she is, even when she isn’t in the position of leader. Jana, or Jane, was our creative powerhouse of our group. She was always thinking of new ideas and was definitely one of the most energetic ones of the group. Although she had some issues with the team, I really enjoyed her input and positive attitude. She reminded me of a teenager from the movies—high dreams, tough life, but still trying to stay positive through all the challenges thrown at her. She was never afraid to act the way she wanted, whatever anyone thought of it. And last was Marika. Marika was a blonde-haired blue-eyed girl who kept a notebook of all the English words she didn’t know. She was constantly asking questions about our cultures and lives and would always start the conversation by sharing her opinion or ideas. She was funny and lively and a real sweetheart.
If you haven’t noticed, the Red Team was diverse in personality and interests, but one thing was certain. We were the smartest group. Not saying that the other teams weren’t smart, because they definitely had so many ideas that even I was amazed by some of the projects, but we were definitely logical and methodical and usually did better in intellectual challenges than physical challenges. Red Team brainstormed in English, when most groups did in Czech, and they all spoke English very well. Some teams had students who really struggled to speak English, but for the most part, everyone on Red Team could present in English without having to read a pre-made speech. Physically, we weren’t the best team, but still gave the other teams a challenge. Overall, I’m going to miss the Red Team very much, but I must not forget that I have another camp ahead of me, and I’m sure I’ll love those students as much as these ones.
Stay tuned for more, I’ll be scheduling posts almost every day for the next two weeks!
If you haven’t noticed, the Red Team was diverse in personality and interests, but one thing was certain. We were the smartest group. Not saying that the other teams weren’t smart, because they definitely had so many ideas that even I was amazed by some of the projects, but we were definitely logical and methodical and usually did better in intellectual challenges than physical challenges. Red Team brainstormed in English, when most groups did in Czech, and they all spoke English very well. Some teams had students who really struggled to speak English, but for the most part, everyone on Red Team could present in English without having to read a pre-made speech. Physically, we weren’t the best team, but still gave the other teams a challenge. Overall, I’m going to miss the Red Team very much, but I must not forget that I have another camp ahead of me, and I’m sure I’ll love those students as much as these ones.
Stay tuned for more, I’ll be scheduling posts almost every day for the next two weeks!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Back to Earth!
Wow! It's good to finally have internet again! I feel like I've had no connection to the outside world. I've spent the last two weeks living off a Blackberry, which got EDGE service at the camp. This meant I could check my gmail every once in a while, although it took 10 minutes to load (if it loaded at all). Anyway, I'm excited to tell you all about the first camp, but first I have to tell you about my journey from camp to Vienna!
Camp ended perfectly, with everyone thoroughly overwhelmed with emotions about leaving the people they had gotten to know so closely the past couple weeks. There were tears, laughs, and hugs to say goodbye to each other. Every single one of the students made a huge impact on us, and we're all so excited to see how much they grew as people during their time at MBM. When it finally came time to say goodbye, I was wondering to myself, when, during these past few weeks, these students changed from shy people into a close-knit group of friends that have experienced so much together. It really made me happy.
On our bus from Velké Meziřiči to Brno was great. Although most of the students went to Prague, we had Frank, Johnny and Igor to accompany us to Brno. I fell asleep right away because I was absolutely exhausted, and when we arrived to Brno, we had 20 minutes to get from one bus station to the other. Remember how I'm always running to catch a bus, train, plane, boat, etc etc? Well this time, I didn't have to! But I almost did. It was me, Harrison and the 6 girls each with luggage and tired from camp. And getting from one bus station to the next was about as fun as trying to drag a stubborn bull to the market (bad analogy, but I'm tired so give me a break). We ended up arriving to the other bus station a few minutes before our bus departed, and I was convinced that we were going to have to run for it.
Our bus from Brno to Vienna (Wien) was a wonderful ride through the countryside. I once again fell asleep but luckily this bus had nice air conditioning and comfortable seats. When we arrived in Vienna, I had to navigate the subways and dig through my backpack for the hostel information. We were staying at a hostel right off the subway line, and so we began to search for the line, which was luckily right around the corner. We went to the subway and I found our stop. Everything is now in Euros, which means I'm going to be absolutely devastated when I go to purchase items that are American prices (2 euro waters, 4 euro sandwiches, etc) but really in Euros which means that It's not a $2 bottle of water but $2.50 and so on and so on. It doesn't help that Vienna is one of the most expensive cities in Europe (we just found out) but I'm pretty sure that tomorrow will be an awesome day full of fun.
When we arrived to our hostel, we checked in and found out that actually when we made the reservation we only made it for four people for two nights. That means that four of us are in deep trouble! It actually wasn't me who booked this but I paid for it to make it easier for everyone, and our preparation for this trip wasn't quite spectacular. We went out for Ana's birthday the night before, and we were rushing to go to the Green Day concert in Prague afterwards (which was a spectacular show!), so I can easily see how this confusion happened. Luckily the hostel has room for everyone tonight for a decent price (15 euro per person), but four of us have to move out tomorrow because they don't have enough beds for everyone for two nights. Luckily, I'm staying with Jolin, Ekta and Aysegul at the hostel and Ana, Tete, Harrison and Lessya are going to find another hostel or hotel to live in tomorrow. I know we won't have this problem in Budapest (because I had double and triple checked everything before hand), but knowing my luck, we'll probably get lost or something finding the place.
When everything was settled with the hostel, we dropped our stuff off and made our way into the city center. It was already 8 PM by the time we left, and when we arrived, we walked around a bit and found a really nice Asian place to eat. The funniest part about dinner was that there were Chinese people working in the restaurant, and it was easier for me to speak Chinese with them than to try and order in English or German (the language spoken in Austria). After dinner, we walked along the Danube River (the longest in Europe) and called it a night. We've all been internet starved and so we headed back to the hostel to catch up on our lives at home.
I'm extremely tired right now, so I apologize if this post doesn't make sense or is a little messy. I'm heading to bed. Tomorrow we're waking up early to go sight seeing. Be prepared for when I return to Velké Meziřiči for the second camp, I'll have a post scheduled for every single day I'm away. Good night!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
End of Camp 1
Ok guys, this is the last post that I wrote before I left for camp. Today is July 13th, which means that I'm leaving today to go to Vienna. I can't wait. I will hopefully have internet during my travels and I'll be able to tell you all about the camp. I do know that no one is picking us up from the train station when we get to camp, which means we have a nice 6km walk to the camp from the train station! (So Much Fun!--not) Also, I'll be able to tell you about the students, the funny ones, the shy ones, the great moments, and the bad. In Budapest, we plan on going to see all the sights on the first day, then go out to enjoy the city at night, and then the next day we are going to spend the afternoon at the bath, which Hungary is famous for. We have no plans for Vienna right now, but I'm sure we'll be able to figure everything out when we get there. In the meantime, I really miss everyone and I'm sorry to all those people who I can't call anymore. I'll be sure to check-in with my parents when I get to Vienna and I'm really sorry I haven't posted pictures in a while. I have tons from Prague and hopefully from the camp. I'll be sure to do that when I return from camp.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Cherry Cola and An Eye Opener
Apparently, Cherry Coke is a rare commodity here in Central Europe and a huge American stereotype. I didn't even notice it when one of our trainees was talking to me about American stereotypes and she said, "All you Americans have your flip flops, shorts, sunglasses and Cherry Coke." I laughed at the general idea of an American looking like that, because--in fact--I fit this stereotype very well as I walk through Prague. I don't have capris, I wear my sunglasses, I have shorts and I wear flip flops that click with every step I take. The Cherry Coke thing didn't settle in until I bought a bottle of it and brought it to one of the workshops one day. As I put it down on the table, it took a few minutes for everyone to notice, but eventually they did. "What is this?" they asked. "Just Cherry Coke, Why?" They were so confused. "What do you mean 'Cherry' Coke?" It was hard to explain that it just had cherry flavoring in it, but for people who had never heard of Cherry Coke they were flabbergasted. It then escalated to everyone having to try my cherry coke. Most of them didn't like it, saying it was too sweet, but I just had to laugh because to me, there really isn't that much of a difference between cherry coke and regular coke. It is sweeter, but to me it's a normal beverage. I guess the rest of the world just doesn't enjoy Cherry Coke as much as Americans do.
One really cool thing I forgot to mention happened one day when Jenny and I were going to pick up my Green Day ticket from the Ticket Pro office in Prague. We were walking toward the office and we passed by a public square where there was a black tent with no windows or anything. I asked her what was going on and she told me that the sign/words on the side of the tent said something about blind people. I knew right away what it was. It was a blind person restaurant. These are the "new" thing to do in big cities. Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York all boast these blind experience restaurants. Let me explain a little bit. These restaurants were designed by an artist, not a restaurant owner. They are designed with no windows and there are no lights inside. You cannot bring your cellphone inside or anything that emits light. Before you enter the restaurant, a blind waiter (the entire staff is blind), asks how many people in your party and then leads you to your table. To find your table, you need to hold the hand of your waiter as they navigate you through the tables and chairs inside. You cannot see anything, but they know the way. The menu is fixed, so you pay the same price per person and do not need to read a menu to decide what you are going to eat. The waiter pours your wine, serves your food and helps you with anything you may need. It's supposed to be a surreal experience. You cannot even see the face of the friends or family you are dining with. The blind people are the only source of communication within the restaurant. They show you where the restrooms are if you need them and they also help you find the way out. I thought it was awesome to see this in Prague. Although it was temporary and probably very expensive, I really wanted to go. Maybe in New York I'll take someone there to enjoy this experience with me!
"An Eye-Opener"
One really cool thing I forgot to mention happened one day when Jenny and I were going to pick up my Green Day ticket from the Ticket Pro office in Prague. We were walking toward the office and we passed by a public square where there was a black tent with no windows or anything. I asked her what was going on and she told me that the sign/words on the side of the tent said something about blind people. I knew right away what it was. It was a blind person restaurant. These are the "new" thing to do in big cities. Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York all boast these blind experience restaurants. Let me explain a little bit. These restaurants were designed by an artist, not a restaurant owner. They are designed with no windows and there are no lights inside. You cannot bring your cellphone inside or anything that emits light. Before you enter the restaurant, a blind waiter (the entire staff is blind), asks how many people in your party and then leads you to your table. To find your table, you need to hold the hand of your waiter as they navigate you through the tables and chairs inside. You cannot see anything, but they know the way. The menu is fixed, so you pay the same price per person and do not need to read a menu to decide what you are going to eat. The waiter pours your wine, serves your food and helps you with anything you may need. It's supposed to be a surreal experience. You cannot even see the face of the friends or family you are dining with. The blind people are the only source of communication within the restaurant. They show you where the restrooms are if you need them and they also help you find the way out. I thought it was awesome to see this in Prague. Although it was temporary and probably very expensive, I really wanted to go. Maybe in New York I'll take someone there to enjoy this experience with me!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Life In Prague
"Dog Days"
In Prague, I was quite surprised to see that most of the dogs don't even have leashes when they are being walked on the street. Not only that, but there are so many dogs in general. Small dogs, big dogs, chihuahuas, docksons, and German Shepherds. The thing that makes this so remarkable to me, is that there are no leashes and the dogs are so well behaved. On the subway, they lay down on the ground next to their owners, while walking in the park, they don't stray too far from the path, and everywhere around the city the dogs in general are very well trained and well behaved. The funniest part about this whole thing is that Ekta and Zhou Lin are both afraid of dogs. And by afraid, I mean petrified of them. Ekta can't even walk on the same street as a dog, cowering every time they come near. Even for the smallest ones, she thinks they are vicious people-eating monsters. It's quite comical. Ana (from Brazil) always has to be her bodyguard when we are walking in public and the dogs come. She stands in between Ekta and the dogs, even though they never do anything more than sniff around and pee on trees. I don't think Ekta or Zhou Lin will ever get over her fear of dogs, no matter how many types we see or how many times we see them, but it'll never get old to see Ekta running around, avoiding the dogs path or to hear Zhou Lin squeek and hide.
"Morning Rituals"
One thing I wanted to talk about, was the morning ritual that we have to go through every day. With four people living in the living room of Jenny's house, we have three of us sleeping on the floor. We've removed all the cushions from the couches and use three to sleep on. This means that there is nothing to sit on when we use the couches and that the floor is covered by three makeshift beds. Every morning, when one alarm goes off, we all are forced to wake up to the other's schedule. Sometimes, the alarm is just snoozed, the person goes to shower, and then we really have to get up to turn off the ringtone. Speaking of showers, there are 4 people, using one bathroom, and none of us want to wake up to be the first to shower. This means that every morning, we wake up an hour before we have to leave, and somehow, one by one, we shower and get ready. Sometimes, we are forced to all get ready within 30 minutes because by the time we wake up, we've already wasted 20 minutes of the morning still laying in bed. It's the funniest when we wake up, and need to catch the train, and all of us are running around the living room, moving from suitcase to kitchen to bathroom to suitcase again. Each of us running into each other's path and getting in each other's way. There's also the fact that there are 4 girls and I. Which means that every morning, I have to deal with them doing their hair, picking their clothes and just taking forever to get ready for the day. I'm always shouting out "10 minutes left" or "5 minutes left" or even "Guys, we were supposed to leave 2 minutes ago!" I don't know how I survived the past two weeks like this...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Czech Out My Shirt
One time, while waiting in the train station for my train, I was sitting on the bench, tired and hot. I couldn't really get comfortable and I can remember this was only my second day in Prague. I was really tired and gross from walking around all day and really wanted nothing more than to just go home (have no hill to climb) and rest. As I was sitting on the bench, eyes closed, I felt a little tug on my shirt. It was the guy next to me. He pointed to my shirt, which kind of looks like it has paint spatter on it, and said something in Czech. I obviously didn't understand him, so I kind of mumbled something like "I don't speak Czech" and smiled. He continued on, using gestures and still speaking Czech to me. He was pointing to my shirt and using a painting motion his shirt. By this time, I think he was trying to ask me if I had painted the design on my t-shirt. I said no, and shook my head and moved my arms. He pointed to my shirt again and said something. OK, now I'm getting tired of this. I once again tried to convey that I didn't speak Czech. The older man, who was wearing a dirty t-shirt with grease stains on his rounded belly and gray hair with a stubbly beard, refused to not talk to me. He heard me say something about English, so he was mumbling something and I said "American" and he said "Arab?". I said no, "American" and he said "Muslim?". By this point, I was so confused and had decided that this conversation was going no where. I said no again, and then he said, "Gypsy". I said no no no no no and he responded by pointing to himself and saying again, "I Gypsy". OK. By now I figured he might be Hungarian or something but I didn't really know where he was going with this. I smiled and said OK and then turned away, hoping to end the conversation. He kind of mumbled a little bit more, but I think he got the idea that I was confused and can't really have a conversation with him when I don't speak his language. When my train arrived at the platform, I left, smiled and waved at the guy, who waved back and smiled. It was an oddly bizarre encounter, but after telling Jenny about it, she said it's very common for Czech people to try and communicate with foreigners in this way. She said she has had friends who have hosted English speaking foreigners and whose parents would talk to them in Czech. When the visitors would respond in English or not at all, they would continue to speak--either slower or louder or both. It's kind of like when someone can't hear you after you say something and you have to speak with emphasis on every word, like "Do--You--Under--Stand--What--I'm--Saying--To--You". I laughed about the whole situation and took the experience as a compliment. The old man liked my shirt. Great.
Monday, July 5, 2010
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
There's a lot of things about the Czech Language that makes it hard to live in Prague. The language is hard to read, understand and speak. When we first arrived, it was enough work to get around on our own, but we also discovered the language barrier in other places as well. The funniest thing that happened was when Ana went to the grocery store to buy a few things. I'm not sure who she was with, but they had bought the normal things, bread, eggs, butter, milk, etc. When I got home, everyone was laughing hysterically. Ana offered me buttered bread, but I didn't want it so I just said "No Thanks". Everyone was a little disappointed and kept offering me the bread. I usually don't eat bread anyway, so I told them that I really don't want it but thanks anyway. After a failed attempt, they caved in and told me what happened. Apparently, the butter Ana bought, wasn't butter at all, but a stick of yeast used to raise dough. She had already eaten several pieces of "buttered" bread, before Jenny came home and asked who was eating this stuff. We waited all night for her stomach to explode, but I guess nothing happens when you eat a bunch of yeast.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Kids and Trams
"Kids"
One of the first couple days I was living in Prague, I was walking to the train station by myself to find a school group climbing the hill. There was a teacher and little kids lined up single file in two lines. As I passed by the class, I smiled at their plastic bookbags and little kid clothing. The boys in shorts with their socks pulled up high and the girls with their pigtails and shorts, you could tell they were ready for a field trip. I passed the class and laughed at the simple nature of kids, but thought it was even funnier when I passed the second teacher with two boys who just couldn't make it up the hill without having to go to the bathroom. With no where to go, they obviously had to make a pit-stop, while the rest of the class waited further up the hill. When I passed them though, their pants were down and their butts hanging out while myself, and a few other people commuting to work, walked past them. I couldn't help but laugh. Childhood is clearly universal. Kids will be kids and they will always wait until just the right moment to tell you they have to go to the bathroom.
"Trams"
I may have mentioned that Prague has an extensive network of trams and railways. I'm actually in awe of the amount of public transportation that is used every day for such a small town. Prague is only 1.5 million people, but if you take a look at their subway, trams, and train map, you can see that this city has a lot of ways to get around. It's pretty cool.
One of the first couple days I was living in Prague, I was walking to the train station by myself to find a school group climbing the hill. There was a teacher and little kids lined up single file in two lines. As I passed by the class, I smiled at their plastic bookbags and little kid clothing. The boys in shorts with their socks pulled up high and the girls with their pigtails and shorts, you could tell they were ready for a field trip. I passed the class and laughed at the simple nature of kids, but thought it was even funnier when I passed the second teacher with two boys who just couldn't make it up the hill without having to go to the bathroom. With no where to go, they obviously had to make a pit-stop, while the rest of the class waited further up the hill. When I passed them though, their pants were down and their butts hanging out while myself, and a few other people commuting to work, walked past them. I couldn't help but laugh. Childhood is clearly universal. Kids will be kids and they will always wait until just the right moment to tell you they have to go to the bathroom.
"Trams"
I may have mentioned that Prague has an extensive network of trams and railways. I'm actually in awe of the amount of public transportation that is used every day for such a small town. Prague is only 1.5 million people, but if you take a look at their subway, trams, and train map, you can see that this city has a lot of ways to get around. It's pretty cool.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The Hill
Alright. So by now, I've started the camp and these posts are just being put online automatically on random days at random times. They are a collection of random stories that I have written down as memories throughout my time here in Prague. I hope you enjoy them and as soon as I have internet in Vienna or Budapest, I'll be able to post again (or tell you about the first camp).
Roztoky is a beautiful place to live. The town is quiet, the people are nice and the houses are beautiful. There is only one small--maybe large--problem. The Hill.
The Hill, as it is now called among us, is the worst thing about Roztoky. Every day, twice a day or more, we need to descend and ascend this monstrosity. It is on the way to the train station and is about a quarter mile long and when I say hill--I mean a steep, steep hill. It's bad enough in the mornings, when we're tired, and carrying our various backpacks, bags, and sometimes eggs and food, and we get to the hill and have to stop ourselves from falling down this hill. Each step we're holding ourselves back and trying to bend our knees to absorb the shock of our legs pattering down on the concrete. But that's only the beginning. Imagine the evenings, when we're tired, and it's late at night and we've worked all day. The last thing we want to do after a nice relaxing 15 minute train ride, is to climb up the damn hill.
The Hill.
I can't even think about it without getting riled up. There have been the hot days, when there is no shade, and we're climbing up the hill just sweating and panting. And there's the nights we've gone out, coming home after a 4:41 AM train, after a night out, tired from dancing and drinking, and as the morning sun begins to brighten the day we have to climb the hill. And all we want to do is to go to bed and sleep the morning away.... Then there is Ekta. Who ascends the hill about as fast as a snail crosses the highway. In the morning after a night out, we wait for her to come up the hill or after a long day of work, we yell at her to hurry up as she trudges up the hill, one itsy bitsy step at a time. We can't even walk as slow as she does up the hill, because it hurts our legs too much to do so. We have nightmares about the hill. We have random moments during the day, when we're leaving the subway and see steps, and have flashbacks that remind us of the terrible hill. It's quite comical how often the hill is discussed every day, because it really is that bad. I guess you have to be here to know, but just keep in mind--the hill is a terrible thing and a tragedy that plagues us every day.
I will not miss the hill when I come home, nor will I ever miss it.
"The Hill"
Roztoky is a beautiful place to live. The town is quiet, the people are nice and the houses are beautiful. There is only one small--maybe large--problem. The Hill.
The Hill, as it is now called among us, is the worst thing about Roztoky. Every day, twice a day or more, we need to descend and ascend this monstrosity. It is on the way to the train station and is about a quarter mile long and when I say hill--I mean a steep, steep hill. It's bad enough in the mornings, when we're tired, and carrying our various backpacks, bags, and sometimes eggs and food, and we get to the hill and have to stop ourselves from falling down this hill. Each step we're holding ourselves back and trying to bend our knees to absorb the shock of our legs pattering down on the concrete. But that's only the beginning. Imagine the evenings, when we're tired, and it's late at night and we've worked all day. The last thing we want to do after a nice relaxing 15 minute train ride, is to climb up the damn hill.
The Hill.
I can't even think about it without getting riled up. There have been the hot days, when there is no shade, and we're climbing up the hill just sweating and panting. And there's the nights we've gone out, coming home after a 4:41 AM train, after a night out, tired from dancing and drinking, and as the morning sun begins to brighten the day we have to climb the hill. And all we want to do is to go to bed and sleep the morning away.... Then there is Ekta. Who ascends the hill about as fast as a snail crosses the highway. In the morning after a night out, we wait for her to come up the hill or after a long day of work, we yell at her to hurry up as she trudges up the hill, one itsy bitsy step at a time. We can't even walk as slow as she does up the hill, because it hurts our legs too much to do so. We have nightmares about the hill. We have random moments during the day, when we're leaving the subway and see steps, and have flashbacks that remind us of the terrible hill. It's quite comical how often the hill is discussed every day, because it really is that bad. I guess you have to be here to know, but just keep in mind--the hill is a terrible thing and a tragedy that plagues us every day.
I will not miss the hill when I come home, nor will I ever miss it.
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