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.