Day 12: It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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 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.

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.

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!

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!

The Meet & Greet

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, take care!

I'm Just a Tourist

Today was a long day. We all had to wake up early to begin working on the projects for camp. Each group had one project to work on and it took all day, but for the most part we all completed our project and were able to leave a lot earlier than we had planned on.

Of course, my commute home couldn't be easy, because let's face it: I always have to have some story at the end of the day. I was saving this funny story for a later date (like during the camp when I have no internet and I have pre-written blog posts), but I guess the time has come for me to spill the beans. So, for the past week or so, I've been riding the train home with no ticket. Well, that's an exaggeration, because we all have monthly unlimited tickets to get around Prague, but like I said before, Roztoky is one stop outside of Prague. Being lazy and actually sometimes having no time to buy a ticket, I usually just slide by without a problem going from the last station in Prague to Roztoky. There's been a few times where I narrowly escaped the conductor. The first was when Ekta really forgot to buy her ticket, and he let us slide without a fine because a Ukranian woman on the train spoke Russian with Olessya (from Kazakhstan but who is Russian) and helped us out. Then, there was this time where I narrowly escaped the conductor by moving all the way to the last cart and just as we were arriving to our station, the doors opened and I jumped out before the conductor asked for my ticket. These are just a few of the times, but most of the time, I get checked, and they don't care, or sometimes we don't get checked at all. It really isn't a big deal. But then there was today.

As we boarded the train, none of us had the ticket from Sedlec (the last station in Prague) to Roztoky. We looked for the conductor and found her near the front of the train. We ran to the middle of the train, hoping to be checked before our station so that it wouldn't matter when we got off. Well, the good news was that the conductor checked our tickets while we were still in Prague, the bad news was that we were a minute from the last stop in Prague. This means the conductor said, "Sedlec" when she checked our tickets, and watched us while she waited in between cars. When the train stopped, and we didn't move, she yelled at us to get off the train. This is when we played the, "I'm a stupid tourist card," and acted like we didn't know what was going on. She fell for it for about .000001 second. She came over and said, "Get off!" I could tell she was pissed. We were by this point, so embarrassed, but still had to stick to our guns and pretend we didn't know what was going on. We told her we were getting off at Roztoky and she said, "No--ticket expired, get off!" We were not about to get off the train and wait for the next one--been there, done that, don't need to do it again. A woman who spoke some English helped us out a little bit and told us our monthly passes only are good in Prague and, still playing stupid, we asked if we could buy our ticket on the train. By this time, the entire cabin is looking at us, and the train is being delayed because the conductor is busy dealing with us. We finally convinced her to let us buy our tickets on the train and the train moved on.

When we got to our station, we were relived to be off the train and away from the embarrassment, but as we walked home, we realized just how stupid we were. We realized that while we boarded the train, we were discussing what to do if the conductor checked our tickets. We made the action plan to play stupid, in English, not thinking that other passengers could probably speak English and listen to us. So, not only did the woman help us get out of a huge fine do so out of kindness, she probably did so knowing fully well that we were LYING to the conductor, pretending to be stupid. What an embarrassment. I guess next time the conductor asks for our ticket, we'll tell him Roztoky, but if they don't ask....haha, I'll just have to be a stupid American tourist again.

Tonight I made some hamburgers for everyone. They were actually pretty good. Tomorrow I have to make the burritos and get ready for Global Village. I'll have more stories to tell soon, hope everyone is doing well over there in the USA.

Fresh Cuts

Well, after missing the party on Monday night, I was pretty annoyed, but I woke up on Tuesday with a clearer head and was able to start the day off on a good foot. We first went to the Anglo-American University in Prague for a session on their project that they will be conducting. Their project is titled, "Managing Your Online Reputation." It is a really interesting topic that is especially relevant for young teens today. It is a topic that transcends nations and will only continue to grow in importance. You can check out more about their project by clicking here.

After the meeting with AAU, we moved back to the AIESEC offices to begin the Camp Prep Week (CPW). This was what I was working on all of Monday night. We went over the schedule for the week and looked at a general picture of what camp will look like when we begin in a couple weeks. Actually, Camp 1 is only a week away right now, so it really is crunch time. After I went over the agenda, Jenny had a few things to say about logistics and after that we had a meeting while the others finished some cultural education. During the meeting we finalized the expectations of the universities and I received the last of the information I needed to get the facis started on creating the projects for camp.

After the day was over we went back to Letna, the beer garden on top of the hill overlooking Prague. We had a few drinks and made our way back to Jenny's to rest for the night. Jenny's roommate Roman had moved out because he was going to San Francisco for the summer, so I moved into his room and made myself at home on his bed (he invited me to do so of course). It was nice to be in a bedroom, rather then sleeping on the living room floor. I went to bed relatively early and woke up this morning rested and ready for the day.

Since I'm in charge of CPW, Jenny stayed at home and caught up on some much needed rest. When we got to the AIESEC offices, we began working on our Global Village materials. Lessya is making a Kazakh lamb dish, which kind of look like Indian samosas or hot pockets. Aysegul is making kisir, a Turkish dish--something with rice, Ekta (just to clarify, the correct spelling is E-k-t-a, even if my dyslexic fingers type Etka sometimes), is making Indian curry, Jolin is making fried rice, Tete is making "Chocolate Sausage", a Portuguese dessert, and Ana is making some chocolate something, which I can't pronounce or write. I'm going to represent the US with an attempt at bean burritos, but we'll see what happens. I may just have to order some McDonalds french fries...

After preparing what we needed for Global Village, we began working on the first project. This is a marketing strategy project for the Banking Institute of Prague. We each finished our parts by 5 PM, so we had the rest of the day free to run errands, go home and relax. I had a few things to get done before I went home. I'm in charge of planning the faci adventure in between the two camps. This means I'm in charge of booking the bus tickets, getting our hostels, finding out what to do, etc. I'm fine with doing this because the first time I came to Europe, I did the exact same thing. I'm used to it and it's fun! Have I told you what we're doing for our 6 day break?? We're planning on leaving from Brno (the 2nd largest city in Czech Republic, about 30 minutes away from camp) to Vienna, Austria. We'll stay in Vienna for 3 days, and leave to Budapest, Hungary for 3 days. I'm really excited.

Anyway, I was planning on heading to the bus station to price the tickets (I already have our schedule), but I also had to pick up some deodorant, eye solution, and soap at the store AND I had to get a haircut. Of course, if you remember me, I always have to get my haircut every 2 weeks because I can't stand when it gets "long". I found my deodorant and soap at the store, but I couldn't find any solution (and I'm about to run out). I'll have to look for that another day. I instead focused on the important things--getting my haircut. I found some free wireless internet and searched for hair salons near me. I found a few places, some were closed others were for ladies and I found one that didn't look so bad for $20 haircut. I thought it was a bit pricey, so I searched for barber shop instead. I found a few new places, but one was closed and the other was too far to walk. I figured that I'd might as well just bite the bullet and spend $20 on the haircut because eventually everything would close and then I'd have to deal with it another day after already spending 30 minutes looking around aimlessly.

I went into the place and found out that they spoke English, but they only took appointments. I understood and was ready to leave when the boss lady told me to wait. She talked to one of the girls and then came back and told me that if I could wait till 7 PM, they could cut my hair. I said OK, and waited the 20 minutes more. This was a great place! For $20 I was really enjoying the shampoo and the lady cut my hair very well. I was really pleased with everything. When I went to pay however, all my happy feelings went away. I had misread the prices (of course) and was reading the "Men's Cut with machine only". Well of course, after re-reading it I still don't know what "machine only means", but the one right below it says, "Men's Cut professional stylist". I don't know what that means either, but I do know now that Petra Měchurová (the name of the place) charges 800 CK for a "Men's Cut professional stylist"...if you do the math, it was about a $36 haircut. Thanks Prague, you've just taken over as "The Most Expensive Haircut in the World" for me. China is still in the lead for "Cheapest Haircuts Ever" charging $3 per haircut, followed by Mexico, coming in around $4 a cut. Well, now that I've spent my weekly allowance on one haircut, I think I'll be living off of bread and cheese for a while. If I don't post for a while, you'll know that I have starved to death and am being fed to the pigeons in Old Town Square. Until next time...cheers!

Manic Monday

We started Monday off with a commute to the Banking Institute, a partner of MBM, to discuss their project that they want the students to complete while at camp. They were very helpful, giving us all the details of the project, what they expect from the students, and what kind of skills they want the students to leave with. It was a good session, I wish the other universities were as organized as the Banking Institute. Ana and Zhou Lin got lost on the way to the university, so they didn't make it to the meeting (I wasn't surprised that they'd get lost and miss the meeting. They were supposed to meet at the subway station near the school at 10 AM, but instead went to the AIESEC office). After the Banking Institute meeting, we went to Jenny's university and met up with the girls to eat.

We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the the student-leader "Meet and Greet" we have planned on Saturday. Basically, we're going to have the opportunity to meet with about half of the students on Saturday, so we've decided to do a Global Village for them. Global Village is when each student has a table, and on that table they have stuff from their countries for display. For this Global Village we're all going to have some kind of food from our country to feed the students before the Meet & Greet officially starts. After the Global Village we'll have a quick overview of what to expect at the camp, what to bring, etc. and we'll finish the session with a fun activity that helps them get a "sneak peek" of what life will be like at the camp.

After working on that for the afternoon, everyone went home, but I had to meet with Jenny to go over some stuff we were supposed to talk about yesterday. Unfortunately, I found out that there was a lot of stuff that was supposed to be done yesterday that didn't get done. I knew of the tasks, but was unaware of the urgency that they needed to be done. The miscommunication eventually led me to be slightly overwhelmed. It wasn't made clear from the beginning what was expected of me, so I felt kind of slighted when I found out that I had unfinished work (not like I had so much time to work on it anyway).  Besides the fact that Jenny didn't communicate to me what exactly she needed, it was also frustrating that some of my work (like planning the design of the projects) can't be done until I have all the information and expectations from the universities. I guess I should have asked more questions to be clear on what needed to be done, so from now on, when it comes to working, I need to be more serious.

I went to another meeting with Jaro, who has been helping me with agenda, and he gave me a lot of ideas how to get everything done this week. When I returned home it was already 8 PM, and everyone was getting ready for a get together at Jenny's house. Jenny was cooking some Czech food for everyone and the music was already playing. I had to do laundry, so I put it in right away, and brought my stuff upstairs to get ready to work. I worked the whole night, missing the party. The international interns from the other apartment came over, as well as some members of AIESEC Prague (Czech students). From what I could hear while I worked, it sounded like a great party. Someone brought their guitar and I could hear everyone singing songs like Green Day and some classics (I can't remember the song names). It was really depressing, but I got my work done (I'm not sure if it's exactly what is expected of me, but I'll have to wait until later today to find out any feedback). I went to bed around one, and woke up to the remains of the party. The apartment is a disaster zone, almost like my dorm room before we moved out on graduation day, which, trust me, was not-so-clean!

I'm looking forward to today so I can present what I have created for the week and see what people think. I hate sitting with the feeling that my work is incomplete or unsatisfactory, so I obviously will not be less stressed until it's perfect. That just who I am. I'll probably be blogging again tonight. I'm going to start taking more pictures of the Elite 8 (our group leader/facilitator team--AKA Faci Team or Facis for short). Until next time!

The Elite 8

So Friday was another day full of training. We started off the day with a session on how to plan sessions/programs. This will come in handy when we begin to prepare the activities for the camp this week. After this, we ate at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Coming from America and having studied in China, I know the difference between authentic Chinese food and fast-food take out. Jolin, from China, has never been outside China, so she doesn't really know what "Chinese food" is to the rest of the world. I'll never forget the look on her face when we went to this restaurant. It first started when we sat down, and there were no chopsticks on the table. In the rest of the world, a lot of people can't use chopsticks, but explaining this was easy, because Jolin understands other cultures are different than hers. Then when we were choosing our food, she was all content to order some fried rice. When she went to order her meal, she was a little shocked to find that you have to order your rice separately from your entree. And if that wasn't enough, the final straw was when she spoke in Chinese to the waitress and the waitress did not understand. After this, Jolin was so upset she couldn't contain it, "What kind of Chinese restaurant is this place!?" I couldn't help but laugh. It was a pretty crappy restaurant, even by American-Chinese standards. No fortune cookie or anything.

After lunch we had a session by Prague College. This was "Working with Students Part II." It was by the worst workshop we've had all week. We couldn't really figure out what the point of it was, but in the end we got some good advice about dealing with Czech students, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We then moved on to our final session, "Team Dynamics" with Vieroslava (Vieros) for short. By this time we were so exhausted with training and sessions we were practically delusional. We've heard enough about the importance of teamwork, the importance of being a leader, blah blah blah, the only thing we wanted to do was enjoy a beer or go to bed. But, we stuck it out through the end and made the best of our session.

We ended up coming home for an hour before we headed out for another weekend on the town. Friday night was a "Welcome to Prague" party for Pierre, the French intern who arrived earlier in the week to work for Accenture. By the time we got to the other flat (not Ana and Jolin's) there were about 15 other interns. New Zealand, Croatia, Colombia, Argentina, Romania, Mexico, Russia, Tunisia, India, Sweden, France, Czech Republic, and a few other countries were all represented at the AIESEC party. This is exactly why I joined. We enjoyed a few drinks, brought from all around the world, and proceeded to go out for the night. The morning train home was quite a journey, highlighted by a late night/early morning stop to KFC.

We slept in, for the first time in ages, and woke up to Jenny making some delicious Czech food. Aysegul's boyfriend's brother lives in Prague, so she left in the afternoon to meet up with him. I updated my blog, added pictures, etc. and took a nice nap. I woke up just in time to get ready to go out for the night. We ate a quick dinner and took the last train into Prague. This time we went straight out and didn't stop at any apartments beforehand. I really enjoy going out in Prague. There are hundreds of places, each with a unique crowd and different atmosphere.

This morning (Sunday), I woke up at 10 AM to check the bus schedule to go pick up Harrison (Taiwanese) from the airport. I found the next bus to the airport left at 10:40 AM, so I didn't even get to shower before I had to leave. I caught the bus, just to find out that I had caught it in the wrong direction (who knew that there was one bus stop for both directions...) and I ended up getting kicked out in who-knows-where again. Luckily, I found some random wireless internet and was able to check the bus schedules. Good news was I only had to wait 30 minutes for the next bus, bad news was that Harrison was going to be waiting another hour for me at the airport. There was nothing I could do, so I got a coffee at the only place around and caught the next bus. When I got to the airport, I found Harrison right away. He had just called Jenny from a payphone wondering where I was. I took him back to his apartment and introduced him to Ana (Brazil) and Jolin (China)--they are his new flatmates.

When we arrived, the girls were just hanging out. They were supposed to do a cultural simulation this afternoon, but when I arrived, the other girls (Olessya, Ekta, and Aysegul) still hadn't left Roztoky and it was already 3 PM. Harrison was tired, so I decided to go grocery shopping with Ana and Jolin while he took a rest. We skyped the girls and told them to meet at Ana & Jolin's apartment so they could begin their cultural simulation. While they were doing that, I could do the makeup session with Harrison and Tete (Portuguese) to catch them up on all the information they missed the past week. Tete was on her way from the airport with Jenny by now.

Right when we had everything all figured out, Ana get's a call from Ekta, who was still at Jenny's house. They were all ready to leave, when they noticed one small problem. They were now locked inside the house. See, Jenny and I are the only one's with keys to Jenny's house. Jenny had left early Sunday morning, before me, but I didn't know. So when I left this morning, I locked the house and went on my way. Now the girls were stuck in the house. Poor Ekta...always getting locked into places. We went grocery shopping, and received a phone call from them a few minutes later saying they had figured out a way out. They still won't tell me how they did it. All they said was, "Regis, we are smart girls and we don't need you for everything." Fair enough. I still don't know how they did it.

When they finally arrived at the apartment, Jenny had dropped off Tete and I began to do the make up session with Harrison and Tete. Welcome to Prague--now straight to work!! The session ended up taking 3 hours (an hour longer than I had planned) because there was just so much material to cover. The girls worked on their simulation for a while in the apartment, but eventually had to leave to take pictures of a few statues and find a few things around Prague. When we finished, Pierre had made an apple crisp of some sort, so we had a bit of dessert and left to go watch the Brazil game in Old Town Square.

We met up with the girls at Old Town Square, but the weather was cloudy and cold and we decided to leave a bit early. Harrison and Tete were exhausted, Pierre has work tomorrow and I had to get home to finish the agenda for the upcoming week. We have a ton of work to do this week, so I had to plan when we're going to do what. We caught the train home and made it back, just in time for me to finish my work and get to bed before 2 AM. I'm really glad that the final two group leaders are in Prague. Now we can really form a cohesive group and make this camp the best. It'll be nice to see how having two new dynamic personalities in our group. I can't wait to see how it pans out. For now, there will be more to come, but I need to sleep. Tomorrow is a long day.

I'm in for a Treat

Well, I just finished my first full day in Prague and it's 1:13AM. I woke up this morning around 4AM, with my body telling me to get up because I've been sleeping all "day" (in US time at least). When I finally fell back asleep, I had a few hours before my alarm clock went off. I took a shower and ate a little bit of babufka (coconut/chocolate breakfast cake/pastry) and Jenny (Jana) and I went off to catch the train to Prague. The train to Prague's city center is only 15 minutes from station to station, so it's not much different than a Metro North ticket to Grand Central from Fordham. Jenny had work to do all day, so I started off the day by walking to the Old Town Square. I was pleasantly surprised that at 10:30 in the morning, the summer sun was already warming the streets, but for that early, it was already way too hot. When I finally arrived I was greeted by Prague's famous Our Lady before Tyn Church, which still stands after six centuries (it was built in 1365 with it's towering spires completed in 1620. For more history: click here). Of course, they're doing reconstruction on the entire face of the main entrance. Through the scaffolding, there was one English sign that said "Please use side entrance". I walked to the side and the sign said "No Entry"...well, typical luck. I guess I'll have to see the inside later.

I moved on to other sights in the square and spent about 20 minutes looking inside another nearby church. This was St. Nicholas Church, a Baroque church built in 1735. It was great to look inside and it was a shelter from the heat, but it was smaller than I expected so I just took pictures and left. I then made my way down to the famous Prague Astronomical Clock. This medieval clock can tell time quite a number of ways. Built in 1490, the clock still functions today, although it is rather complicated and best explained if you're looking at the picture below:

It shows zodiac time (represented by the smaller black/middle circle), which has all the zodiac symbols. You'll notice that the summer month zodiacs take up more space than the winter zodiacs due to the longer days of the summer months. The large outer black circle is numbed 1-24, which symbolizes the ancient Czech calendar. It is the inside Roman Numerals that represent the current hours and minutes (which are indicated by the black indicators--pointing to the XI numeral above). The background is painted various colors to indicate the viewers perception of the sky. The blue indicates that it is daylight, the orange indicates sunset or sunrise, and the black indicates night time. The gilded sun has several meaningful movements. First, it moves with the position of the actual sun, with the outward pointing lines indicating the equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, etc. Also, the gilded sun moves with the sunlight and sits in the black area during the night time. There are a lot more features to the clock which I can't quite remember, but I'm sure you get the point: it's really cool.

After this I made my way around and found a place to rest and eat. I had a traditional Czech lunch of meat dumplings with cabbage and onions. The cabbage was more like sauerkraut, but the onions and dumplings were delicious. I couldn't even finish my plate it was so much food. After lunch, I made my way down to Wenceslas Square and the National Museum. I didn't want to go into the museum because I was meeting Martin at 3:30pm to buy my metro pass, so instead I found a seat and people watched.

I am so glad to be back in Europe!! I'm thinking I need to get myself a pair of capris, because those are the in thing to be wearing apparently. I thought of my sister today as I saw three pregnant ladies walking around. Each one was looking like she was ready to have a baby (which makes me think today may be the day), but the one that surprised me the most was the lady smoking a cigarette... Yup, she was smoking. I realized i missed the random street toilets that you have to pay to use, but I also realized that this time in Europe is a lot harder when you can't speak the language. I got approached by someone asking a question in Czech and all I could do was shrug and nod my head...

After people watching, I met up with Martin to buy my ticket. Here's the short version. I was supposed to get an unlimited monthly for the train only, but instead I got a 5-day unlimited subway/bus/train for the same price ($25). This may not sound bad, but what also happened was the ticket I bought was only unlimited within the city of Prague. I live in Roztoky. One stop outside of Prague. This meant I had two options. I could use the 5-day pass (which only gets me to the last stop in Prague) and buy an additional unlimited pass from the last Prague station to my station (Roztoky u Praha)--that would be an additional $4. OR I could buy an unlimited monthly for 550 CZK, and try and sell my unlimited 5-day pass. Well, there was no way the ticket officer was going to refund my money and I know (from NYC experience) that there's no way I'm going to sell a 5-day unlimited to a stranger...so I'm going to have to use the 5-day, buy the additional unlimited for the last train stop, and then buy another monthly pass when the 5-days are up. The good news is, however, is that my program is paying for all of the leader's unlimited monthly passes (so I get $25 back), the bad news is is that I bought a week-long pass for no reason. Martin nor I don't know where the confusion came from, but regardless, I'll be forced to buy a monthly next week rather than let my 5-day pass go to waste.

When I got home this evening (I met Jenny at the train), my legs were so tired from walking countless miles, I didn't want to do anything. Jenny and I made dinner "a la Jenny" as she called it, by throwing together random ingredients found in the cabinet. Some sausage sauteed in onion and garlic, with elbow macaroni and soy sauce for flavoring (and a spice that could've been rosemary or thyme--I have no clue). It was served with a side of mystery vegetable (which is round like an onion but tastes almost like a cucumber?) and some radishes (which I did not eat). To tell you how good it was, Jenny and I each had our first plate...and then I continued to finish the entire serving that was left in the pot. I felt like a typical American, eating everything in sight like a glutton, but it was delicious and I was hungry!

We finished the night by discussing my role as agenda manager for MBM. I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO! We went over our schedule for this week and tomorrow I begin. At noon, we're meeting at Jenny's university (University of Economics in Prague) to discuss and plan a "Presentation Skills Workshop" we will be conducting next week with high school students. This is unrelated to our program My Better Myself, but we are going to try and recruit some students to join our summer program (it's not full yet). Then immediately after that, Jenny and I are going to start working on a detailed day-by-day breakdown of the camps in July. After that, we are going to meet AIESEC Praha for a night of socializing (of course my favorite thing to do). Over the weekend, I'm preparing a schedule for what the other group leaders are going to do when training ends (June 22-28), which I have dubbed (Camp Prep Week). During CP Week the other leaders and myself are going to have to finalize the projects the students will work on during the camps as well as choose who will lead what programs and who will manage what sessions. Work work work work work...that's all I'm saying...it's now 2:18 AM, I need to go to bed, but I'm just going to say...I forgot for a day that I was here to work and not to just be a tourist. I'm in for a real treat--but really, it's going to be great!

I'm going to Europe!

Hello everyone!

So, once again, I'm going on a crazy adventure, but this time it's not to the Middle East, Africa, or South America; I'm going to Europe! I've been to Europe a few times before, the most recent and extensive trip I took was after senior year of high school. Three friends and I backpacked through Europe, armed with strict budgets, a few articles of clothing, and an scheduled itinerary complete with hostels, hotels, and train schedules. This trip was, to date, one of my favorite experiences of my life. We started in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and continued on to Paris in France, San Sebastian in Spain, Zurich in Switzerland, Munich, Germany, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Rome in Italy, and finally ended in London in the United Kingdom. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, I'm going back, but this time to Prague, Czech Republic. In my four years at Fordham, I've become very involved in many clubs, but most notably AIESEC. I was introduced to AIESEC my sophomore year. It is the worlds largest student run organization, that works to promote international awareness through cultural exchanges, mostly in the form of internships. AIESEC is present in over 107 countries, and over 1,100 universities. I started AIESEC at Fordham (with the help of my friend Patricia). Now that I'm graduating and my full time job doesn't start until October, I've decided to go on an AIESEC internship to keep me occupied this summer. I figured I have nothing to lose, right?

AIESEC has many times of internships on the database, some are paid positions to teach English, work for a large international corporation or for a small local business. Some are unpaid developmental internships working with NGOs and non-profits helping with local domestic issues in the given country. But for me, I wanted something not business (I'm going to be working for a long time in the financial industry, I don't need to start early!) but also not dealing with little kids (as some English teaching positions are). I finally found the My Better Myself program, or MBM for short.

My Better Myself is an English program that helps high school students learn soft skills such as managing groups, leading teams, presenting, communicating, and working in groups. The program consists of ten international leaders who help facilitate the two camps. Each camp is two weeks long with 40 high school students in each camp. I'm one of the international leaders. The others are from Portugal (Lisbon), Brazil (Salvador), India (living in Singapore), Taiwan (living in USA), China (Hangzhou--I visited there remember?), Kazakhstan (Almaty), and Turkey (Izmir).

So here are the details, I'm going to be working for the next few weeks to further develop this program. MBM hasn't been established in the Czech Republic, and this is the inagural year for the summer camps. In order to make this the best it can be, I've been selected as an Agenda Manager with a facilitator from Kazakhstan. I'm going to have to get out to Prague a little early, so I'm leaving June 7th, although the facilitator/leader training doesn't begin until June 14th. Here's the tentative schedule:

• June 14-25: Training/preparation for the camp.
• June 28: Depart for camp (2 hours outside of Prague)
  
• July 1-13: First two week camp
• July 19-31: Second two week camp

I'm so excited to go. I have so many expectations about this program, the people and the experience. I'll let you know more of what I plan to do and, more importantly, where I plan to go later! Other than that...

I'm going to Europe!