We have no water. Again, we have no water. It's 100 degrees. Germans, when will you understand that TANG is not water. KOOL AID is not water. Water is clear and does not come with a "slight lemon taste". Kids need water. People need water. Dogs need water.
When we ask for water here you'd think we were asking for champagne.
Polor Bear swim tomorrow. Waking the kids up at 6 am.
13 July 2010
11 July 2010
Now in Gnewikov
No time to write. Train leaves in a few minutes. Last week was an amazing week of camp. I really do love too-cool-for-school thirteen year olds.
This week I'm outside of Berlin in Gnewikov at a sleepaway camp for 6 nights. Apparently we get to use canoes and go rock climbing. Alas, no internet so I will have to faithfully journal.
Enjoy the pictures from the first week.
Visual Aid (you have to imagine the flies)
becker barn.
view from the tent
horse hell
follow the rules!
humble abode
no shade06 July 2010
Round 2
I'm now in Waffensen, a small dorf of about 900 people outside of Hamburg.
I have 13 students between the ages of 11 and 14. Again, lots of middle school moments. There are 4 counselors working here, with a total of 47 kids. One counselor is running a circus camp, another a film camp and my friend Carmen and I are each running an Adventure Camp (camp without special effects)
Camp is going really well. It's exhausting being with middle schoolers from 9-5. I think the universemay be telling me that I have a future working with middle schoolers. Or maybe it just hates me. Either way, I am really enjoying working with the kids, despite the difficulties of pre-teendom.
I'll have to save some more stories for later, as I the computer I have to use is the size of a large microwave and incredibly slow.
But for now I'll leave with a short letter to Germany.
Dear Germany,
Stop with the potatoes. Seriously. They do not count as a vegetable. Try something with color.
Sincerely,
Phoebe
P.S. Greasy, fried potato pancakes with apple sauce is NOT a nutritious meal.
P.P.S. Ice cubes are not dessert
03 July 2010
Lesson Learned. Sort of.
I'm at an internet cafe now. The big Germany game starts in 10 minutes so this is definitly not kosher. I don't know when I will have internet next though, so I thought I should take a couple of minutes to write something. Really, all you need to know is that I survived.
First of all, last week was the week from hell.
There were good moments. Fleeting seconds, really.
I think the craziest thing about the entire experience is that I actually stayed there. I chose to try to be positive and live with the flies, knowing full well that I was getting paid peanuts. This morning we had a meeting in Wolfsburg with all the other counselors to discuss our weeks. I began to realize how out of my mind I was when I heard that someone's only complaint was that the internet connection was slow, or the shower was "around the corner"---whatever that means. Try sharing a shower with 17 middle school German girls.
I have to say, thinking more about the past week hasn't made me nostalgic or more positive about the entire thing. It's given me hope. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can do anything if I can be dropped off at a barn in the middle of Germany with a suitcase filled with pens, paper, wool and paint and put in charge of 17 little girls for a week.
Maybe the funny thing is that not only don't I really care for Germany but I don't really care for kids. If you're thinking, "How did you get this job?" you have more sense than I do, apparently. But I will say that I've learned a lot about what it is to grow up and start becoming your own person, just spending a week with 10, 11 and 12 year old girls. Somehow, after those awkward middle school years are over all you can do is be grateful to have made it out alive. All bad memories, which are almost all of the memories, are erased. Being with those girls this week was field research. Somehow there is always that one girl everyone decides to make fun of and tease. And that kid, of course, is always your favorite. Because that girl is the only one who is different, the only one who chooses to not wear Miley Cyrus t-shirts, straighten her hair and read "WOW" magazine.
I could go on to tell more horror stories of stoic Frau Becker and her horse vaulting routine to Frank Sinatra's " New York, New York" or the barn cat jumping on the table to take a slurp out of the hot, creamed spinach for lunch . Or even the mouse nest and pile of mouse poo hidden behind the sofa I alternately slept on inside (when I wasn't in the thistle tent). Perhaps at some other point.
Now it's game time! And it is SO good to be with all the counselors. We're living in this old windmill that looks like a group of frat guys on mushrooms had a huge party and painted all the walls. Pictures later.
PLEASE SEND ME MAIL TO MICHENDORF. I can get mail from there and will be there next weekend!
First of all, last week was the week from hell.
There were good moments. Fleeting seconds, really.
I think the craziest thing about the entire experience is that I actually stayed there. I chose to try to be positive and live with the flies, knowing full well that I was getting paid peanuts. This morning we had a meeting in Wolfsburg with all the other counselors to discuss our weeks. I began to realize how out of my mind I was when I heard that someone's only complaint was that the internet connection was slow, or the shower was "around the corner"---whatever that means. Try sharing a shower with 17 middle school German girls.
I have to say, thinking more about the past week hasn't made me nostalgic or more positive about the entire thing. It's given me hope. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can do anything if I can be dropped off at a barn in the middle of Germany with a suitcase filled with pens, paper, wool and paint and put in charge of 17 little girls for a week.
Maybe the funny thing is that not only don't I really care for Germany but I don't really care for kids. If you're thinking, "How did you get this job?" you have more sense than I do, apparently. But I will say that I've learned a lot about what it is to grow up and start becoming your own person, just spending a week with 10, 11 and 12 year old girls. Somehow, after those awkward middle school years are over all you can do is be grateful to have made it out alive. All bad memories, which are almost all of the memories, are erased. Being with those girls this week was field research. Somehow there is always that one girl everyone decides to make fun of and tease. And that kid, of course, is always your favorite. Because that girl is the only one who is different, the only one who chooses to not wear Miley Cyrus t-shirts, straighten her hair and read "WOW" magazine.
I could go on to tell more horror stories of stoic Frau Becker and her horse vaulting routine to Frank Sinatra's " New York, New York" or the barn cat jumping on the table to take a slurp out of the hot, creamed spinach for lunch . Or even the mouse nest and pile of mouse poo hidden behind the sofa I alternately slept on inside (when I wasn't in the thistle tent). Perhaps at some other point.
Now it's game time! And it is SO good to be with all the counselors. We're living in this old windmill that looks like a group of frat guys on mushrooms had a huge party and painted all the walls. Pictures later.
PLEASE SEND ME MAIL TO MICHENDORF. I can get mail from there and will be there next weekend!
02 July 2010
Thank God It's Friday
It's Friday. Didn't know if I would last until today, but here I am.
It's been a rough week to say the least, but tonight all the counselors are meeting up and celebrating. Annnd Germany plays tomorrow so it is going to be a big party weekend. Thank goodness.
I would write more but this laptop seems to be the flies' mating spot and I can't manage to sit another minute here amidst the disease and buzzing.
It's been a rough week to say the least, but tonight all the counselors are meeting up and celebrating. Annnd Germany plays tomorrow so it is going to be a big party weekend. Thank goodness.
I would write more but this laptop seems to be the flies' mating spot and I can't manage to sit another minute here amidst the disease and buzzing.
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