France
Chateau de Petit Bois
March 25- 28, 2009
After two straight days of planning for this English immersion camp, we still have a lot more work to do. It's Saturday morning and decorations are up, posters have been made, directions have been dictated, and in general, this camp sounds like it is going to be great.
After my touristy time in Paris, I moved from hostel to paid-for hotel. Unlike Prague, the metro stops are not everywhere you look. So a quick taxi got my luggage and I safely to the small hotel with a pleasant old lady receptionist. She spoke enough English to tell me that there was water in my room and I was to go to another hotel just down the road. So my luggage - which I am immensely weary of dragging around – rolled around the corner and I came to the designated hotel. Another friendly receptionist welcomed me and showed me the lift (aka elevator) and gave me the key. I put my stuff down and immediately left.
I had been emailing a fellow co-worked who I only knew as Nadine and she wanted to meet up with everyone which of course everyone agreed to. But actually doing it is another matter. I emailed her saying I would be in the lobby at noon however I thought I we would actually be in the same hotel. As I walked briskly to the first hotel's lobby, I spotted a restaurant right across the road. But alas, no escargo. Since I was late, I expected everyone else to be there but I was alone. So I waited, reading a tourist's guide to the seven palaces in Paris and around. A few people came through the hotel doors but no one looked for me nor spoke English. Finally, I heard two people speaking English. I wasn't quite sure if they were also working for American Village but they introduced themselves at the desk and I made my way towards them. It was Nadine and Eric. But they had yet to check in so Eric – who was to be my roommate- was told about the water and I said I could easily show him where we were to stay. He helped carry Nadine's luggage up the stairs to the fourth floor because for some reason, this hotel did not have an elevator. So I'm kinda selfishly glad I was moved.
Eric and I walked over, got settled, then went back to meet up with the others. Nadine, who had been working as a business intern in England yet from the Chicago area, as well as Emerald and Mackenzie, who had just backpacked from Kenya to Egypt to Palestine to Europe. Now that is an adventure! They were strongly looking forward to having a place to call 'my bed' for a while. Although they were going to a different camp site, we may meet up again since American Village switches staff around as they see fit.
In fact, do break out of the chronological cycle of my tale, our site's staff was just informed of the schedule. Not this week, but the following one, I will have a week off. It's not paid but I can travel our stay at the site for 10 euro a night. Now considering I am getting a little tired of the constant travel and since I don't know where my next work-site will be, I am planning on staying here. If I did take one bag and go see Montpellier or Nice or something somewhere, I don't know yet if I would get to come back here or if I would have to go somewhere else. And for here, ten euros a night includes food and the bed. That's better than any hostel I have stayed at. No travel costs either. I could walk around the countryside and catch up on some writing. I know blog readers may enjoy that aspect. But anyways...
So as we were leaving to go grab some food, we ran into Joy coming into the hotel. We waited for her but then Ronnie came in. But he didn't want us to wait for him so we left. We sought after a crepe store also known as a crepiery. We walked and finally found one a few metro stops away. The waitress did not speak English but Joy had studied French in college and ordered for everyone.
After a quick lunch of good authentic French crepes - which could have been a little thicker with some good ol maple syrup – we dispersed a little planning on meeting at a nearby internet cafe at 2:30. Nadine wanted to go to the post office but they were all closed for lunch. So I figured I could wait, too. Some of the others wandered as did Emerald and I. We walked around and then I lost her in a small mall. I figured she went back to the internet cafe but by the time I found it, everyone was gone. So I went back to the first hotel, left a message, and went to my hotel. Eric and I hung out a bit but didn't meet up with the girls at the other hotel till the next morning. By email, we knew that Nadine and Joy would catch the same train so we decided to hang out before that. Nadine suggested Cafe de Flour for breakfast, a famous cafe of olden times apparently so we went. However, the five euro latte that I had could have been from Dunkin Donuts. Her hot coco though was amazing, made from real melted choclate. No Nesquick here.
I bought train tickets and then went to the post office and back to the hotel. A quick call for a taxi that could fit all of us was ordered by the receptionist but with constant red lights and slow moving traffic, the taxi got us at the train station four minutes before it would leave. Needless to say, we missed it. We watched it pull away and had to pay an extra ten euro each for new tickets for the next one in an hour. The three hour train ride through the beautiful French country was dimmed some times due to an overcast but other times shined gorgeously. We saw sheep and lambs, cows, horses, little towns, and tall majestic steeples. We finally arrived and met Oreo, our camp director, and Lucas, and Ronnie again. And then the drive from the train station to the site took us from a medium sized city to a small city and then finally to the village which is adjacent to the chatue where we will have our camp.
We had to come up with camp names. At first, I thought Oreo was a French name but her name tag of the Oreo cookie wrapper said otherwise. We all had to come up with one so after much thought, I settled on Baloo. Several others frittered through my brain but this one just fit. Some others I had considered were Pongo, Vader, Grimlock, Spike, and Bicep. Ironically, my childhood entertainment inspired me a great deal. Perhaps in many facets of my life as well.
My other co-workers are as follows: Indiana Jones (or Indy for short), Foxy, Kazoo, Veggie, Click, Ace, Banana, and Nazgoul (or Naz for short but I catch myself calling him Raz instead).
The food here is... okay. Its worse for the three vegetarians because the cooks don't seem to understand the concept according to our French boss. I'm not usually a picky eater but they like recycling food by taking what we don't eat and throwing it into a dish tomorrow. I mean don't get me wrong, I would do the exact same thing for me but somehow at a 18th century castle/ hotel, we expected better. There is plenty of quantity though. There is always an appetizer, main course, cheese, and desert. Yeah, cheese. That's a little odd to me.
In the organization of camp, there are 'families.' The kids are grouped up in different groups which we got to name. We went with classic board games as a theme. Oreo suggested the use of a theme so now we have Clue, Monopoly, Connect 4, Battleship, and Twister. Making those posters were fun except Clue, I didn't know what to do with that except paste a bunch of detective stuff on it. Battleship was fun thought. I drew two ships and some explosions in the air. I felt like it was missing something and then it hit me. I needed 'a hit.' So I drew a dark red explosion on the ship on the right. Others drew the others such as pasting printed copies of Monopoly money and a big pic of Uncle Moneybags.
There are so many details that can probably explained throughout my time here. I feel like this one blog update is getting lengthy anyways. We get a lot of free time but mostly we spend it all together. Which is good. Even now, there are three people wondering why we don't have any green vegetables in the massive meals we have. Its a cool group along with some fellow Tozer readers and Christians and even some unrefined sarcastic people. From my point of view, everyone here should work well with kids, except me, since I hate children, I think they're jerks.
March 25- 28, 2009
After two straight days of planning for this English immersion camp, we still have a lot more work to do. It's Saturday morning and decorations are up, posters have been made, directions have been dictated, and in general, this camp sounds like it is going to be great.
After my touristy time in Paris, I moved from hostel to paid-for hotel. Unlike Prague, the metro stops are not everywhere you look. So a quick taxi got my luggage and I safely to the small hotel with a pleasant old lady receptionist. She spoke enough English to tell me that there was water in my room and I was to go to another hotel just down the road. So my luggage - which I am immensely weary of dragging around – rolled around the corner and I came to the designated hotel. Another friendly receptionist welcomed me and showed me the lift (aka elevator) and gave me the key. I put my stuff down and immediately left.
I had been emailing a fellow co-worked who I only knew as Nadine and she wanted to meet up with everyone which of course everyone agreed to. But actually doing it is another matter. I emailed her saying I would be in the lobby at noon however I thought I we would actually be in the same hotel. As I walked briskly to the first hotel's lobby, I spotted a restaurant right across the road. But alas, no escargo. Since I was late, I expected everyone else to be there but I was alone. So I waited, reading a tourist's guide to the seven palaces in Paris and around. A few people came through the hotel doors but no one looked for me nor spoke English. Finally, I heard two people speaking English. I wasn't quite sure if they were also working for American Village but they introduced themselves at the desk and I made my way towards them. It was Nadine and Eric. But they had yet to check in so Eric – who was to be my roommate- was told about the water and I said I could easily show him where we were to stay. He helped carry Nadine's luggage up the stairs to the fourth floor because for some reason, this hotel did not have an elevator. So I'm kinda selfishly glad I was moved.
Eric and I walked over, got settled, then went back to meet up with the others. Nadine, who had been working as a business intern in England yet from the Chicago area, as well as Emerald and Mackenzie, who had just backpacked from Kenya to Egypt to Palestine to Europe. Now that is an adventure! They were strongly looking forward to having a place to call 'my bed' for a while. Although they were going to a different camp site, we may meet up again since American Village switches staff around as they see fit.
In fact, do break out of the chronological cycle of my tale, our site's staff was just informed of the schedule. Not this week, but the following one, I will have a week off. It's not paid but I can travel our stay at the site for 10 euro a night. Now considering I am getting a little tired of the constant travel and since I don't know where my next work-site will be, I am planning on staying here. If I did take one bag and go see Montpellier or Nice or something somewhere, I don't know yet if I would get to come back here or if I would have to go somewhere else. And for here, ten euros a night includes food and the bed. That's better than any hostel I have stayed at. No travel costs either. I could walk around the countryside and catch up on some writing. I know blog readers may enjoy that aspect. But anyways...
So as we were leaving to go grab some food, we ran into Joy coming into the hotel. We waited for her but then Ronnie came in. But he didn't want us to wait for him so we left. We sought after a crepe store also known as a crepiery. We walked and finally found one a few metro stops away. The waitress did not speak English but Joy had studied French in college and ordered for everyone.
After a quick lunch of good authentic French crepes - which could have been a little thicker with some good ol maple syrup – we dispersed a little planning on meeting at a nearby internet cafe at 2:30. Nadine wanted to go to the post office but they were all closed for lunch. So I figured I could wait, too. Some of the others wandered as did Emerald and I. We walked around and then I lost her in a small mall. I figured she went back to the internet cafe but by the time I found it, everyone was gone. So I went back to the first hotel, left a message, and went to my hotel. Eric and I hung out a bit but didn't meet up with the girls at the other hotel till the next morning. By email, we knew that Nadine and Joy would catch the same train so we decided to hang out before that. Nadine suggested Cafe de Flour for breakfast, a famous cafe of olden times apparently so we went. However, the five euro latte that I had could have been from Dunkin Donuts. Her hot coco though was amazing, made from real melted choclate. No Nesquick here.
I bought train tickets and then went to the post office and back to the hotel. A quick call for a taxi that could fit all of us was ordered by the receptionist but with constant red lights and slow moving traffic, the taxi got us at the train station four minutes before it would leave. Needless to say, we missed it. We watched it pull away and had to pay an extra ten euro each for new tickets for the next one in an hour. The three hour train ride through the beautiful French country was dimmed some times due to an overcast but other times shined gorgeously. We saw sheep and lambs, cows, horses, little towns, and tall majestic steeples. We finally arrived and met Oreo, our camp director, and Lucas, and Ronnie again. And then the drive from the train station to the site took us from a medium sized city to a small city and then finally to the village which is adjacent to the chatue where we will have our camp.
We had to come up with camp names. At first, I thought Oreo was a French name but her name tag of the Oreo cookie wrapper said otherwise. We all had to come up with one so after much thought, I settled on Baloo. Several others frittered through my brain but this one just fit. Some others I had considered were Pongo, Vader, Grimlock, Spike, and Bicep. Ironically, my childhood entertainment inspired me a great deal. Perhaps in many facets of my life as well.
My other co-workers are as follows: Indiana Jones (or Indy for short), Foxy, Kazoo, Veggie, Click, Ace, Banana, and Nazgoul (or Naz for short but I catch myself calling him Raz instead).
The food here is... okay. Its worse for the three vegetarians because the cooks don't seem to understand the concept according to our French boss. I'm not usually a picky eater but they like recycling food by taking what we don't eat and throwing it into a dish tomorrow. I mean don't get me wrong, I would do the exact same thing for me but somehow at a 18th century castle/ hotel, we expected better. There is plenty of quantity though. There is always an appetizer, main course, cheese, and desert. Yeah, cheese. That's a little odd to me.
In the organization of camp, there are 'families.' The kids are grouped up in different groups which we got to name. We went with classic board games as a theme. Oreo suggested the use of a theme so now we have Clue, Monopoly, Connect 4, Battleship, and Twister. Making those posters were fun except Clue, I didn't know what to do with that except paste a bunch of detective stuff on it. Battleship was fun thought. I drew two ships and some explosions in the air. I felt like it was missing something and then it hit me. I needed 'a hit.' So I drew a dark red explosion on the ship on the right. Others drew the others such as pasting printed copies of Monopoly money and a big pic of Uncle Moneybags.
There are so many details that can probably explained throughout my time here. I feel like this one blog update is getting lengthy anyways. We get a lot of free time but mostly we spend it all together. Which is good. Even now, there are three people wondering why we don't have any green vegetables in the massive meals we have. Its a cool group along with some fellow Tozer readers and Christians and even some unrefined sarcastic people. From my point of view, everyone here should work well with kids, except me, since I hate children, I think they're jerks.
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