April 19
Les Monts d'Olmes
April 19th, 2009
Two days ago, I walked around in shorts. Yesterday, I stood in a hail storm for the first time. Today, I am in a building right next to a ski lift, staring up at a white mountain shrouded in a cloud. It snowed this morning for a little while but the afternoon sun that reflects so brightly off of the sun is melting it.
Now that I can see the difference between two different camp sites, it is almost easier to talk about Petit Bois. The team had gotten to know each other fairly well, but the group here - isolated on a mountain with out-of-season closed ski slopes- has bonded strongly. Bree and I from Petit Bois are not at all isolated as they welcomed us and showed us around. But after the late night party on Friday night and then waking up at 7 am to catch a train at 8 am in Montlucon and then two other trains to take us to the town of Foix and then an hour long car ride up the winding road up to where snow was just on the side of the road to where it covers the peak... I was tired. I went to sleep after they started a game of wine pong where cups of wine were placed on the table and if you sank one in, you win.
Petit Bois had a glorious soccer field next to it and plenty of grass. Monts d'Olmes has a lot of unusable snow. We can't exactly play baseball here nor a lot of games that we did at the Petit Bois site. The computers were faster there, a town and supermarket was in walking distance, and it was good. Here, there is beautiful snow, a gourmet chef, and inspiring scenery.
We have a group of thirteen year olds coming this week. We'll see how different that is from eleven year olds. Hopefully, their English will be better and I can have a natural conversation with them. Some of the eleven year olds could explain what they want unlike the eight year olds of the first week. When we were planning a skit, the kids decided to do a parody of Star Wars 3, revenge of the sith. They knew the vocab of clones, droids, emperor, and all other proper nouns so they could say “I am Anakin!” without any trouble. The added their own lines like “Hello Emperor.” “Hello Anakin, how are you today.” “Fine thanks.”
Looking up, I see one patch of blue sky in between the cloud that is loafing by our peak. Now the sun is shining from around the corner, casting a shadow past mounds of snow. It is very different from the fields and flowers that I left last week. When a rain storm would come and a strong breeze would pick up, I could smell the cows from their pastures far away. It was fun though, when riding on the train with Bree/Veggie, we saw the mountains in the distance and I started singing and she briefly joined in, “snow snow snow snow, it won't be long till will all be there with snow.”
Here on the peak, we planned out the ESL lessons for the week together, all planning on teaching the same thing. The director, Calamity Jane/ CJ, says they may all have the same level of English but others doubt it. Willow, Brooklyn, Flava Flav, and I will be teaching English and I like the structure they have. At Petit Bois, we planned the next day's lesson the day before, sometimes after the nightly meeting at ten.
Tomorrow, the teens arrive at noon. No matter what site I go to, the general American Village gist stays the same. In that light, there is consistency for the next six weeks.
April 19th, 2009
Two days ago, I walked around in shorts. Yesterday, I stood in a hail storm for the first time. Today, I am in a building right next to a ski lift, staring up at a white mountain shrouded in a cloud. It snowed this morning for a little while but the afternoon sun that reflects so brightly off of the sun is melting it.
Now that I can see the difference between two different camp sites, it is almost easier to talk about Petit Bois. The team had gotten to know each other fairly well, but the group here - isolated on a mountain with out-of-season closed ski slopes- has bonded strongly. Bree and I from Petit Bois are not at all isolated as they welcomed us and showed us around. But after the late night party on Friday night and then waking up at 7 am to catch a train at 8 am in Montlucon and then two other trains to take us to the town of Foix and then an hour long car ride up the winding road up to where snow was just on the side of the road to where it covers the peak... I was tired. I went to sleep after they started a game of wine pong where cups of wine were placed on the table and if you sank one in, you win.
Petit Bois had a glorious soccer field next to it and plenty of grass. Monts d'Olmes has a lot of unusable snow. We can't exactly play baseball here nor a lot of games that we did at the Petit Bois site. The computers were faster there, a town and supermarket was in walking distance, and it was good. Here, there is beautiful snow, a gourmet chef, and inspiring scenery.
We have a group of thirteen year olds coming this week. We'll see how different that is from eleven year olds. Hopefully, their English will be better and I can have a natural conversation with them. Some of the eleven year olds could explain what they want unlike the eight year olds of the first week. When we were planning a skit, the kids decided to do a parody of Star Wars 3, revenge of the sith. They knew the vocab of clones, droids, emperor, and all other proper nouns so they could say “I am Anakin!” without any trouble. The added their own lines like “Hello Emperor.” “Hello Anakin, how are you today.” “Fine thanks.”
Looking up, I see one patch of blue sky in between the cloud that is loafing by our peak. Now the sun is shining from around the corner, casting a shadow past mounds of snow. It is very different from the fields and flowers that I left last week. When a rain storm would come and a strong breeze would pick up, I could smell the cows from their pastures far away. It was fun though, when riding on the train with Bree/Veggie, we saw the mountains in the distance and I started singing and she briefly joined in, “snow snow snow snow, it won't be long till will all be there with snow.”
Here on the peak, we planned out the ESL lessons for the week together, all planning on teaching the same thing. The director, Calamity Jane/ CJ, says they may all have the same level of English but others doubt it. Willow, Brooklyn, Flava Flav, and I will be teaching English and I like the structure they have. At Petit Bois, we planned the next day's lesson the day before, sometimes after the nightly meeting at ten.
Tomorrow, the teens arrive at noon. No matter what site I go to, the general American Village gist stays the same. In that light, there is consistency for the next six weeks.
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