The Prussia Periodicals

May 21-24 Mont d'Olmes/ Perpignan/ Toulouse/ Foix/ Mont d'Olmes Today is actually the 24th but these are excerpts from my journal that I took with me: May 21: I'm sitting on a hill by Mont d'Olmes. I hear wind and water and the flutter of my paper and the scratch of my pencil. The sun is rising before me and the mountains including the one peak I conquered yesterday are to my right. I smell spring! The hills stretch out of the valley but only go so far- just like my vision as haze of a new day envelopes the French countryside. Will I be at the beach later today or tomorrow? It's roughly 6:30 am. I'm thinking of Psalm 18:1. The clouds are covering the rising sun except for one glorious burst of light that is blaring through the gray-blue clouds like a soloing trumpet over the rest of the orchestra. A warm breeze just passed over me but is now gone. I'm slightly chilled again. May 22: Oh joy upon joys! I'm sitting on a Mediterranean beach! Despite the fact...

May 20th Mont d'Olmes So I never posted that lost blog entry on time. I'll do it now. What a great week! The kids were super, the new counselors that got transferred to us were great, the weather was fantastic. The trees are green everywhere. There are some late bloomers but there is green were there was brown, gray, and white. This mountain site is turning into something beautiful. In an hour, I'm gonna go hike up the mountain again and see if anyone is interested in joining me. A car load already left for Perpignan- or however you spell it- and then tomorrow, Aladdin, Carebear, Doodle, and I are following. We will go the Mediterranean Sea, hang at the beach, maybe see a castle, see the town and chill. CJ, Grizz, Dotcom, Indy, and Brooklyn are doing there own thin tonight as we stay at this beautiful mountain. Two weeks ago, I do not think this place was beautiful. Majestic, maybe, as any mountain should be. But lovely to the eye? No. I'm sitting outside for the first ...

May 17th Mont d'Olmes Today is Sunday but Discover America Day. Usually that is Tuesday but since the kids came on Saturday and we got almost zero-weekend, the schedule is messed up. However, we do get a four day weekend starting Thursday. Tomorrow is Wild West Day, and following is Hollywood Day. And then it is Graduation/ Farewell Day and they are gone by Wednesday afternoon. Being on activities is more preference. I am certified to teach English but Activities is more fun and I feel like I get more free time. And my free time is during ESL classes, not the afternoon games and activities. So my job is to play rather than teach. I like it. I bought my plane ticket. Did I already write about that? Maybe. I have been entering blog entries on the camp computers as well as my laptop. More so the former as of late since my laptop is being held up by packaging tape on both sides. The monitor was iffy for a while but now it flops in the breeze like ... something that flops. My English is...

May 16th Mont d'Olmes This is my last Satuday at Mont d'Olmes. Because we have no weekend this weekend and the kids arrive in ten minutes, next weekend is a four day weekend. Brooklyn, Indy, and some others are talking about a bunch of us going to the beach. So yeah, I'll be going to a Meditteranean beach. Did I spell Mediteranean right? I don't have time to check. The children are coming! The children are coming! I thought I would have time to write more on this deserted mountain but apparently not. During the evenings, everyone plops down and we either go to sleep or stay up and talk for a while. In Prague, this blog was consistent; now I'm lucky to get two entries off in a week for you faitfhul friends, family, fans. But don't you worry, two more weeks and I'm back in the States!

May 12th Mont d'Olmes This week's kids seem nice. Of course the one rambunctious boy in the whole group is in my family but I am on Activities, not ESL, this week, so I will not have to deal with a classroom... just a parking lot of fifty-one children wanting to play baseball. Four counselors are on ESL and five on activities so I think it'll be great. Indy is here at Mont d'Olmes so that's cool too. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Argh! May 8th Mont d'Olmes It this week finally over? What has been possibly the worst week at American Village for the team here at Les Monts d'Olmes and myself is at last finished. The kids came from a fancy private school and were spoiled rich. They did not respect us when we tried to get them to be quiet or do group activities. Eventually, after repetition and forced one-on-one reiteration of what we wanted (“Be quiet!” “Sit down!” “Sit up!” “Stop talking” “Away from the wall!” “Stop that!”) they would settle and listen for two minutes and continue talking. The worst is when they would listen and understand “stop talking” and then as soon as a counselor would turn away, they would continue talking. Granted, they are just kids, but every other group that we have had has been better behaved. And I say 'spoiled' because whenever we planned something or forced them to do something they didn't like, they would pout, groan, moan, and whine. These thirty-six 11 and 12 ...

May 5th Mont d'Olmes PLaying baseball and American football with French 10-12 year olds who have never thrown one before can be challenging. But lots of fun. If a ball rolls down a hill, we pray it doesn't go into the rushing river that emerges from the pipe system underneath the ski slopes. There are some grates I saw from Sunday around the ski lifts where I heard the sound of rushing water. The snow is melting finally in the merry month of May and we actually have grass! We walked through some mud to get to the parking lot where we play our rotation of baseball/football. As I type this on the camp computer, I see the reflection of the moniter of the window and the amazing view behind it. One of the many peaks stretches to the top of the French door/window and there is a close cloud that is creating a shadow along the top. Some pines and rock faces are still brightly lit up from the gorgeous sun which is out in full power today. I think it is probably 15 or 20 degrees today. C...

May 3rd Mont d'Olmes The snowy peaks called me up today. At 3 o'clock, I walked up to a peak of 1950 meters and looked down at the ski slopes and across at the flat clouds at my eye level. Before me across a valley were Pyrenees Mountains of France as well as possibly Spain and/or Andorra. It took only an hour and half from the American Village camp site including several breaks as I would sit on my coat and catch my breathe. After the first half hour, I took off my coat for I worked up enough body heat and I was walking in 5 degree celcius weather. At the base of the ski slopes and the snowy mountain, the snow was thin, icy, and easy to walk over. Sometimes I would hit an icy patch and I would walk goose-toed (is that the right term?) with my heels in to give me better traction. Half way up, the snow got thicker. My bad planning and lack of proper materials resulted in me soon wearing wet jeans over thermals and thick socks. The quickly melting snow on the top wetted my legs b...

May 2nd Mont d'Olmes To answer my own previous blog's questions: yes, American Village will pay for one night in a hotel in Paris when my contract is finished- which is May 31st. Triple R Ranch pre-camp does not start until June 3rd. So I can make. And Jeanette, the most awesomest summer camp director in the world, said I can take some RnR time before I return to RRR! Weekends can be boring when you're alone in a ski resort. I've reached the end of our camp's petite movie collection. I even started to watch Spy Kids 3 during lunch but quickly abandoned that foolish notion. How do you say 'cheesy' in French? So everyone went to Toullouse for the three day weekend, leaving me and my writing for some time to catch up with one another. It's a complicated relationship. Sometimes I want it to work out, sometimes I can't stand another thought of it. We have a special bond. This relationship takes a lot of work. I'm on chapter twelve already but am alway...

Je neh comprah pah francais April 30th/ May 1st Mont d'Olmes For more weeks. Not that I'm counting. Will I have a week or at least a weekend to hang out with my family before I go to Triple R Ranch and work for the summer? I don't know. I do know that I am in good enough terms with our wonderful summer camp director to possibly skip the two week long orientation and come a little late to ease back into the States; that is if I do not already miss it while in Europe. When does it start? I don't know. And after my contract is over, do I get to stay in Paris for a free night at a hotel by grace of the camp company? I don't know. As you can see, I do not know many things. But that's alright. I'm not worried. But that doesn't mean I should not plan ahead. This three day weekend should be relaxing. I hope to do some more writing, maybe a little sketching, and practice my juggling. Thirteen year old kids are better than me and our director here, CJ, can do tric...

April 29th 2009 Mont d'Olmes So I'm not exactly like Antonie Banderas in 13th Warrior, who just listened to a foreign language and picked up every grammar point, idiom and insult; but I am learning some French. Very little, but French nonetheless. My faithful readers may also be curious to know that I am starting to learn how to juggle. No bowling pins yet, however. The power outage last night may have forced the whole carnival to close down including my exciting and popular ring toss but instead, we had a great time that was the highlight of the day- at least for the staff. A shadow puppet show was conducted from back stage; a scary story was told; a song they learned in school was sung by the students; cheers were conducted; and all in all, people had a good time. I have no idea if they got to their beds safely but the counselors took a moment and stared up at the pristine starry sky not too far above us. Through our window into the valley- a mountainous pass opening up near ...