So, I wrote last after I returned to Madrid and had lunch with Julian, on Friday June 27. That afternoon I spent an extremely annoying hour and a half looking for the mail boxes, etc. location I had found online to send my package to my mother. No dice, so I came back to my hostel and found a DHL, where they told me it would cost €72 to send it to my mom! What the crap!?!? It is not heavy or large at all, it is just long, so I said no and left. Maybe I will have to keep carting it around. I am going to check with UPS and FedEx to see if I can find something better. (cheaper)
Okay, so after that ridiculous errand, I had my first meeting with my director and the other staff of the camp. We are as follows, myself and Ali, the two Canadian counsellors, both from the U of Guelph. Andrea is one of the English teachers and is from Holland. She is probably one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my entire life. Tall, blond, high cheek bones, blue eyes, thin... and exceptionally modest. She is very funny and polite and I think the children will love her. She worked at a similar camp in Italy last year and has such funny stories from it:
The other English teahcer is Gillian, a German born, American citizen, who grew up in Germany, but went to university in Nashville. She is very funny, and loves potatoes with hot sauce.
"I told the children to sit on the ground to start their English lesson and this one girl looks at me and says ´These are Prada jeans, I am not sitting on the ground´ So I said 'Fine, you can stand.' " -Andrea
Next, the Spanish contingent: Patricia, Mária and José. Patricia is our director, and I think is only maybe 21 or so. She is nervous right now, but she has a quiet confidence and I think she will be a good leader. Next, Mária, who will be my partner in crime for the arts and crafts activities. She is very, very funny and we are going to run an hour and a half arts and crafts session together everyday. We picked our favourite lessons from our two lesson plans and are going to have a lot of fun making paper maché piñatas, chocolate cake, tye dyed t-shirts, hemp necklaces and dream catchers. Finally, José is Ali´s partner in the dance/theatre/sports workshops. José is very, very funny and dramatic, his sense of humour reminds me of my other male Spanish friends, very cheeky. They have the same schedule as Mária and I, and the children will rotate between us day to day.
The camp schedule for this camp is a lot less work than at the last camp I worked at because the children have an hour of pool time every day and a hour or two of sailing as well. This more time just monitoring them and less time instructing and leading activities. Plus, they spend half the day doing English classes, so all the Canadian and Spanish counsellors are responsible to lead is our workshops (described above) and the before-bed activity. We are having a bit of a fight right now because, there is a concept at the company that runs the camps that having the children run around and scream before bed is good, because it tires them out. Unfortunately, in myself and Ali´s camp experience, a more relaxed activity to calm them down and send them to bed usually works better, as night time sports just get them revved up.... So, we´ll see how it goes... we have agreed to try both and see which works best, a scientific approach which sits well with me.
After all the planning, Ali and I returned to 'Las Tablas' the flamenco club in Madrid which I went to with my parents two years ago. It was incredible, once again, both the dance and the sangria. No Mom, Nacho is not still there, but another excellent male dancer is. After the show, we walked Ali home, and Julian and I went for a couple copas de vino at some cafés near by. He walked me back to my hostel, where I managed to get to bed without bothering anyone too much.
This morning Saturday, June 28, 2008, Ali and I grabbed a quick breakfast before heading over for more planning sessions. We were there for about two and a half hours when we all went for a very fun, very typically Spanish lunch. Even just in the last 24 hours, the team has begun to come together very well. After that I passed out in my room for about 5 hours, then had a Shwarma and came here to write this. I had better jet now though, we have to leave the hostel at 6:30 to catch the 8am bus. We get the kids tomorrow night between 5-7 and are just going to eat dinner and watch the big football game, I am hoping Spain wins, because it would be fun... but I am not looking forward to crazy excited children who don´t want to sleep....
So I suppose I´ll be happy and sad either way,
K-camp-craft-girl
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