First Half of Week 2!

 July 28th-30th

So far this week has been rather stressful, but today (Wednesday) was much better! The thing with the British Garrisons is we have mostly new kids each week and some returning throughout the summer. This week, we do have mostly new kids because the others are on holiday with their families. This makes it difficult for a few reasons…we have to form new bonds, learn new personalities, re-establish the rules, and help them adapt. It is nice, however, to have the few kids that returned from last week though! Most of them are 9 and 10 years so they help us counselors out by setting an example for the little ones. One mother jokingly called her son "a proper shit" which made my day. You'd never hear that kind of honesty in America. What a wonderfully blunt delivery! 

Tuesday was especially crazy because nothing went according to plan. First, our scheduled visit from the Police Officers never happened. They didn’t even call to cancel, which was a little frustrating with 45 anxious children and 6 sleep deprived counselors. Then it rained all day, so they couldn’t go outside. Correction…we tried the outside in the rain, but then 8-year-old Lauren slipped and face planted. Her mother arrived to pick her up and we were prepared to apologize and explain the situation, but instead were received by her mother’s laughter and “don’t worry about it” attitude. Such a relief! Lauren is such a trooper though! Her face was pretty scraped up too. Something else happened, but I honestly couldn't tell you what because I was so delusional the whole day. All I know was it created more problems during the day with an already rowdy bunch! I even fell asleep on my break for the whole 30 minutes! 

I was very excited about today because I got to work with the kids one-on-one more! We did finger painting and we were having the best time and then Janise stopped by and was pissed. Basically what happened was Kimbriana (the girl with the crutches) went out of ratio by a lot at her free choice activity. We are usually out of ratio due to some unexpected circumstances and needed breaks. But I always tell the girls to limit their groups to a max of 12 kids. Also, it is an unspoken rule to not be on your phone, but apparently she was on it the whole time. The kids like to play football (soccer) just out back in this gated area. You have to be sure to keep the door open with a brick. Unfortunately, she wasn’t doing her job and three kids got out around the building. So guess who got in trouble? Me, the director. Our ratio for Camp is 1:12 and for AWS Paderborn it is 1:8, but with an injured staff and the necessity of breaks, we are usually out of ratio, but have never had a problem because most of my girls know to keep their phones away and keep their kids in check. Not gonna lie, I had to go up and whip the kids into shape. I had about half go inside that were just lolly gaggling and then shot a text to Steve asking to meet him after work. Again, Steve always has our backs 100% and insists that we have breaks and will try to compromise with Janise, who now wants to take our breaks away. She basically overrode me in front of all my girls, which made me feel undermined, especially since I took care of the situation. I can’t do my job with my hands tied behind my back.

Anyways…enough of that drama, today was a much better day and I’m excited to go in tomorrow! Hopefully the kids are well-behaved and the day goes smoothly. We also had the firefighters visit this week and the kids got to check out the fire truck and use the hose to knock a tennis ball off a cone. They loved it!

We busted out posters and programming after work for a few hours for Space Week next week so we can go to Labori tomorrow. Labori is a festival in Paderborn with a lot of German food, culture, and carnival rides. A couple of our girls went on Monday and said it was super fun, so we’re excited to go tomorrow!

That’s all for now! TTFN :)

Practicing their water hosing skills :)

Had a great day today with a few of my little Brits <3

Berlin Weekend

Can I just say..."cheers to the freaking weekend?!" We left right after work on Friday around 4 and I'm pretty sure the picture below shows what kind of week we had d= We arrived in Berlin around 10 p.m., checked into our hostel, and found a great place to eat dinner. We were starving! Oh the Camp A life!

Ready to go out! Just kidding we went to bed shortly after..

Dinner with Erika and Emilie :)

So happy to be on our way :)

Jump shot on the West Side of the Berlin Wall!

Waterfront 

Sangria for dayss :)

Two of my favorite things: beer and a bratwurst 

Out with a couple of the girls. Unfortunately, Kimbriana is being sent home because of her knee injury :(

We met some Slovenians!

Such a solid breakfast. Love the coffee :)

Returning on Sunday evening was quite the feat as we arrived in Paderborn, but our bus was not running like we were told it should be. So after 3 hours of attempting to get home, we finally made it! What a trek though and what an experience! 

1st Week: July 21st-July 25th 2014

Oh my goodness, where do I begin! Our first week was awesome and so extremely stressful! I had no idea what to expect, but the kids are just awesome! They are so polite and we’re learning new slang every day! We have 50 kids this week! That’s right, 50 between 6 of us! Whoo! I organize the whole day so I make sure that everyone transitions one time and gets their breaks. The one thing I’m sad about is I don’t get as much time with the kids because I’m constantly floating, talking to parents, communicating with my POC, and making sure every day flows smoothly. Our first day was a little crazy because it’s the first day, brand new kids; we have to set up the rules, etc. So it was a little rough, but we powered thru it and it turned out well. We had one parent complaint, which was a bit scary, but Steve is behind us a 100%! I talked with the mother after camp on Tuesday and just when things were starting to look up and she realized it was a huge misunderstanding, her bratty little son comes up to her and says “Mother, today someone called me ‘stupid.’” I mentally slapped him. Thankfully the situation was diffused quickly, but holy cow what timing.

British kids say the darnest things! Jacob came up to me and told me, “My sister really gives me the nerves and the horrors.” I had to struggle to keep a straight face on that one. Something interesting about British children is…even when they get upset, they’re voice level stays the same; it’s their facial expressions that depict their emotion. So even if they’re freaking out, they’re voice level is still very calm :) This same boy came up to me later in the week and told me that someone called him “chubby” and asked him what that meant. I told him it meant, “that there’s more to love.” I literally thought that up last minute—had no idea what to say lol.

We’ve been picking up some slang too! We now say “toilet” opposed to “bathroom,” “rubbish bin” opposed to “garbage can” or “trash can,” “plaster” instead of “band-aid,” etc. Oh and one big one is “football” not “soccer.” Now that one is hard to remember! It’s funny because we are constantly surrounded by U.K. accents. Some of our kids are from Scotland, Ireland, but most are from England, so we are able to tell the difference between their accents, which is cool! Also, I’ll catch myself speaking with a slight accent or saying certain words in an accent as well. I’ve even started to read in an accent! Accents! Accents! Accents!

One thing I found about this culture that I do not like is their large consumption of juice. It. Is. Ridiculous. The kids come to Camp with large “water bottles” full of juice and they want more juice throughout the day. Some parents are confused as to why we don’t offer juice. I sure do love explaining to them the importance of water…not. Now we have to offer juice, but we’ve diluted with a ton of water! Juice is sooo concentrated here it is crazy! I can’t even sip it…gross. Kids are also complaining of stomach aches and feeling dehydrated. Gee I wonder why…?! One of the parents said that it’s not the juice causing the dehydration and stomach aches because their kids are used to it, but when it’s hot out and they’re running around, you need water. It’s inevitable. So that one thing I’m trying to wrap my head around. But thankfully, since we started diluting the juice, there’s been less stomach aches and less dehydration ;)

Also, throughout the week, us counselors carry around paper coins in our pockets. If we spot a camper completing a good deed, being kind, or following Camp A rules we have them write their name on a coin and stick it in our "Gold Box." Then every Friday we pull 15 coins out of the box and each name we pull gets to participate in "water a counselor" and throw a cup of water on us! It's super fun! Unfortunately, Friday was our rather gray day and the weather wasn't too warm, but what fun it was!

One of our girls getting ready to water the counselor 

Sarah's ready! I'm less enthusiastic.

Jessica got me good!

On Friday we had our first Camp A Presents! Parents and friends come to watch our small groups perform two or three songs for everyone. We provided coffee and cakes, which is a nice addition. The parents were so grateful and they all loved it! The kids were so cute and it was so nice that so many parents made an effort to attend.

Ms. Mango's group of 9-10 year olds

Ms. Berry's group are ready to present!

Some of our parents!

We made it through the first week aka, the worst week!