Second Half of Week 2!

July 31^st-August 1st 

The rest of Week 2 was bomb.com! On Thursday we had a surprise visit from British Forces Broadcasting (BFBS) who came to interview and record a segment on Camp A! It was terrifying and exciting at the same time! I was interviewed and picked four kids to be interviewed as well as one of my counselors, Jenna and our POC Steve! I do wish I had more time to prepare and wasn’t in my Camp uniform, but what an experience! I picked one of our 10-year-olds Liam because he’s one of the most charming kids I’ve ever met and he’s been going to Camp Adventure for the past 4 years. He often informs me that he is rather good at “athletics” and likes to prove so by playing one-on-one football (soccer). He is very sweet though. The segment later aired on British Television that night! It’s so wonderful how involved the garrisons are with Camp Adventure and how well they promote it!

Jessica and Jodie being interviewed!

Liam doing this thing :) 

Later that night we all went to Libori downtown for Kimbriana’s last night :/ Her replacement, Holly arrived Wednesday evening so she came along as well. I’m sorry to see Kimbriana leave, but I know it’s for the best. Quite frankly she’s a liability and it’s been really difficult working with her due to her work ethic and limitations due to her injury. But I’ve talked with her recently since she’s been back in the States and she seems to be doing well!

Myself and my girls: Jenna, Emilie, Erika, Kimbriana, Alma, and Holly, along with our PC Janise and our Scottish friend Andy all went to the Libori Festival. It was fun, but Janise becomes stressed very easily and sucked a lot of the fun out of it. We ended up only staying for an hour and going on two rides because we just had to make it back in time for curfew. I am worried that she is stressing out my girls and definitely myself because she is somewhat smothering…However, it was nice to be with friends outside of work, drink a beer, and relax after another day of work! Jenna and I were the only two that went on this stomach dropping ride, which literally had us plunging down to the ground and then immediately back up. I didn’t feel too good after, but it was worth it! Unfortunately, we lost a bit of our voices after, which makes it difficult at work since we are the two that yell at the kids the most haha. Just kidding…meh not really ;) We also all went on the Ferris Wheel, which confirmed my fear of heights, but in return gave us a breathtaking view of Paderborn!

Jenna and I are ready for the ride!

Walking through town to the Libori!

Beautiful views of Paderborn--Sennelager from the Ferris Wheel 

We're ready to go!

Just a mixture of excitement and terror lol

 Friday was fantastic because…well…it’s Friday of course! The kids were a little rowdy, but that’s to be expected! We did water the counselor of course and had a great “Closing!” I cannot remember if I’ve mentioned what “Closing” is or not, so I’ll go over it briefly. “Closing” is about 15 minutes that we take at the end of every Camp day to calm everyone down and get the kiddos ready to go home. We all sit in a big circle and counselors introduce themselves and tell a short story that relates to the song we sing. We almost always sing and sign “World’s Greatest” as well as link pinkies for “Linger,” “Friends,” and “Magic Penny.” There are more, but basically we sing these songs to reflect on the day and come together as a whole group. The kids here love “Magic Penny” because we pass an American penny around and whoever is holding it when the song ends, gets to keep the penny :) For the little Brits, being able to keep an American penny is quite the treat!

We had a bit of a stressful end to our Friday camp day though because one of our 7-year-olds, Jodie wasn’t picked up. She is transported to and from Camp on a separate car since both her parents work and live an hour away. She’s a very sweet girl, but I do feel sad that we never see Mum and Dad. Fortunately, we got a hold of her parents, but one of the bus transports took her home. Also, she finally told us after two days that she had a tick in the back of her head. That was probably the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen—it was embedded in her skull. Thankfully Steve was there and was able to tweezer it out, but poor Jodie was terrified. Although I loveee Germany, I will not miss the endless amount of bugs here. I have so many bites around my ankles, I might go get them checked out cause they’re disgusting. All right that’s enough about that haha sorry! Eventually what this story led up to is we almost didn’t make our train from Paderborn to Amsterdam because it was scheduled to leave at 3:38. So even though we end at 2 on Fridays, we usually don’t get out of there til 2:30 and by the time we walk home, get all of our stuff together and walk to the bus, 45 minutes has passed! Thankfully Jenna, Emilie, Erika, and I made it though and were on our way to Amsterdam!