More news from camp

Well, it won't take too long to update y'all on my everyday life, because so far, I've been at home the whole time.  Yes, I've come down with a cold.  I spent yesterday sleeping and taking weird Russian pills.  Masha and her family have been taking very good care of me; I've had more tea than can be found in China, and have like three kinds of weird lozenges.  I even had to do some kind of horrible throat gargle.  But actually, I feel better today.  Tomorrow, I should be able to start work at the English Studio.

And now, more from camp.

Пока ребята!  Russian Jane

PS Пеееееерец!

DAY TWO: THEY ARRIVE

Pre-arrival: I'm sitting on my top bunk in our room in the precious little free-time I have before the campers arrive.  I'm also hungry, just as a note.  I always eat a lot abroad.

This morning, we started with a short meeting as a team and finished our counselor's training.  The theme keeps getting cooler.  They've set up a big fake customs for the kids to check into, and Dannah and I, the only native English speakers, are customs officials.  It should be fun. 

Before my precious free time, we made a short movie.  There's a pretty big emphasis on video at this camp, and at the end they make a pretty nifty DVD.  Every day they make a video and try to make sure each kid is seen, and then they show it at the evening meeting.  This video involved all of us climbing into (ok, crouching behind) a suitcase that the leader Andree carried around camp and to the main hall.  It should be a really fun intro to the camp.  I hope I can get the video up when I have it.

Other than that, it's a lot of goofing around with the other counselors, who are all quite swell.  A lot of them already know each other from camp, so I've been feeling a little like the odd-man-out, but I think that feeling will go away.

Well, now I have to wait until after lunch when the hoodlums arrive!

Post-arrival: I have a hard time believing that it's only been one day so far because of the amount of things that I've done today.  To spare a lot of space, I'll just do a short list.

-       Worked at “customs” with Dannah checking documents, which was actually just asking the kids a few questions to ascertain their English level. A lot of this went like, “oh, what’s your name?”  “….I’m fine.” This took two and a half hours.

-       I helped make “parachutes”, which were big plastic bags with a rip-cord made of thread and a mini-bagel

-       Played capture the flag

-       Moved AGAIN; we had another girl come so there was no room for me in our cabin, but now I’m living with Anna and a girl named Serafima, which is actually great

-       Had a big meeting with singing, dancing, etc.  The parachutes came into play because we were on an airplane (duh) and the kids had to jump out, which involved them running to the front door of our meeting hall, climbing on a table, and jumping on a mattress

-       Played Snipers; our girls had to guard Varvara and I from a sniper with a red laser pointer as we tried to make it to the soccer field for our evening snack

-       Helped our girls choreograph a dance to be presented later, to show of the talents of the Super Stars (that’s us!)

The girls are all sweethearts, as I expected.  Our cabin, “Oslo” (every cabin has a different name) can earn points for being punctual, and there’s one girl, Anya, who always has a little watch and is our official timekeeper.  She alerts us at fifteen till and five till whatever we’re doing.  Another girl, Katya who wants to be called Kate, is a real sassy-pants, and of course I like that.  Then there’s little Alina, who’s just as sweet as can be and always wants to hold my hand.  She’s been upset today because she won’t be able to talk to her mom for two days, and I understand the feeling; I really miss talking to my family.

Ok, my new room is fine, except there’s some kid shrieking bloody murder down the hall, and it’s 11:30pm.  Stop kid, stop.

There you have it, day two!  I suspect the descriptions will get shorter as the week progresses, but there you go! Now, I’m going to bed before I expire.