Indian Camp - German style!

I have to admit that my first few days of camp in Germany involved quite a bit of culture shock. I had spent six weeks working in camps with about four hundred students and about thirty teachers and activity leaders, not to mention group leaders and centre management.

Then I roll up to the Youth Hostel which is precisely one hour from the middle of nowhere to find that there are thirty students and three teachers. (That´s three including me!)
Added to that the total lack of resources and materials and you´ll understand that I was feeling kinda wobbly for the first day or three.

The other teacher was a lovely Californian girl, Doris, and we had a German native, Kai-Üwe, who was our translator/parent liason and generally worth his weight in gold.
Happily we had really nice kids, which was even more important than usual when you consider that in effect, Doris and I were on duty from 8 in the morning to 10 or 10.30 at night.

The youth hostel itself was a joy to stay at because the staff were friendly and the food was consistently delicious.

(I may in the course of these posts mention food quite a bit: when you are a travelling teacher at the mercy of whatever the canteen throws at you, the quality of the food becomes a major conversation topic!)

On Saturday night we all slept in the teepees. I say slept; I pretty much lay there shivering all night. It was freezing! I have used my sleeping bag in August before with no problems, but in a regular two man tent, not a ruddy great teepee with the top open - my poor sleeping bag just couldn´t cope.

Happily, at one on Sunday afternoon it began to rain.....and it kept raining till after ten that night. The teepee tops weren´t closed off in time, which let the insides get wet, so Doris, the students and I all decamped to the Youth Hostel. Where Doris and I got single rooms with en-suite and a television. I watched CNN International while snuggled in bed on Sunday night, grinning like the cat who got the cream, the canary AND the warm fireside!

And all the while it was still sinking in how quickly I had landed this job, and yes, I was in fact in German for two weeks, possibly more.

Travel fund....ka-ching!!!!