Spike

Bon soir!

So every night from about 8 to 9:30, the kids play a game in this massive field near the hotel.  Last night they played Capture the Flag, which was, as I predicted, a huge hit.  It's a fact: all kids love Capture the Flag.  (One kid told me "I love Capture the Flag but it'd be more fun with guns!"... surprisingly he's not from the U.S., either...)  Another kid got a nosebleed though, and I almost passed out at the site of his blood spewing from his face... C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

Tonight, however, was probably the best night here so far.  Another counselor and I were in charge of ten 13 and 14 year-olds for the evening game, so we took them to this beach volleyball court.  The kids were surprisingly awesome at volleyball, and even cooler was that I got to play on one of the teams.  I haven't played volleyball since gym class in junior year of high school, but I impressed myself with a few sweet dives and spikes and such... I felt like a huge fool though because I spiked the ball at one point and it smacked this girl on the other team in the head, causing her to fall down.  If she has any brain damage, hopefully spa-camp will cover the medical expenses.

The camp is from ages 7 to 16, interestingly enough, and the 15 & 16 year-olds are called the "Leaders."  Hence, they get more opportunities to do whatever they want and roam around by themselves, etc.  They got to pick one counselor to take them ice skating at the rink in town on Monday night, and guess who they picked?!?! Yea, that's right, me, because I'm the coolest counselor of them all, duh! (Hiiii any of my fellow counselors reading this blog!)  I noticed, though, that a lot of the kids like to make fun of me, which I don't understand really... it's not like I have any odd eccentricities or anything...

And finally, tonight at 10pm (which is 17 minutes ago) I begin my day off!!!  Part of me wants to shower and get dressed and go out to bars in Megeve, but the other part of me wants to pass out and catch up on all the sleep I've missed since I arrived here.  I also went on a 5-hour hike at the foothills of Mont Blanc with thirty 7-to-12 year-olds this afternoon, so I'm especially wiped...

A demain, mes amis!
Jacob

Trees don't blow

Wow. These past few days have been so long, and I barely sleep... so much for being at a spa.

Today the counselors took the kids to this intense ropes course in the Alps... we had to get harnessed into our gear so we could swing and climb and zip through the trees.  Now, when I say this course was intense, that's actually an understatement... the course is set up like a ski slope; there were like 50 trails/rope courses, and every one had a difficulty level... and each course used a ski term (a blue course, a black diamond course, and double black diamond courses, which are essentially deathly) to describe the difficulty of each one.  I planned on zip-lining through some of the single black diamonds, but as the kids weren't allowed to go on the double blacks, I never imagined I'd need to go down these courses.  Long story longer, the kids didn't listen to the rules and they went on the double black diamond courses, and naturally I had to follow them to make sure they didn't die...

Last night, to celebrate the Fourth of July even though we are in France, we had relay races, which the American counselors deemed "an American activity."  After what seemed like 8 hours of relay races, the counselors tried to do yoga with the kids to calm them down before they got back to the hotel.  In explaining one yoga position, one of the counselors said, "Pretend like you are a tree blowing in the wind," to which one of the kids shouted out, "Trees don't blow; they get blown."

One of the counselors here, Amandine, is French but is also fluent in German, so naturally I talk to her in German all the time.  One kid asked me the other day, "Do you do anything besides sing and talk in German?" which was quite hysterical.  I'm realizing that my German is stronger than my French, although my French is coming back to me day by day.  At UMich, my French courses are either all about analyzing Senegalese films about female genital mutilation, rape, and slavery, or they're about interpreting existentialism and Sartre... so naturally my vocabulary to speak to 7 year olds is quite rusty.

Alas, I have to go to dinner now.  By the way, I forgot to mention how luscious the bread is here.  I eat baguettes at every meal (in the morning with chocolate, bien sur!) and every time I do, I feel like I'm in the opening scene of "Beauty and the Beast" where Belle is walking through that little French street... Wow, I sound really gay right now.  Speaking of which, there's this kid here who is desperately trying to set me up with his sister... not gonna happen.

A tout a l'heure!

Jacob

Oh. Mon. Dieu.

This spa--I mean camp--is ridiculous.  The kids arrived today, many of them flying into Geneva on their parents' private jets.  I was in charge of administering the language exams to determine which level of French or English each child belongs in.  One of the questions on the exam was "What countries have you visited?/Quels pays est-ce que tu as visitee?"  ...some of the answers were so long that I had to cut the kids off.

All the counselors had dinner with the campers tonight; my table was incredibly awkward... This clique of French girls sat together at one end of the table and giggled the entire time, and then this clique of Canadian kids sat together at the opposite end and barely said anything.  The food, however, was just as good as always; no chicken fingers or French (freedom) fries for these kids!

Tomorrow we begin to teach the classes... the kids have language courses in the morning, and afterwards I teach a songwriting class... How I am going to do this with a group of 7 to 15 year olds, I have absolutely no idea.  Nevertheless there will be some good stories, I'm sure.

One of the directors of the camp doesn't speak any English, so I was the interpreter for the evening... I felt very Nicole Kidman-esque, especially because many of the kids are actually the children of ambassadors who probably have crazy secrets....

Lastly, the hotel room is beautiful.  There are two bedrooms--one room with one bed, the other room with two beds... after winning the game of rock-paper-scissors (aka pierre-feuille-ciseaux) with my two roomies, I naturally picked the single room. Win.  Also, the other night I was so exhausted after all the meetings and jet-lag that I threw my clothes on the floor before I went to sleep... when I got back from working the following day, housekeeping had them neatly folded and placed on my shelf.

Life of a camp counselor is hard.

A bientot!
Jacob

C'est ma vie

So in a nutshell, my Mt. Rushmore blog seemed to have gone over quite well, so I've decided to continue to blog about my ridiculous shenanigans here in France!

My summer internship in South Dakota has officially come to and end, although I hope to work there again next year after I graduate, at which point I'll be earning a lot more money (score!)...

After spending a few days at home in Connecticut, I am now in Megeve, which is a tiny town in the French Alps.  I am a camp counselor here for six weeks, and have recently learned that this is no ordinary sleep-away camp...

First of all, rather than staying in tents or cabins, everyone at the camp sleeps in a four-star hotel.  It's a three minute walk from the hotel to the main camp buildings, where the kids will be learning English or French (there are many non-Frenchies coming to this camp).

When I think of my own personal experiences with sleep-away camp, I think of that one summer I spent at Camp Chateaugay (in way upstate New York, almost in Canada), and I remember the many horrible experiences I had there; for one, the camp food.  Here at French sleep-away camp, however, the children receive catered meals.  Yes, every meal at the camp is consumed in the hotel dining room, prepared by master French chefs.  Every meal has at least three courses; today for lunch, we began with an avocado salad, followed by a braised veal shank with caramelized mushrooms and potatoes, and for dessert, a French custard, garnished with fresh blueberries and a raspberry puree...

The campers actually have not yet arrived... they get here tomorrow.  Last night and today, the counselors have been setting up the classrooms and exploring this little Heidi-esque town.  I CANNOT WAIT for the kids to get here, only because I hear that princes and princesses of far away lands attend this camp.  (For real though).

Stay tuned for more stories from la France.  Pictures of food are to come soon, although I assure you that they won't do justice to the real thing, like the culinary orgasm served on a bed of risotto that we ate last night for dinner.

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