|
  | |  |
English and Indians
Entry 3 of 6 | show all | print this entry |
The camp was two very intense weeks of classes, lesson planning and exam preparation. I found the teaching for the initial days quite a challenge (despite only having 12 children) - not being used to the discipline involved with such little ones and the fact that they have the attention span of... well, of excitable 7 year olds. My relatively limited Spanish made it tricky also and lessons were generally conducted in Spanglish with much gesticulation. I gained an odd vocabulary from these classes; such words as 'tijeras' - I had to confiscate numerous pairs of scissors from my most wild child whos favourite pastime was to run around the classroom 'shooting' them like a gun; 'pegatinas' - I gave them stickers for finished work which they loved (slightly too much) and spent much of the classes trying to bargain for more; 'piojos' - nits ... speaks for itself... though my wild boy realised what a wonderful and effective weapon they were with which to terrify the other kids! By the second week I´d gotten into the swing of it and was enjoying my classes with lots of old classics such as ´heads, shoulders, knees and toes´ and games with the faithful Jimmy Hat (actually, not so great for the class with the piojos..).
Every evenning has a different theme with monitor-organised entertainment ranging from the Olympics Opening Ceremony (complete with flaming torches) to Oscars Night (all dressed up to the nines) to Polynesia Night (with a staged sacrifice... going slightly beyond British PC standards...). Us teachers were sometimes asked to contribute with a dance or something though the best had to be the Wild West Night for which we dressed up as Indians, scared our unsuspecting students, did a hilarious 'dance' in the volleyball sandpit and proceeded to rob the fake bank from their earlier gambling activities and throw the 'froggy dollars', as they were called, into the crowd of scrabbling kids.
There wasn´t masses of free time though when we could find the odd spare hour we could swim in the nearby pool with stunning vistas of the surrounding mountains, ice skate in the sports centre or escape the campus and wonder in to France..
The end of the term was upon us incredibly quickly and the students' final evening was themed 'Love and Friends' Night which was utterly bizarre and basically consisted of every single child from age 7 to 16 bawling their eyes out. We looked on both bemused and amused to see the cheekiest, naughtiest boys with tears pouring down their cheeks.
The parents arrived the next day and after a presentation, mingling and goodbyes the place was suddenly oddly quiet. Teachers and Monitors were treated to a wonderful restaurant meal (a huge treat after the ... lets say, not-quite-gourmet, camp food...) and night out before we all went our separate ways the following morning.
I spent the next night visiting my cousin who lives just outside Barcelona, the following visiting one of the other teachers in a town called Altafulla, then four of us enjoyed a day in that beautiful city of Gaudi buildings and tourists before I caught an overnight bus back up north to Santander, after which I had a week to myself with nothing in particular planned...
Latest Comments (2)
|
comment (reply)
Sep 3, 2008 11:11 EST by ricjl
Sounds amazing Ruth, thanks for sharing it all.
You're gonna have to explain the Wild West Night to me a little better though!
ric
|
|
deja vu (reply)
Aug 7, 2008 14:31 EST by janem
This feels very strange. So glad you have returned to the blog, I've missed it. Don't worry about the crying, it's a really healthy thing. I wish some of the kids I see could cry a bit more - good for the soul.
Keep the messages coming. Lots of love,
Jane
|
 Post a new comment |
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by ruthcape, from Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
