First Week of Camp and Weekend in Munich :-)

For my Munich photos CLICK HERE

For Munich part 2 and Castles photos CLICK HERE

Hello Again,

It's been about a week now since my last post, and oh how things have changed!

Week 1: Fintastic Ocean Jamboree

We have successfully completed our first week of camp and it was a lot of work, but things went relatively smoothly; just a few hiccups here and there. We had 48 kids enrolled in camp last week for 6 staff, so each of us was in charge of 8 kids in a small group. Out of the 48 kids, about 25 were 5-6 year olds, so you can see how it was a lot of work. I had seven 5 year old boys and one 7 year old. I wish I could post pictures of my little guys, but due to Camp regulations, we are required by law not to publish any photos of children on blogs or Facebook.

Anyways, so here is how a typical day of camp runs. Most of our kids are picked up via the bus route, so two of us Camp A staff have to get up early, around 7am, and drive to Celle (about a 25min drive). We then hop on the bus and begin the bus route to pick up the kids. The bus route goes from Celle back to the school we are working at in Bergen (arriving around 9am). Then once we arrive with the kids, camp begins with a Blitz (series of songs we perform for the kids), and after Blitz we perform a skit. Following the skit we go over expectations (rules) for the week then wash our hands for snack time. After snack we break into small and large group activities, then it's time for lunch. After lunch were do a series of rotations with the kids called (Rotating Activities), this lasts for a good 1 1/2 hours then we follow that with club time. (This weeks clubs were: Sports club, Arts and Crafts, and Science club). Myself and one other staff member led sports club, and go figure... Football (Soccer- for those of you slow Americans) was the only thing the kids ever wanted to play :). We end off our day with closing time, where the kids have a chance to wind down and sing quiet songs and share about the best parts of their day. After that we load up the bus to complete out day.

So after a long first week of camp, 5 of us planned to enjoy our two days off in Munich. It was an absolute blast!!! After camp on Friday, all 5 of us jumped on the bus back to Celle with the kids and were bound for the train station. We caught the 4:47pm train to Munich and our awesome weekend began. We arrived in Munich around 9:30pm and made our way to our hostel. We got settled into our room and went down the road to the this huge Beer Hall for a late night meal :) Delicious of course! After eating we were all tired so we went back to our room and slept.

On Saturday morning, the group split up, Rose and I went to Fussen to visit the famous castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau and the other three explored the city of Munich. We had an awesome time, the weather was so beautiful and the Castles were incredible. Rose and I returned at around 5pm and met back with the group at the Hostel. We all just relaxed for a bit then got ready to go out to the Hofbrauhaus (Munich's most famous Beer Hall). It was sooo fun. Live music and German dancing, great food, and of course amazing beer! We all had our 1 liter jugs of the Hofbrau Original House Beer.

After dinner we went out to explore the city, which Rose and I hadn't seen yet and just walked around. Kat and I capped off our night with a beer at my personal favorite Paulaner's before heading back to the hostel. Sunday morning we checked out of the hostel, explored more of the city, climbed a church tower, and jumped on a train back to Celle.

Oh what a wonderful way to end off our week!!!

Time to do it all again next week :)

Until next time,

Auf Weidersehen