OK so we are on the second full day of children!!!!!

They arrived Monday afternoon and we had a great evening program. We played Get To Know Your Counselor, where the kids have a list of questions to ask every counselor and then they have to remember the answers. Then we play a game show to see who can remember the most answers. Fun.... lets just say it involved the counselors stripping off clothes.... lol ok not clothes! we piled on costumes, and every time a camper got an answer right, we had to take off a piece of costuming lol

Yesterday was the first full day -- Discover America day. I am an English Class Teacher, so I must plan 2 hours of lesson plans for every day. Usually i teach information that deals with the theme day. We also have a Song of The Day that we teach in class. Discover America = "American Boy" by Estelle. The kids love the song.

Class went really well. I have the lowest level kids, but they pay attention so well. They put in so much effort, they are always pulling out their dictionaries to figure out the English. They ask many questions and have me repeat things many times. It is great!!!! They seem to really want to learn!!!!

Last night we had a campfire for Evening Program. We made S'mores, sang songs, did cheers, and played charades -- needless to say, the kids were tired after their first full day. The chaperones said the kids went immediately to bed they were so tired! So did I haha!!!!


TODAY....

So i had the best sleep ever last night. Well I didnt get enough of it, but I slept SO hard!!!!

The fluroescent light in my room pops. Like literally pops. I asked Laurent; the groundskeeper; and he said the light melts the plastic around it, and then after you shut off the light, the plastic cools and pops. Sounds like a small problem - but for the past 3 nites Ive had to get ready for bed in the dark because otherwise it pops the entire time im trying to fall asleep!!! grrrrrrr guess i'll just get a lamp.


Me and Heather have booked our flights to Istanbul, Turkey. We have the week off together from the 13th to the 21st. We must first train to Switzerland to get on our flight direct to Istanbul. Pretty cheap though, so its good. I am working with Ishta who taught in Turkey for a year, and we have a friend Tav teaching there now, so plenty of info if we need it.

After Istanbul, I will be going to Prague. I have a week off by myself, so I plan on couchsurfing and making new friends. Since I am 50% Czech, i think it will be great to visit my motherland lol Maybe i'll fit in!

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Asked a couple kids yesterday what they think of when they think about America.
First answer? Buffalo.
Second answer? Big.
Third answer? Junk Food.
Super.


The kids know every word to "wake me up when september ends" by Green Day. Every word.


Explaining why a S'more is called a S'more is a difficult task.


Even the Americans here do not know that Kansas City (at least the greater part of it) is in Missouri, not Kansas.


Capture the Flag is french kids' crack.


Azé is a famous château/garden because it has mostly imported trees, flowers and bushes native only to America. Giant redwoods? Right outside my window.


We have a man-made pond here at camp.... it has one goose. Ishta said last year there were many geese. They all got killed by falcons, etc. Now we have the Lone Goose.


We also have the widest array of birds here. It is difficult to sleep past daybreak because of the all the chirping-- I mean, SQUAWKING birds. Seriously, more efficient than an alarm clock. This ravens nest outside my window is the bane of my existence.


Tonight is the Wild West Carnival. I get to draw tattoos on everyone. After they've already taken a shower. Oh well.


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OK now i must plan my lesson plan. A bientot!!!!

This is a picture of the Château d'Aine at Azé. This is where we have the computer lab (Silicon Valley), classrooms, the staff meeting room (The White House), and also where the kids sleep (each bedroom is named after a different US state).

This is a map of all the American Village sites for this spring/summer. I am currently at Azé... you can find this just north of Lyon and just west of the Swiss border.

To anyone that wants to get ahold of me thru the phone, you can call me on my French cell phone. It is: +33 06.43.92.79.93

If calling from France, just dial 06.43.92.79.93

This means from the USA, you would dial 011 + 33 + 6.43.92.79.93
(yes you drop the 0 before the 6)
If you are using Skype, it will automatically drop the 0 for you. Just change the country to "France" and enter the number 06.43.92.79.93

C'est bien? C'est bien!!!

Dr. Pepper -- LIVE from France

Wow so here I am finally in France. Gotta get used to these damn French keyboards again. All the buttons in the wrong place, so excuse the typos.

It was a LONG journey from KCI to France. They almost didnt let me board my plane in KC -- my return flight from paris is more than 90 days away, and technically I cannot be in France for more than 90 days, so I got this big lecture on illegal immigration and how I can be deported and yadda yadda yadda.

Did not sleep a wink on the flight over here... so needless to say, arriving in France at 9am with no sleep and an entire day of traveling still ahead of me was not going to be fun. I had a 3-hour layover in Paris where I was able to catch a 45 minute nap at the gate before departure to Toulouse.

I arrived in Toulouse after a short one-hour flight, and made my way to the bus which would take me to le gare, or the train station. Here; I was to meet Alex a.k.a. "Mr. Sweater", my friend from American Village last year who is living in Toulouse. After waiting for almost 2 hours for Alex's train to get in from his work, we headed on another bus to his house.

So circa 5:30pm, we arrive. Alex has the coolest house; which he shares with like a bajillion other people. It's almost like a commune. They had the coolest garden in the backyard, and even a chicken named Brigitte. After a couple beers, I gave Alex 20€ to grab stuff to make dinner. Meanwhile, I took a well-needed nap. I awoke to pasta, chicken provenciale, and courgettes (zucchini). Top it off with a bottle of wine = Trés bon!!!! Then we just sat around with some of his roommates and just talked. Most everyone had very limited English, so the conversation was mostly in French. Ergo, I didnt understand a thing. However, French is one of those languages that you can just sit and listen to -- it is a beautiful language -- almost like music. And i was too tired to really try to follow the French or speak at all. Midnight came, went to sleep.

I woke up the next day at 5pm. Yes 5pm. I had plans to see toulouse, get a cell phone, and visit tourist sites -- none of that was possible now because everything closes at 5 or 6pm. So I walked to the city center and tried to take in as much as possible. But my feet were killing me in new flip-flops so I hailed a taxi back.

Since everything was closed, we decided to have a soirée and invite friends and order pizza. 60€ for 4 pizzas!!!! ouch lol but it was delicious. Sipped on wine and vodka w/ caramel in the garden while the sunset, enjoying listening to the French. A couple people took pity on me and had conversations in English with me.

Funny thing: France has not seen the LOST finale yet, so I was the envy of the party since I've seen the finale of season 5. lol The French LOVE lost!!!!

And this morning, I woke up bright and early to catch my train at 7:45am to Mâcon. 5 hours later I was greeted by Sun, the director for Azé. She is French, but she has great English!!! The site is absolutely beautiful! It is a castle with all these posh gardens and sculpture gardens -- it looks more like a resort or posh country club than an American Village camp lol

I'll post pictures ASAP, but now we must clean up the site. The next two days we have off, so tonight we are all going out to eat at an Indian restaurant!

That's all for now!!!!

- Dr. Pepper

2009 Edition

Hey everyone and welcome to my 2009 blog.

I know last year I did not keep up with the blog as much as I would have liked to, so my plan this year is to not slack off so much. This blog will also include more pictures and videos... and well just more entries in general.

I leave in 6 days on May 19th -- flying KCI to Paris Charles de Gaulle. I will then be taking a train to Toulouse to hang out for a few days before I begin work at American Village.
In Toulouse, I will be staying at Mr. Sweater's apartment. We were counselors together last year, and he has graciously offered his place for me to stay at. Saves me a LOT of money considering the worst hostels in Paris still cost about $30-$40 per night.

Me and Nomad (Heather) plan on doing a lot of traveling this summer including Turkey, the Greek Isles, Portugal and Spain. I am also hoping to make a solo trip to Poland and possibly Czech Republic.

It will be one crazy summer/fall, so I hope this blog will keep you updated on what i'm doing, where I'm going, and how I am.

Thanks for reading!