Mountains, J-Camp, and the United Hippies
I got back to my apartment from Slovakia around 5 last night and even though I did not plan on it, I fell asleep pretty quickly. In fact, I fell asleep checking up on Goodreads. Oddly enough, I had a dream that took place in Slovakia with my Slovak friends.
For those of you who don't know, I signed up to go over there this summer to teach English at a day camp for junior high kids (it was called "J-Camp" for "Junior High Camp"). I knew the camp would take place in the mountains and that's about it.
I have never been so exhausted after every consecutive day in my life.
It's true, we were in the mountains. We climbed up and down some pretty steep grade hills multiple times every day, and actually scaled mountains more than once during the week. I usually ended every day sweaty and started every day stiff and sore. (The sights were quite gorgeous, though.)
J-Camp took place in a multi-floored cabin (which I referred to as the "chateau") which had spartan sleeping rooms, several public (and usually cold) showers, and one large dining room. The owners fed us breakfast, lunch and dinner. Aside from one meal which seemed to be a mountain of sour cabbage in gravy, I did not take much issue with the food, but many of the kids and adults did. This only ignited ire in our hostess who took an uncleared plate as a personal insult. At one point in time, she removed 2 plates from nearby diners and said something in Slovak very curtly. One of the diners was a Slovak teacher, Eva, slowly closed her eyes and bowed her head in a combination of shame and frustration. I asked her what the hostess said and Eva replied, "She said that the food here was good and that we should eat it." (Which I thought was pretty bold for a hostess to say to her paying guests.)
Some examples of meals at J-Camp:
breakfast: hotdogs and mustard; ham, sheep cheese and bread; salami and raw peppers
lunch: every lunch started with a soup course (lentil soup, chicken noodle, cabbage soup, or something goulash-like); cooked cabbage in gravy with meat; jam-stuffed dumplings dusted with chocolate powder; fried sheep cheese and boiled potatoes; sweet, pickled cherries
dinner: fried chicken breast; ham and gravy with mashed potatoes; beef stroganoff
We never had haluški, which is Slovakia's national dish, and I was a little disappointed by that. Every breakfast was served with hot tea, and lunch and dinner served with a small glass of soda or mineral water. I got very thirsty a lot.
We had 15 kids at J-Camp, from ages of about 12 to 14. In truth, they were all really nice kids (one rankled my feathers, but there's always one) who were eager to speak English with us. They were very excited to play "American games" like baseball, ultimate frisbee, and American football. These ended up being strange but really fun games due to the simplified rules and the fact we usually were playing on the slope of a mountain. (Try not to run into a 12-year-old Slovak first baseman while running down a 10° incline.)
The children and teachers were divided up into 2 teams for sports and a general camp-long competition. Each team had to make a name, logo, and battle cry. I ended up the arbitrary captain of my team but let the kids decide what we should be called. They picked "The United Hippies." (The other team was "The Slovkago Bulls".)
I would like to take a moment here to talk about my United Hippies. Although our battle cry ended with the word "Peace!" and we flashed peace fingers constantly, we were the most brutally competitive team I have ever been a part of. We were loud with our cheers and trash talk. If we were assigned to do something by the head counsellor, Tomaš, we made sure we did it twice. Our battle cry (which was just our name slowly shouted with "Peace!" at the end while pumping our fists like we were punk) is so ingrained in my head that I hear all of us yelling it when I read the words "United Hippies". Also, the cheer Let's go, Hippies! Let's go! (clap, clap) was heard a lot. (And I will gladly confess that I riled them up into a competitive furor as much as I could.) All week long, we got nightly updates as to which team had more points. (Tomaš made sure that it was almost always a dead heat.) And, I'll be honest, I totally fed and fed into the hype. I wanted the Hippies to win so badly, I could taste it. And, in the end, we did. I was so proud of my Hippies. PEACE!!!
We went to a local sheep farm more than once. It smelled. But the fresh sheep cheese (usually fresh by an hour or so) was always good. One kid and one adult volunteered the milk the sheep. I just stood by and laughed at them. (Neither of them were Hippies.)
So, dear reader, I guess you can tell I had a lot of fun, although being "on" for 18-straight hours a day was totally exhausting. I do not think I have ever worked so hard. But here's the truth: at the end of that week, I felt like I knew the kids (and my colleagues) so well, and was able to connect with them in a way I never could in an ordinary classroom. By the end of the week, my new name was "Benjamisko"-which means "Giant Benjamin"-given me by the kids, so I felt like I had arrived.