Camp: a wrap-up

Camp finished last week. I suppose I should have been updating more often; letting you all in on the inner workings of the summer camp lifestyle, but I didn't. Honestly, I could have cared less about this camp than any of the previous ones I have worked at. In previous years I found myself stressing out and making an effort to be liked by the children and to teach them english properly. This year, camp was just a means to an end, and that end was the paycheck. About half-way through the camp I realized 2 things: 1) I really didn't like this batch of kids. 2) Yelling all day was starting to take a toll on my voice. I admit that I freaked out a bit about my voice. After a year of not being able to sing, my vocal therapist had finally told me that I was doing well enough to start again. A month later, because of some stupid kids, I was running into a sore throat. If the children had had any interest in learning English then perhaps it would have been a different story, but they didn't. I had a lazy, uninterested class and it wasn't worth ruining my voice over it. So after considering leaving the camp to save my voice, I opted for staying and doing a half-ass job at it. I began putting on 4 hour movies in class, punishing them more often, using boring written exercises, having them write journals and playing games that didn't really involve speaking english that much. Ryan stopped being the "cool teacher" that he was in previous summers and became a worker that merely clocked in his hours and left once the whistle blew at the end of the day. I think it is safe to say that I should find a different job next summer.

On the upside, one of the things that kept me from quitting a week early was the group of teachers we had this year. Other years I was stuck with teachers who were not like me at all. The first year I taught at camps, all the teachers were much older than me. I was a fresh faced 21 year old and they were all in their late 30s. Last summer was a bit different, since I did 3 camps in 2 months. However, other than two high school friends that were with me for part of the time, I did not make any lasting friendships. In fact, there was a lot of tension and conflict within the staff. This summer was different, there were 12 teachers/counselors my age and I got along well with most of them.

I was really happy to have Daniel Perez there again this year. Some of you may know his brother David, who went to high school with me. Daniel is a truly unique individual (or snowflake, if you will). We had to share a room for three weeks. I hadn't shared a room with anyone since junior year in college. He was easy to live with though, and I actually enjoyed having him around. In addition to him, I met several people with whom I really hit it off. I connected with the Irish people the best. I don't know if this was for cultural reasons or if it merely had to do with the 3 particular ones that were at camp. For some reason, these irish girls thought I was the funniest person they had met in a long time. This is odd, because usually I am amusing at most, never hilarious. So it felt nice to be of high comedic value for once.

But anyway, camp is now finished. And I am in madrid for the rest of the summer. Hopefully writing music and such. Expect some recordings by the beginning of september. Peace (out).