So, Scout camp was absolutely terrible. I tried to go into it with a good attitude but really, I came to the conclusion that I would not have enjoyed it had everyone spoken english and had everyone been my friend, therefore the fact that everyone spoke Polish and I barely knew anyone just made it doubly terrible. I DO think that it is good that I went though, because this way I will not regret it which I might have done had I decided not to go.
Anyway, since there was barely anyone for me to talk to for 2 whole days, I got to do a lot of thinking about how I felt about Scout camp which I will now relate. This will probably be really whiny, but I swear I tried as hard as I could to have fun.
Daddy, I would like to add that I think it is amazing that you were a boy scout and thank you for never making any of us go through that.
Ok so, to go to Scout camp, I had to wake up at 5:45 in the morning because we had to get on the bus at 7:00. So to begin with I was very tired. The bus ride was 3 hours long. This was not really the bad part yet. I had my iPod and I was ok. So what scout camp looks like, is you know in the fourth Harry Potter book when they go to the Quidditch World Cup and they talk about the campsite and it just being a field with tents as far as you can see. That is kind of what this looked like. Except the tents werent magic so the tents were not nice inside. Also, the areas were roped off so like scouts from Mazura were in one section, scouts from Silesia in another, etc. Each area had a wooden archway thing to enter it which some scouts guarded at all times, though I really have no idea why as their only purpose seemed to be to salute people who walked through the archway...sometimes.
My major issue with scout camp was that everything was in Polish. So I never had any idea what was happening, so all these people would be bustling around me doing things and I would be confused. I tried to ask my host sister Karolina but she just seemed annoyed by all my questions, and did not seem to understand how frusterating i found it that I had no idea what was going on. I felt bad because i knew she wanted to be doing whatever everyone was doing and having me there was keeping her back sometimes. I don't really understand why she was so gung-ho about me going because a lot of the activities she was like "oh you cant do this because you dont speak polish" even like some of the games that i totally figured out how to play just by watching. Anyway, it is very confusing and frusterating when you have no one to talk to and feel like an annoyance.
The other problem I had, was that I do not like being outside. There is not much furniture outside and i dont like sitting on the ground. There are bugs under you and you dont know where and it is gross. Also, there is no temperature control. In Poland the weather is very erratic, i dont know if I have mentioned this. At one point it can be sunny and hot, while 5 minutes later it is cloudy and cool, then it gets sunny and hot again, the next minute it is pouring down rain. Then at night it gets so cold you can see your breath. For example, the first day I was there for parts of the day I was comfortable outside in a tank top, by the end of the night I was barely warm even though I was wearing a tank top, a t-shirt, a button down shirt, a wool sweater, my duke sweatshirt, a turtleneck wool sweater, and a raincoat. 7 shirts. I could barely move. (the sweaters were borrowed because one of the girls was really sweet and realized i was going to freeze to death. I didnt understand because some of the scouts were just running around in skirts and knee socks. It was SO cold.
Anyway, the worst moment of the whole time is that on the first night there was an ognisko. At this point during the day, all i have eaten is a sandwich for breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, a peach on the bus ride, and 2 pieces of bread with sour cream for lunch. So i am starving. And I think, at least their will now be Kielbasa. But apparently I was wrong. The traditional scouting ognisko does not involve food. What it did involve was sitting uncomfortably in wet grass facing the wrong way on a hill. You know how if you sit on a hill you should face downward so you are not fighting gravity. Well we were facing upward, and you have to sit a special way, which makes your legs numb and then they all sung songs in Polish, then this guy spoke for a really long time. All of this is very boring and awful when you can not understand so it is like sitting uncomfortably and freezingly in the wet grass doing nothing for an hour and a half. I did not have all of my sweaters yet and was not close enough to the fire to feel its warmth. And then there wasnt even any food. I was basically on the verge of tears because I just wanted to go home, and if i hadnt known that I was leaving the next day I probably would have fallen apart. And no one could even see how I felt because it was too dark to see anything. Luckily at this point, one of the girls got me the other sweaters and i felt a little better once I was warmer.
After the ognisko we walked to the Medieval battle grounds in the dark for a "Scouts Promise" ceremony. It was very strange and cultlike (actually all of scouts is kind of cult like, there is a lot of marching and rules and uniforms) They had flaming torches and people cried and my host sister told me it that it was the most important moment in the life of a scout. I didnt really understand what was going on, but was glad that afterward I finally got to go to bed. Sleeping outside was one of the better parts, because i curled inside of my sleeping bag so the bugs couldnt get me and going to sleep doesnt require me to understand any Polish.
The tents got really gross after only 2 days there. There were so many flies. at one point a guy fell asleep during, i guess, a break and i counted 10 flies on his pants alone. It was so gross. Also there was this giant bug like the size of my palm that just fell from the ceiling and at that time I was the only person in the tent besides this guy that was sleeping, so i had to kill the bug. It was the scariest thing ever. It just wouldnt die. I had to step on it like 10 times til its guts came out and its legs stopped moving. uueeerrgh. There were about 3 times in the day where they made us take all of our stuff out of the tent and gave us 15 minutes to put all of our things in our bags, and then collected all the leftover stuff and would assign jobs to the people it belonged to. This was supposed to help keep the tents clean, but it didnt really. Oh also, there were 2 tents, one where everyone slept and one where everyone kept their stuff. Both had lots of flies. By everyone i mean like 30 people, in one tent. I have pictures of the tents.
Also, so since I was a visitor from the united states. I had to raise the US flag in a special ceremony. and they announced that I was there, it was really weird because i guess i stood out a lot because random people would say "Hi Kate" when i passed, which weirded me out, mostly because kait is the name I am called by family, and even friends call me Kaitlin so like that all these random people i didnt know was calling me Kait weirded me out. (My host family calls me Kait because they have a lot of trouble saying kaitlin).
Everyone there played guitar. And they played Polish army songs. I dont know.
By the end, a couple of people who took some english, plus the nice girl who got me the sweaters tried to help me out (more than my host sisters) which made me feel a little better, but mostly i was focused on going home.
I was so glad when my host parents came to pick me up. It was very nice to be in car and then we went to a restaurant and I got coke and soup which was amazing because all we had been eating was bread with different spreads on it and i was so cold and hungry. Then we went home and I got to shower bath and being clean was amazing. My hair had been so gross and i smelled so bad. I can not imagine camping for a lot of days. Especially if there was no bathroom. We had a bathroom, it was gross and you had to bring your own toilet paper (luckily I was prepared) but we had a bathroom.
Today Jo and Andzrej (The coordinators of our program) came to do a site visit and observed us teach and made sure we are happy and healthy. It was fun to see them and to hang out with Julie and Reid because they speak english and I have gotten to do so little of that. Class went ok, we talked about written communication. I got to use the "How to send flirtatious text messages" article from my 17 magazine but they had a lot of trouble understanding the word flirtatious, even when i demonstrated by hitting on one of the students... Then we talked about writing notes, and had groups become experts at writing different types of notes (postcards, thank you notes, requests, invitations, rsvps, etc) and tomorrow they will get to present to the class. Then we talked about penpals. And a select few of you, i have emailed asking if you would be willing to a be a penpal. If anyone else would like to be a penpal to a Polish kid, let me know as some more will probably show up and we are trying to make this an summer-long project. If you do though, you will have to be VERY responsible and timely in the sending replies.
Well i think that is all for my scouting adventure. This weekend, i think i might be going to Warsaw with my host mom, i am not sure. Also, she wants to take me to see things, but does not speak that much English so that will be interesting. I am with this host family through the 20th and then i move to my next one, which i know nothing about other than that they have a 17 year old daughter. It will kind of suck to move because I am just starting to get comfortable here.
I hope everyone back in the US or in other countries are doing awesomely and that you send me emails to let me know exactly what you are doing. I would like to to thank everyone who has sent me emails lately, and hope that you will continue doing so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I was at a few of my brother's Cub Scout camping weekend things, which were all family-ful and stuff, but I haven't gone since he became a Boy Scout, because Boy Scouts do barmy shit like 50-mile hikes in February in the mountains. But I get to go family-vacation-camping later this month in northern Vermont.
My family-vacation-camping experiences have always been remarkable... in the four most recent big ones, I road-tripped to Colorado and back, laughed at the Amish, counted the number of black people in Maine on one hand, and made out with a creepy Michigan rehab girl. You just wish your camping trip was that exciting.
Would you rate the culture shock of this entire experience (not just the camping) higher or lower than that of being in Russia? Because in Russia you were with your friends a lot, right? This Poland thing is sounding more and more like my first semester in Russia, including the freezing while people sing songs you don't understand part. But in Poland you don't have the consolation that you're supposed to be miserable there, like you do in Siberia... Hope you're finding things to enjoy. At least you're compiling good stories. That feeling of not belonging in the house you're living in really is no good though. I remember it well.
Hi Kait! I've been extremely busy these past couple of days and haven't had a chance to read your blog. Sorry!
I start volunteering next Monday. I'll be teaching English and Korean at Bethlehem Children's Home in Seoul. Apparently, the biracial children there are struggling with both Korean language and the language their parents speak at home and have a hard time communicating with their peers at school and at home with their parents. So sad. But the kids are sooooo gorgeous! I'll remember to take lots and lots of pictures.
Although my Korean is getting considerably better every day, I think I'm gonna forget how to speak English when I leave Korea. I only speak English to Jaehoon when we're alone, since people look at us funny when we speak in English in public. We started whispering at each other in English the other day and the lady next to us was like, are you Chinese? OMG.
How old are your students? I don't know how to make my lessons fun and exciting for my kids. They're really little, like age 8 to 10 and have extremely short attention spans. Help!
Post a Comment