Summer Camps

the only jock camp i did was two weeks of tennis camp from 10-15, which i liked a lot, but its still kind of dorky really

One summer I babysat for one of my campers and her little brothers every afternoon after camp ended because her mom had to go like work on her tan or play some more tennis instead of, you know, being a parent or whatever. They had some brand new gaming system that I didn't have and I remember spending the first couple weeks trying to convince her that playing video games was much more fun than going to the beach all afternoon. She wasn't buying it and I wound up really looking forward to rainy days.

I went to camps where you had to speak Irish all the time, sort of as a way of learning Irish since it's mandatory at school and everyone hates it. Generally they're in areas of Ireland where native Irish speakers are still holding out. They were more fun than that makes them sound, though each year they'd make the news for some poor child getting sent home because he sneezed and said "excuse me" in English.

One sentence in English and you were gone, though I always thought if you were smart and had been once before you began thinking in Irish after a time. I discovered a real love for the language there, though not the accompanying republicanism. You had to salute the flag and sing the national anthem in the morning and evening, which at the time I found less ridiculous for teenagers than I do now. There were a lot of hardcore republican undercurrents too, though not as far as violence ever being mentioned.

As well as all this you met girls and stuff...I went back as a leader aged about 16, had to look after kids who were 9, 10, 11 etc, it was such good fun. Having to deal with people who'd never left home on their own before and keep them in good humour was something I really liked, kinda has stayed with me in terms of liking kids now I'm older.

I'm trying to think of standout anecdotes but the main one I can remember is that in one house I stayed in, the woman would give food we didn't eat to the farmer next door's pigs as slops. One night she served this mound of horrible sausages which nobody ate.

We saw innocent pigs made cannibals that night.

:(

I did Boy Scout camp for a week for several years, then did a hiking trip at Philmont one year (10 day trip), then went to German camp for high school language credit in northern MN for two summers (4 weeks each time).

In college, I continued the summer camp experience by singing in choirs that went on summer tours; that got me 10 days in England one year, a week in LA, 2.5 weeks in Japan, a week in Korea and 4 days in Taiwan the next year, and a week in England and 10 days in Germany the following year.

Shit, German camp? Why did my parents send me there? :(

Then maybe I'd actually be fluent.

if i'd managed to get to japan in hs or college i probably would have ran away from the group and never come back.

on the other hand i woulda been broke so i probably woulda wound up an indentured sex slave at some have-sex-with-sealife fetish club.

i was by no means a jock...well i did play baseball and hockey most of my life. just never had interest in anything educational...obviously.

http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/

was the SHIT imo

if i'd managed to get to japan in hs or college i probably would have ran away from the group and never come back.

lol, one of the guys in the group essentially did this! He is now a Japanese television personality.

i did go to natures classroom in 7th grade, saw my first pair of tits.

Man I would have LOVED language camp. Totally jeal.

TITAAAAYS

that's just a euphamism for "gets paid to fondle an octopus"

language camp? SERIOUSLY? there are camps for everything huh?

x-post omg hahaha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Harlan

strongo possibly OTM

the other thing i remember is when i was a leader there were several kids whose parents had recently divorced, and then they're packed off to a three week camp. really mean...

the bird or the femalery?

DIVORCE CAMP.

all my boyscout activities quickly degenerated into EVIL SCOUTS where we would cause as much vandalism and havok as possible

a popular chilhood disciplinary tool was dangling the threat of valley forge military academy's "summer camp" over my head

which i can only imagine would have turned into middle school full metal jacket in about a week

haha. I got threatened with Military School all the time...

I used to dread the idea of summer camps being introduced in Britain when I was a kid. Going on a school trip to Wales and having to do rock climbing and canoeing was bad enough.

a hearty people, are the british.

I went to a lot of church camps ("girls' camp"), which were fun when I was younger & increasingly miserable the more worldly my peers grew. When I turned 16 I told my mom I didn't want to go anymore, and I was surprised to find she was ok with it. I guess she had been bullied at girls' camp too. ;_;

This camp is the highlight of my youngest brother's year, I think it has the best name ever:

http://www.hodia.org/images/navigation/topnav_logo.gif

They also do a ski camp in the winter he goes to sometimes.