If You Could Read My Mind...

The skies over Norway.

     ...you'd probably be surprised about what's going to come next. (How's that for clickbait?) But let me take a minute to take care of a few other things first. I'm planning with this post to do a bit of an after-action report of the camp and how it all went for me. I want to get my thoughts down on electrons before I forget too much about what went on. I've noticed with time that I tend to forget the bad things that happened and only remember the good. So this will have a bit of both. The good, the bad and the ugly (not that there was a lot of that). So here goes.

Fly Me To The Moon

     Let me sail directly to bed. Believe me, Frank would have sung that if he was going to have the flight we'll have in the next few minutes. I'm writing this really quick because I wanted to keep my writing streak going. One post per day. Look for another post later this week about my final thoughts from camp.
     For now, the flight leaves here at 6:20PM local and arrives at JFK at 9:05PM local. We've got a bit of a ride between now and then. And that doesn't even include standing in line at Customs, waiting for baggage and driving back to Reading, PA. I'll be trying to sleep on the plane and in the van. Definitely looking forward to being back home.
     Sunday, since we had a delayed flight, we did a bit of walking around buy the final things we wanted. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This is my new passport cover.

Although this was a close contender for the spot.

The best way to describe this is a tubular grilled cheese.

I Turn My Camera On

     Since this day was a lot of sightseeing and walking around. I'll just let the pictures do the talking. But the basics are that we went to church in the morning. One student came from camp. Afterwards, most came and met up with us while we walking around the city. The Sunday after camp is always a sightseeing day to share some more time with the students. The short and sweet of it was that it was awesome. We had a wonderful time with the students who came. Unfortunately not all could be here. Some had to go home to other cities. But those that were there were great walking companions. It's sad to leave them.
     So without further ado, enjoy these photos. Tomorrow's a travel day so I hope to have something written before we board our plane.

Chocolate cake with mini eclairs inside.

Calm After the Storm

Natasha and Zhenya playing with static electricity.

     We did it. We finally made it to the end of the week. Just like any massive undertaking, it took doing each step one thing at a time. And now here we are. In the calm after the storm. Time to rest for a bit before the sightseeing on Sunday afternoon. As they say, "it's all over but the crying."

I Can't Dance

A dramatic reenactment of my waking movements this morning.

     Thus the last day of camp dawned; with yawns like caverns and skies like slate. Is it really Friday? I suppose it is. A friend asked me if this camp was going fast for me. Throughout this whole week, I've only had this concept of Friday in my head as a distant thing. I've been trying to take the events of the week one thing at a time. When I start thinking too far ahead, I begin to get overwhelmed by the number of things on my plate.

Band on the Run

     Yes, we, the weary band of travelers, had to run...yet again. So. Much. Running. But such is the cost of the quest. At least we had fun.

L-R: Katya, Yulia, Dasha, me, Nastia, Kolya, Yulia, Max, Nastia, Misha, Joan, Jesse, Marusya, Natasha

Photograph

     I did one of these posts last year and it was an easy way of getting more detail out there. This is just a photo collection that didn't exactly fit in anywhere else. Random things that I thought were good by themselves. Enjoy.

The Bridge of Love.

500 Miles

     There was a lot of running today. Not quite 500 miles. But it was still. So. Much. Running. We had a bit of a mix up of the schedule today. Wednesday is traditionally the day of the Quest. However, due to the rain this week, we moved things around a bit. Basically, they swapped the Quest with the Ultimate Frisbee tournament.
      I've been riding my bike a lot this summer. So the running was better than I thought. But it was still the most I've run at one time probably since last year. Surprisingly, I felt really good at the end. Tired but good.

Who Can It Be Now?

     That was the question today in the big event; the Living Library. But, unlike the story in the song, it wasn't a bad thing today. For those who don't remember or who don't want to dig through my backlog of posts, the Living Library is an event to encourage relationship growth between students and staff (both American and Ukrainian).

     After the morning's festivities (exercises, 2.5 hours of English, and lunch), we were given our directions for the two hour event labeled on the schedule as "Fun." There would be three stations. The first was table games, the second was the American staff, and the third was the Ukrainian staff. The color teams would rotate among the different stations every 45 minutes. And in both staff stations, the students would rotate among the staff for a chance to talk to whomever they wanted. With a total of 19 students this year, the ratio was really good for students to get a chance to talk.

Young Blood

     Is this what it feels like to grow old? To see the younger generation come up through and take over the program? Without getting the input of the older members of the team, I'd have to say yes. But, in this case, it's good to have young blood in the driver's seat. Allow me to explain.

Zhenya bestowing instructions to the camp.

Come Together

First weekend accommodations. Mine is the messy bed.

     I'm still feeling a bit jet-lagged today so this'll be a light post again. There are challenges every year and they're starting early for me. This year it's sleep. The past two nights I've gotten barely over half my usual amount of sleep. And for some reason, it was split into two parts each night. Even with the opportunity to sleep in way past the usual time. In lieu of that, I decided to take Sunday afternoon for myself and just relax. But back to the beginning.

Before the Deluge

Dark hot chocolate from Aroma Kava

     For those of you in the back row of the class, that title is what I like to call foreshadowing. But there was plenty of before/during/after deluges, drizzles, and "mushroom rains" today. The forecast was calling for rain off and on all day and we got it. On our sightseeing day too. That's OK. It certainly didn't dampen our spirits.

Ramblin' Man

L-R: Austin, Brian, Joan, Rich, Guilio, Kristen, Bryson, Jesse.

      Yes folks, it's that time of year again. The time that I and my friends travel to the land of borsch and bobushkas for a frenetic week of English-teaching, friendship-making, culture-sharing camp in Ukraine! And yes I'll be a bit rambly (talking) while I ramble on (fly).

Do You Feel Like We Do?

     Do you feel like we do? Probably not. Reading about the trip on the blog is miles away from actually being there. Although several people have commented to me since our return that reading the blog was helpful in getting an idea of what it was like and what we were feeling. I'd agree with that. But for a true picture, you really need to come with us next time.
     So what's this post planned for since I'm back and not likely to return to Ukraine for a little while? Mostly, it's to collate my thoughts about this year's camp into a somewhat coherent stream of ideas and feelings. Because it's not like you can open up my head and see what I'm thinking. Stop it. Put that hacksaw away. Don't even bother trying. You might not like it if you did. Kids have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Mine's full of Jeeps, mountain biking, and all sorts of other crazy things.

Riders On the Storm

     Thus Saturday ended camp. With rain, photos, hugs and goodbyes. It's been a long few days. As usual, it will be some time before we are all able to completely process our thoughts about the camp. I've been doing it along the way through this blog. But there's is still much more to think about. I've already been asked if I'll be coming back next year. I also need to think about my effectiveness as a team leader. But as it is, I think I can offer some preliminary ideas. And since it's the weekend now, I'm going to include Sunday into this post as well. Both were long, busy days. I guess I'll throw a little Monday into the mix as well....considering this is Tuesday and I'm typing in my kitchen at home. There are a lot of photos here so you might want a cup of coffee or tea as you read and peruse this post

With a Little Help From My Friends

     Before we get things rolling, I wanted to answer a question that came up twice in the comments on yesterday's blog post. It basically asked how the rest of the American team is doing. Save for one exception, I'd say the common word is rough. Whether mentally, physically, or emotionally, it's been a long rough week. Some of us, too, aren't completely sure about how the transition back to American life will go. I dealt with this back in 2014 after my first English camp. Basically, the word rough will apply to the next while or so for all of us.

Everybody Hurts

The dining hall on the left, the lecture hall on the right.

     Right, SITREP (situation report). I seem to have caught something again. Or whatever it was that I had earlier in the week is back. The simple list is a sore throat, a pair of weak/sore legs and a headache. The legs and headache are related to the higher level of activity than I am used to. The sore throat, I suspect, is a result of the dry air combined with my cold from earlier. Yes, I'm drinking a lot and trying to stay hydrated. I also am getting as much sleep as possible and taking acetaminophen as necessary. No need to worry. Just pray.

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

...but sometimes you get what you need. Like this bonus post of photos that I haven't been able to squeeze into the other posts. This is just a gallery post. Minimal writing. Enjoy.

The skies over Poland.

Hurts So Good

     Well...on second thought, not so much. Today was the quest and it left me with multiple hurting muscles in my chest, stomach and arms. Like I needed any more aches this week. I'm just glad I made it through the quest in one piece....Sheesh, I sound like an old man.

Only Time Will Tell...

     ...how this camp will turn out. But right now, I have high hopes. As a preview for later in the post, there's been some pushback from students on certain things as usual but overall the mood is positive.