Drastic Change of Pace
So I was in Madrid flying solo, pretty over backpacking these European cities, unable to get an earlier flight to America with a modest budget and time to kill. So I got online and searched for volunteering opportunities and came up with the website for a program called Pueblo Ingles which is a week long camp for Spaniards where only english is spoken. The deal for native speakers is a free accomodation and food for a week in the country side. Sounded okay so I applied on Wednesday, met with them on Thursday and was off on my way on Friday morning.
The catch? The only space available was on the Teen program which meant I was going to be hanging out with mostly 14-16 year olds... okay no problem Ive been doing it for a year... BUT and its a big but... the average age of the other natives is also 16-17 except for the camp counsellors. Hmm, usually I am the youngest person at these things, this time I was the oldest by far. Also rules like no smoking, drinking and curfew. Time to roll the dice. On the Friday morning I was thinking "what the hell have I got myself into".
Actually everything turned out great. After the initial awkwardness of the big age difference and adjusting to being on a schedule I started having some good clean fun. The accomodation was good, the food okay, the kids were great, the activities not too kiddy and I didnt mind the rules as it gave me a chance to have a healthy week and some decent sleep for a change. The schedule was pretty full on from 9am till 11pm with only a 2 hour break in the afternoon for a siesta or pool side relaxing, but the days went by easily.
Because my "team" didnt do well earning "points" I ended up doing some pretty strange activities in the afternoon like drama which turned out to be fun and then "make over" which meant a bunch of high school girls vigorously applied make up to my face which I then wore around until going to bed. I thought it was pretty fun until around dinner time when I was subjected to a barrage of jokes and stares at my expense (I have no photos of this event). The routine was broken up by a trip into the La Alberca town which was beautiful, a "funfair" day where we each made a booth and traded in beans and a mini olympics day. On the last evening a little party was organised by the pool where we drank sangria (without wine) and danced to the latest pop crap. I felt really old when they played "grease lightning" and I remembered when I was in high school doing the same many years ago. Luckily there were a bunch of counsellors my age to talk to so I didnt feel like a social deviant.
Despite the age gap and not having spent time with high school kids since... high school, I enjoyed hanging out with the kids (Spanish and anglo) and by the end of the week was even a little sad to be leaving. When I saw the older camp people arriving I was glad to have gone with the kids one, kids are more fun. After spending every hour of the day with these people for a week, bonds are forged quickly. However this experience was a product of circumstance and I wont be doing it again, also I probably wont see any of these kids again. I had fun even if it was very clean, next week in Barcelona I am going to try and make it extra dirty to compensate.
The catch? The only space available was on the Teen program which meant I was going to be hanging out with mostly 14-16 year olds... okay no problem Ive been doing it for a year... BUT and its a big but... the average age of the other natives is also 16-17 except for the camp counsellors. Hmm, usually I am the youngest person at these things, this time I was the oldest by far. Also rules like no smoking, drinking and curfew. Time to roll the dice. On the Friday morning I was thinking "what the hell have I got myself into".
Actually everything turned out great. After the initial awkwardness of the big age difference and adjusting to being on a schedule I started having some good clean fun. The accomodation was good, the food okay, the kids were great, the activities not too kiddy and I didnt mind the rules as it gave me a chance to have a healthy week and some decent sleep for a change. The schedule was pretty full on from 9am till 11pm with only a 2 hour break in the afternoon for a siesta or pool side relaxing, but the days went by easily.
Because my "team" didnt do well earning "points" I ended up doing some pretty strange activities in the afternoon like drama which turned out to be fun and then "make over" which meant a bunch of high school girls vigorously applied make up to my face which I then wore around until going to bed. I thought it was pretty fun until around dinner time when I was subjected to a barrage of jokes and stares at my expense (I have no photos of this event). The routine was broken up by a trip into the La Alberca town which was beautiful, a "funfair" day where we each made a booth and traded in beans and a mini olympics day. On the last evening a little party was organised by the pool where we drank sangria (without wine) and danced to the latest pop crap. I felt really old when they played "grease lightning" and I remembered when I was in high school doing the same many years ago. Luckily there were a bunch of counsellors my age to talk to so I didnt feel like a social deviant.
Despite the age gap and not having spent time with high school kids since... high school, I enjoyed hanging out with the kids (Spanish and anglo) and by the end of the week was even a little sad to be leaving. When I saw the older camp people arriving I was glad to have gone with the kids one, kids are more fun. After spending every hour of the day with these people for a week, bonds are forged quickly. However this experience was a product of circumstance and I wont be doing it again, also I probably wont see any of these kids again. I had fun even if it was very clean, next week in Barcelona I am going to try and make it extra dirty to compensate.
posted by Dave Tran at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
you are such a pedo dave. trying to pretend there was no other programs to get on.... yeah right!
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