Day 5 (July 23, 2012)

Today was the first day of camp! I got up at 6:30, got ready and then had some tea and a couple of the sugar-free, whole wheat, flax cookies my mom sent with me. Attila picked us up at 7:45 in the rickety OM van (it blows out black smoke) and we went to ICSB. Once there we starting setting up tables and chairs in the cafeteria for lunch and for art. We blew up balloons for a name game we were playing, as well as a whole bunch of water balloons. Kids started coming at 8:30. As they came in they wrote their name on an air-filled balloon. Then Rebecca introduced the camp, our team and brainstormed with the kids a little bit about what it takes to make a musical. Next we started games.

First was the name game. All of the balloons were in the middle of the circle - we had to run into the middle, grab a balloon, and find the person whose name was on it. With our parters, we had to find out each others favourite colour, favourite food, and something about our family and pets (pets was my addition...haha). Then we had to introduce our partner to the group stating these three answers (in English). Next I introduced the banana game, which we did a couple of times and will continue to do all week as an energizer. Then we did the game Zip, Zap, Boing, which the kids really liked. We also did the Atom Game, and Body Part Partners (you walk around and then have to find your partner when they call out 2 body parts. When you find your partner, you have to touch those 2 body parts together. Ex. Elbow to nose, or ear to foot, etc.). Then we learned the first song in the show (The Tale of Cinderella). It’s a smaller group (approx 20) but they sound great! Next, Alegria, Meaghan and myself acted out a scene between the 2 stepsisters and the stepmother for the kids. Then we showed it to them with a few different emotions. Then we split the kids up into 2 groups. One group went to the art room with Alegria. They were working on word art and designing a logo for the Cinderella programs. Upstairs we were working on acting. The kids were put into groups of 3, and did the same scene we had performed for them, each rotating through the parts so that they got to play all three. As they did this, they also cycled through working with myself, Meaghan and Rebecca. Then they went downstairs to do art and the other group came up, doing the same activity. Once we were all back together again, each group performed the scene for everybody. They did such a wonderful job! All of the girls loved playing the stepsisters! And they did very well with their English!

Lunch is being provided by a local restaurant. It’s crazy. When I think of camp food, I think of sandwiches and chips. But not here. In Hungary lunch is the main meal of the day, and dinner is more of the sandwich time. The first course (I KNOW!) was a meat soup (so I ate a granola bar, not knowing there was more to come!). Next were cubed potatoes with butter and seasonings, pickles and stuffed meat of some sort (I had potatoes and pickles). AND THEN we had these little layered cake things that were really good for dessert! DESSERT! 

After lunch we headed outside to play a game of water balloon volleyball on the court. I have never heard of this and it was SOOOOO much fun! On each side of the net their are sets of partners, each holding one side of a towel. One set of partners would get a water balloon in their towel, and had to fling it across to the other side of the net. Another pair on the other team had to try and catch it in their towel. Needless to say, there were a lot of burst water balloons. But everybody got the hang of it and were doing pretty well by the end! My partner, a sweet little shy girl who doesn’t really speak any English got a water balloon right on her when we were trying to catch it with the towel, and was soaked from head to toe. We had a good laugh about that!

After taking a group picture outside, we headed in to get more work done. We did a whole group exercise, practicing moving around like different characters (ie. a king, a mouse, etc.). Then we split up again (music/drama and art). In art they began working on designing a castle for the set. Upstairs we did more acting work, such as the game Who Am I? (each person got a type of person written on a piece of paper and had to walk across the room acting it out with no words our sounds, and everyone had to guess. Some examples were: cowboy, teacher, soccer goalie, police officer, doctor, etc.). Then I taught them the song Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, which is a pretty difficult song! Especially because half of these “English” words aren’t really words! But the kids are very dedicated and learned the song very well! We rotated groups again, and did the same activities with the second group, while ours went to art.

At the end of the day, our team met to debrief, and then we went home. Ty made the three of us grilled cheese sandwiches (such a gentleman!), and we sat around and chatted.

Ty cooking dinner for us girls!

I also looked around in the library at our training centre and pulled out a bunch of books I want to buy. I'm trying to narrow them down! After that I started typing out the script for Cinderella (we are projecting both the English and Hungarian translations at the performance on Saturday. I was super tired, and called it a night at 10:00pm.