Final week of language camp!

Language camp is almost over (one more day) and it is kind of bitter sweet. The two teachers turned out to be pretty cool and most of the other kids are really nice. This week has been pretty fun in camp, we went on a odd excursion on tuesday and then a fun canoe trip on wednesday.

On Tuesday we were told to go out into the streets in groups of three and ask people opinion questions in German. The idea was to work on conversing in German while learning about what Germans think about certain topics. The questions ranged from "Do you like Germany? Why?" all the way to "How do you feel about the current state of Germany's economy, do you think it is in a recession or is it booming?" The effect was lost on my all together because the answeres we got were brief and meaningless and many people were unwilling to talk.

Wednesday's canoe trip wasn't too smooth, but it ended up being fun. We split up into two groups of six and one group of five for the canoes, the groups with six had a teacher. I was stearing the boat with five, and we were the only group without a teacher. The canoe trip followed a visual scavenger hunt of the city's canal system that had been written by the teachers. Since it was a race not only for speed but for completion of the scavenger hunt, having a teacher in the boat was an obvious advantage.

Some of the items we had too look for were the names of the bridges, details in carvings or graffiti art on the walls of the canals, and names and daily specials of resteraunts positioned on the canal edge. Even without the help of a teacher, my group finished about two minutes in front of one group, and about ten minutes in front of the other and we completed 30 of the 35 questions on the scavenger hunt list. For winning we each got a chocolate bar, and everybody got gummy bears and candies just for finishing.

Last night (Wednesday) I met with my new teachers for this year at the parent-teacher night. No other kids from the class were there, but it was nice to meet the teachers, who seem really nice, and also see the school and the classroom.

Other than camp and the trip to school, I have not really done much this week. I am getting a little discourage because I have not been able to really get out of the house and go do anything much. I would like to go into downtown Hamburg, or even down to the shopping area and just hang around but it hasn't really happened. Today I managed to get away by myself for a few minutes and I went to the bank and then a chocolate store all by myself (I bought gifts for the camp teachers).

No pictures this time (sorry!!), I didn't want to take my camera on the canoes or take pictures of random people on the street.