Enchante

The kids have a new game they like to play. They say, "Repeat after me: (insert some unknown French sentence here ) " And being the gullible, stupid Americans that we are, we, most of the time, repeat what they say. You would think we would know by the way they snicker and whisper to each other right after they tell us, that what they just said must be something either inappropriate or insulting, but we still say it anyway. For example, today I told a man he was "as hairy as a monkey" and David told Emmanuel that he thought he was very beautiful and wanted to marry him. But no, it gets worse. After some curse words and dirty phrases we decided that was it. We were done being the brunt of their silly jokes and being made fools of, too bad it took us 45 minutes to realize that :/

I've learned a ridiculous amount of French in the last few days though. A lot of it came from the silly game I just talked about, as dumb as it was. But you find that when you have 6 kids to take care of, and the only thing they respond to is another language, you learn that language very quickly. I have found myself even speaking to the children in a French accent even when I'm speaking English. For some reason I feel like if I say English words as they do, with an accent, they will understand me better.

Bonjour!

Haley finally got here! I'm very glad she is here because I was beginning to get lonely in my little room. She had a heck of a time getting here, though, but that is a whole different story for another day. I was very worried about her, but her is a big girl :) 

While waiting for her at the train station last night, Emmanuel (the man running the camp) and I sat on a bench and had French 101. He would point to different objects and tell me how to say it in French. I learned to say a lot of words that are probably useless to me, but that's okay. There was another guy sitting next to us who was listening to our conversation. He was laughing at me when I would try to pronounce the words. Apparently, my French accent needs a little work :/

The kids come today. I don't know if I'm happy about it or not! hahaha! No, I'm kidding. It will be an experience, that's for sure.

Oh, blogs!

This brings back so many memories of when I was in the 9th grade and had a livejournal. Hopefully there will be an apparent difference between my entries as a 15-year-old compared to my entries now, as a 20-year-old. I've been contemplating blogging again for a while now, and after much deliberation, I have decided to re-enter the wonderful e-world of blogs. Not because I really want the world to know, but more for myself, and so I can reminisce later (and more than likely make fun of myself). Such a commitment, I tell you! With that said...

DISCLAIMER: I am not promising to update consistently. I also refuse to try too hard to sound sophisticated and use bulky words, for that's just too much work. I write as I think. Therefore, I am not making any promises that this will be deep, important, educational, or entertaining. All I am agreeing to is that here you will find my heart, my feelings, my thoughts (however interesting that may be), and very very random stories/facts that probably only I will find amusing.

Now that that is all out of the way... on to the.. good stuff? So I arrived in Montreux, Switzerland on Monday the 23rd, and oh my!

My first thought as I sat atop the mountain and gazed at the view from my window: "God has such an incredible imagination"

My second thought: "That's it. I'm never going home."

But really. He is so creative. This place is so majestic. And until I get a picture up here, my only way of describing it to you would be to imagine opening the storybook of "Hansel and Gretel" (for some reason I always imagined it in a Swiss setting?) and stepping inside the pages. It almost makes me wish that I enjoyed taking pictures because I am in a photographer's paradise. Even so, my stinky camera would never do this place justice. But yea... Thanks, God, for putting everything back into perspective.

So in case you didn't already know, I will be living here for the whole month of July working as a camp counselor. The catch is, we do not speak the same language as the enfants (kids in french :]).  They know no English, just as we know no French. To most, this may appear to be a dilemma. To me, this is the best type of counselor you can be. Just think... A 7-year-old whining and complaining to you in English, compared to a 7-year-old whining and complaining to you in French. Though I don't understand a lick of it, I find French to be the most beautiful language. So whether the child is complaining about the heat vs. raving about how wonderful the banana/chocolate crepes are, it all sounds the same to me - music to my ears :) On the other hand, I can only pray the day never comes when a child runs to me, and in French says "My best friend just fell of a cliff!", and I respond with a big grin, an "adda boy," and a brisk pat on the back.

Something else I find amazing: All the different languages I am constantly around. I have become well acquainted with the staff here at the chalet, restaurant, and hotel. (they are all owned/run by the same man who is running the camp) Technically, I am part of the staff now. They are all very nice, or at least I think they are, though I can't understand half of the things they say. The majority of them can speak English fluently, but they can also speak 4 other languages fluently as well. So at least what they say in English is nice. Who knows what they are saying in French? Italian? Spanish? Portuguese? German? Seriously though, I am astounded at the man who is running the camp. He speaks every single one of these languages. It makes me feel so uncultured and, well, stupid to be honest. It is very cool, though, to be part of this staff which is made up of so many different nationalities. Other than the owners, the majority of the staff is made up of people my age. There are 3 people from Zimbabwe, 2 of which are girls whom I have become closest with because they speak English the best, are my age, and are girls.

My French vocabulary thus far (but is not limited to) is as follows:

hello - "Bonjour"

good-bye - "Au Revoir"

Thank you - "Merci"

Please - "S'il vous plait"

Do you speak English? - "Parlez-vous anglais?"

The F-word, the SH-word, and the D-word - the same as they sound in the U.S. ( apparently American curse words are international)

::more to come::

I suppose that is enough, if not too much, for my first entry. Time to read my book :)

bye! adeus! au revoir! ciao!