Skip to main content

The Jump of the Wolf, or how I got upgraded to "Adventure Counselor"


On Monday I received my first site assignment for American Village, the English-immersion camp system I will be counseling at this summer.

Drum roll please....

Miramont de Guyenne! (cue frantically Googling where that is)

...Southwest France! (NICE!)

...an hour from Bordeaux! (NICE!!)

...adventure camp! (WHAT?)

So yes, friends, I will be spending July at Le Saut du Loup (which Google tells me translates to "The Jump of the Wolf"), an American Village "Adventure Camp" for 11-15 year olds.

The website offers a few glimpses of camp life, including horse-riding, stargazing, and archery.

I was expecting to be placed at one of the "original" language camps, so this is a pleasant surprise. I looked back at my application to see what could have caused this assignment, and this might have been it: "Outside of work, and depending on the weather, I try to stay outdoors as much as possible."

Whatever the reason, it does not matter. I can now envision myself more clearly- somewhere in Gironde, shooting arrows with a bunch of teenagers. It's going to be awesome.

Les van den Broek  enfants et moi
I booked my train ticket from Paris to Bordeaux/Marmande for a day after I land. I am excited to spend some time with my former host family, the van den Broeks, in Levallois before heading to camp! It's been five years since I've seen them. I've also started practicing my French again.

In other news, my departure date is creeping closer, and I've made a lot of progress in trip planning/leaving the country.

In the last week, I've:

purchased a Eurail Select Pass to Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. I hadn't planned to get a rail pass, but in order to get one it needs to be shipped to the U.S., so even though I'm not traveling to Eastern Europe until October I decided to buy one now. Plus, I got $75 off the cheapest pass, so the total was less than $100. Not complaining.

realized I needed, applied for, and received a Turkish e-visa. It's $20 if you do it online, $30 at the border.

contacted multiple farms in Italy for a place to stay in September, received a few nos, one yes, but nothing's confirmed. More about that in a later post!

bought my very own camp counselor fleece, along with a myriad of other travel-y items. (Thank you Sierra Trading Post for your deals on quick-dry underwear)

started wading through the nightmare that is setting travel notices on credit/debit cards and researching SIM cards...has anyone traveled extensively using a prepaid European SIM card? Any insight?

Here's to one more full week in Minneapolis!

Sophie


Comments

  1. KayleighJune 11, 2015 at 11:47 AM

    The camp sounds awesome! I want to go... I could pass for 15, right??

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My farmstay in Hotnitsa, Bulgaria: A chance to be vegan, getting back on a bike, plus a recipe from yours truly!

“Here,” he said, handing me a pair of latex gloves. “You might need these.” It’s my first night on the organic farm in Hotnitsa, Bulgaria , and my host Rodo is warning me of the spiciness of the chili peppers he gave me. “Seriously, don’t touch your eyes or nose after you handle them. They’re dangerous.” Part of the farm on a foggy morning Earlier that day, Rodo gave me a tour of the farm, stopping ever so often to pile more veggies into my arms. Green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and the aforementioned chilies , Rodo’s specialty. Rodo, originally from France, has been in Hotnitsa since about 2008. A former investment banker, he gave up consulting and bought a homestead in a small village outside of Veliko Tarnovo. He grows strictly organic, sells his produce in markets, and does his best to give back to the land. Average day on the farm I met Rodo online through Workaway , an organization that connections volunteers with hosts worldwide. In exchan...
5 comments
Read more

Cluj-Napoca: Proof that friends can be found anywhere, and that I still love polenta.

Last Monday, October 5 View on the way to Cluj My alarm goes off at at 5:45am, and I ready myself for my longest train ride in Eastern Europe to date. Six hours barreling through western Romania into Northern Transylvania, arriving at Cluj-Napoca in the early afternoon. What could be bad about that? It turns out, nothing, save for the moment I allow myself to leave the carriage to go to the bathroom, and find myself in a developing country, smells and sights included. I resolve to limit my water-drinking on travel days from now on. For those of you who know I have a constant sidekick in my water bottle, this is easier said than done. However, I arrive in Cluj on time and relatively unscathed. Lucia, my CS host, patiently guides me  over the phone from station to bus to bus stop to apartment, and before I know it I’m in her living room, drinking coffee (my first of the day! how did I survive this long?) and chatting about couchsurfing, international politics, and fr...
1 comment
Read more

An abundance of canning jars, an update on Italian farms, and a plea for reading material

I write to you on day 4 of packing up my apartment- in the midst of this controlled chaos, or as my roommates would call it, chaos. I am most surprised by the number of canning jars I have accrued over the last year or so. It's as though they've multiplied, each born with a genetic disorder: a handful of raisins there, a cup of rolled oats there, and flaxseed. Oh, so much flaxseed. I don't know where it all came from, but I hope someone finds a good use for it. I preemptively dumped every nut I owned into the food processor on Sunday, and have been living off this "mixed nut butter"- mostly cashews and walnuts, but also six macadamia nuts, a tablespoon of almonds, a couple of pecans, and pinches of cinnamon and salt. It's ridiculously creamy, and I've been stirring spoonfuls of it into oatmeal and smoothies (practically all I've been eating at home). Hopefully by the end of the day everything will be packed up and stacked nicely in a corner ("...
3 comments
Read more