Every morning I wake up at 7am to go running in the German forest. There are supposedly balloons hung on trees to show us the correct path to take, but that wasn’t really the most foolhardy plan as most of the balloons have popped, resulting in many lost campers. Yesterday morning my friend Kaitlyn and I were running and we got extremely lost, which was pretty scary considering we were in the middle of nowhere without cell phones or a map or anything. But thankfully we met a nice German man, which allowed us to have our first real-life German conversation. We asked “Wo ist Schloss Wittgenstein?” and he pointed in the direction of our castle, and then we made it back just in time for breakfast at 8:30. The breakfasts here are sort of different from the typical American breakfast – everyday there are cold-cuts, fresh bread, Nutella, yogurt, and sometimes eggs.
Once breakfast is over we go to our German Language classes. On the second day of camp everyone took a written test / oral exam to sort us into five levels. I’m in the group right above the bottom group, along with the ten other people who studied German over the summer but have never taken an actual class. Class goes from 9am – 12:15, and then we go and have lunch, which is our main meal of the day (there’s always some sort of hot dish being served by a woman who seems to speak no English whatsoever). And, as always, there’s fresh bread, cold cuts, and raw vegetables. Das ist sehr gut!
After lunch we have some free time, which I usually use to hike or hang out with friends or write in my journal or lay in bed because I am so so tired. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have more language classes all afternoon, but on Monday and Wednesday afternoons we have German culture classes led by the “teamers” (camp counselors).
Dinner at 6pm is sometimes hot and sometimes cold. We sit with our assigned “Small Groups” and eat our cold cuts (the salami is my favorite) and talk about our days. Afterwards we have evening activities, which could either be meeting with our Small Groups, baking, sports, or discussions. And then, around 9:30, it’s time for one of my favorite parts of the day…German Story Time. We all wear our pajamas and cram together into a little room and the Teamers read a traditional German story to us. By the time that’s over I am always so exhausted, so I go straight back to my room, talk with my roommate Emma for awhile, and then go straight to bed to gain the necessary energy for another day of exciting castle life!!