First International Week!
Hey!
This week started the first Six-Day International program for the summer. The summer program is founded on a concept called Global Friendship Through Space Education. Kids from all over the world come to Space Camp Turkey to meet each other and learn about different cultures, while going through the Space Camp program with a few twists.
Kids this week were from Bulgaria, Israel, Turkey and Germany. On my team, I had kids from Israel, Bulgaria and Turkey. They were the best kids I have ever met in my life. The first day or two was a little bumpy, the kids were pretty much staying with people from their own country. I did some group games and activities that got them talking to one another a little and eventually they just all became best friends.
Special Events Night was on Thursday which was so exciting. What happens is the kids from each country present something that represents their country. The Bulgarian did a traditional dance (look below at a picture of me, Stephanie, and the Bulgarian from our team in their costumes!) The Turkish did a presentation on Turkey and a dance. The German's did a presentation on Germany and two girls sang 99 Red Balloons in German. The Israel kids did a presentation on Israel and also demonstrated some religious traditions. Also, some of the Turkish speaking kids did dances, sang and played the piano. All the kids had so much talent, it was amazing.
BBQ night is also part of the six day program and the kids love it, for three hours they are outside eating, listening to music, dancing and having a good time.
The relationships formed in six weeks was crazy. The kids were so sweet, they gave us all really cool presents from their home country. There were so many people crying when the kids left. The kids were upset, the counselors were upset. The kids didn't want to leave, we didn't want them to leave. They have been the best group so far! Tom, Sara, Jon and I just really had an unbelievably good time with these kids, and even though all the counselors were off in the afternoon we couldn't leave them, so stayed to say bye to each one. Once they left, we left and went to Burger King for dinner and then to see War of the Worlds. It was such a good movie. I think I have been seeing more movies here then when I lived in the states. The theaters are really nice, and you can choose to sit in regular chairs or on a couch. Well anywho, tomorrow is a new group! It is so weird to be out with the old and in with the new because you get to know the kids so well. This week is one of the E-Pal weeks so there will be kids from the states here for the next two weeks. The ones this week are from California, New York and Texas. I will update again once the first E-Pal week is over! I hope everyone is having a fun summer!
posted by Matthew @ 11:09 PM
