TWO SISTERS FUN-FILLED TIME AT SUMMER CAMP
Thanks so much for joining us to talk about your tim at Explorer Camps. You come back to Explorer Camps every year. What is the feeling when you step onto camp for the first time in summer?
MICHAELA: On my first time I was very nervous, and wondering if I would like it. On my second time, I
was just really excited.
JULIET: The very first time, I was nervous but excited at the same time. For the second time, I was happy to be back and glad to be doing it for two weeks instead of one. I was looking forward to doing
tie dye and horse riding and seeing my camp friends again.
Has camp changed over those two years?
MICHAELA: The first year, it helped that the camp was right near our house so we were reassured to know that our parents weren’t far away. Of course, I was busy having
more fun than I had expected so in the end I didn’t think about them much to be honest. In the second year, it was a better location and there were a lot more things to do, so it was even more fun.
JULIET: Yes. The second time, it was in a different location, the food was better, and there were more activities to do. We saw our friends from the previous year but made new friends too.
What was one of your funniest moments?
MICHAELA: One of the counsellors fell down a hill beside the campfire pit on the first week that I went. We laughed WITH him not AT him!
JULIET: It was when one of our roommates tried to prank us into thinking we were geJng a sudden visit from a counsellor to our room.
What do you think makes camp special?
MICHAELA: All the counsellors actually really care about us. It feels more like they are our friends than just doing their jobs and being our bosses. And the food there is really good!
JULIET: It’s the fact that you get to be away from your parents for a week. It seems like a scary thing to do before you do it, but it’s actually really fun.
Were you ever scared? What helped you if/when you were scared?
MICHAELA: I was scared to do the sky climbing in the forest, but my friends reassured me that it was
okay, and then it was really fun when I did it in the end. I felt great to have the encouragement. I’m proud that I overcame that challenge and now I want to do it again!
JULIET: On the first day of camp, I was scared to meet my roommates, but they turned out to be really nice and really funny. We did so much giggling.
What was something difficult? How did you get through the difficult part?
MICHAELA: When I attended to two week camp, on the weekend during the changeover, some of the
other kids had their phones and I felt a bit “at a loose end”. I just hung out with my sister who also didn’t have her phone. But that was only for a few hours, and then we were all in the same boat. Not
having our phones actually helps us all to get to know one another.
JULIET: The most difficult thing was leaving camp at the end and having to say goodbye to all my friends; most of us live in different countries. The thing that helped me with that was gettng my phone back after camp, taking a few selfies with my friends so I could remember them, and keeping
in touch with them afterwards. We still chat all the time!
Is it easy to make friends? What makes it easy/hard?
MICHAELA: It was easy, because I was put in an age group with other kids who had similar interests, so it was kind of done for me. One challenging thing for some kids was having to speak English all the time so we could all understand one another. But we all got along great no matter what language we were speaking and we all had a few laughs learning new words.
JULIET: It’s easy to make friends because everybody’s equally shy at the beginning and there are no cliques already formed when we arrive. Everybody wants to make friends, and we’re all roughly the same age, so it happens naturally.
What do you think about the Counselors that work on camp? Do you have any special memories of
them?
MICHAELA: I have nice memories with Rebecca. She worked on our second year of camping when we were at Osilnica. She was really easy to talk to and I found that I could relate to her really well on a lot of topics. We had great chats together on the horse carriage.
JULIET: I got along really well with Urška. She worked on our first year of camp at Lake Bohinj. A special memory of her is that we went into one of the campers’ rooms and played a board game with her. She was very caring and would give us nice hairstyles and come in and say good night to us every night.
What advice can you give new campers?
MICHAELA: I would tell new campers that they’ll have lots of fun and make friends really fast. Nobody needs to worry about popularity; there is really no such thing as that at camp. All they need to do is
just be themselves and be ready for some fun.
JULIET: Try not to be nervous because that will get in the way of all the fun that’s about to happen!
