Much Better Than Bootcamp

Well, today I did NOT have bootcamp---Julia did! I guess the cooking students had real-to-goodness army people yelling at them and putting them through obstacle courses. Julia came through pretty well, and said that she had actually been interested in the military a while back (however, Iceland does not have a military. Instead, it is illegal to attack the country.).  Thank goodness my day was not so grueling! Instead of bootcamp, the education students got bussed about an hour away to a woodsy area for sports and a barbecue. First we played a lot of ‘getting to know you’ games, which was rather helpful and not painful at all.  It was interesting trying to tell people my name, though. Everyone here says it like SIRrah Red, and it’s rather hard to recognize sometimes because ‘Sara’ sounds like sera, a relatively common french word. There are several other Sara(h)s in the school, however. So it’s not completely foreign.

Later we were divided into teams and played a circuit of sports including volleyball, soccer (football), Pétanque (I like this one! You throw a small ball, and then everyone else tries to throw their ball closest to the colored ball from a starting line. Good fun.), Frisbee golf, and Badminton. The we had an hour lunch. I tell you, Americans need to learn how to have cookouts like the Belgians; their sausages served in baguettes with tomatoe, lettuce, ketchup, and mayonaise were quite superb. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat a hot dog again. Then we split into teams and did a sort of scavenger hunt/game stations activity. I discovered what European nettles look like without too much damage, and had some interesting conversations about the US. They wanted to know what we eat, what the roads are like, if we have igloos, if we eat dogs, if we have Walruses, if it is cold, and if we have Obama on any money yet (He is extremely popular here). Nobody knew who Sarah Palin is. Phewf. I hung out with several people I met yesterday. They were extremely kind to me and explained how to get a locker and told other people to speak more slowly for me, and made sure I knew how to get home from the school. They all seem to be very nice and more of the ‘good kid’ type than some people I have met. I feel much better about school now that I have found some nice people. We were able to request to be in the same class, but it is unlikely because 3 of the 5 are taking Flemish rather than English. One can only hope. We’ll find out our schedules and class groups Monday. I think.