Multikemp Has Ended

Well it is now Sunday and Jory and I are sitting in Martin and Jane's flat in a huge concrete apartment building on the outer edge of Prague. We have just eaten a delicious dinner consisting of lasagna, cucumbers, nectarines, bread, carrots, and tomato/mozzarella/basil. It is so nice to be relaxing in a home after six days of sleeping in crowded school rooms. We left the camp around 1:30 and drove back to Prague with Martin; tonight we will sleep in a hotel room (sounds amazing!) and spend the next few days exploring and meeting up with other English camp instructors as they arrive.

Now for some pictures from the last few days:

Here is Jory as "American Tourist" during the evening program. He very enthusiastically said "dobry den" (hello) to everyone who said anything to him and took many pictures and mispronounced a whole lot of phrases, including his favorite - "you smell like a pig" (which I have no idea how to spell in czech). The character was a great hit. Side note: the pictures of me singing Satisfaction in a green kilt didn't turn out too well, so no go on those for now.

This one is self-explanatory, it happened after some rain in the late afternoon one day.

The softball tournament! It was yesterday morning and as soon as we arrived at the fields it poured for two straight hours. Jory's team made it to the final, when the field had been reduced to a shallow sea with sea grasses and muddy tidal areas near home plate. My valiant team unfortunately lost 8-3 in our first game, but Jory's scrappiness led him all the way to the final match. To end his semifinal, he made a stooping catch in centerfield and threw to third for a double play. Unfortunately his team was not a match for the high-powered offense of the other team in the final, and as the rain ended the final ended as well to the scattered sounds of cheering from the ramshackle dugouts. Everyone rode in steamy city buses back to the city where a hot shower was enjoyed by all (but not necessarily the same hot shower).

Due to rain, our intricately planned frisbee tournament was held indoors in two big gyms in Liberec, the next town over from Jablonec. By intricately planned I mean we changed all the teams the campers had created when we arrived then quickly drew the bracket you see above, creating rules on the fly. It involved a lot of intense conversation between Jory, Jitka, and I as the campers waited expectantly, trying to make a fair tournament for thirteen teams in small gyms. Several misunderstandings and near angry outbursts later, it worked! The tournament was a great success! It was really fun to see all these different teams play each other, and it was especially good for Jory and I to see our frisbee players leading their teams. One of the guys, Jerka, would move the frisbee in the same way I do whenever he caught it; though he couldn't really throw it well, he pivoted just like me. It was amusing and flattering I must say. The two finals team were both very good. One was led by Eva and Petr and some others, they were the skilled team with good strategy and good throws that steamrolled everyone in their side of the bracket. The other was led by Simon and was full of fast, big guys who made you pay any time you dropped the frisbee by immediately fast-breaking to their endzone. The final was epic, but Simon's team pulled away and won in the end with their speed and power. It was a great tournament, and we were only late for dinner by fifteen minutes.

Frisbee players! I will miss them all, they were a great group to run around with each day, and I really grew to respect them as I got to know them off of the field. Thank goodness for facebook to keep in touch now that we have all left each other.

I hope you all have the chance sometime today to relax like we are right now, relaxation is incredible! Although I will miss playing frisbee each day...