Spring Camp!

Last week I got to leave my little town in Algeria (basically) and go to camp in Taza with some of the coolest Moroccan teens I've ever met. And I promise, I'm not just saying that because we're all Facebook friends and they're probs going to read my blog. These kids were legit cool, like so cool that I was hoping that at some point the girls could take me shopping and give me a makeover and lessons on how to be cool a la how JFK transformed Ghandi from a nerd to a stud in the makeover episode of Clone High. 

Anyway, my main responsibilities at camp were teaching English and then running a club activity. And performing the "Go Bananas" song like 10x a day because the kids in my class really liked it and kept asking me to do it again for them. I taught an intermediate English class, and it was....so weird. In all the classes I've taught in the Gaf, I've never had students who understood enough English that I could get by only speaking in English. It was nice to have a break from having to clumsily and awkwardly explain things in Arabic, only to have the kids stare back at you and tell you that the thing you just said wasn't actually a sentence and they have no idea what you want from them. These camp kids knew what was up, which totally made playing games with them 1000x easier. (I don't know if you've ever tried to explain Simon Says in Arabic, but it didn't go over so well when I did it. Even when I explained it to my class at camp, I had one kid who was confused about who Simon was and why I was being Simon when I had just said that my name was Meetra.) It was basically a week of Pictionary, Hangman, Never Have I Ever, and rocking out to Lady Gaga (which actually put two students to sleep....) And some grammatical review, just to round things out. I didn't manage to get a pic of all the kids in my class, but here's some of them:

Camp was simultaneously a nice break and a really exhausting experience that I now need another break to recover from. As nice as it was being able to speak English for a week and catch up on the latest celeb gossip from the girls in my class (and hang out with 3 other awesome Americans), by the end of the week I missed my kids in the Gaf. So, now it's back to work as I scramble to see if my kids can get this Earth Day play ready in time for next week. The camp kids gave me a cold, which is why I'm currently hopped up on Cepacol throat lozenges and orange soda, which my local hanut guy insists has the same healing power as orange juice. I've been downing this soda all day and I don't feel any better, so I'm somewhat skeptical.

I watch too much TV

As some of you may know, Boy Meets World is my second favorite show of all time. Even with my absurdly slow dial-up, I've been trying to download all the episodes so I can sit alone in my house and laugh hysterically. Problem is, while BMW is still the most hilarious thing ever, the older I am, the lamer they seem. (Not you, Rider Strong, if you're reading this. You're still awesome.) I mean, who goes to college and is roommates with their BFFL from HS and still dates the same girl and insists his BFFL has to stay with his gf because everything has to be the same? In my youth, I was all like, "Yeah, Cory, keep everything the same because Season 5 was awesome and everything should always be like that." But now, I'm just like, "Cory, you need to go out there and find yourself and let your friends find themselves. I mean, you have a poster of celery in your room. You've got no personality. What's the deal with that? Also, let's be real, Shawn's too cool to be hanging out with you anyway."

I like to think that we're constantly evolving as people and becoming better and better versions of ourselves. Or at least more genuine versions of ourselves, if not actually better. Ever since I started on this BMW kick a few weeks ago, I find it hard to watch any TV because characters never seem to evolve and are always in the same job, the same relationship, still afraid of commitment, basically still stuck in the exact same sitcom tropes. Is that really how life is? Does it take us 7 seasons of living before we can get up the nerves to make a major life change? And have I changed or evolved in the last 7 years, or am I just as bad as Cory and Topanga?

To quote Boy Meets World, "There's always gonna be an Eskimo standing in my way.....I'm my own worst Eskimo." (PS - If you haven't seen it, this is probs one of my top 5 fav episodes.) As I sit here, I'm just hoping that I'm not being my own worst Eskimo and holding myself back in any way. Here, it's really easy to just let opportunities for work pass me by and sit in my house and be on my absurdly slow Internet all day. My site is pretty small, and I have relatively few counterparts to work with, so even getting simple things to happen can be a struggle. (See: My sitemate and my Earth Day project, which we've been working on for 3 months and is still possibly not gonna happen.) Most days I can handle it, but there are definitely times where I find myself getting really irritated with how hard everything is here. But I like to set monthly goals for myself, so here's my goal for April: Embrace the struggle, don't get frustrated when everything falls apart, and when all else fails, watch more Boy Meets World because that show is freaking awesome even if the characters don't ever evolve.