View from the top of the hill

Picture with the manager

Happy New Year! Sean and I had a great holiday season and we hope that you did too. We spent all of our holiday break working at a ski camp through an organization called English Adventures. Although outdoor education isn't really my thing, I was drawn to the job because of a couple of reasons: 1) I didn't want to be away from Sean for the holidays 2) The camp had a language learning/teaching component 3) It would be a chance to make some extra cash to use for some upcoming trips with visitors. Ski camp was overall a fantastic experience but I'm still recovering as it was exhausting constantly taking care of elementary-aged children either as a room leader or teaching them skiing for hours a day on the mountain.

Team picture with my team (beginners)

Newbie pink explosion - oh the cuteness!

During the Christmas vacation, we worked at two different camps. At English Adventures, there are two program options: Challenge and Immersion. The Challenge program is for Japanese kids who know zero or a little bit of English but they (or their parents) want to learn more. All Challenge staff can speak both English and Japanese and most instructions/conversations are given bilingually. The Immersion program is exactly what it sounds like - the whole camp session is given entirely in English and if kids are found speaking Japanese they get two strikes before getting sent home. For the first session of the camp I worked in the Challenge section and for the second camp I worked in Immersion. Sean was camp manager for the Immersion program for both camps.

Playing in the snow during free time

Pictures with Santa (Sean) while skiing

We went up early on Christmas Eve for staff training and ski instructor training and it was pretty odd spending Christmas on a remote ski mountain with strangers. After the kids arrived it was pretty chaotic and full-on. Here was the daily schedule:

6:30 am - Wake up
7:00 - Breakfast
8:00 - Morning assembly
9:00 - Skiing
11:00 - Free time indoors
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Skiing
4:00 - Free time indoors
5:00 - Dinner
6:00 - Evening activity (Snow festival, English games, movie night, dance party etc.)
8:00 - Baths and team time
9:30 - Lights out
10:00 - Staff meeting
11:00 - Collapse into bed

It was a grueling schedule but it was also a lot of fun and I learned a LOT about elementary-aged kids, child development in general, how to be a ski instructor and group management. For the first session I was in charge of eight six-year-old kids who couldn't speak English well. It was challenging, to say the least. For the second session, I had six eight-year-old kids who were fluent in English and loved to speak it with me so that was a lot of fun. I had no idea that the difference in maturity between being six and eight was so great! My eight-year-olds could do everything by themselves (putting on snow gear, skis etc.) which was magical!

Making our igloo during a break from skiing

The awesome camp facility!

Another really cool thing about camp was meeting interesting staff from all around the world. Ski instructors and counselors came from the Netherlands, Germany, France, Canada, South Korea, other areas of Japan and the U.K. to be a part of the program. It was awesome to have a such an encouraging, supportive and like-minded group to work with.

Now it's back to reality and I'm in the thick of classes again. It's weird to be staring at screens and books again instead of little faces and snowy mountains. Sean will continue to work for the camp on some future breaks and weekends but I probably won't be able to due to attempting to finish a thesis before May 15. I am, however, looking forward to writing a bit more now that I have internet again and plenty of peace and quiet (kids are loud, whoa). Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

Christmas morning from my window at ski camp

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