In April, our students joined 10 Americans who are spending their year in the Czech Republic as English Teaching Assistants (and were organized for the occasion by Teresa, who is serving her term at our school), to enjoy a weekend together at Déčko Camp Base in Vižňov (Meziměstí). This is how one of our participants, Lenka Vočadlová from 5.V, remembered the experience:
On Friday 19th of April, 28 students and 10 Americans went to Vižňov to make friends, spend some time outdoors and, most importantly, to practice their English. Vižňov is a pretty small village in the northernmost part of the Náchod district, actually part of a pretty small town of Meziměstí.
Friday 15:00 – most of us were at the main station in Náchod, patiently waiting for our train to arrive, while the rest got to Vižňov by their own route. In Meziměstí, we hopped on a bus that took us literally to the door of Déčko camp base in Vižňov, which became our home for the rest of the weekend.
Friday 19:00 – the program was supposed to start now; however, the Americans took longer to make their dinner than expected, therefore it was postponed to 19:45. What happened in the meantime you may ask, well, most of us had dinner (ramen noodles), one student ran to Poland (yes, I did that, sue me) but overall it was a great evening.
Friday 19:45 – the time came. We were sorted into groups and had to learn as much information as possible about one American that was assigned to us. Then we presented our findings to the others. The rest of the evening was dedicated to playing Mafia and/or chatting with our American guests.
Saturday – Saturday was a great day for a walk (until it wasn’t). We could choose whether we wanted to go to Meziměstí or to Ruprechtický špičák. At the beginning, the weather was quite okay, but later on it started to rain a lot. When we got back to the camp base, we were happy to be somewhat warm.
In the evening, however, we really wanted to go outside again and grill the sausages we had brought. However, there was a small problem. All the wood outside was completely wet, and there was none left in the garden shed.
Suddenly, two teams were created – the strong, independent women that decided to ask other inhabitants for a bit of wood and the boys that thought going to the forest trying to find a bit of dry sticks would work. Us, great, amazing, independent women knocked on a ridiculous number of doors before finally someone opened. But we got our wood in the end and returned triumphantly to the base.
Only to find out that the boys had got wood too. On the way to the forest, they had seen some wood under a roof in someone’s garden, so they decided to follow our suit, knock on the door and ask for wood too. But there is no denying that us, great, amazing, independent women had paved the way for them to do so.
The time between the collecting of wood and the fire itself was filled with another activity organized by the Americans. We were divided into teams. The teams turned into police investigators whose job was to interrogate suspects of murder. (As far as I know, no actual participants were murdered during the weekend.) After much speculation, reasoning and analyzing, the teams agreed on who they thought was the culprit. A jury consisting of the three teachers supervising us for the whole weekend then agreed on one person who would go to jail.
Anyway, at the end of the day, Saturday was great, and we had a lot of fun.
Sunday – On Sunday, we looked back at the weekend, drawing pictures and writing down our thoughts (you can see more results of this activity on the English notice board on the second floor of our school), packed our things and walked to Meziměstí, where we said our goodbyes and left. I must admit this experience was one of the best I’ve ever had on a school trip and would love to repeat it one day.
