By Sönke Keding
At 4-30 p.m. we arrived at the Youth Camp 2005 in Eicken-Bruche.
The mood wasn´t bad but also not good, you don´t know the other young people and that is why you are a little bit shy.
Everybody was tired because of the journey.
After dinner the mood changed from shy to friendly and so everybody began to know each other and after a few beers the problems with speaking English were forgotten and we have had a lot fun.
At midnight our leaders said that we have to sleep and so we went to our tents and the first day was history.
The day began awfully. The leaders awakened us with a loud electro voice-maker at 7:30 a.m. However, the shower 15 minutes later helped against the tiredness initially.
The item in the morning was the paper chase. It was an mixed group – one person from each country. Not particularly motivated we went through Eicken-Bruche. Between looking for papers, there were some games, which was not so boring thanks to them.
The best game was the shaving of balloons, because when the balloons burst all the people close by were covered in shaving cream and that was very funny.
At 1p.m. it was lunch time. There were noodles with meat . I forgive five out of five spoons. About 2p.m. we had a visitor, a woman of the EU, who told us something about Europe.
In the afternoon, our Workshops started, I had signed on for media. My task was the shaping of a homepage. Among other things, I worked on the Sunday text. The evening was again very entertaining. The conversation with a Swiss (Ralf),a Danish (Klaus) and an Englishman (Jack) was very funny. We sat together and talked most of the time about music. At the end of the evening, I tried to be a Swiss German. Mir gods guet(I am OK) are the only words so far, but that was just the second night…
The day began just as cruelly as the day before. Getting up at 7:30 a.m. is not human. I was very tired. The Media workshop was turn to do the duties. Cleaning the toilets and so on. .
Therefore, I have cleaned the showers and toilets. Then, we had make progress with our homepage. A climax of the day was the extremely well prepared presentation of the Swiss. A swiss, his name we are not allowed to call (Ralf), had problems to find Switzerland on a map.
Also cooking in the families was very great. It began at 5 pm. I was in the family Middendorf, a family with a small girl (2 years old). I cooked with a girl from England her name is Jade. We decided to cook Lasagne. Cooking this was very simple. The communication between us was no problem.
The Middendorfs are able to speak English, it was not so good, but they try and Jade understood most of it. I spoke with the family mostly in German.
That was a little bit stupid because of Jade. The meal was good. It was a nice evening and good dinner. We played games and drunk white wine from South Africa. The small, cute and shy daughter, was very entertaining.
At 9-30 p.m. we returned to the camp.
At the camp fire, I talked with Daphne about everything a long time. So far, I spoken with another person from different country each evening and they were all very friendly.
Unfortunately I have to accept that they all speak English better than me.
We visited Hanover. On the way to Hanover, I tried to go to sleep but I could not.We had two leaders to give us information. The first leader was in the Lower Saxony State Parliament. We saw different convention places. A film explained the tasks of the state parliament. I found the leader informative and not so boring.
After the information , we went to the stadium of Hanover 96. The visit was short but good. For example we were allowed to sit down on the player benches.
Later, we had two hours time to go shopping. Hanover is a very beautiful city.
I bought nothing. However, we went to the Burger King.
When we arrived back in Eicken-Bruche I was very tired. It all was forgotten after the very good dinner. By 8-30 p.m. we had a match in water sliding. It was very funny, but now I have pain in my knees and my stomach.
At the campfire, I became very tired quickly. I drunk some beers and looked into the fire, however Daphne rescued the evening. She asked why I was staring and later we had a good talk . Later, Ralf came to us. He asked Daphne a lot of questions, but I knew most of the answers. My task was to translate all the words that he did not understand.
We sat outdoors until 3 a.m.. My eyes were red from the smoke. But it was again a great day...
These early mornings, I hate it.
When having breakfast, I only eat fruit salad which means I am sick or very tired. At the workshop I was tired too but I had to work. I wrote a lot. The lunch was very good. Goulash with noodles as well as with potatoes. At 2 p.m., Germany, Belgium, England and Denmark introduced its villages.Germany, England and Belgium with power point and Denmark with video.
Belgium, England and Germany were well, but Denmark was informative and very funny. The video showed the village, the landscape and the participants. After it we have finished our Workshops ; we are a little worry that we will not become finished.
Before dinner, the Germany flag was painted on my stomach. From each country at least one had his sign on his stomach.
With this sign on my stomach, I played tennis and handball. It had played the first time tennis and I was rather bad, it is not my sport. Handball is much better. I have forgotten my sweater, at the tennis court, so I froze all night long.
At the night heaven, we saw a lot of meteoroids. Later I was lying on the ground and watching into the sky. First I was alone, later Daphne was lying next to me. I counted 31 meteoroids that night and I dear meteoroids, that is for sure.
At 2:30 o’clock I have been freezing too much and I went into the tent to freeze there.
Our workshops ends, so I can’t end my diary.