Camp Journal
Session Three – Day Two – Yellows and Greens!
3rd August 2015
Yesterday the green and yellow groups had an extremely busy day full of everything Camp Suisse has to offer. Firstly after a big breakfast and a kit check it was yellows into the climbing wall and the greens tried their hand at some team building games. Both groups were excellent with the greens excelling and learning what was needed to work in a successful team through some fun games such as spiders web, create climb and bomb disposal. The yellows were in full swing on the climbing wall and managed to learn some skills and complete some of the trickiest routes Camp Suisse has to offer. After a quick break the groups changed over their activity and performed just as well. A good morning all round!
After a lunch with an extremely big choice. The groups were in their language classes learning about their hobbies, families and many other things. The teachers were so impressed some campers were able to win some Nogrots (Camp Suisse currency). The greens and yellows couldn’t wait to tell their group leaders what they had learnt at dinner which was a wonderful Lasagne and ice cream and crumble.
After dinner some went for a hunt around the square to find out some interesting facts about the camp and Torgon while the others played Volleyball.
Welcome Session Three / A Campers!
2nd August 2015
A massive welcome to a sunny Camp Suisse to all our Session Three / A Campers!
After a lively arrivals day, all the campers sat down for a tasty sweet and sour chicken dinner, followed by their colour group introduction meetings and a tour of Camp Suisse HQ. With many a sleepy face around camp, the groups all headed off to their chalets to bunk down for night, ready for their first day at International Camp Suisse.
Having their vital language tests first thing in the morning, the campers all headed down the mountain for their first excursion…Banana Boating!
With many a campers flying off the boat into the blue lake Geneva waters, the groups all at down for a picnic lunch on the beach. After a leisurely bask in the sun, everybody was taken back up to Camp Suisse HQ for shower hour and dinner.
Evening ents took the shape of an inter-group rounders tournament on the football pitch. With tensions running high between the groups, the greens were crowned the overall winners!
What a great first day everybody had! Roll on day two!
The Day Of The Racoon!
1st August 2015
Thursday saw Camp Suisse HQ host it’s most successful racooning session of all time!
What’s racooning you say? Well racooning is the charity fundraising brainchild of one of our genius ex-group leaders.
How it works is all of the campers at Camp Suisse get a chance, during each session, to pay to vote for a member of the Camp Suisse staff to be ‘racooned’. After all the votes have been counted, the member of staff who has raised the most money, is selected.
On the day, the chosen racoonee is sat down in front of the whole camp and the campers get to buy small cups of gross items to throw at them. Regular appearances are made by water, yogurt and beans.
Thursday saw a particularly special ‘Double Racooning’ – where our group leader manager Tiff and camp director Richard, were nominated and selected, having raised 300 CHF between them!
A relentless half an hour of ‘get your own back’ style racooning was witnessed…and enjoyed by all!
Cold, wet and covered in beans, Tiff and Rich finished their ordeal with a final total of 531 CHF raised for our 2015 charity, The Chloe Mansfield Fund for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
We here at Camp Suisse are immensely proud of our generous campers and staff! We are already looking forward to opening the nominations for the Session 3 (A + B) racooning and plan to smash our previous record raised in Session 2.
If you would like to donate to the The Chloe Mansfield Fund for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, please follow the link below! Thank you!
https://www.justgiving.com/ChloeMansfield/
Camp Suisse Ski & Snowboard Camp
30th July 2015
We are very excited to announce that in 2016 we will once again be running our ski and snowboard camp for children and teens from all over the world. The Camp Suisse Spring Ski Camp ensures a superb week of skiing or snowboarding in the world famous Portes du Soleil ski area and further afield in some of Switzerland’s finest resorts.
Throughout the week-long camp, campers undertake 5 hours of ski or snowboard lessons per day with our amazing instructors from the Ecole Suisse de Ski. Lessons are conducted for the absolute beginner right through to the very advanced. Beginner lessons focus on the fundamentals of skiing and snowboarding, whilst advanced lessons work on fine-tuning different disciplines such as racing, bumps and off-piste. After each action-packed day on the mountain the fun continues with an amazing programme of evening entertainments including pizza night, thermal spas, climbing, a visit to the world famous Aqua Parc and of course the Camp Suisse disco.
For 2016 the Camp Suisse Spring Ski Camp will take place from Saturday 26th March to Saturday 2nd April 2016 or Sunday 27th March to Sunday 3rd April 2016 – choose the dates that best suit you.
The price of the camp is 1600 CHF per camper and includes:
Full board accommodation (3 meals per day plus afternoon snack)
Return airport transfers (Geneva)
Ski safari – Lift passes for 6 full days’ skiing in some of Switzerland’s finest resorts
Ski or snowboard instruction all day everyday with l’Ecole Suisse de Ski
Ski or snowboard equipment hire
Evening entertainments to include Aquaparc, thermal spas, climbing, pizza night, disco and more!
Should you wish to reserve a place for your child or for more information, see www.campsuisseski.com, email us at info@campsuisse.com with your preferred dates or call us (+44 845 5191031) to speak with Julie or Richard!
Session Two – Day Twelve – Yellows and Greens
We left very excited this morning to indulge in tons of world famous Swiss chocolate at Callier chocolate factory! We enjoyed our side on the bus through the beautiful countryside. In the chocolate factory we learned about the origins of chocolate from the Aztecs to the Swiss revolution of chocolate! During the tour we got to taste freshly made chocolate and buy loads to take home, yummy!
We then went to Gruyère for a lovely lunch in the medieval town! We then strolled down the streets and bought souvenirs.
It was then time to head back to camp for a very busy evening! Firstly, everyone packed their belongings ready for departures tomorrow. Next it was time for racooning, a great Camp Suisse traditional which consists paying to throw yoghurt, water and beans over their favourite Camp Suisse staff! This year all the proceeds go to our charity, The Chloe Mansfield Fund.
Everyone then got dressed up for the ultimate night at Camp, the prom! The theme tonight was Alice in Wonderland. All the staff had spent all day preparing their costumes and decorating the centre into the ultimate wonderland! It was a very memorable night for all the campers, who all exchanged phone numbers and hope to stay in touch!It’s been a wonderful two weeks, we’ll miss you all!
Session Two – Day Eleven – Yellows and Greens
29th July 2015
After a good rest for our campers from their long day hiking yesterday we awoke to a yummy cooked breakfast! We then began our decent back to Camp Suisse HQ, even the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits as everyone was anticipating their last minute rehearsals for tonight’s language talent show! Who will win?
All will be revealed later….
Session Two – Day Eleven – Blue Group
Today we had our last language lessons and put the finishing touches to our talent show pieces! During this everyone realised quite how much they’d learnt over the past two weeks! After a yummy buffet lunch half of us went off to the climbing wall in the sports hall to improve our skills and complete new challenges. The other half did art jamming in the centre, creativity was everywhere!
Finally it was time to shine in the talent show, we demonstrated all our work, it was very exciting and a lot of fun to see everyone work together! The winners will be announced at tomorrows prom, fingers crossed!
Session Two – Day Ten – Reds and Blues
28th July 2015
Today was a very exciting day for the red and blue groups as they were heading off to the Callier chocolate factory and Gruyère old town! Upon our arrival we split everyone into two groups and excitedly started our interactive tour of the factory! The exhibit was really useful and taught us all about how chocolate is made and where the ingredients come from! The kids were very excited and they said they were so shocked that they actually enjoyed factual information because it was about chocolate!After the main exhibits the kids moved on to the most popular section, the taste testing! Everyone was allowed to try each piece once! It was a very yummy starter for our packed lunches!
Next it was time to hit the gift shop where most bought gifts to take home or for the journey back to camp. Finally, to complete our time at Callier we all took part in an interactive quiz summarising everything we’d learnt! Tensions were high as the kids competed for the number one spot!
Next stop on our agenda, Gruyère! We all took a stroll through the beautiful old town and walked by the castle to the park where we set up base camp! Everyone had fun playing in the park and running around!
It was a brilliant day out, so good we didn’t want it to end!
Session Two – Day Ten – Yellows and Greens
Today the green and yellow groups headed further up the mountain to our alpine outpost, the camping site! To get there all the group were faced with a challenging hike which included, rocky paths, downhill slopes and obstacles to overcome! All campers got stuck and and before long we were arriving a little tired, but very happy! Once everyone was settled into their new home for the night we all took part playing traditional camping games such as sardines and various card games!It wasn’t long before we lit the BBQ and campers were tucking into delicious hot dogs and burgers, yummy! It the perfect treat for everyone after a long day!
However…..the day hike wasn’t enough for some of the campers who opted to take part in our night walk to the Swiss/French border and hiked right into France! This was definitely a first for most of our campers and it was great to see how excited everyone got! Another great day had by all!
Session Two – Day Nine – Reds and Blues
27th July 2015
Yesterday the red and blue groups had a fun morning of language lessons, improving their speaking and writing and preparing their presentations for Wednesday evenings language talent show.
After a delicious packed lunch enjoyed out on the decking in the sun, the campers piled into the coach and headed down the mountain to the Labyrinth Adventure Park, where they all spent an afternoon of bouncy castles, giant games and of course the Labyrinth itself!
Arriving back at camp, just in time for ‘shower hour’, the camper sat down for a well deserved dinner of french onion soup followed by cottage pie. To top the day off, some team building games were played before bed…it was clear that everyone was ready to bunk down for the night in preparation for their trip to the Callier Chocolate and Gruyere Cheese factories tomorrow.
