Camp Journal
Session Two – Day Five – Green Group
23rd July 2015
Today the campers had a day filled with sports! In the morning we walked to the football field where we played volleyball and football before enjoying a giant game of rounders. After lunch the campers learned the basics of archery and had a blast aiming at the targets. Then they tried their climbing skills at the Camp Suisse climbing wall.
They finished the day with a delicious dinner and a fun Music Quiz!
Session Two – Day Four – Green and Yellows
22nd July 2015
Shaking off the morning sleepiness, the green and yellow campers dived head first into their language lessons. After a few minutes of hard thinking, the campers were wide awake ready to tackle the day. By the time lunch had come around, the improvements in the campers’ language skills was already noticeable. Caring deeply for their subjects, the Camp Suisse language tutors were elated to see the enthusiasm and enjoyment, displayed by the campers, for their lessons.
After lunch it was time to head off to the Adventure Parc for an afternoon of some tree-top craziness. A brilliant couple of hours of tree swinging, tunnel crawling and rope climbing was sadly interrupted by the recently absent Swiss thunderstorm. Although spectacular, swinging from trees is generally not advised in a thunderstorm! After heading back to Camp HQ, the campers enjoyed their shower hour followed by a tasty dinner of Burritos.
After a day only whispering to each other, all became clear….they were saving their voices for KARAOKE! and what voices they were! Rock on Greens and Yellows!
Session Two – Day Three – Yellow & Greens
21st July 2015
The sun rose bright and shining today for the most epic day at Camp Suisse: glacier day !!! After a short night and a solid breakfast, our campers embarked on their exciting journey. Needless to say everyone sang their heart out in the bus on the way to the glacier. The campers then took a cable car, all the way up to the 3000 metres high glacier. Being surrounded by snow in mid-July is always an amazing experience, especially for some of the campers who had never seen snow in their lives! After an epic snow fight, the campers went sledging and rode on the world’s highest rollercoaster!
The kids could then admire the breath-taking view, while having lunch.
It was then time to head down to Villeneuve, where our campers spent a blissful afternoon at the swimming pool by the lake Geneva. Everyone tried to jump from the diving board at least once (and rewarded themselves with ice cream and sweets afterwards). The ride back to camp was as cheerful as the morning ride, although our campers were quite tired after such an exciting day.
5:30 only means one thing at Camp Suisse: shower hour! Our campers can enjoy a well-deserved shower, call their parents, chill in the ping-pong room or buy fizzy drinks at the Kiddy’s bar. Dinner was quite exotic – chicken thai curry and chocolate cake. Everyone then settled on a beanbag in the TV Room and enjoyed a cosy movie night, watching the Hunger Games while drinking homemade hot chocolate. Finally it was bedtime for all the kids, who were pretty exhausted after such a fun day.
Session Two – Day Three – Reds and Blues
Today was the reds and blues camping adventure!
Of course we needed to get their first so we started set off on our hike at around 10:30! After about an hour of hiking to Plan de Croix we had a long break and a snack – next stop the top! The scenery of the mountains was fantastic and everyone had plenty of fun singing songs and chants to keep us going! We eventually got to the alpine outpost at 15:00.The campers played a lot of ping pong whilst waiting for dinner, then we all had a table football tournament! A well deserved dinner of sausages and hamburgers was next on the agenda, yummy! Time for a few camping songs before bedtime, everyone needs their rest as tomorrow it’s the hike back down the mountain!
Session Two – Day Two – Reds and Blues
20th July 2015
The red and blue group had an action packed day on site at camp; starting with language lessons. Having done a quick test the day before, the language teachers divided everyone into their groups and headed off to their lessons. Introductory activities were the focus of the lessons and now many of our campers can introduce themselves in two, three, four or even more different languages.
After a delicious lunch on site, the red and blue group went their separate ways with the red group heading up to the football pitch for some archery coaching and the blue group staying at camp for a session on the climbing wall. For the red group, the archery session was a mixture of learning and fun, with activities leader Sam teaching us all of the terminology for archery before we could have a go. Some of the group managed to hit the target a few times, a great achievement as for lots of the group it was their first time. The red and blue group swapped locations after afternoon tea and it was in the climbing wall where the red group were particularly impressive. They showed no fear in attempting and succeeding to climb the different walls and everyone reached the top of at least one wall.
After all of the days activities, shower hour was a welcome break as usual. Dinner was nachos, followed by lasagne and the Camp Suisse special, ice cream crumble. The red and blue group had even more opportunity to show their variety of talents after dinner, as their evening entertainment was Karaoke! After singing their hearts out, the campers were well and truly tired out and ready for a good nights sleep in the chalets.
Welcome Session Two Campers!
19th July 2015
Arriving by cars, trains and aeroplanes…all our Session Two campers have arrived at Camp Suisse HQ for two weeks of fun, learning and adventure.
Groups Red, Blue, Green and Yellow all met each other yesterday night over a pasta bolognese dinner followed by a Camp HQ tour and team building games in our activities hall.
Today, well rested after a good sleep in our comfortable chalets, all our campers were up raring and ready to go.
Over the next two weeks we will be posting all the stories and pictures from Session Two 2015. Watch this space to stay up-to-date with our campers activities.
Session Two – Day One – Reds and Blues
Reds and Blues woke up ready and raring for their first day at Camp Suisse, after a hearty breakfast all campers were tested on their language skills ready for lessons to begin on Monday.
Before lunch, we had enough just enough time to squeeze in a couple of skills sessions necessary for surviving in the woods; stove training and navigation. Once everyone had got to grips with a compass and had learned about the three different types of ‘North’ we all enjoyed an International lunch in the Camp Suisse dining room.
When the campers were finished raiding the tuck shop we all made our way back into the words to work on our shelter and hammock building skills, as well as learning how to filter our own water with Sphagnum moss found in the Torgon forest.
After dinner, the reds and blues went head-to-head in the Torgona hunt challenge, an über treasure hunt which takes them all over Torgon searching for clues.
Session Two – Day One – Green and Yellows
Big day banana boating for the greens and yellows! After a quick language test to assign the children to their classes we jumped on the coach and headed down to Lake Geneva.
It was another beautifully hot day and the campers enjoyed the morning in the lake. We had an awesome few hours of banana boating with everyone ending up soaking wet!
After a well deserved lunch the campers spent the rest of the day relaxing by the lake, playing volleyball, football, rounders and even a few card games.
A fantastic day all round was finished off with a very noisy coach journey home as the camp choir, led by Max, serenaded the whole group! A fantastic first day of session two!
Au revoir, adios, auf wiedersehen and good bye!
17th July 2015
And then it was over! Session One 2015 has finished…and what a session it has been!
We’ve had two weeks of fun, frolics and fantastic weather! Our final night saw the rip-roaring finale that was our first ever Camp Suisse Prom. After a starter of focaccia bread with homemade lemonade in the courtyard, 2 huge tables were filled and everyone sat with all their friends for a delicious lasagne meal.
After, it was time for the ever-anticipated Camp Suisse Awards. Joni, our youngest mentor, won the award for ‘Mentor of the Session’. Joni’s dedication, enthusiasm and helpfulness had not gone unnoticed by campers and staff alike…Congratulations Joni, you definitely deserve it! Finally it was time to announce the much coveted King/ Queen of Camp award and after much deliberation by the judges, it was awarded to Carina!
Formalities over, it was time for only one thing…to boogey on down at the disco!
As we close Session One 2015 we here at Camp Suisse would like to say thank you to all of our campers who have made these past two weeks one of the most fun, exciting, educational and just simply fantastic international sessions we have had at Camp Suisse!
We hope to see you all again soon!
If you have any photographs of your session one experience you would like to share, please send them to blog@campsuisse.com or to our Facebook page at – https://www.facebook.com/camp.suisse
Day Eleven – Greens and Yellows
15th July 2015
Finally the time had arrived for one of the major activities at Camp Suisse – the overnight camping trip. Greens and yellows carefully packed their rucksacks with clean clothes, toothbrushes and full water bottles, ready for the much anticipated hike! Campers set off around 10am and trekked through the forest, gradually moving uphill with regular breaks along the way. Packed lunches were enjoyed at 12.30, with a little lie in the sun helping tired limbs recover. The second half of the hike was a little gentler, and the campers moved at a good speed, eventually reaching the camp at 2.30pm. Everyone was excited to settle into the chalet, with all 12 boys squeezing into one room together, and the girls spreading between two rooms. Some much-needed relaxation was in order, and campers enjoyed playing table football, ping pong and various card games until dinner. Chefs Curtis and Jodie whipped up an amazing BBQ for 34 campers plus staff, rounded off with the Camp Suisse classic of melted bananas and chocolate. The after-dinner quiz was enjoyed by all with ‘majority rules’ round provoking controversy and hilarity. Amazingly, many campers still had the energy to hike up to the French border to enjoy the Bastille Day fireworks, before settling into sleeping bags for a well-deserved sleep.
The next morning, after eating breakfast and packing away, the campers enjoyed a much more relaxed hike back to the centre, leaving time for a shower before lunch. Language lessons followed, with the added thrill of preparing for the evening Talent Show, in which the campers demonstrated how much progress they have made in their language classes over the last two weeks. Campers were also presented with awards to celebrate some of the activities and qualities they have demonstrated skills in during the session.
