french camp experience

this evening i went to pick up jj at the train station. it was the end of her 2 week summer camp.

the first difference in this paris sponsored summer camp compared to past upscale american camps, was that no one said anything about giving up the cell phones. none of this “off-grid, non-electronic, old-fashioned camp experience”. we were able to get minute by minute updates. it was raining and windy. the town was cute. the food was horrid. no one was able to eat the food. it was EVEN worse than the food at school. she was going to lose a lot of weight. they went to town but were forbidden to buy food. they were travelling by bus on windy mountain passes and she was afraid for her life. the kids would cheat at games. it wasn’t fair. other kids pushed ahead in line and got the few spaces for camping. someone threw down her bag and her cell phone screen cracked. (our poor protected child, finally exposed to the rabble!) one kid was even sent home for having drugs.

p. told his colleagues at work that he was concerned about jj having a good time and that the camp was “tres populaire”. the word “populaire” here not meaning “popular” as in “lots of people like it”, but rather “of the people – of ALL the people” as in the term “popular uprising”. when he further explained that it was a “city of paris camp”, they could only say “oh la la”.

p was worried about his poor daughter not having a good time. he proposed that if she were really unhappy, that i should go down and save her. what, and leave her friends there? no, he proposed that i save all of them and get a hotel and hang out there along the french riviera. but “no”, i insisted. “this is good for her.” it DIDN’T seem that she was having a TERRIBLE time.

having a cell phone was not the only difference between this camp and her US camps. this is france and many of the kids smoke from an early age. there was a designated smoking area. before bedtime they would announce, “smoke recess – last smoke of the evening – those kids who want to smoke, go to the smoking area”, where they would smoke with the counselors. the youngest smoker was 12.

the other kids in turn had not been exposed to the bigger world. they were awed that a. and gg. lived in the 16th arrondissement – “where rich people live”. not all people living in the 16th are rich, but there is some relative truth to it. most of the other kids live in the more ethnic 18th, 19th and 20th. that said, just living in “paris proper” meant that these kids were probably more middle class. even jj living in the 15th was considered rich. the kids couldn’t understand how the girls could speak english so well. they couldn’t fathom that perhaps these were english speaking kids who had learned french.

jj. and her 2 friends decided that the french sense of humor was lame. they had to put on skits and were given the theme “impressions”. the 3 girls were a team. the basic story of their skit was that a french girl meets 2 american girls. the french girl says “what is your name?” one american girl says her name with an american accent, the french girl says the same name with a french accent. the american girl says “no” and says it again with an american accent. the audience was on the floor. jj said that all week kids would come up to her and say “oh, you’re jj!” (with an american accent), and laugh and laugh.

overall, i think it was a good experience, but i don’t think she’ll want to do it next year.

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