AFS arrival camp part 2
(13–16th October 2016)
This arrival camp gave me some much needed time away from my family and allowed me to gain some perspective, courage and new friends.
Upon arrival at these camps the native english speakers always gravitate towards eachother. it is the same with other languages and nationalities. The french and Italians will become core groups and the germans will spread between all because they dont like eachother. The rest of us mingle between.
I personally became good friends with the girl from Vermont America. She is crack up and exactly the right mix of crazy that you need after dealing with polite Norwegians for the past two months.
one of the most hilarious things is that of all the accents, everyone was copying mine. There are a number of words I apparently cant say properly … Germany and legs are two of them. Germeney is what it sounds like to others and leg somehow becomes leauge. Leg is so bad I have to point at one when I say it so others understand. I never thought of the New Zealand accent as interesting, I personally often get annoyed by my voice but everyone loves it.
Another thing everyone loves about the New Zealanders is our Relaxed attitude. This can be partially attributed to the fact that our motions are a lot slower than that of the others who come from larger countries. We actually function on ‘Island time’. but with this comes a flock of people who want to be with us because they find it a refreshing break.
Our positivity is infectious. Even though I currently find myself in what could only be said to be an un-ideal situation, I remain positive where it is obvious to others they would crumble under the conditions. I can now apply this to all areas of my life and it is encourages others to do the same.
Overall I am extremely happy with the kind of influence I leave in others lives. To be a relaxed, positive and entertaining entity is something I am proud to boast. It is definitely a development I can already see in myself from this exchange. I have had to conciously become reliant on myself to become and stay happy instead of others. which I am extremely happy with.
Now to the true issue, the problems with this host family. Over the weekend we all had individual talks with a camp leader. I was paired up with Lisa-Maria, she is someone that I could trust and I was more than happy to talk to. I told her everything. All of the actions, habits and temperments of the family. I told her their reactions to me in their lives. I tiold them how they act towards me in public and at home and I told her all about the lack of interactions I consequently have with them and the outside world.
This all lead her to be very concerned and she promised that AFS will now begin looking into it. The look on her face basically screamed how in the world did a student end up in this family. As well as that all of the advice she suggested I had already tried, she was honestly at a loss but assured me one way or another it could be resolved but reitterated that a change is the last resort and would take a little bit of time.
the next course of action for me is to talk to Bente about this all, no matter how uncomfortable it is or how scared it makes me because at this stage I have nothing to lose. whats the worst that could happen? I change families? and thats what I want anyway. The requests I must go to her with though are that the activities she said she would help me get into are followed through so I dont have to spend so much time in the house.
Overall the weekend was an extremely positive experience for me and has really put me in a great place.
keep being the most aggresivley protective mum you can be. love you xx
