Three random weeks in Transylvania teaching English

This summer (2015) I spent three incredible weeks teaching English in Transylvania with DAD International British Camps Romania as a volunteering opportunity. As well as talking about the events that occurred at camp which were unpredictable and at often times ‘truly random’, so were the events leading up to and after the camp which somehow worked in my favour. Heads up, this is a long blog post (~3800 words!) so feel free to skip the boring parts and jump straight to the pictures and videos!

British Camp Romania is the best way I could have spent my summer after finishing my degree, Romania is a beautiful country, the people are lovely and Camp Romania is amazing.

Cheile Gradistei Moeciu, where I stayed the second week

​Finding a summer job

Approaching 2015, I knew I had to start thinking about what I was going to do over the summer of 2015 after I finished university, fortunately I received an offer in January 2015 to study my European Joint Master’s program in Applied Geophysics at the IDEA League where I spend a semester at three of Europe's most prestigious universities in the field of engineering and technology, TU Delft (Netherlands), ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and RWTH Aachen (Germany), so at least I knew what I was going to do afterwards which was a great burden lifted off my shoulders. After working at Petroleum Geo-Services for a year with new graduates and hearing of their amazing experiences travelling through South America, India and parts of Africa I knew I had to go far to make this summer special, I also wanted to avoid an internship so I could relax before studying again a few months later.

Unfortunately I found out my graduation would be on the 15th July right in the middle of the summer which destroyed my plan to do Camp America for several weeks and then go travelling around the USA afterwards; instead I resorted to applying for several summer camps in the UK where I knew I could come back for a day to graduate. I was successful and come June I was going off to Ipswich for 5 weeks working at XUK Residential Camps, but only a month later I received an email explaining that subscriptions were poor and that I might not be needed this summer and a few weeks later, my fear of not having something to do over the summer was a reality.

I began frantically searching for summer jobs, catering, shop assistants, barista, etc… as all summer camp jobs had been filled. Then one night just before I was about to head out to Student Union night, I came across a job listing which seemed too good to be true. ‘Romanian Summer Camp staff’ the job listing read, the description mentioned free flights, accommodation, food, excursions, insurance and treats; it also specified that we would have minimal duties teaching only a couple of hours a day, have zero responsibility for the children and lots of free leisure time. No harm in applying, I quickly mustered up a cover letter extracting abstracts from all the previous ones I had already made and attached my CV.

Luton Airport

The next morning I received a call from a man named Dorian informing me I’ve been successful, hesitantly I accepted and we discussed dates; I was to fly out the following Saturday for three weeks, fly back home for graduation and then head out again for another five weeks before returning to start my masters. ‘What have I done?’ was my immediate thought after hanging up the phone, going off to an obscure village in Eastern Europe, what if I get kidnapped and my kidneys are stolen was a serious possibility, but after a bit more researching of the organisation I was more at ease of the idea. Nonetheless, to the shock of my friends and family I informed them of my upcoming adventure, packed my bags and flew out to Bucharest Airport a week later all in the midst of moving out from university! Even as I was boarding the plane, I thought to myself… ‘Do I really want to do this? There’s no turning back now’, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions ever.

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​First impressions

After landing and a four hour coach journey through Transylvania full of long meandering valleys nested between misty hills and brief introductions with the other ‘teachers’ (we were all UK university students), we finally arrived with the promise of a large banquet feast awaiting for us. We dropped our bags off in rooms which were comparable to a three star hotel and headed to the restaurant, indeed there was a feast laid out for us and we were greeted with a shot of Palinka, meats, chicken, vegetables and an assortment of alcoholic beverages for all tastes. The night ensued as if from a medieval banquet complemented with a perfect setting of the venue, except for heading to the pool, sauna and hot tub afterwards. It was the first night, but it felt as if we’d all known each other for weeks and after many blurred visions and memories we went to bed only to begin the first day of camp tomorrow. So far so good!

​Briefing and introduction

In the ‘morning’ we had our briefing from the camp leader who was also a volunteer, but just took a more leadership role. He explained the timetable which was a surprise to many as it was much more involved than advertised, the only real free time we had was a couple of hours in the evening. We also discussed ideas and formats of lessons as well as listing a few controversial topics to avoid as Romania was still very much a traditional country with more conservative and religious views. The locations for classes were various spots around the camp, some indoors and others outdoor in gazebos; student abilities ranged from level 1 (zero English) up to level 5 (advanced/fluent) and we could request a level, but with no guarantee and most of us selected the higher levels. The children would arrive every Sunday evening and leave on Saturday morning, so we had a few hours before the opening ceremony, this consists of us getting a bunch of balloons and entering a hall full of kids to marching music… just watch the video and you’ll understand…

We were allocated our classes and took them outside to introduce ourselves and got to know the kids a bit better. After some classic Romanian karaoke the first of many discos began, from Romanian classics which we’ve never heard of, to house, dubstep, R&B and of course their favourite Gangnam Style were all part of the regular playlist.

​​Teaching

The style of teaching varied greatly depending on which level the class was, for level ones (~8 yrs) where the children had zero English knowledge, it was using picture cards and simple games to teach colours, animals, objects etc… Then on the other end of the spectrum were level fives (~16yrs) with fluent English and were fully immersed in western media and culture, the lessons tailored more towards creativity and discussions. These were exercises such as creating your own country with laws of governance, Dragons Den workshops and debates or topical subjects which we were allowed to cover, e.g. guns, driving and drinking etc…

One thing I noticed amongst most children was their lack of creativity, for many who attended school, they were presented with facts and figures about history, science or design and were told not to question it. This is a vast contrast in the UK where after the facts have been presented, we discuss the validity of the sources and the morality or point of view of the topic; this aspect was definitely an issue we as teachers had to tackle during lessons. The nicer side of teaching was the fact that we weren’t responsible for the children’s wellbeing, they were all accompanied by their teachers from school, so we could focus on bonding with the children and just have fun, this was definitely reflected on the Saturday morning when the kids left camp and the tears ensued (mainly the teenage girls), creating very awkward situations.

Planning was a huge part of teaching, this would often take place during the Siesta time, before bed or sometimes last minute preparation just before lesson; usually we would work in groups bouncing ideas back and forth and even teaming up classes to do larger projects. It was crucial to plan as it was very difficult to predict how long each activity or exercise would take and whether the students were being engaged or not. To tackle this we would create many extra activities, if we were lucky we would finish the lesson with no activities left and if we were really lucky we would finish the lesson without completing all the activities meaning we can save them for next lesson, which meant less planning.

Afternoon workshops

After lunch and siesta, there were two activity sessions, there would normally be three to four different things going on which we ran and the kids could choose which ones they attended. Normally there would be a good distribution, but being a slightly traditional country there were still many things that were seen as ‘manly’ and other things that only girls do. Therefore, naturally airsoft, paintballing and archery would attract all 150 boys to the workshop and ‘beauty salon’, friendship bracelet making and similar activities would consist of mainly girls with one or two boys attending.

Mr Sleepyhead

One of the best aspects of workshops was the fact that we could all utilise our skills, we were all from various disciplines; fashion, arts, media, dancers, linguists, engineers, medics, chemists and physicists. Most times we would stick to our familiarities, so I often opted in for bridge building and parachute making etc.. More often we would opt in for something outside of our comfort zones to learn a new skill ourselves, Scottish Ceilidh (pronounced kaylee) dancing was a memorable one which was led by Kirsty who was from Edinburgh and used to do it as a child, I also remember taking a class up a hill to get a good view of the camp to do landscape drawing and ended up just playing around with a random cat which we named Mr Sleepyhead because he would just stroll up to you and sleep on your lap.

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The workshops were usually led by one of the teachers who volunteered the previous year, but as time went on and we became more confident we began to lead them ourselves and even suggest ideas for new workshops. One night during our second week at Cheile Gradistei Moeciu I ended up playing some songs off my phone while the teachers were just chilling, the Indian song which I did a Bollywood dance performance to earlier on in the year at university for an international festival came on and I ended up doing my routine. This followed the next morning when we were organising the workshops for the day to me being chosen to lead a Bollywood dance workshop which I immediately refused, but the decision was already made.

I prepared the video and songs on my laptop and practised the moves just hours before the workshop, much to my surprise there were many kids who turned up, mainly girls, but a few boys as well. Fortunately I brought my Sherwani with me which my uncle bought for me when I visited Bangladesh two years prior just in case there was an international/cultural night it would be nice to share some Indian culture. I showed the kids the video from the film it was from, the full routine I performed at university and then a shortened down version (~30s long) which we were going to learn. We spent forty minutes rehearsing, then Shanelle, another English teacher, brought out 10 scarfs which all looked very ‘Asian’ which she got from a market in London and tied them around the kid’s waists for that added authenticity. Took several takes and recorded the final version without any mistakes, overall I think all the children had a really great time, the other Romanian teachers also loved it and took lots of pictures, considering that these kids have probably never been introduced to any Indian culture I think it was a great experience, in fact I enjoyed giving the workshop so much I ended up running it again in the third week at Bran, this time slightly more organised.

​Evening activities

After dinner there was an evening activity which was for everyone, although optional, most children turned up to them because they were usually great fun and something the whole camp does together. There was a list of activities that could be run throughout the week which were selected based on the situation i.e. avoid outdoors when it’s raining because Romanians hate the rain! We also went to the local waterpark once a week which was surprisingly good considering in was pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

The first activity was always the same, Boot Camp on Monday night, this is similar to a society initiation or hazing which involved the teachers in camouflage gear to make students do repeated exercises on a circuit course, with lots of shouting and ‘light hearted’ degrading of the kids; during the second week I was given the chance to lead the boot camp myself which was great fun!

There were the more typical ones such as a quiz or talent show, it was amazing how talented some of these children were, Latin ball room dancing was a huge thing over there and despite all the things that the west associated with being masculine, dancing was seen as a manly thing over there. In addition there were many musicians and singers some good others not so much. The final act was a Camp Romania tradition which was an English baking tutorial; one teacher with their arms behind their back and another providing the arms prepared the ingredients to make a cake except there was no bowl, it was all poured over the first person… very messy and usually ended up with a food fight with the kids. Another fun activity was the photo competition where the kids were sorted into groups and given a list of things/people/poses they had to capture on their smartphones, first group to return with all the pictures wins. Of course the ones involving teachers were the hardest as we either swapped our names to confuse them or made them do exercises before they could take a picture. Towards the end of the week after all the kids got to know each other better, there was usually a blind date activity, more often than not involving one of the teachers that had a few admirers.

Baking aftermath

The fashion show was also a really fun activity involving the teachers, we were all asked to donate a couple of pieces of clothing, then in groups the first round involved the children dressing their teacher as ridiculously as possible followed by a catwalk down the runway. The second round was a bit more hands on, the kids were given an assortment of arts and crafts materials and a bin bag to create an outfit from, again followed by a catwalk. Luckily one of the Romanian teachers managed to capture the whole thing on video where you can see/hear Chris and me presenting the show (that’s not my real accent, promise).

The final Friday night always ended with the carnival which consisted of the teachers and kids dressing up, face painting, English fun fair activities and a bonfire; as the final embers burned out we headed back inside for the last ever disco.  There was also another tradition usually involving a couple of male English teachers crossdressing, borrowing a few wardrobe items from their female colleagues, I think pictures will probably tell a better story.

​Social experience

If you have read half of the content above, you’ve probably guessed that this camp experience was extremely social, being around the same people 24 hours a day 7 days a week brings you very close together and creates strong bonds. There were three camps; Bran, the cheapest, but largest of the three, around 300-350 kids and required around 20 teachers; Cheile Gradistei Moeciu which was reasonably priced, medium sized with around 150 kids and about 10 teachers; lastly Cheile Gradistei Fundata which was the most expensive, most well equipped, but lacked an atmosphere as there were only around 60 kids and 6 teachers. All three have their positive and negative attributes, my favourite was Moeciu as it was a good balance of everything, having said that I didn’t actually get the chance to visit Fundata.

Each week we were allocated different camps, so most people would have experienced all three camps, the first week though we were all placed at Bran and bonded immediately. Each Saturday after the closing ceremony, which was a very emotional affair for the children, all the teachers would return to Bran and then Dorian (the Director) would send us off to a city or place to explore.

The first week we went to Brasov which is a thirty minute drive North East of Bran, it’s a small city with lots of history, castles, cathedrals and some nice places to eat and drink. The second Saturday we went to Rasnov which is about half way to Brasov, it’s a small town and that Saturday there was a festival on, food stalls, markets, pop up bars, we even visited the old Roman fort at the top of the hill which was pretty amazing. The highlight was the music, the stage earlier on in the day had some traditional Romanian folk dancing going on, but later on a warm up band came along with some great tunes followed by the main act ‘Guess Who’ which were amazing and we didn’t realise they were famous in Romania until we got home and searched them up later. Although a large crowd was present, there wasn’t much atmosphere with the exception of a small crowd of Brits (us) near the front of the stage going absolutely crazy! On the third Saturday we went to a cave about thirty minutes’ drive away, not that exciting, apparently there used to be a small village that used to hide in these caves when foreigners used to invade thousands of years ago and there were lots of hidden exists, but the hour walk down the valley to our restaurant was much more rewarding with beautiful scenery and shops along the way. We also made a few trips ourselves to Bran town and to Dracula castle during our Sunday evenings.

​Conclusion

The original plan was for me to fly back to London after my third week for my graduation and then return on the Sunday to start teaching again for another five weeks before heading home again, however I received, what was at the time, terrible news that I was being sent home and will not be returning to camp on my third Sunday evening and that I was to pack my bags as a taxi was already on its way to take me to Bucharest where I would stay for two nights before flying back on Tuesday, the day before my graduation. The reason was that there was already a long list of volunteers waiting to come so it would be more beneficial to give other people a chance to teach; this was truly one of my low points at camp, it was such a shock that neither the volunteers nor I had time to react or say proper goodbyes. Nonetheless, I made the most of being in Bucharest by myself, set up a few tours and went to a few hostel bars where I met some other travellers. I said ‘what was at the time, terrible news’ because leaving early actually allowed me to attend my Graduation Ball, go to Prague with some other friends the following weekend, get a part time job and best of all go up to Edinburgh a few weeks later to meet up with some of my friends from Camp Romania for a little reunion and to enjoy the Edinburgh Fringe!

Volunteering at British Camp Romania was a truly rewarding experience, I can honestly say I will remember some of these experiences in years to come and if I can’t then I’ll look back at this blog post to remind me. At camp, kids could truly be themselves, Romania is a difficult country to grow up in for today’s youth; their parents grew up during Communism and went through a violent revolution and the kids are growing up being part of the European Union, free to travel, study and live wherever they want and an unprecedented exposure to the outside world, especially Western culture. For these children they often can’t express the political and social views they have to their parents or relatives, whereas at camp they can be themselves, share their opinions and not worry about being judged, this was also a great privilege to witness.

Revolution Square, Bucharest

It’s not just the kids who open up, many of the teachers do as well and transform into new characters which was observed by those who had attended previous years. You also make friends with truly amazing shared memories which you’ll reminisce in years to come when you still keep in touch with them, I can confirm this as I still keep in contact with people I’ve met over two years ago in South Korea. With some of the older kids from Camp Romania which have me on Facebook I might one day meet up with them if I visit Bucharest or they visit London; otherwise there’s always the chance you might see them again if you return next summer and many of the kids go to the same camp year after year.

My final point of this ridiculously long blog post is that British Camp Romania is the best way I could have spent my summer after finishing my degree, Romania is a beautiful country, the people are lovely and Camp Romania is amazing. If you are reading this and are considering working at Camp Romania or anywhere else in the world teaching, studying yourself or doing some other form of volunteering, I 100% encourage it. DON’T HESITATE, JUST GO OUT THERE AND DO IT!

​My next blog post will probably be around February/March 2016 reflecting my first semester at TU Delft so check back here around then. In the meantime, if you've enjoyed reading this post then please leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Despite taking many photos myself, there were still some moments I was not able to capture, therefore I would like to thank my fellow campers; Rob, Kirsty, Scott, Sarah, Jess, Tom and Fen for the photos they have taken, some of which I have used in this post.