A Day at Waldsee

7:42 a.m. Rise and Shine (Aufwachen und Morgenkreis)
Martin wakes up to the sound of a saxophone playing and counselors singing. He rolls out of his bed in the Max Kade Haus and takes a quick shower before high-tailing it to the Marktplatz for Morgenkreis. There, he takes hands with two other campers and sings a few songs.

But while other campers are still rubbing their eyes, Martin is raring to go. A camper at Waldsee every year for the past seven, Martin is the kind of kid who lives and breathes Waldsee in the summer. He’s what’s often called a “lifer,” someone who comes back year after year.

8:17 a.m. Breakfast (Frühstück)

Martin eats breakfast in the Gasthof with a bunch of his Waldsee friends: Horst, Kai, and Lotti. Today it’s blueberries, Müesli, sliced bread, and soft-boiled eggs.

They know that to get something to eat, they’ll need to ask for it in German.

“Reich mir bitte die Marmalade,” Martin says.

“Ja, gerne,” says Horst.

9:20 a.m. Class (Unterricht)

Martin rushes back to Unterammergau, a light-drenched half-timbered home with a stained glass window over the door. A list of house rules hangs on a door — including the foreboding “Bathe at least 1X a day.”

Six students sit around a table and wait for instructor Hugo, a former Fulbright educator, to start class. Today Hugo is giving a less on haben (to have) and sein (to be) with irregular verbs.

“Time is very important in German culture,” Hugo says.

Martin answers the question „When did you go to bed last night“: “Ich bin um halb elf ins Bett gegangen.” [“I went to bed at 10:30.” Full disclosure: his house stayed up well past 11].

10:15 a.m. Break (Pause)

Martin heads to the Laden (camp store) where he grabs a grape Fanta. His insider’s knowledge: the soda’s colder there than in the neighboring Café Einbeck.

“We like the freedom of being here,” Martin says about why teenagers like Waldsee. “We buy what we want; we spend our time however we want. This is my time to hang with my people.”

10:46 a.m. Singing (Gesang)

Martin loves singing songs in German – but it wasn’t always that way.

“When I was younger I had no idea what they meant,” he says. “But now they really make the language click.”

He joins the other credit course students at the Waldbühne (stage in the woods)

Martin’s parents both speak German fluently. When he was younger, they used it as a secret language to keep him out of the loop, but they encouraged him to study the language out of textbooks.

“I hated it,” Martin said. “They would threaten to send me to German camp if I didn’t do it.”

After one year at Waldsee, he threw a tantrum when they threatened not to send him back.

12:30 p.m. Lunch (Mittagessen)

The tables in the Gasthof have been moved outside, creating an atmosphere something like the German beer garden without the beer. For lunch, it’s flat noodles with Parmesan cheese sauce, salad with summer squash, carrots, cashews and onions, and cantaloupe.

2:15 p.m. Class (Unterricht)

Martin is eating Haribo sour gummy spaghetti when Hugo enters for the afternoon class. Hugo uses this class time to explain the grammar of possibilities (Möglichkeiten).

(In German) Hugo: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

Best friend Horst: I’d be an otter.

Hugo: And you, Martin, what would you be?

Martin: I’d be an otter-eater.

The bell rings.

4:00 Break (Pause) and Class (Unterricht)

Martin works on his credit course project through the second break and well into the third class period. For his final portfolio, he’s explaining in German, through text and pictures, how to do tricks with a diabolo, a juggling prop.

6:30 p.m. Dinner (Abendessen)

It’s time for a Kochduell (something like the Iron Chef) and the campers must feed themselves tonight.

The contestants: six groups of credit campers.

The ingredients: Anything they can get the regular cooks to give them.

The task: create an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert.

The time span: one hour.

The winners: Martin’s group takes the prize for best appetizer, a tossed spinach salad with carrots and onions and tomatoes in balsamic vinaigrette.

“I never cook at home,” Martin says.

Martin’s coup de grâce was a main dish for which he weaseled some chopsticks out of the kitchen staff to use for shish kabobs.

“It’s a big kitchen,” he says. “They have everything.”

8:30-9:30 Study Time (Lernzeit)

After dinner the entire camp heads to the Marktplatz to practice a choreographed dance they learned for International Day, a day-long event when 10 different Language Villages meet at Waldsee to celebrate the “global village.”

Then it’s back to business – studying for the rest of the evening.

 10:45 Good Night (Gute Nacht)

It’s an early night for Martin. He wishes his bunkmates Gute Nacht!

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