Le Journal de Bord

Sunday, July 19th

First day of the camp ! Everyone arrived at almost the same time at Saint-Pancras where Emilia welcomed us. In the meantime, Theo and two participants doing 2 camps in a row, did some shopping for lunch. We all met at Canada Water and ate picnic. We introduced ourselves and discussed our expectations for the week.

After lunch we went to the hostel to check in and settle in the rooms. Then we went outside to play more introducing games, eat fikka (afternoon snack) and discover the program for the week. We had to do challenges to practice our introduction skills.

For dinner we ate pizza and chocolate cake. In the evening, some went « foxsighting » while others would watch the FIFA finale between Argentina an Spain.

Monday, July 20th

Today, after our morning forum and reading exercises, we headed off to Canary Wharf, London’s second economic center. Its skyscrapers where erected atop of the filled in docks, the Isle of Dogs being one of London’s most important docklands for a few centuries. This led us to visiting the London docklands museum where we learnt about the history of these key gateways to Britain’s maritime, commercial and imperial dominance, the industry and people who worked on the docks, it’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, its crucial role during the Second World War and how they were modernised and reorganised after becoming obsolete. Learning about our neighbourhood’s history is a key to understanding its population and wildlife today

Back at the hostel, the teenagers had some free time to rest, play games or chat before dinner, after which we shared our words of the day, spoke about the importance of rigorous statistics when conducting a science protocol and went out to go « fox-sighting ».

Tuesday, July 21st

This morning started off with our usual forum allowing us to share how we feel, if we slept well, our ambitions for the day, as well as a few energising games. After a walk through the neighbourhood and to the shop for our picnic, we headed to Camley nature reserve, a coal deposit used to fuel St Pancras’s steam engines, turned into a biodiverse park. Here, the teenagers learnt about 4 different ecosystems present in the park : meadows, forests, wetlands, and reed beds.

After a good lunch, we headed over to Camden Town, where we had 2 hours of free time to explore this vibrant neighbourhood.
Côme and Lalo were our Underground travel guides on our way home where we debriefed on key notions about ecosystems, how they function and how they benefit us. We had some nice Greek chicken flatbread for dinner after which we headed back out to share our words of the day and interview a few strangers about foxes (we even saw a few wild foxes).

Off to bed to be fresh for a day at either the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum tomorrow !

Wednesday, July 22th

We had a quiet morning : forum, reading exercice, a few games, and an introduction to ecosystems. In the afternoon, we visited a museum. We took the bus (a double decker !) then the Tube. Some went to the Natural History Museum, others to the Science Museum. Fortunately, they are side by side.

In the evening, we watched a movie. We wanted to watch Johnny English 2, but it was impossible to plug Emilia’s computer to the hostel’s system. So we watched from their movie subscription and decided it would be Jurassic Park. The movie was good and we had ice cream, but the hall was very noisy and sometimes we couldn’t ever hear the dinosaurs’ screams !

Thursday, July 23th

We had decided to stay home on Thursday so we could rest. We played Time’s Up with our words of the day, painted our nails with the same color, had a nice picnic. In the afternoon, the tide was low and we went to the nearby « beach » by the Thames river. We found a trolley in the water and decided to clean the beach. It was actually very fun !

In the evening we played another game with our words of the day : Chinese Whispers. Then we went « foxsighting » and did several interviews.

Friday, July 24th

Today we did a treasure hunt in Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. Emilia and Theo gave us a list of things to find and photograph. We also saw the Outernet, Seven Dials, Buckingham Palace. It was really hot and we were relieved to get back home !

Saturday, July 25th

This morning, we did our last forum. Theo had us playing rhythms, to create a batucada-like atmosphere. We did the reading exercise, then we went back to the hostel to write our restitution. While Emilia was plotting our data and sending charts about the survey, Theo helped us analyzing the results. Then we splitted into groups to write the different parts of our article.

We had picnic near the hostel, then we packed our suitcases, so we would have almost nothing to do on Sunday morning. Emilia and Camille to the Tube to Waterloo station, to find an optician : Camille had broken his glasses and needed to have them fixed. In the meantime, the rest of us took the bus to Tower Bridge. We walked across the bridge, enjoyed the view to the Tower of London, then hurried into the metro.

Why such hurry ? Because we planned to go to Granary Square and enjoy the open air cinema, Everyman on the canal. We arrived just in time to find the last seats see Ghostbusters (1984). After the movie, we went to Leicester Square to have dinner in a Chinese restaurant. It was really good ! Then we walked back to Waterloo and enjoyed the view to the Thames River by night.

Sunday, July 26th

Since no one was leaving really early, we enjoyed a last breakfast together, and had time to say our goodbyes to everyone. Some left with the train, others with their parents. The camp is over, but we leave with great memories of a very good time together !

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