Lac du Bois 2007

I have heard from several families stories about the various reactions to the food at camp. Personally, I found the food to be excellent. It was also very French; the kinds of foods that you would find by eating with a French family in their home. From chocolat and croissants avec Nutella for breakfast to hachi parementier and chaussons aux pommes for lunch, the meals reflected some of the most traditional and tasty of French cuisine.

The pictures above were from the banquet on Saturday. We had oeufs mimosa, entrecôte sauce bernaise, salade, fromages et fruits and gâteau Paris-Brest.

The banquet was probably the most popular meal for several reasons. First, because the meal was excellent. Second, the banquet atmosphere was pleasant and the kids were excited. Third, for the students who weren't willing to try new food, they were pretty hungry by this time.

This morning after a French breakfast, Super Francais made an appearance to encourage students to speak only French during the remainder of their stay at Lac du Bois. Ellen and Flaherty decided to take on the challenge.

The students took part in a variety of small and large group activities this morning. The activities included singing, hand ball, juggling, painting, pottery, drawing, and numerous games.

Mme Gillespie

Well, we made it without incident. The French group was split between two busses. The good part of that was that the 3 people who weren't with me were with the MPA Spanish group. Most of us had a rest stop at the McDonalds in Little Falls around 2:00. We arrived safely at camp shortly after 5:00.

Upon arrival the kids unloaded their bags and started through customs. They recieved a family and a cabin assignments. Lac du Bois uses a family arrangement to group people up for meals. Each camper eats with the same group at each meal. The meal was wonderful!

Following the meal the kids had songs and activities and then it was off to bed.

If we continue to have access to the internet, I will post more pictures tomorrow. Be sure to thank Mme Gillespie for Day 1 pictures.

A demain.

Monsieur Swanson

Here is the preliminary bus information for the French group:

We will depart MPA at around 11:30 am. We will stop along the way for a lunch break.

We are scheduled to return to MPA on Sunday between 4:00 and 4:15 - we might be early, or we might be late. Please be at MPA by 4:00.

I'll send home more information soon.

Monsieur Swanson

Information packets went home today with fourth grade French students. Packets included a letter to parents, a letter to campers, packing list, vocabulary list, Health Form, and balance due information.

If a balance due was indicated on the front page, please make checks payable to Concordia Langauge Villages, write your child's name in the memo field, and send the check along with the completed Health Form to me (Monsieur Swanson) by Thrusday, March 8th, 2007 at the latest.

We do not have a departure or return time yet, but that will be sent home as soon as possible.

I'm looking for a volunteer to be at the head of the phone tree. If you are going to be available by phone while we are at Lac du Bois and would be willing to start and follow up on any phone messages that need to be sent to families, please let me know as soon as possible.

It is possible that we will be needing a male chaperone who would be willing to stay in the cabin with the boys from MPA. If you interested in the opportunity, please let me know. In the past we have had access to a wireless network at the camp, so if you need to get some work done over the weekend, you might be able to do that. There is a very small area of the camp that gets a cell phone signal so you could walk to that area if you needed to make phone calls. Sounds great, doesn't it! Let me know if you are intersted in helping with this.