Category: workd travel

Consider Yourself Charmed at Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

How lucky are we to get to experience “vacation” from school or our busy work lives. Hearing that four million college students go to Florida each “Spring Break” got me thinking about the concept of vacation.

Definitions vary but the basic concept is the same as defined in Merriam-Webster:

a period of time that a person spends away from home, school, or business usually in order to relax or travel.

When you pause to think of it, we are quite privileged to take the time and resources to relax and possibly travel.  I just returned from vacation. I took a trip to the windward islands of the Caribbean where I, with family and friends, rented a sailboat and cruised island to island. I love vacation with a purpose and fun. I love to learn, be active and engaged in what I’m doing. So a sailing trip is a good match for me! And I certainly do feel lucky to have the opportunity to do a trip.

Summer camp is often seen as vacation. Of course, being at Camp Runoia, in the beautiful Belgrade Lakes of Maine, is fun and engaging, learning and skill building. Technically it’s not about relaxing or necessarily traveling but it’s all about having a break from routine and being away from home and school.  And of course, being unplugged. One could say campers get a vacation from their phones!

Whether you take vacation to relax or to learn and engage in something completely different, if you get to have a vacation, consider yourself  charmed. You have the chance to take a break from your daily life to experience something outside of your routine be it school or work life.

 

Consider Yourself Charmed at Runoia

Posted on by Pam Cobb

How lucky are some of us that we get to experience “vacation” from school or our busy work lives. Hearing that four million college students go to Florida each “Spring Break” got me thinking about the concept of vacation.

Definitions vary but the basic concept is the same as defined in Merriam-Webster:

a period of time that a person spends away from home, school, or business usually in order to relax or travel.

When you pause to think of it, we are quite privileged to take the time and resources to relax and possibly travel.  I just returned from vacation. I took a trip to the windward islands of the Caribbean where I, with family and friends, rented a sailboat and cruised island to island. I love vacation with a purpose and fun. I love to learn, be active and engaged in what I’m doing. So a sailing trip is a good match for me! And I certainly do feel lucky to have the opportunity to do a trip.

Summer camp is often seen as vacation. Of course, being at Camp Runoia, in the beautiful Belgrade Lakes of Maine, is fun and engaging, learning and skill building. Technically it’s not about relaxing or necessarily traveling but it’s all about having a break from routine and being away from home and school.  And of course, being unplugged. One could say campers get a vacation from their phones!

Whether you take vacation to relax or to learn and engage in something completely different, if you get to have a vacation, consider yourself  charmed. You have the chance to take a break from your daily life to experience something outside of your routine be it school or work life.

 

Cultural exchange – camp provides a global perspective

Posted on by Alex

Castles and conversation

We spent April vacation across the Pond with my family in the UK.  It is always a great opportunity for my kids to spend time in the places where I grew up and to experience living in a completely different culture.  Though it is only for short while we embrace the immersion learning that it provides.  While we may speak the same language all be it with different accents and sometimes even vocabulary there is something distinctly British about being in the UK.  I have spent nearly as many years living in Maine as I spent growing up in England so a reminiscent return home always reminds me of the cultural differences that a common language cannot erase.  Our trip was filled with a wide variety of experiences from brick house and  castles to heritage tours with plenty of green fields and countryside in between.

The British Isles compacts a whole load of varied cultural experiences into one very small place.    On the flight from Dublin I was challenged to understand my Irish seat mates, my cousins are Scottish and we also traveled to Wales which while only a short car ride seemed like a whole new world.  Colloquialisms and variant vocabulary use kept my kids entertained and grilling their similarly aged cousins about ‘what do you call that?’

Welsh language on every sign.

At Camp Runoia we relish the opportunity to spend a few weeks living together and sharing our days with friends from around the country and the world.  Cultural diversity provides us all with an opportunity to connect with people from places which may be very different to our own home.  At Camp Runoia we typically hire a number of counselors from European countries who are part of the J1 visa ‘cultural exchange program’ the goal being for them to experience a traditional American summer camp while sharing their language, culture and traditions.

Sharing national anthems on the 4th of July at Camp Runoia.

Our campers come from a variety of countries outside of the US including traditionally Mexico, Spain and France and in more recent years even as far away as China and Vietnam. Bringing the world to camp helps broaden our vision, embrace new friends and then often gives us the opportunity and courage to expand our own horizons.  We will be camp friends for always no matter the geographic location or language barriers.