This trip was the first time that we, as a group would be sleeping outside. Although it was a big part of the course being able to camp. I had always struggled with this idea as I was very much a, ‘likes to sleep in his own bed’ kind of guy, so I knew that I would struggle to get sleep when we were out on trips. Never the less, it was a challenge that I was willing to push myself to succeed. On Tuesday the 26^th of January, we went into Spicheren gym hall to put up the tents that we were given to make sure that before we went out into the field, there were no faults with them so we did not have to turn around as we put them up the next day. It was lucky that we did this as we found there were several problems with the poles in my groups tent. First of all some of the poles were broken so the elastic wasn’t working, then we found out some were the wrong sizes. So we had to swap them round with other equipment bags to find the right ones. After we had organised everything we packed them away ready for the next day.

Wednesday arrived and we met up in Jegersberg around 2pm, unfortunately the weather had not been great the previous day and the weather was forecasted to rain. So our first priority was to get the tents up before anything else. Once me and Adrian found a suitable spot under a tree so there was some cover, we spent around 20 minutes putting up the tent as it was something we did not do often. Once this was done it was time for the group activities. Each nation had to present a game, as British people, we decided it would be suitable to play a game of British Bulldog as it would keep everyone warm however we changed the rooms so you only had to touch someone for them to be caught instead of having to take them down to the ground as it was too wet. My favourite activity to do was definitely Martnyas’ Lithuanian game. He used narrative to take us through what it was like for Lithuanian warriors to live in the old days. For example, when they would drink after war. He made us spin round 10 times really fast and then run to a checkpoint and back. This was a lot of fun to play and it made everyone laugh. After all the activities were done, we then prepared our meal for the group to taste. Myself, Chris, Adrian and Caitlin decided to make a salmon with cuscus as this was quick to make and it provided everyone with lots of protein and carbohydrates. Once this was all complete and we all tried each others food. It was 6pm but I was really fed up because it had rained so bad and I was soaking wet so I got in my sleeping bag and stayed there the rest of the night. In the morning me and Adrian got up, packed our tent and left around 7am as we wanted a shower before we went to the lecture the next day!