Note: I wrote this article for the International Computer Camp 2003's newspaper. To learn more about this camp, visit their website.
After ICC in Loughborough (UK) last year, I found it so fantastic that I definitely wanted to come back again. Well, here I am in Zollikofen, Switzerland and I will tell you - the students who probably strongly agree with me when they receive the newspaper on the last evening, their parents and maybe other interested people - what makes ICC so wonderful.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived on both ICCs, was the people's kindness. In Loughborough it was quite a surprise - how negative that may seem - for I've had some not so good experiences as well I didn't expect people to be so very nice to me when I prepared for ICC-02; in fact, I didn't really fancy going on the last day. However, on Schiphol airport, I met the other Dutch people, who appeared VERY nice, and once in Loughborough, almost everyone appeared to be so kind. I've met some nice people (Dutch and foreign)
whom I've had contact with for a long time; I even still E-mail and chat with
some of them. Of course this year I could be disappointed due to my FANTASTIC
experience from ICC-02. However, I wasn't. Most people are quite helpful, nice
and convivial, so I really enjoy being together with the others. This may
somewhat be due to everyone (at least the students) being visually impaired
like me. Mainly in Loughborough I thought so, because of being 'equal' to the others. I strongly agreed to Joachim Klaus and his saying about 'a community for visually impaired youngsters' (Joachim Klaus, 2002). At least, ICC students appear to be nice.
What also makes ICC cool is the possibility to meet students from lots of different countries. If I've counted correctly, there are students from eleven different countries on this ICC, some even coming from as far as Japan. It's cool to learn about all the people, countries and cultures. I also really love
speaking English - it's really a beautiful language to me - so that's also cool when you meet people from different countries. (Of course, I could talk English with Dutch people as well, but that would be quite silly). I love culture and languages, and ICC - despite its name (that later) - is an excellent place to learn about cultures, languages, and (last but not least) each other.
OK, you might be thinking now: 'But ICC is a computer camp, ain't it? Where are the computers?" Yeah, you're right, I need to tell you about my computer experience from ICC as well, although, to be honest, computers aren't the main reason why I wanted to go to ICC. Well, I'm not a computer newbie, so most
computer things I've learned from the ICCs are just for fun. I of course like working with computers and trying new things on them, even though I don't have most of the programmes at home. I also have learned some useful things, like in Loughborough using E-mail and advanced word processing and here working
with MS Excel. Currently I use E-mail very often and I think my achieved knowledge of Excel will be very useful in the future as well.
Something else that's really cool is what I'm doing right now: writing for the newspaper. I'd never done this before ICC-02, and, as I LOVE writing, it's very cool.
On ICC-02, I did a lot of things, which some of should be normal, but which I never used to do. I mean, one shouldn't be so shy on ICC, which is VERY special.
ICC-02 and ICC-03 until Monday (that's when I'm writing this) were really special, and I hope on Friday evening at the farewell party - when sadly enough ICC-03 will be almost over as well - I will still find it wonderful and everyone will agree with me.
