So this time next week I’ll back in England, and that feels so weird it’s unreal. It feels like forever ago that I was sleeping in my room, living in my house, living with my family, driving my car and all that malarkey. On the one hand it feels kind of cruel that in four weeks I’ll be moving away again; like I’ll only have a brief period at home getting back into my routine and then there’s another change of scenery. That thought makes me want to scrap the uni thing and repeat the last twelve months again. But on the other hand now is the time, I’m kinda ready to engage my brain again and launch back into the education system!
SO. Last time I wrote we were in Chicago, and I have to say that Chicago did kind of fall short of my expectations. Aaron has apparently called it the poor man’s New York and I reluctantly agree. I can’t put a finger on why – maybe it’s because it doesn’t feel like a safe place. The amount of times we got approached for money was unbelievable, and we saw shoplifters in convenience stores slipping out without paying at least three times in one ten-minute visit.
On Sunday we all went to the Aquarium. I don’t know why we were all mega-excited about going to the aquarium but we were! It was quite cool I guess, exactly as you’d expect an aquarium to be (you know, fish and that…) and we saw a little dolphin display thing which was quite cool. After that, Brigitte and Luke went off to do their own thing and me, Amy and Jacob went on a bit of a wander. Via losing my snow-cone virginity, we ended up walking around in The Loop for a bit, having a bit of an explore, and it just seemed really blank, like lots of space and nothing much to see. In the evening we went to meet up with Amy’s friends from Uni in this little Chicago suburb area which was very nice (low tables and you sat on the floor! RADICAL!), and then we hopped back on the subway… ELEVATED subway, no less… to our hotel.
Monday I felt I liked Chicago a little better. Brigitte and Luke went on a shopping spree, Amy went to meet up with her uni friends again (by the way, they actually live here) and Jacob went to meet up with some friend or other, so instead of tagging along with any of the aforementioned I had a look in my little guide-map and thought I’d check some stuff out. I wandered down to Lincoln Park, spending a large portion of the wander in talks with Leanne in NYC and my international research team in the UK (aka Dad) about the worry of Tropical Storm (soon to be hurricane) Fay which was sweeping over Cuba and the Florida Keys, poised to zoom up Florida and possibly over Miami; timed to perfection with our arrival. All seemed to be clear in the end so we deemed the radical steps of cancelling or postponing the trip to be unnecessary. So I walked over to Lincoln Park and found it quite nice, quite peaceful. There’s something about parks in cities that I really like, I don’t know why. The trees and greenery with the skyline in the background is really cool, I think. I was walking for about an hour when Jacob got in touch having finished lunch with his friend, and he began to walk over to join me but I ended up accidentally wandering in to the Lincoln Park Zoo and then struggling to find a way back out of it! By the time Jacob had caught up with me he was absoloutley knackered from the walk and headed back to the hotel after about twenty minutes!! I carried on wandering around the park, then I walked back towards the city centre and walked up North Michigan Avenue, aka the Magnificent Mile, which was really cool because that felt a lot more like I imagined Chicago to be, as opposed to the dull, quiet streets of The Loop. I paused for a moment in Borders and took advantage of their café because I had, after all, been walking almost non-stop for quite a few hours. Down North Michigan Avenue you reach this bridge over a river/canal/whatever which is so cool (photo op!) and you walk past a major radio studio which you can see right into. Fun times!
I walked right the way back to the hotel and Jacob was watching some crap on the TV (no offense haha) so I finally finished the book I started about 9 weeks ago but never found enough time to finish. Brigitte and Luke returned, and then Amy, and that night the four of us (minus Amy) went to this well posh Sushi place which was so much fun, laughed so hard. Didn’t actually have any Sushi myself (I figured if I don’t really like cooked seafood then the chances of me taking a shine to the raw stuff were pretty slim) so I thought I’d see what their Chicken Masala from their Indian section was all about… I took two bites before my mouth caught fire more than it ever has in my life and I couldn’t actually stand to eat more than one tiny piece of chicken. It was the spiciest thing I have ever had in my life!!
The next morning we got up early because I’d booked us transportation to the airport, and we sadly had to say goodbye to Brigitte and Jacob. Amy, Luke and I then went to Chicago Midway Airport and successfully boarded. It felt good making it through all of the checkpoints – like yeaaaah we’re proper grown-ups now!!
The flight was quite pleasant, despite my usual “F***ING HELL THIS IS THE MOST PAINFUL THING EVER INVENTED” stabbing toothache which I usually get about 30 minutes after take-off (nightmare Barton dentist leaving his mark with a botch-job filling!), and we landed in Fort Lauderdale at about 3pm.
Leanne’s friend Mark joined us for the Miami stint but because Leanne didn’t arrive until Wednesday we had Tuesday to introduce ourselves and get to know him without our mutual friend. Our hotel room is much bigger than the one we had in Chi-Town, and much better as a place. Pool, free coffee and everything!!
Leanne arrived on Wednesday. We have to say goodbye to her tomorrow morning and I really don’t want to, she’s been absoloutley HILARIOUS, I’ll miss her loads! Wednesday we mostly lounged around the beach (it started to rain in the late afternoon) and then Leanne had the night in because she was exhausted whilst me, Amy and Luke walked into downtown Miami Beach which was cool.
On Thursday we went into Downtown Miami which is so different from Miami Beach! Downtown Miami is so dodgy, full of nutters! But anyway we took this cool boat tour which took us round this exclusive island of mansions where loads of stars live – Shakira, Enrique Iglasias, Julio Iglasias, the houses from Addams Family and Scarface, Sylvester Stallone, where Sinatra lived, Gloria Estefan (she has two houses, you know), Madonna, Jennifer Lopez… basically the tour of Mark Gee-Finch’s dreams haha. Interestingly the biggest and most expensive mansion on the island belonged to the dude who invented Viagra. Evidently done quite well for himself.
We ate at Hooters (when in Rome…) and then this mahooooosive thunderstorm came on and we ended up lingering around inside this huge shopping/leisure outdoor place called Bayside Park, which is really cool. We caught the bus home, which was jokes, and then that night when Leanne’s mate Mark went to the bar and Luke conked out fairly early we were just up ages talking and laughing – I’m gonna miss us a lot!
On Friday we lounged around the beach again and in the evening we went to see Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr… quite funny) and ate at this cool restaurant in downtown Miami Beach. Then yesterday was pretty much a repeat except minus the film.
Today [Sunday] has been another lazy day around the pool and we’ve also been re-packing our bags. Tomorrow morning we’re getting picked up by a car at 7am to take us (Amy, Luke, me) to Fort Lauderdale airport where we will hitch a flight to Newark. Leanne and Mark will be leaving for Atlanta at about 6ish.
This Miami phase has been well cool… the place itself is OK, it’s got cool beaches and downtown Miami Beach is cool… but it’s not a sightseeing city. It’s mainly been cool because of the company… I’m glad Leanne chose to join us three for Miami because she’s so funny, just round-the-clock hysterical.
So I’m well looking forward to New York – it’s one of my favourite places in the world, and we plan to meet up a fair amount with Fiona, Sarah and Mark H, plus Oli is staying with us from Friday onwards… it’s gonna be fun! Hoping to take a night bus tour as recommended by Leanne tomorrow night!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Day 74
So camp is now officially over. It doesn’t really feel like it’s set in though – like I’m still in the mindset that the people I said goodbye to yesterday I’ll see again first thing Monday morning. It’s certainly been a full week; business as usual but it still had the feel of an ending about it. Very sad!
So last Saturday me and Amy took our third and final two-mile walk up 14 Mile Road to 14/Orchard, the intersection that houses Borders, Champps, Old Navy, Walgreens and other outlet stuff. We began in Borders, where most of my stuff was stuff for other people, cos I needed stuff for Jacob and Leanne for their birthdays, plus wrapping and cards etc. My bill came to over $100, and then we went to California Pizza Kitchen and hung out for a bit because it was raining! We each ordered half-portions of salad (I had the Waldorf salad cos I remember dad having some sort of joke about it ages ago) but they were still bloody huge! I only managed to plough through half of that, and Amy pointed out that I’d only managed to get through a quarter of a salad. Measly! I felt very mum and dad finishing off with a couple of cups of coffee and realised that I’m actually acquiring a taste for it. Maybe it’s different in America, I don’t know. So anyway while we were in there we wrote our cards for Jacob and Leanne, scribbled on our tissue-paper-wrapped gifts for them, and then to kill more rain-time we returned to Borders where I decided to buy some books for myself, dammit, and I was very self-satisfied for having bought a very smart-looking Sylvia Plath book called The Bell Jar. Anyway next thing you know you’re at the checkout being charged another $160 and between us we realised we’d successfully passed the $300 mark. I did, in the first phase of our trip, buy a scrapbook and a box of felt-tip pens and decided to make something of it! When we walked back home again we hung out for a while and I began ploughing my way through it. Sometimes I get myself into a little project like that and suddenly feel a lot younger, scribbling things in a book with felt tips!
Sunday was quite quiet during the day. I spent the daytime sorting my stuff into piles, and doing lots and lots of laundry. I also carried on with my scrapbook and then in the evening we went out for Leanne’s birthday, we being Amy, Aaron and Leanne, and it was quite sad because it was our last trip out as a foursome. I’ll miss us four! We started off in Applebee’s, a restaurant where they have this deal where you can get 3 courses for $10… obviously it wasn’t particularly great food but it was pretty good value! After that we walked round for a bit, went into Target and killed some time, then went over to the movie theatre – one we hadn’t been to before – to see Wall-E, which was really good, really clever.
Monday kicked off the final week of camp, and first thing Monday morning when our bus got in I walked over to the pigeon holes to collect our group sheet and schedule for the week, and saw that on the sticky label at the top of the sheet it said “TIGERS – STEVE B/ROB/SHAUN K” but my name had been scribbled out, so I walked into the office to ask why I’d been scribbled out (I was worried I was the next to be fired!) and Liz said I’d been moved to another group, the Barracudas, a first grade group, because their other counsellor Max T had left for a soccer camp. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it really… I was pleased in a way that I’d be able to experience a different group and work with a different co-counsellor, James, but at the same time I’d been with the Tigers for the whole summer so to be taken away from them for the last week with no warning was quite sad. Plus, when I saw Sam in the playground on Saturday, she said “Oh yeah, Dean told me on Saturday!”… so obviously news had got round to other people, but not me!
For first period the Barracudas teamed up with the Wildcats (Max G, Oli and Fiona) for some general silly games like tug of war, sack racing, capture the flag and stuff. It went fine; the Barracudas had five less kids than the Tigers but some of them you could tell were going to be a challenge.
Monday evening was the last soccer/Champps night of the year, and then Tuesday night was the second and final staff social, which was held at the same bowling alley we went to when we first met our host families on the first day (we didn’t bowl though). It was a huge place so there was never going to be an electric atmosphere but it was still quite nice.
Wednesday was my last time of babysitting Bradley, and he was good as per usual, and me, Sam and Amy went to pick up the Green Dot T-shirts, which was very exciting (“HAPPY T-DAY!”). Then on Thursday came the final Overnight day. During the actual day, the Barracudas were a nightmare. All but one of the kids took their turns to throw tantrums, run off, and get in an argument or some other form of misbehaviour. After the normal camp day though when the kids not on the overnight went home, we got put into our groups for the night and I’d been put back with the Tigers!! I was very smiley and happy for that night. The last overnight theme was Celebrity and was set up by Joe, Adam M and Adam S, which was cool as they’d never planned an Overnight before, so I was pleased for them that it went well. Amy redecorated the life-size model cow on The Hill with wrapping paper and varnish and it looks so cool! When the kids went to bed I got a few counsellors to sign my scrapbook so I was quite satisfied…
Friday had such a strange atmosphere because it felt like the last day but at the same time it didn’t feel like the end… if that makes any sense. We had a Carnival type thing in the morning, for which every group had a stall set up somewhere around camp (the Barracudas had Sand Dig in the sand pit) and the kids could wander around and win candy and little toys and that sort of stuff. Then we had the last Friday show, then a last swim session and finally the last Milk and Cookies. The bus ride home was quite sad… we went through Green Dot’s Greatest Hits where all of us counsellors said our favourite camp song and we all sung them… mine was the Frog Song, it’s a classic, you’re missing out… we gave each kid a standing ovation as they left the bus and then shouted a random word of advice out the window as the bus drove away (for example “Eat your vegetables!” or “Study hard!” or “Look both ways before crossing the street!”) which was quite amusing. We had a sad goodbye in our Green Dot T-shirts and one last group photo in front of the bus, and then Sam and me walked over to Warren (the drug store in the parking lot where the buses “live”) which felt very sad because then we said bye to Sam for good! Also had to say goodbye to Aaron but we plan to do something in December.
When I got home chez Simtob it was straight out to Aimee’s parents for dinner. They did me a cake!! It was a bunt cake (a la Big Fat Greek Wedding) and said Bon Voyage Shaun on it. That was cool and then we went back home and I spent the night packing my big cases but I still had to do the hand luggage, which was basically just going to be all the loose crap I hadn’t packed elsewhere. But then on Saturday morning after calling home I had about two hours of dancing stuff from one case to the other. I love how I came here with a suitcase exactly on the weight limit plus bulging hand luggage, and I’m leaving with a suitcase exactly on the weight limit plus bulging hand luggage PLUS an extra smaller bulging suitcase.
Amy, Luke and I got picked up by a driver at 3:15, went to pick up Jacob and then drove to the train station in Birmingham, which was really just a platform in the middle of a weird construction-filled area. After Brigitte arrived and the longest freight train EVER went past our train arrived. It was really roomy and the six hour journey went by quite quickly. When we got to the Union Station in Chicago we hopped in a cab to our hotel and went up in two groups because we have a room for four for five of us. It’s so cramped in here with the sofa bed pulled out and a sleeping bag sprawled out on the floor and seventeen thousand cases… there is hardly any floor space but hey we have a place to sleep for $87 each!
So I’m writing from our hotel room right now, I think today the five of us are going to the aquarium and then to see this Blue Man thing which I don’t know much about, but that should make the next post quite interesting!
So last Saturday me and Amy took our third and final two-mile walk up 14 Mile Road to 14/Orchard, the intersection that houses Borders, Champps, Old Navy, Walgreens and other outlet stuff. We began in Borders, where most of my stuff was stuff for other people, cos I needed stuff for Jacob and Leanne for their birthdays, plus wrapping and cards etc. My bill came to over $100, and then we went to California Pizza Kitchen and hung out for a bit because it was raining! We each ordered half-portions of salad (I had the Waldorf salad cos I remember dad having some sort of joke about it ages ago) but they were still bloody huge! I only managed to plough through half of that, and Amy pointed out that I’d only managed to get through a quarter of a salad. Measly! I felt very mum and dad finishing off with a couple of cups of coffee and realised that I’m actually acquiring a taste for it. Maybe it’s different in America, I don’t know. So anyway while we were in there we wrote our cards for Jacob and Leanne, scribbled on our tissue-paper-wrapped gifts for them, and then to kill more rain-time we returned to Borders where I decided to buy some books for myself, dammit, and I was very self-satisfied for having bought a very smart-looking Sylvia Plath book called The Bell Jar. Anyway next thing you know you’re at the checkout being charged another $160 and between us we realised we’d successfully passed the $300 mark. I did, in the first phase of our trip, buy a scrapbook and a box of felt-tip pens and decided to make something of it! When we walked back home again we hung out for a while and I began ploughing my way through it. Sometimes I get myself into a little project like that and suddenly feel a lot younger, scribbling things in a book with felt tips!
Sunday was quite quiet during the day. I spent the daytime sorting my stuff into piles, and doing lots and lots of laundry. I also carried on with my scrapbook and then in the evening we went out for Leanne’s birthday, we being Amy, Aaron and Leanne, and it was quite sad because it was our last trip out as a foursome. I’ll miss us four! We started off in Applebee’s, a restaurant where they have this deal where you can get 3 courses for $10… obviously it wasn’t particularly great food but it was pretty good value! After that we walked round for a bit, went into Target and killed some time, then went over to the movie theatre – one we hadn’t been to before – to see Wall-E, which was really good, really clever.
Monday kicked off the final week of camp, and first thing Monday morning when our bus got in I walked over to the pigeon holes to collect our group sheet and schedule for the week, and saw that on the sticky label at the top of the sheet it said “TIGERS – STEVE B/ROB/SHAUN K” but my name had been scribbled out, so I walked into the office to ask why I’d been scribbled out (I was worried I was the next to be fired!) and Liz said I’d been moved to another group, the Barracudas, a first grade group, because their other counsellor Max T had left for a soccer camp. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it really… I was pleased in a way that I’d be able to experience a different group and work with a different co-counsellor, James, but at the same time I’d been with the Tigers for the whole summer so to be taken away from them for the last week with no warning was quite sad. Plus, when I saw Sam in the playground on Saturday, she said “Oh yeah, Dean told me on Saturday!”… so obviously news had got round to other people, but not me!
For first period the Barracudas teamed up with the Wildcats (Max G, Oli and Fiona) for some general silly games like tug of war, sack racing, capture the flag and stuff. It went fine; the Barracudas had five less kids than the Tigers but some of them you could tell were going to be a challenge.
Monday evening was the last soccer/Champps night of the year, and then Tuesday night was the second and final staff social, which was held at the same bowling alley we went to when we first met our host families on the first day (we didn’t bowl though). It was a huge place so there was never going to be an electric atmosphere but it was still quite nice.
Wednesday was my last time of babysitting Bradley, and he was good as per usual, and me, Sam and Amy went to pick up the Green Dot T-shirts, which was very exciting (“HAPPY T-DAY!”). Then on Thursday came the final Overnight day. During the actual day, the Barracudas were a nightmare. All but one of the kids took their turns to throw tantrums, run off, and get in an argument or some other form of misbehaviour. After the normal camp day though when the kids not on the overnight went home, we got put into our groups for the night and I’d been put back with the Tigers!! I was very smiley and happy for that night. The last overnight theme was Celebrity and was set up by Joe, Adam M and Adam S, which was cool as they’d never planned an Overnight before, so I was pleased for them that it went well. Amy redecorated the life-size model cow on The Hill with wrapping paper and varnish and it looks so cool! When the kids went to bed I got a few counsellors to sign my scrapbook so I was quite satisfied…
Friday had such a strange atmosphere because it felt like the last day but at the same time it didn’t feel like the end… if that makes any sense. We had a Carnival type thing in the morning, for which every group had a stall set up somewhere around camp (the Barracudas had Sand Dig in the sand pit) and the kids could wander around and win candy and little toys and that sort of stuff. Then we had the last Friday show, then a last swim session and finally the last Milk and Cookies. The bus ride home was quite sad… we went through Green Dot’s Greatest Hits where all of us counsellors said our favourite camp song and we all sung them… mine was the Frog Song, it’s a classic, you’re missing out… we gave each kid a standing ovation as they left the bus and then shouted a random word of advice out the window as the bus drove away (for example “Eat your vegetables!” or “Study hard!” or “Look both ways before crossing the street!”) which was quite amusing. We had a sad goodbye in our Green Dot T-shirts and one last group photo in front of the bus, and then Sam and me walked over to Warren (the drug store in the parking lot where the buses “live”) which felt very sad because then we said bye to Sam for good! Also had to say goodbye to Aaron but we plan to do something in December.
When I got home chez Simtob it was straight out to Aimee’s parents for dinner. They did me a cake!! It was a bunt cake (a la Big Fat Greek Wedding) and said Bon Voyage Shaun on it. That was cool and then we went back home and I spent the night packing my big cases but I still had to do the hand luggage, which was basically just going to be all the loose crap I hadn’t packed elsewhere. But then on Saturday morning after calling home I had about two hours of dancing stuff from one case to the other. I love how I came here with a suitcase exactly on the weight limit plus bulging hand luggage, and I’m leaving with a suitcase exactly on the weight limit plus bulging hand luggage PLUS an extra smaller bulging suitcase.
Amy, Luke and I got picked up by a driver at 3:15, went to pick up Jacob and then drove to the train station in Birmingham, which was really just a platform in the middle of a weird construction-filled area. After Brigitte arrived and the longest freight train EVER went past our train arrived. It was really roomy and the six hour journey went by quite quickly. When we got to the Union Station in Chicago we hopped in a cab to our hotel and went up in two groups because we have a room for four for five of us. It’s so cramped in here with the sofa bed pulled out and a sleeping bag sprawled out on the floor and seventeen thousand cases… there is hardly any floor space but hey we have a place to sleep for $87 each!
So I’m writing from our hotel room right now, I think today the five of us are going to the aquarium and then to see this Blue Man thing which I don’t know much about, but that should make the next post quite interesting!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Day 66
Woahhh it's been twelve days. Okay:
Alright so back on the Tuesday before last a load of people came over. Quite a few actually... Aaron, Jacob, Oli, Leanne, Amy, Dana, Fiona... we just ordered pizza and hung out in the basement for a while. Amy did haircuts as well with Oli and Aaron, which they were very nervous about!! Aaron stayed over and cos we both get picked up by Mark in the mornings he just picked up from here. Then on the Wednesday evening I booked my return flight! Flying from Newark (NYC) to Heathrow on Friday 29th August, landing in Heathrow at 8pm!
Last Thursday was the Batman overnight, which was really good. Markus, Darren and Mat dressed up as the Joker and the Kindergarten kids were absoloutley petrified!! I was involved in the overnight activity too - I was Alfred the butler and I had to lead the Arts And Crafts activity where they had to make a superhero mask. The Overnight activities usually follow the same pattern - the kids are introduced to a theme and are grouped off into say five or six groups, then the groups rotate between different themed activities around camp!
On Friday night Aaron and Leanne came round and we ended up sticking The Notebook on. It was really good, but after absoloutley everyone had said how much of a weepy it was, Aaron and I were very proud of ourselves for surviving it tear-free! Still very well done though. They both stayed over and then Leanne got picked up at 10am by her host family to go berry picking. Aaron and me got picked up by Jacob at about lunchtime and went to the mall, via picking up Fiona, where Aaron invested in an iPod. Leanne and Amy met us there an hour or so later, and then in the evening we went across the road (not as simple as it sounds!) to the cinema where we saw Mamma Mia. It's totally ridiculous with its plot points and stuff like that, but if you don't take it seriously it's still a fun movie to see. On Sunday it was my "host mum's" birthday, and I had a bit of a cold but I went with them to dinner at this quite posh restaurant in the evening!
On Monday we had Sam and Amy added to our bus which was so exciting! Now it's me, Max T, Max G, Brandon, Nicole, Sam, Amy and our CA (Counsellors Assistant) Ricki. Two new counsellors on the bus would have been bad-ish news because I quite liked the balance we had, but it was Sam and Amy, of all people, which was like JACKPOT! Immediatley the three of us started working on Green Dot songs - all of the other buses have their own songs but our bus is so quiet in comparison that we never really saw the point. But when you have the hyperness that Sam and I bring out of eachother then, tough luck, they're learning the songs anyway! The three of us came up with one to Baby One More Time, one to Who Let The Dogs Out and one to I Want It That Way!
Monday of course was soccer night as per usual but it was raining so we skipped the "sitting on the grass" portion of the evening and went straight to Champps. Monday is a great night to have a mingle and get round everyone. On Tuesday we mall-d it up, again, because we needed various little things for upcoming birthdays and travels. It was me, Amy, Jenni, Brigitte and Luke, but Jenni went home quite quick to sort some stuff out and then came back to pick us up! Me and Amy met up with Brigitte and Luke at the end of the shopping sesh at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.
Wednesday was Olympic Day, so the usual timetable was thrown out the window and it was a one-off day of fun and games. The camp was split into four teams - Australia, Isreal, UK and USA. I thought Israel was a bit of a random choice for a team but obviously the area has such a high Jewish population that many people have been to Israel. Our group was put in the UK team, and we won! Woop!
On Wednesday we really got the ball rolling with travel plans. Chicago and NYC are now totally booked, we just now have to book the Miami bit to fill in the middle. It's well exciting - basically next Saturday, the day after camp finishes, me, Amy, Jacob, Brigitte and Luke will get a train to Chicago. It looks close on a map but it's a 6 hour journey. We're staying at a really good hotel (well, a Travelodge, but you know!) until Tuesday. On Tuesday we'll then say goodbye to our US friends Brigitte and Jacob, and then me, Amy and Luke will get a cheap $99 flight down to Miami where we shall meet Leanne and possibly Oli. We'll stay there until the following Monday, when me, Amy and Luke (possibly Leanne also) will travel up to New York to meet Sarah and Fiona. We'll be there until the Friday and then me and Luke will fly home on the Friday morning. Fiona will too, only she'll be going from JFK and not Newark. Maybe we'll bump into her at Baggage Claim in London, who knows!
The Overnight theme this week was Halloween. I was involved in it this week as well - I like being picked for Overnight activities; even though I talk to pretty much everyone at camp apparently I keep quite a low profile, but at least being picked for the activities means I'm not off the radar completely! I was part of the Scavenger Hunt activities - kids were sent to the tents and I had to jump out, scare them, and give them their next clue.
Yesterday was Green Dot Day, a day imposed by me and Sam unto the passengers on Green Dot bus! Sam told them all to come in wearing Green in anticipation of the Friday Show, when we all got up and sang our songs! It was so good because it was so unlike Green Dot to do the Friday Show... our bus is so peaceful in comparison, the other buses are really rowdy! So even though other buses would have made much more of a spectacle we were still very proud of ourselves for even getting Green Dot up there at all! The bus journey home was absoloutley hysterical - the 34 hour work-day had made me and Sam super-hyper as opposed to super-tired, and at one point I was actually crying really hard with laughter. Sue, our driver, shouted something one-syllable and we couldn't make out what it was, we were like "What did she say?" then we went over this huge bump and we were like "Ohhhh!" .......... You had to be there. Once we got off the bus, Amy, Sam and I went to this place called Brody's that prints really good quality custom T-shirts and stuff and made our own T-shirts. On the front will be "Green Dot" then underneath "Check out our rhymes", a quote from our song melody! On the back will be our names and then at the bottom "The Australasians can't hear you!" ... It's an ongoing joke that will take ages to explain but it's hilarious.
Later on last night Amy and Jacob came over for a bit (apparently I have one of the best host houses, so the people tend to come to mine as opposed to me going to other people's!) but I fell asleep at about 10:45 and they woke me up at like 11 to say they were going home! Oops!
Today is Jacob's birthday and Monday is Leanne's so probably a couple of things on the agenda this weekend! Got one more week to go - I'm just about ready for camp itself to be over now but I'm not ready for this whole set-up to be over... like leaving everyone and not seeing friends every day of the week and all that stuff. It will be sad on Friday but I'm really excited about our 2 week travel/holiday, and also excited about seeing everyone in the UK in three weeks' time!
Alright so back on the Tuesday before last a load of people came over. Quite a few actually... Aaron, Jacob, Oli, Leanne, Amy, Dana, Fiona... we just ordered pizza and hung out in the basement for a while. Amy did haircuts as well with Oli and Aaron, which they were very nervous about!! Aaron stayed over and cos we both get picked up by Mark in the mornings he just picked up from here. Then on the Wednesday evening I booked my return flight! Flying from Newark (NYC) to Heathrow on Friday 29th August, landing in Heathrow at 8pm!
Last Thursday was the Batman overnight, which was really good. Markus, Darren and Mat dressed up as the Joker and the Kindergarten kids were absoloutley petrified!! I was involved in the overnight activity too - I was Alfred the butler and I had to lead the Arts And Crafts activity where they had to make a superhero mask. The Overnight activities usually follow the same pattern - the kids are introduced to a theme and are grouped off into say five or six groups, then the groups rotate between different themed activities around camp!
On Friday night Aaron and Leanne came round and we ended up sticking The Notebook on. It was really good, but after absoloutley everyone had said how much of a weepy it was, Aaron and I were very proud of ourselves for surviving it tear-free! Still very well done though. They both stayed over and then Leanne got picked up at 10am by her host family to go berry picking. Aaron and me got picked up by Jacob at about lunchtime and went to the mall, via picking up Fiona, where Aaron invested in an iPod. Leanne and Amy met us there an hour or so later, and then in the evening we went across the road (not as simple as it sounds!) to the cinema where we saw Mamma Mia. It's totally ridiculous with its plot points and stuff like that, but if you don't take it seriously it's still a fun movie to see. On Sunday it was my "host mum's" birthday, and I had a bit of a cold but I went with them to dinner at this quite posh restaurant in the evening!
On Monday we had Sam and Amy added to our bus which was so exciting! Now it's me, Max T, Max G, Brandon, Nicole, Sam, Amy and our CA (Counsellors Assistant) Ricki. Two new counsellors on the bus would have been bad-ish news because I quite liked the balance we had, but it was Sam and Amy, of all people, which was like JACKPOT! Immediatley the three of us started working on Green Dot songs - all of the other buses have their own songs but our bus is so quiet in comparison that we never really saw the point. But when you have the hyperness that Sam and I bring out of eachother then, tough luck, they're learning the songs anyway! The three of us came up with one to Baby One More Time, one to Who Let The Dogs Out and one to I Want It That Way!
Monday of course was soccer night as per usual but it was raining so we skipped the "sitting on the grass" portion of the evening and went straight to Champps. Monday is a great night to have a mingle and get round everyone. On Tuesday we mall-d it up, again, because we needed various little things for upcoming birthdays and travels. It was me, Amy, Jenni, Brigitte and Luke, but Jenni went home quite quick to sort some stuff out and then came back to pick us up! Me and Amy met up with Brigitte and Luke at the end of the shopping sesh at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.
Wednesday was Olympic Day, so the usual timetable was thrown out the window and it was a one-off day of fun and games. The camp was split into four teams - Australia, Isreal, UK and USA. I thought Israel was a bit of a random choice for a team but obviously the area has such a high Jewish population that many people have been to Israel. Our group was put in the UK team, and we won! Woop!
On Wednesday we really got the ball rolling with travel plans. Chicago and NYC are now totally booked, we just now have to book the Miami bit to fill in the middle. It's well exciting - basically next Saturday, the day after camp finishes, me, Amy, Jacob, Brigitte and Luke will get a train to Chicago. It looks close on a map but it's a 6 hour journey. We're staying at a really good hotel (well, a Travelodge, but you know!) until Tuesday. On Tuesday we'll then say goodbye to our US friends Brigitte and Jacob, and then me, Amy and Luke will get a cheap $99 flight down to Miami where we shall meet Leanne and possibly Oli. We'll stay there until the following Monday, when me, Amy and Luke (possibly Leanne also) will travel up to New York to meet Sarah and Fiona. We'll be there until the Friday and then me and Luke will fly home on the Friday morning. Fiona will too, only she'll be going from JFK and not Newark. Maybe we'll bump into her at Baggage Claim in London, who knows!
The Overnight theme this week was Halloween. I was involved in it this week as well - I like being picked for Overnight activities; even though I talk to pretty much everyone at camp apparently I keep quite a low profile, but at least being picked for the activities means I'm not off the radar completely! I was part of the Scavenger Hunt activities - kids were sent to the tents and I had to jump out, scare them, and give them their next clue.
Yesterday was Green Dot Day, a day imposed by me and Sam unto the passengers on Green Dot bus! Sam told them all to come in wearing Green in anticipation of the Friday Show, when we all got up and sang our songs! It was so good because it was so unlike Green Dot to do the Friday Show... our bus is so peaceful in comparison, the other buses are really rowdy! So even though other buses would have made much more of a spectacle we were still very proud of ourselves for even getting Green Dot up there at all! The bus journey home was absoloutley hysterical - the 34 hour work-day had made me and Sam super-hyper as opposed to super-tired, and at one point I was actually crying really hard with laughter. Sue, our driver, shouted something one-syllable and we couldn't make out what it was, we were like "What did she say?" then we went over this huge bump and we were like "Ohhhh!" .......... You had to be there. Once we got off the bus, Amy, Sam and I went to this place called Brody's that prints really good quality custom T-shirts and stuff and made our own T-shirts. On the front will be "Green Dot" then underneath "Check out our rhymes", a quote from our song melody! On the back will be our names and then at the bottom "The Australasians can't hear you!" ... It's an ongoing joke that will take ages to explain but it's hilarious.
Later on last night Amy and Jacob came over for a bit (apparently I have one of the best host houses, so the people tend to come to mine as opposed to me going to other people's!) but I fell asleep at about 10:45 and they woke me up at like 11 to say they were going home! Oops!
Today is Jacob's birthday and Monday is Leanne's so probably a couple of things on the agenda this weekend! Got one more week to go - I'm just about ready for camp itself to be over now but I'm not ready for this whole set-up to be over... like leaving everyone and not seeing friends every day of the week and all that stuff. It will be sad on Friday but I'm really excited about our 2 week travel/holiday, and also excited about seeing everyone in the UK in three weeks' time!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Day 54
The downer of not blogging for so long is having to remember back ages ago! Umm okay so last time I left it Aaron and Leanne were round for the night. On the Sunday we lounged around in the sun quite alot, then in the evening we met up with Luke, Oli, Adam M, Joe, Brigitte and Amy to see The Dark Knight. It was really good, Heath Ledger is blatently getting an Oscar for that.
Had an awesome day at camp on Monday at the start of the third session. It actually was a well good week at camp. I had alot of fun with it, plus on Tuesday Arnie, one of the camp directors, said to me in the Lodge when I went to get our bus clipboard "How's it going big guy? You're always smiling, it's good to see someone smiling all the time!" and I actually was in an inexplicably extreme happy mood for ages after that. I ran up to Sam and was like "SAM! I HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE!" and when I told her she was like to Holly and Ilyssa "SHAUN HAS BIG NEWS!" Arnie is quite feared at camp so to have something nice said to me, something that indicates that he knows who I am, was quite a big deal! Whenever Arnie is pleased with someone for something or other he gives them a $2 bill, which are quite rare, and on the Overnight meeting on Thursday Jason passed on from him a $2 to me cos he [Arnie] saw me picking up trash about camp. Oh yes!! Anyway yeah at camp I had a well good week because I was more fun with the kids and our group has a really nice balance and athmosphere to it this session. Steve and I have been joined by a new co-counsellor... we were going to have Andy but in the eleventh hour they switched it to Rob. I think Rob is still finding his feet with us a bit because he's used to Kindergarten age kids, but yeah he's a nice guy but I'm worried that he and Steve are going to have a bit of a clash! Nicole has been moved back on to our bus after a temporary move; the reason being that Katie has quit. I don't think she was ever really enjoying it but she was quite good for a talk on the bus so it's kinda sad I suppose.
Monday night soccer last week was alot of fun. Leanne and Amy didn't come in the end and all the guys except me and Oli and Jacob were actually playing the damn game, but Brigitte and Jenni came this week and it was hilarious hanging out with them for a while; then at Champps afterwards we sat on a table along with Luke and Lyndia [the "i" is irrelevant, it's essentially Linda haha].
The Overnight theme this week was Goldrush, which is where all the campers roam around camp trying to find popsicle sticks, and each colour stick is worth a different amount of points. They then get back into their groups and total their points, then there's an auction. A handful of counsellors were lined up and groups had to bid for them. If they won the counsellor, the counsellor had to lie down on the floor and be covered, smothered and pummelled with whatever was in store for them. Brigitte got jelly sandwiches, Darren got hamburgers (burgers, buns, ketchup, mustard...), Lauren got ice water, Amy and Alida got raw eggs, Rob got s'mores, Joe got ice cream sundae, Michael got banana split... very funny, and very grateful not to be one of the counsellors! Me and Jenni had our turn at kitchen duty on the overnight and was actually quite cool and strangely relaxing having a talk whilst washing and wiping an array of juice pitchers and barbeque stuff for an hour or so. Because only three Tigers stayed on the overnight, me and Rob both got moved to different groups for the night. I was put with the Celtics, with Mark H. Mark is a very good counsellor and he's one of those people to whom there is literally nothing but pure cool and pure nice. Good guy and a great counsellor.
On Friday night me and Amy took off for the weekend to Canada! Her host family were going up there anyway and asked if she and Leanne wanted to go, but Leanne didn't fancy it so I was asked to go! It was like a four hour journey but it was quite nice with the iPod on shuffle. Toronto, the Canadian capital, is so, so, so cool. It's so much different from ghost-town Detroit. It's reminiscent of London and New York but also has a uniqueness about it. Me and Amy were dropped at this pretty average hotel (but all we needed was a bed, right?) and then on Saturday we went up the CN Tower which was, until last year, the tallest free-standing building in the world. At the top of the tower there is a very famous (and very posh) revolving restaurant, which we had lunch in! Then we went for a walk up Yonge Street, which is Canada's answer to Oxford Street and is apparently one of the longest streets in the world. We stopped at a pub-type-thing and had a drink (because the drinking age is 19 in Canada!) and walked all the way back down to the seafront (which is actually a really really really really really big lake) and took a boat cruise thing to see the city lit up at night. I bloody love a good city skyline at night so that was awesome. We then began the long walk back to the hotel, calling off en route at Chinatown for a bit of a Chinese!
On Sunday we then got picked up by Amy's "host aunt and grandma" and went to this town called Stratford, an hour or so away, which is such a nice town. It's how you'd expect a town to be more in England than in the USA. I know it wasn't the USA at all but just to explain. There was a Shakespeare festival on but we saw a show called The Music Man; it was in a really nice and really professional theatre and was such a good show! "One Grecian urn! Two Grecian urns!" I wish I'd have seen it when Spotlight was still a definite constant because it's actually available for licensing as a Junior show and we would have done so good with it!
Anyway today was really good too. Mondays are well fun. We hung out on the soccer field again while some of the guys played; at one point me, Sam, Aaron, Oli, Sam, Nicole, Anna and Alison went for a bit of a walk around the fields. A few of us even engaged in some childish rolling down hills haha. Funny stuff. Champps was good - Amy has found out she has had a few of her poems published in a poetry magazine back home so she was very happy. Leanne has re-dyed her hair because the brown from before was starting to go blonde in the pool/sun but she's gone darker this time. Brigitte and Jenni are planning a trip to London in December so I'm really excited about that right now. Even the car on the way home was quite fun; Aaron, Oli and I were introducing Jacob to some of the Kate Nash on my iPod - very English! I love how my iPod is actually quite liked out here, no matter who takes a look at it they always find a load of stuff they like! Love itttt.
So yeah I'm continuing to savour every moment cos it's gonna be over in a heartbeat. I love being so social with so many people, whereas at home I only have a small social circle since school ended. I love how there's never a dull moment, I love how many awesome people I've met who are exactly on my level, I love having so much more confidence in myself because, except for maybe the first fortnight, I've been the same person I am back home and I'm actually doing quite well with it! So yeah, I do miss people back home quite a bit, but I'm really settled and really happy here. Best thing I ever did maybs?
Had an awesome day at camp on Monday at the start of the third session. It actually was a well good week at camp. I had alot of fun with it, plus on Tuesday Arnie, one of the camp directors, said to me in the Lodge when I went to get our bus clipboard "How's it going big guy? You're always smiling, it's good to see someone smiling all the time!" and I actually was in an inexplicably extreme happy mood for ages after that. I ran up to Sam and was like "SAM! I HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE!" and when I told her she was like to Holly and Ilyssa "SHAUN HAS BIG NEWS!" Arnie is quite feared at camp so to have something nice said to me, something that indicates that he knows who I am, was quite a big deal! Whenever Arnie is pleased with someone for something or other he gives them a $2 bill, which are quite rare, and on the Overnight meeting on Thursday Jason passed on from him a $2 to me cos he [Arnie] saw me picking up trash about camp. Oh yes!! Anyway yeah at camp I had a well good week because I was more fun with the kids and our group has a really nice balance and athmosphere to it this session. Steve and I have been joined by a new co-counsellor... we were going to have Andy but in the eleventh hour they switched it to Rob. I think Rob is still finding his feet with us a bit because he's used to Kindergarten age kids, but yeah he's a nice guy but I'm worried that he and Steve are going to have a bit of a clash! Nicole has been moved back on to our bus after a temporary move; the reason being that Katie has quit. I don't think she was ever really enjoying it but she was quite good for a talk on the bus so it's kinda sad I suppose.
Monday night soccer last week was alot of fun. Leanne and Amy didn't come in the end and all the guys except me and Oli and Jacob were actually playing the damn game, but Brigitte and Jenni came this week and it was hilarious hanging out with them for a while; then at Champps afterwards we sat on a table along with Luke and Lyndia [the "i" is irrelevant, it's essentially Linda haha].
The Overnight theme this week was Goldrush, which is where all the campers roam around camp trying to find popsicle sticks, and each colour stick is worth a different amount of points. They then get back into their groups and total their points, then there's an auction. A handful of counsellors were lined up and groups had to bid for them. If they won the counsellor, the counsellor had to lie down on the floor and be covered, smothered and pummelled with whatever was in store for them. Brigitte got jelly sandwiches, Darren got hamburgers (burgers, buns, ketchup, mustard...), Lauren got ice water, Amy and Alida got raw eggs, Rob got s'mores, Joe got ice cream sundae, Michael got banana split... very funny, and very grateful not to be one of the counsellors! Me and Jenni had our turn at kitchen duty on the overnight and was actually quite cool and strangely relaxing having a talk whilst washing and wiping an array of juice pitchers and barbeque stuff for an hour or so. Because only three Tigers stayed on the overnight, me and Rob both got moved to different groups for the night. I was put with the Celtics, with Mark H. Mark is a very good counsellor and he's one of those people to whom there is literally nothing but pure cool and pure nice. Good guy and a great counsellor.
On Friday night me and Amy took off for the weekend to Canada! Her host family were going up there anyway and asked if she and Leanne wanted to go, but Leanne didn't fancy it so I was asked to go! It was like a four hour journey but it was quite nice with the iPod on shuffle. Toronto, the Canadian capital, is so, so, so cool. It's so much different from ghost-town Detroit. It's reminiscent of London and New York but also has a uniqueness about it. Me and Amy were dropped at this pretty average hotel (but all we needed was a bed, right?) and then on Saturday we went up the CN Tower which was, until last year, the tallest free-standing building in the world. At the top of the tower there is a very famous (and very posh) revolving restaurant, which we had lunch in! Then we went for a walk up Yonge Street, which is Canada's answer to Oxford Street and is apparently one of the longest streets in the world. We stopped at a pub-type-thing and had a drink (because the drinking age is 19 in Canada!) and walked all the way back down to the seafront (which is actually a really really really really really big lake) and took a boat cruise thing to see the city lit up at night. I bloody love a good city skyline at night so that was awesome. We then began the long walk back to the hotel, calling off en route at Chinatown for a bit of a Chinese!
On Sunday we then got picked up by Amy's "host aunt and grandma" and went to this town called Stratford, an hour or so away, which is such a nice town. It's how you'd expect a town to be more in England than in the USA. I know it wasn't the USA at all but just to explain. There was a Shakespeare festival on but we saw a show called The Music Man; it was in a really nice and really professional theatre and was such a good show! "One Grecian urn! Two Grecian urns!" I wish I'd have seen it when Spotlight was still a definite constant because it's actually available for licensing as a Junior show and we would have done so good with it!
Anyway today was really good too. Mondays are well fun. We hung out on the soccer field again while some of the guys played; at one point me, Sam, Aaron, Oli, Sam, Nicole, Anna and Alison went for a bit of a walk around the fields. A few of us even engaged in some childish rolling down hills haha. Funny stuff. Champps was good - Amy has found out she has had a few of her poems published in a poetry magazine back home so she was very happy. Leanne has re-dyed her hair because the brown from before was starting to go blonde in the pool/sun but she's gone darker this time. Brigitte and Jenni are planning a trip to London in December so I'm really excited about that right now. Even the car on the way home was quite fun; Aaron, Oli and I were introducing Jacob to some of the Kate Nash on my iPod - very English! I love how my iPod is actually quite liked out here, no matter who takes a look at it they always find a load of stuff they like! Love itttt.
So yeah I'm continuing to savour every moment cos it's gonna be over in a heartbeat. I love being so social with so many people, whereas at home I only have a small social circle since school ended. I love how there's never a dull moment, I love how many awesome people I've met who are exactly on my level, I love having so much more confidence in myself because, except for maybe the first fortnight, I've been the same person I am back home and I'm actually doing quite well with it! So yeah, I do miss people back home quite a bit, but I'm really settled and really happy here. Best thing I ever did maybs?
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Day 45
The second session of camp is now over, and the third and final one is about to begin. The third session is four weeks long, like the second, but campers have the option of coming for either the first two weeks or the last two weeks if they don't want to do the full four.
Alot of people were quite sad that it was the end of the second sesh, but I was alright because I was fairly confident that I'd get the same group again for the third session because the majority of our campers were returning. Sure enough we had a meeting this morning to find out our group assignments and I'm doing the Tigers again with Steve, and we also have Andy back with us - he was with us for the first session which was a week long. Actually I got placed twice... I also got put with Sam (not American girl Sam, English guy Sam) and Brittany in a new group called the Pirates, but then when they realised they'd double-booked me they decided to keep me with the Tigers. I had mixed feelings about that because, on the one hand, it would have been really cool to experience a different age group, with different co-counsellors, especially Brittany who I've spoken to a bit this past week and she seems really cool; but on the other hand I know that the Tigers are a really good group to have because we don't really have any problem children and they're a good age group to be put with. Anyway the next four weeks should be a solid repeat of the last five, and I think I'm getting better as a counselor, so I have no complaints!
I'll zoom back to last weekend, which seems so long ago but I haven't updated this thing in a while! Saturday was really full - I got woken up at 12:15 by Amy asking about the mall in 15 minutes, and I was quite proud of myself for being up and ready to go by the time Justin pulled up on the drive! We went to Twelve Oaks, a mall I hadn't been to yet, which was cool. We started with some quick lunch at which I had my first Taco Bell experience! Leanne and I went off to some places and Amy and Justin went off to some others and met Jacob along their way. It was quite fun... we came across a Sears, which immediatley reminded us of (don't judge me mum!) Mean Girls, so I felt it necessary to take a picture of it especially for Mark ("...You could try Sears?"). We then went from the mall to the movies to see Hellboy II, a film which won't be making a rushed appearance into my list of favourite films, but it was alright! From there we killed time by going to this big shop called Target, which is a bit like Matalan only it's got some really weird other stuff in it... like Tesco only with less emphasis on food and more on the rest of the random stuff it sells.
Next stop was Max and Erma's, a really good restaurant that we went to on like our second weekend, for Jamie's birthday. Jamie is a long-time returning counselor and quite a few people were there. We then went on to Justin's place where he had a few people over for a bit of a house party, only not like an all-out wild house party, there were only like 15 of us there. I joined in the beer pong with Leanne's older brother Darren and, predictably, we crashed out on our first game! It was a really fun night, it was a group of people I hadn't really spent thaaaat much time with before and we had a good laugh.
Sunday was quite quiet... I think many people were a little fragile! I got a bit homesick after calling home, probably the most since when I first got here, because I've missed pretty much every good thing that's been coming my mum's way since I left. Graduations and prestigious exhibitions and degree shows I was really, really gutted to be away for.
Monday night soccer was fun as usual. I didn't play, as usual. On Tuesday we went to the movies again; this time we saw the new Eddie Murphy film Meet Dave, which I was expecting to be dire after all the crap reviews, but it actually was secretly funny. It was with Aaron, Leanne, Luke and Oli. Beforehand we went to a really, really nice Ice Cream place. It's part of a chain; it's like Subway only much nicer and with ice creams instead of subs!
On Wednesday I babysat Brooke for the last time - she goes to a sleepaway camp on Tuesday and won't be back until August 14th. We had a power cut, which meant I couldn't get in the house because the garage code wasn't doing anything, so I called Aimee and she said they were all round her mum's for dinner and she came back to get me to take me over too. Aimee's mum then bought me and Brooke home to the power-less house. They were all panicked about the Air Con being off and the house becoming really hot, but at home we have the opposite, central heating, so I personally wasn't that fussed! Power came back at 8pm, which was surprising seeing as the estimate was midnight, and good news because it came back before it got dark.
The overnight theme on Thursday was Pirates, which was funny, and then Friday felt so long and by the time Friday was over I felt absoloutley solidly drained. There was a bit of a party last night, but I fell asleep at like 7ish, woke up at just after 8 and thought "you know what, I could actually stay here and sleep now", so I did!! We then had a meeting this morning where we found out about our new groups, and that was followed by a lunch provided by camp. Brooke wanted to mess about with the video camera this afternoon, and then Aaron and Leanne came over. A load of people were going over to Canada for a night out tonight but unfortunatley there were too few drivers/cars going for us to get a space in time so we had a night here and Fiona (the counselor who comes from Kirkudbright, where we've actually been on a holiday!) joined us. We finally had the Film Night we decided on having about five weeks ago! Fiona went home but Leanne and Aaron are currently wiped out asleep on the comfy sofas next door in the basement living room! Tomorrow we might either have a sun session if the weather's good, or walk up to Yoz for some frozen yoghurt (it's so good!) or whatever, and then next weekend there's a party at one of the big universities which promises to be fun.
Last night I had a dream where I went back home just for a weekend, and though I felt really pleased to see everyone I also felt really sad that I was out of this bubble I'm in over here. It's like an alternate life; a completely different set of friends and a completely different environment. I don't think I've changed, except maybe got a bit stronger in myself, I've just learned things and stuff like that. I'm not nervous about going to uni now either, like if I can go to the other side of the world, start life again from scratch and absoloutley love it, then surely moving two hours down the road will be a blast! Only four weeks of camp to go now, can't believe I've been here for more than six weeks, and I know it'll rush past but I'm going to miss it alot when it's finished! Maybe if I can afford it I will think about coming back next year, or if not maybe the year after. Who knows.
Alot of people were quite sad that it was the end of the second sesh, but I was alright because I was fairly confident that I'd get the same group again for the third session because the majority of our campers were returning. Sure enough we had a meeting this morning to find out our group assignments and I'm doing the Tigers again with Steve, and we also have Andy back with us - he was with us for the first session which was a week long. Actually I got placed twice... I also got put with Sam (not American girl Sam, English guy Sam) and Brittany in a new group called the Pirates, but then when they realised they'd double-booked me they decided to keep me with the Tigers. I had mixed feelings about that because, on the one hand, it would have been really cool to experience a different age group, with different co-counsellors, especially Brittany who I've spoken to a bit this past week and she seems really cool; but on the other hand I know that the Tigers are a really good group to have because we don't really have any problem children and they're a good age group to be put with. Anyway the next four weeks should be a solid repeat of the last five, and I think I'm getting better as a counselor, so I have no complaints!
I'll zoom back to last weekend, which seems so long ago but I haven't updated this thing in a while! Saturday was really full - I got woken up at 12:15 by Amy asking about the mall in 15 minutes, and I was quite proud of myself for being up and ready to go by the time Justin pulled up on the drive! We went to Twelve Oaks, a mall I hadn't been to yet, which was cool. We started with some quick lunch at which I had my first Taco Bell experience! Leanne and I went off to some places and Amy and Justin went off to some others and met Jacob along their way. It was quite fun... we came across a Sears, which immediatley reminded us of (don't judge me mum!) Mean Girls, so I felt it necessary to take a picture of it especially for Mark ("...You could try Sears?"). We then went from the mall to the movies to see Hellboy II, a film which won't be making a rushed appearance into my list of favourite films, but it was alright! From there we killed time by going to this big shop called Target, which is a bit like Matalan only it's got some really weird other stuff in it... like Tesco only with less emphasis on food and more on the rest of the random stuff it sells.
Next stop was Max and Erma's, a really good restaurant that we went to on like our second weekend, for Jamie's birthday. Jamie is a long-time returning counselor and quite a few people were there. We then went on to Justin's place where he had a few people over for a bit of a house party, only not like an all-out wild house party, there were only like 15 of us there. I joined in the beer pong with Leanne's older brother Darren and, predictably, we crashed out on our first game! It was a really fun night, it was a group of people I hadn't really spent thaaaat much time with before and we had a good laugh.
Sunday was quite quiet... I think many people were a little fragile! I got a bit homesick after calling home, probably the most since when I first got here, because I've missed pretty much every good thing that's been coming my mum's way since I left. Graduations and prestigious exhibitions and degree shows I was really, really gutted to be away for.
Monday night soccer was fun as usual. I didn't play, as usual. On Tuesday we went to the movies again; this time we saw the new Eddie Murphy film Meet Dave, which I was expecting to be dire after all the crap reviews, but it actually was secretly funny. It was with Aaron, Leanne, Luke and Oli. Beforehand we went to a really, really nice Ice Cream place. It's part of a chain; it's like Subway only much nicer and with ice creams instead of subs!
On Wednesday I babysat Brooke for the last time - she goes to a sleepaway camp on Tuesday and won't be back until August 14th. We had a power cut, which meant I couldn't get in the house because the garage code wasn't doing anything, so I called Aimee and she said they were all round her mum's for dinner and she came back to get me to take me over too. Aimee's mum then bought me and Brooke home to the power-less house. They were all panicked about the Air Con being off and the house becoming really hot, but at home we have the opposite, central heating, so I personally wasn't that fussed! Power came back at 8pm, which was surprising seeing as the estimate was midnight, and good news because it came back before it got dark.
The overnight theme on Thursday was Pirates, which was funny, and then Friday felt so long and by the time Friday was over I felt absoloutley solidly drained. There was a bit of a party last night, but I fell asleep at like 7ish, woke up at just after 8 and thought "you know what, I could actually stay here and sleep now", so I did!! We then had a meeting this morning where we found out about our new groups, and that was followed by a lunch provided by camp. Brooke wanted to mess about with the video camera this afternoon, and then Aaron and Leanne came over. A load of people were going over to Canada for a night out tonight but unfortunatley there were too few drivers/cars going for us to get a space in time so we had a night here and Fiona (the counselor who comes from Kirkudbright, where we've actually been on a holiday!) joined us. We finally had the Film Night we decided on having about five weeks ago! Fiona went home but Leanne and Aaron are currently wiped out asleep on the comfy sofas next door in the basement living room! Tomorrow we might either have a sun session if the weather's good, or walk up to Yoz for some frozen yoghurt (it's so good!) or whatever, and then next weekend there's a party at one of the big universities which promises to be fun.
Last night I had a dream where I went back home just for a weekend, and though I felt really pleased to see everyone I also felt really sad that I was out of this bubble I'm in over here. It's like an alternate life; a completely different set of friends and a completely different environment. I don't think I've changed, except maybe got a bit stronger in myself, I've just learned things and stuff like that. I'm not nervous about going to uni now either, like if I can go to the other side of the world, start life again from scratch and absoloutley love it, then surely moving two hours down the road will be a blast! Only four weeks of camp to go now, can't believe I've been here for more than six weeks, and I know it'll rush past but I'm going to miss it alot when it's finished! Maybe if I can afford it I will think about coming back next year, or if not maybe the year after. Who knows.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Day 37
The halfway point of camp has now officially passed which is so weird. It doesn't feel like long since I said bye to mum and dad at Heathrow five weeks ago but at the same time it feels like donkey's years. It still feels like we're near the beginning but it's strange that we're now nearer the end than the beginning.
Anyway it's been nearly a week since my last update... last Saturday was Scott's party at his uni house over in Ann Arbour, which is a large town about forty-five minutes' drive away. On our way, Jacob, Amy, Justin and I stopped off at Champps for a meal and then carried on our journey. The party was quite cool, and I made my spectacularly poor debut at Beer Pong... I wasn't much up for going far in the tournament because Leanne was keeping me thoroughly supplied with this raspberry vodka stuff, so beer from Beer Pong would have made it a bit of a bad mix! But yeah a good mix of people there, including the usual collective of British counsellors, plus a load of Americans including Sam (pic below), who is fast becoming one of the most fun Americans I have met out here - she's always laughing about something! Picture - clockwise from top Dean, me, Leanne, Aaron, Allison and Nicole in the middle.
Minor headache on Sunday morning but then when I was sitting here happily having a post-shower Facebook binge in a towel I had a call from Amy asking if I was up for going to the mall in five minutes, and then in actual fact about three minutes later they rolled up on the drive! I did manage to throw some clothes on in that three minutes though so I was quite proud of myself. We went back to Somerset, where we'd been before, and this week I bought a few T-shirts, more trainer socks... stuff along those lines. I bought this one T-shirt that was like $40 marked down from $60, and I was thinking "woah big purchase!" and then "Wait a sec, at home this would be a steal!"
From the mall we (we being Amy, Justin, Leanne and Aaron) went on to Detroit, for the hell of it, which is actually quite a scary city, purely because it's so lifeless. The streets are bare and there are hardly any people on them. There's no obvious city centre or commercial streets or anything like that. Although, there is this one cool bit where you get to a river the size of the Thames, maybe a bit wider, and on the other side of the river is Canada.
Justin went to meet some other people that evening but he dropped the rest of us off at the movies on his way and we saw Get Smart (Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway) after taking more pictures in the photobooths! The film was quite funny, several laugh out loud moments, although the first half was probably better than the second. Taking those pictures, the four of us cramming into a photobooth, it felt like we'd been friends for years, not just four and a bit weeks. It was really funny anyway.
Business as usual at camp on Monday. I was doing Paddleboats on the big camp pond during the Campers' Choice hour all this week, with Leanne and Joe. It's quite relaxing actually although you do risk getting quite wet! Monday night it got a bit stormy so the Monday night staff football was called off but Champps was on as usual, and just before that Sarah had a bit of a wander over for a quick tea!! Now Leanne and Amy have moved, our car in the mornings and afternoons is slightly different in that we now pick up Luke and Oli and another car picks up the girls. Luke and Oli literally live about three minutes' walk away and none of us realised until we went to pick them up!!
Tuesday was a night of tiredness all round and the majority of us had nights in. I ended up watching a film on my iPod... was in a bit of an Anne Hathaway mood following Get Smart on Sunday so I gave The Devil Wears Prada a shot and thought it was really good... strange to see a film typically classed as a "chick flick" having the central leading lady facing a storyline in her career as opposed to romantic life. Really good anyway, thought Meryl Streep was really good too.
Wednesday was babysitting as usual, and at camp word was quickly spreading that two English counsellors had been let go. One wasn't really surprising but the other was a bit of a surprise and it'll be a shame to see him go because he's a funny guy and our bus journeys won't be the same without him!
The Thursday overnight was quite good, the theme was Indiana Jones and me, Holly and Michael Jordan were stationed at this obstacle course thing which was a laugh. Although, while setting up our tent I did quite four quite big spiders that would be joining us for the evening and that was unnerving! This morning I was ready to go home because I was in need of a shower and a sleep, then I started wanting to go HOME home, and then the day got going and everything was fine.
Tonight I haven't done alot really, it's been really quiet for a Friday night. Jacob was saying he was going to a supermarket so I tagged along and picked up some tea and Dairy Milk ($8!!) from their International Aisle. Don't know what's happening this weekend but sure word will spread in due course. And iTunes actually works on my laptop here, whereas at home my phone internet thing won't support it, and since discovering that it has about every song in the history of the universe on it I have bought about 60 songs, some in albums some in indidual tracks, plus a whole series of Catherine Tate. Am now banning myself from it for fear of going bankrupt thanks to iTunes.
Sure there's more to tell but I'm exhausted and ready to sleep, so more soon!
Anyway it's been nearly a week since my last update... last Saturday was Scott's party at his uni house over in Ann Arbour, which is a large town about forty-five minutes' drive away. On our way, Jacob, Amy, Justin and I stopped off at Champps for a meal and then carried on our journey. The party was quite cool, and I made my spectacularly poor debut at Beer Pong... I wasn't much up for going far in the tournament because Leanne was keeping me thoroughly supplied with this raspberry vodka stuff, so beer from Beer Pong would have made it a bit of a bad mix! But yeah a good mix of people there, including the usual collective of British counsellors, plus a load of Americans including Sam (pic below), who is fast becoming one of the most fun Americans I have met out here - she's always laughing about something! Picture - clockwise from top Dean, me, Leanne, Aaron, Allison and Nicole in the middle.
Minor headache on Sunday morning but then when I was sitting here happily having a post-shower Facebook binge in a towel I had a call from Amy asking if I was up for going to the mall in five minutes, and then in actual fact about three minutes later they rolled up on the drive! I did manage to throw some clothes on in that three minutes though so I was quite proud of myself. We went back to Somerset, where we'd been before, and this week I bought a few T-shirts, more trainer socks... stuff along those lines. I bought this one T-shirt that was like $40 marked down from $60, and I was thinking "woah big purchase!" and then "Wait a sec, at home this would be a steal!"From the mall we (we being Amy, Justin, Leanne and Aaron) went on to Detroit, for the hell of it, which is actually quite a scary city, purely because it's so lifeless. The streets are bare and there are hardly any people on them. There's no obvious city centre or commercial streets or anything like that. Although, there is this one cool bit where you get to a river the size of the Thames, maybe a bit wider, and on the other side of the river is Canada.
Justin went to meet some other people that evening but he dropped the rest of us off at the movies on his way and we saw Get Smart (Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway) after taking more pictures in the photobooths! The film was quite funny, several laugh out loud moments, although the first half was probably better than the second. Taking those pictures, the four of us cramming into a photobooth, it felt like we'd been friends for years, not just four and a bit weeks. It was really funny anyway.
Business as usual at camp on Monday. I was doing Paddleboats on the big camp pond during the Campers' Choice hour all this week, with Leanne and Joe. It's quite relaxing actually although you do risk getting quite wet! Monday night it got a bit stormy so the Monday night staff football was called off but Champps was on as usual, and just before that Sarah had a bit of a wander over for a quick tea!! Now Leanne and Amy have moved, our car in the mornings and afternoons is slightly different in that we now pick up Luke and Oli and another car picks up the girls. Luke and Oli literally live about three minutes' walk away and none of us realised until we went to pick them up!!
Tuesday was a night of tiredness all round and the majority of us had nights in. I ended up watching a film on my iPod... was in a bit of an Anne Hathaway mood following Get Smart on Sunday so I gave The Devil Wears Prada a shot and thought it was really good... strange to see a film typically classed as a "chick flick" having the central leading lady facing a storyline in her career as opposed to romantic life. Really good anyway, thought Meryl Streep was really good too.
Wednesday was babysitting as usual, and at camp word was quickly spreading that two English counsellors had been let go. One wasn't really surprising but the other was a bit of a surprise and it'll be a shame to see him go because he's a funny guy and our bus journeys won't be the same without him!
The Thursday overnight was quite good, the theme was Indiana Jones and me, Holly and Michael Jordan were stationed at this obstacle course thing which was a laugh. Although, while setting up our tent I did quite four quite big spiders that would be joining us for the evening and that was unnerving! This morning I was ready to go home because I was in need of a shower and a sleep, then I started wanting to go HOME home, and then the day got going and everything was fine.
Tonight I haven't done alot really, it's been really quiet for a Friday night. Jacob was saying he was going to a supermarket so I tagged along and picked up some tea and Dairy Milk ($8!!) from their International Aisle. Don't know what's happening this weekend but sure word will spread in due course. And iTunes actually works on my laptop here, whereas at home my phone internet thing won't support it, and since discovering that it has about every song in the history of the universe on it I have bought about 60 songs, some in albums some in indidual tracks, plus a whole series of Catherine Tate. Am now banning myself from it for fear of going bankrupt thanks to iTunes.
Sure there's more to tell but I'm exhausted and ready to sleep, so more soon!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Day 31
Day 31! What the actual hell?! Can't believe it's nearly half-way already. This has been a really quick week, probably because at camp it's been a really short one. There was no camp yesterday because of 4th July (Independence Day) so we got a long weekend.
At camp, business continues as usual. Swimming was scrapped first thing Monday due to cold weather so Steve scheduled us in for drama which caught me completely unprepared and off-guard, so I managed to blag about half an hour's worth of drama games!
Monday night's football thing was funny as per usual, and it had nothing to do with the football (which me and several others have yet to actually play!) Sam, an American counsellor, made us do this game where you make a name for yourself by combining the celebrity you'd most like to be, your favourite tree, and your favourite dessert. I think I was James McAvoy Christmas Tree Trifle. Have a go yourself and leave it in a comment! Haha.
Wednesday night was the Overnight this week because of there being no camp on Friday. Wednesday and Thursday were also the days when everything kicked off as far as Amy and Leanne are concerned. They haven't been amazingly happy with their host family, and then things got steadily worse until Leanne found out from a co-counsellor that they'd been gossiping completely untrue things about her to other host families. That being the last straw, the girls went to the senior staff and told them everything, and without hesitation they were told they'd be moved to another family. Even accompanied by Willoway senior staff, moving out on Thursday was a horrible experience for them because the host parents put them through hell with various stuff that I won't go into here. But because they'd had dinner with my host parents on Tuesday night, they immediatley phoned them up and accused them of starting this rumour about Leanne, which was completely ridiculous because they didn't even know about it until I got home from camp and told them literally ten minutes before. But anyway, it was a really tough experience for all concerned, but at least they can start again now - they said that within 30 minutes of being at Liz and Jason's (they're senior staff at camp and are housing Amy and Leanne over the weekend) they felt more at home than they ever did at their last house. I think they would have moved out sooner were it not for where they were positioned - Sarah was next door, I was literally less than a minute's walk, Aaron was round the corner... Where they're going to be moving to, I'm not sure if there are any co-counsellors near them at all.
Anyway the Overnight on Wednesday was a bit pants because it was severely raining and storming so we were playing games and singing songs indoors for hours on end, which only stays compelling for so long but you have to keep smiling for the kids! The silver lining though was that because of the crappy weather we didn't have to sleep in the tents, we got to sleep in the Arena. SCORE!
On Thursday night a big group of us went to see some Independence Day fireworks at a golf course in a nearby town called Birmingham. Leanne and Amy were understandably not up to it at first, and Aaron was really tired, so I went with a big group of others, like Sam, Mat, Jenni, Dean, Jacob, Oli etc, which was cool because I got to have a bit of a mingle! Leanne, Amy and Aaron, along with Justin, changed their minds in the end but by the time they arrived the display had started and there were thousands of people there so we never actually met up until we met back at Champps at the end of the evening. Where we sat for the display, the grass was really wet and even through the blankets it still was soaking. So when we were at Champps etc I was still absoloutley freezing because of wearing freezing wet jeans, and I didn't actually get to take them off until I got home just before 1am. I was shivering in bed and ended up spending most of Friday in bed with a fever and bathroom dashes, thus having to miss a trip to a beach (it's on a lake but apparently it's such a huge lake it looks like a regular beach) and a party last night. Rats! But there's another party tonight which should be cool, Amy and I still have to try and find lifts from somewhere but that shouldn't be too hard.
At camp, business continues as usual. Swimming was scrapped first thing Monday due to cold weather so Steve scheduled us in for drama which caught me completely unprepared and off-guard, so I managed to blag about half an hour's worth of drama games!
Monday night's football thing was funny as per usual, and it had nothing to do with the football (which me and several others have yet to actually play!) Sam, an American counsellor, made us do this game where you make a name for yourself by combining the celebrity you'd most like to be, your favourite tree, and your favourite dessert. I think I was James McAvoy Christmas Tree Trifle. Have a go yourself and leave it in a comment! Haha.
Wednesday night was the Overnight this week because of there being no camp on Friday. Wednesday and Thursday were also the days when everything kicked off as far as Amy and Leanne are concerned. They haven't been amazingly happy with their host family, and then things got steadily worse until Leanne found out from a co-counsellor that they'd been gossiping completely untrue things about her to other host families. That being the last straw, the girls went to the senior staff and told them everything, and without hesitation they were told they'd be moved to another family. Even accompanied by Willoway senior staff, moving out on Thursday was a horrible experience for them because the host parents put them through hell with various stuff that I won't go into here. But because they'd had dinner with my host parents on Tuesday night, they immediatley phoned them up and accused them of starting this rumour about Leanne, which was completely ridiculous because they didn't even know about it until I got home from camp and told them literally ten minutes before. But anyway, it was a really tough experience for all concerned, but at least they can start again now - they said that within 30 minutes of being at Liz and Jason's (they're senior staff at camp and are housing Amy and Leanne over the weekend) they felt more at home than they ever did at their last house. I think they would have moved out sooner were it not for where they were positioned - Sarah was next door, I was literally less than a minute's walk, Aaron was round the corner... Where they're going to be moving to, I'm not sure if there are any co-counsellors near them at all.
Anyway the Overnight on Wednesday was a bit pants because it was severely raining and storming so we were playing games and singing songs indoors for hours on end, which only stays compelling for so long but you have to keep smiling for the kids! The silver lining though was that because of the crappy weather we didn't have to sleep in the tents, we got to sleep in the Arena. SCORE!
On Thursday night a big group of us went to see some Independence Day fireworks at a golf course in a nearby town called Birmingham. Leanne and Amy were understandably not up to it at first, and Aaron was really tired, so I went with a big group of others, like Sam, Mat, Jenni, Dean, Jacob, Oli etc, which was cool because I got to have a bit of a mingle! Leanne, Amy and Aaron, along with Justin, changed their minds in the end but by the time they arrived the display had started and there were thousands of people there so we never actually met up until we met back at Champps at the end of the evening. Where we sat for the display, the grass was really wet and even through the blankets it still was soaking. So when we were at Champps etc I was still absoloutley freezing because of wearing freezing wet jeans, and I didn't actually get to take them off until I got home just before 1am. I was shivering in bed and ended up spending most of Friday in bed with a fever and bathroom dashes, thus having to miss a trip to a beach (it's on a lake but apparently it's such a huge lake it looks like a regular beach) and a party last night. Rats! But there's another party tonight which should be cool, Amy and I still have to try and find lifts from somewhere but that shouldn't be too hard.
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