Day 2

I’m just coming to the end of my first full day in the USA, it’s just after 9:00 here but the time at the bottom of my screen tells me that back home it’s just gone 2am.

The journey began yesterday morning at 7:00am, when my mum, dad and I left home for Heathrow. The traffic being as bad as it is during rush hour meant we didn’t arrive at the airport until about 9:30. That saying about ripping off a band aid quickly? That kind of applied to the goodbyes at the airport. Had we engaged in lengthy hour-long farewell speeches I probably would still be in floods right now! As soon as I passed through security at the airport, it was like "Okay, this is it. All I’ve got is myself."

I did manage to spot quite a few blue Camp America T-shirts dotted round the Departure Lounge, but the two groups I actually approached were going to different places. I realised I left my PSP at home so I made use of the tax-free zone and bought a Nintendo DS! I haven’t used it yet though, but I’ve got a Mario Kart gaming sitting beside me in its cellophane wrapping and I’m getting more and more tempted to give it a go…

At Heathrow they tell you when they expect to announce the gate, and about ten minutes before then I saw a group of four people around my age standing in a group – none of them had blue Camp America T-shirts on so I nearly overlooked them, but one guy’s T-shirt actually had "Willoway" on it, so I made a beeline and introduced myself to Mat, Sarah, Dean and James. All four are previous campers – for Sarah, Dean and James it’s their second year here, and a third for Mat. I was expecting a group of similarly-nervous first-timers, but it wasn’t intimidating standing with an already established clique because I could tell from their personalities that they were the exact kinds of people I’d get along with. When we got to the Departure Gate a little while later, we were approached by another first-timer, Andy, and then Mat’s list (he’d been given a list) showed that we were still expecting a few more. Only 9 of us on our flight in the end – the rest were all on the earlier one. The other four people were first-timers Leanne, who’s older brother has been here for a few years, Michael, Clare and Oliver.

The seating arrangements were all over the place, we were just put wherever there was a space. Mat was three seats down from me in the middle section so he asked the couple between us if they’d mind swapping, and he moved next to me. It was good to hear from him how he found his first two times at camp. He said the first time went really quickly because it feels new for so long, then by the time it feels routine it’s time to go. He disappeared after about three hours because he’d found a better seat with more legroom that wasn’t occupied. I saw two films, neither of which will go down as all-time favourites but they passed the time sufficiently. The first was called Mad Money and starred Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and a surprisingly good Katie Holmes as three bank workers who used their three different jobs to team up and steal money. The second was called The Bucket List and was about two cancer patients (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) who had months to live and vowed to do several fantastic things before they died.

The last couple of hours dragged but we arrived in Washington just before 3:00pm US time, about 8pm UK time. It was strange thinking that it was midday when we boarded, and now we were getting off the plane, thousands of miles away, Dean was on stage and it was dark back home. The connection was a mission. We had to queue in this ridiculously long queue of non-US citizens to go through Immigration, but I was with Leanne and Oliver and got chatting to them and they’re both really cool. Leanne is chatty, bubbly and funny, and Oliver is very much the "lad", very down to earth and very chillaxed. That’s the first time I’ve ever applied the word "chillax" to an everyday sentence. We passed through Immigration, and the man who saw me – a very scary and intimidating man, even though his name was Constantine – asked if I had any foods on me. I didn’t know whether or not to bring up the array of mints and sweets in my hand luggage, and thinking I’d rather not be deported I got out the green box of Poppets from my bag and he gave me the weirdest look, much to the amusement of a waiting Leanne!

We went to collect our bags, which then had to be re-checked, and unfortunately Michael, who I hadn’t spoken to that much, couldn’t find his. Basically the baggage was just left in a section of this big hall, you went to find it, then you got into this huuuuge disorganised queue that was so easy to jump. Leanne, Oliver and I (and further down, Mat) were already quite a way into the queue when Michael’s situation was starting to look more and more grim, and then when we got through the huge re-check section and through the departure lounge for our domestic flight we worried that the others wouldn’t make it in time. The baggage re-check system was a disaster though, because at the end of the huge great queue they just took it off you and through it in a big trolley to be re-loaded. What the hell was the point in us taking it a few metres by queuing for 45 minutes just so they could take it off us without even looking at any labels or anything and chuck it on another conveyor belt?! But anyway it was quite an amusing queue because I’d fetched a trolley for Leanne as she had two cases, and she stuck her huge case on it and then chucked mine on top of it, insisting that she can wheel her little one if I push the trolley. Everyone else asked me why I’d bought two huge great cases, which was quite funny.

By the time we were on our connecting flight I was getting quite tired. It was 6:30, so about 11:30 at home, and I wasn’t in the mood for another flight. It was a really tiny little plane, with each row consisting of four seats with a central aisle, small enough to constitute only having two stewardesses. The flight was only an hour and we were all knackered by the time we landed in Detroit.

The people from the earlier flight were waiting for us in Detroit as their connecting flight had been severely delayed, so even though they were meant to be three hours ahead of us they were only one. Met a few more people but most of them stuck to the small groups they’d already met, even so though I recognised a couple of faces from Facebook! We all collected our bags and made our way out to this yellow schoolbus, which is the Willoway bus, and learnt that we would be going to a bowling alley to meet our host families. We got there after about half an hour. On the bus I was next to Leanne so talked to her a bit more, plus Oliver was just across the aisle and we learnt that it was actually the day before his 20th birthday! Sarah was nearby too and also this girl Amy who I’ve talked to a bit on Facebook. You know how you sometimes meet people who could easily be clones of people you already know? Amy could easily be Kate Cooper from school.
We arrived at the bowling alley and met our families, plus camp directors Arnie and Lorraine were there too. My "host dad" Richard was there with 7 year-old Bradley. We sat with food for a little while, and I also met first-time counsellor Aaron. We went back to the house through the suburbs, and oh my God the house is HUGE. We were met at the door by "host mum" Aimee, and soon 9 year-old Brooke came downstairs too. The place seriously is massive. Every room is big and spacious. My bedroom is downstairs in the basement, but when I say "the basement" I don’t mean a rotting wooden cold airy cellar; it’s just like every other floor only it’s below ground level. My room is lovely, the double bed is so soft and there’s lots of room. After a mini-tour and a chat with Aimee, who is very, very nice and also quite funny, I unpacked a little and went to bed. By this time it was about 10:00pm, which is early for me but on my body clock it was 3am, which is normal for me!

I got up today at about 9am, but before you’re impressed with how early it is by my standards I’d like to remind you that in England it was 2pm! The house was empty. I had a shower and got dressed, by which time Aimee had arrived back from a run with her friend Sarah, who is very nice. Aimee then insisted I got to know the TV while she had a shower, and then we set out. She took me for a nice lunch at a nearby place, then we went to this bizarre warehouse that is like a supermarket only everything is available in huge bulk. You don’t buy one pint of milk, you buy sixty at once. We then went to this regular supermarket, then to a butchers and bakery and then back home.

When Aimee went out to an appointment with Brooke it was just Bradley and I at home, and we firstly played catch in the garden (absolutely sweltering heat!) and he showed me his scooter, then wanted me to play with him on the Wii. Obviously he beat me quite a bit.

Dinnertime was interesting. The family is Jewish, and their kitchen is kosher, so there are separate plates, silverware etc for meat and dairy products, and they are never mixed. On Fridays they also do quite a traditional prayer etc, so that was interesting. We then went to the elementary school carnival – like the summer school fairs at home – at which were a few more counsellors, some of whom I hadn’t met so that was good. I’m actually in a minority in that I’m the only counsellor being housed by a host family – everyone else except Sarah who was at the carnival was living with another counsellor.

I’m quite tired now and we have our first Orientation session tomorrow, so I’d best get some sleep. Brooke has been having a power-tantrum for a good hour now, so I may be asleep before her! I miss everyone a lot back home but I’m desperately trying not to think of that because I’m not going to back for a bit of a while. The experience hasn’t even begun yet!