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?

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.

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!

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.