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.