Camp Highlights

So camp happened a little excessively and I never really got time to update this so here's the highlights:


- The Scrape Off!
The scrape off is an anual camp event. At the end of meals we have to scrape all the plates clean. Over the course of the summer this skill is honed and eventually the best scrapers compete for the title of ultimate scraper. Generally an international competitor challenges Canvis who is reigning champion having won four years in a row. This year the competition was extended such that there were several rounds in which people got knocked out until we were wittled down to the final stand off between Canvis representing the USA and Gazelle representing the WORLD. Which was a big responsibility. But it was all ok because she won. So everyone was happy!

-Super Kipper and Bobbin Hood
Session 5 Bobbin and I had a camp challenge program. Which was huge amounts of fun! We decided to be super hero themed and spent much of the week wandering round camp pretending to be super heros, complete with costumes and capes. We did super hero training on the low ropes course and did super hero orienteering which involved saving teddies in distress. We also got to go 'hiking' in the blue hills (and by 'hiking' I mean glorified rambling) and ate copious amounts of very melty trail mix and pretended to be hardcore.

- Baseball game.
The last week of camp I got the program I had been hoping to get since this time last year. I.e. we got Anything Goes. I.e. I got older kids. I.e. I WENT TO A BASEBALL GAME! This was easily the most exciting thing that happened on camp. Well maybe not easily. And maybe it wans't THE most exciting thing. But the general gist is that it was highly exciting. I got to learn the rules. I have come to the conclusion that it's confusing and not as good as cricket. On the bright side it was marginally shorter than a cricket match and we got to eat popcorn. I wore my cricket jumper to be contraversial. I'm not sure anyone noticed. After the game we got to go run around on the pitch/field/whatever it is called. It was pretty cool. Also the people we saw might be famous one day.

- Pumps and Pearls.
The Pumps and Pearls was lovely as ever this year. I borrowed Half-Pint's dress, which I love, and actually now have hanging in my closet at MHC. Everyone looks so pretty at these things. It's so nice. I borrowed some shoes of Lucky and Bean did my make-up. I love getting ready for Pumps and Pearls with everyone in the tents. Its hilarious. We got sparkling grape juice in little wine glasses and it was generally a good time. My favourite part is singing ridiculous camp songs in beautiful dresses. 

- Star Gazing.
The last night there were kids on camp there was a meteor shower at 4.30 am. So we thought it would be a really great idea to get our kids up to watch it. It was absolutely freezing. But we actually saw some really cool meteors. One lit up the entire sky and the trail of its tail stayed in the air for ages, which I've never really seen before.  The only problem was that we'd decided it would be a really great idea to stay up till really late having a midnight picnic and had food in our tent, and I was absolutely certain a racoon would come in the night to terrorise us, but in the end there were only a whole bunch of mice scurrying around. Which was fairly gross, but not as scary. So all in all not much sleep was to be had.

Blogging!

I am in the process of blogging. Along with all the other hundreds of things I need to be doing. Not to mention the fact that I need to write an essay for York. Oh joy! But they are coming I promise!

Happy Christmas!

Yup you read that right! It's Christmas here at Camp Wind In The Pines. Christmas in July to be precise! I'm excited to see what I'm going to get from my secret buddy. I still need to wrap/finish my gift so I'm going to peace out now! Toodles!

Laugh out loud.

I am exhausted! Literally I am that tired that I had to lay down to pretend to be dead for a couple of seconds the other day and I fell asleep. It's ridiclous. I just sleep everywhere. All the time. I've just remembered why I never went to see films while I was at camp last year. It's because if I were to sit in a darkened space on a comfy chair, there would be no way I would stay awake.

We've just finished our two week session, which is always a killer. Two weeks with the same kids and limited time off is hard work. Luckily we had a really good unit, and it was all relatively drama free and the kids were pretty hilarious. So it was all good. We had some really fun things that we did with the kids. We went to an airport and got to go in a 1.5 million dollar private jet and the teeniest little plane I have ever seen in my entire life. We also went on a dragon hunt, had a fairy themed cook out, discovered a new planet, and went to the beach. It was all in all a rather marvelous program.

This weekend is a bit of a relaxed one since everyone is just about on the verge of collapse. Lucky is having a cookout type thing at hers, which should be really nice, and a lot of the staff are going, so it should be good bonding time. Next week I have the brownies for a dessert cooking program. Which should be good I think. I'm having fun coming up with some ideas of things we can do with the kids. Its going to be strange going from a two week session back down to a one week session though, because there isn't so much time to do crazy things with the kids.

We had our internationals vs. americans soccer match this week, and for the first time in living memory, the INTERNATIONALS WON! This was all due to the fact that we had Mint on our team, who plays for really good teams/ is on her uni team etc. But it was all super duper very exciting, even though I missed the second hald of the match because I went to the beach. Other excitement that has occured include a halloween meal, a harry potter meal and a tiny dining hall meal!

July 4th Weekend

I'm at Half-Pint's for the July 4th Weekend, having successfully survived the first week of camp, despite lack of training and extreme exhaustion. Her house is like one of those proper New England houses that you see in films and such, all gree and white and wooden, it's really cute. They have the most enormous BBQ I've ever seen in real life (only they call it a grill.) Its a really old house so it's all nooks and crannies and minding my head when I go anywhere. They have a room with a HUMUNGUS window over looking the sea and it's all really pretty. Tonight there's going to be a wine and cheese evening and a golfing competition and her entire family is going to be there and it's pretty exciting! I even got a tie die t-shirt, which is part of the whole thing I think. Anyway it says something about the parade in Plymouth on the back, and it's one of only ten. It's pretty special.

Last night because it was about a zillion degrees I decided to go ice skating with Cube, Bean and HP and I fell over flat on my face. But I got to wear my cricket jumper out, and no one knew it was a cricket jumper and everyone just said how nice it was. So epic win on that front. I think I might go a couple more times, because I was just starting to get the hang of it again when the session was over. I've vaguely figured how to stop although it's based on the skiing snow plough model, as opposed to the T method that Cube showed us, but it works pretty well, and when HP and Bean tried the T thing they both ended up on their bottoms, so I feel like mine is safer.

This week there should be far fewer kids because the session starts on July 4th, so it should be much more relaxing and less stressful. We're having a big party on the ball field with a cookout and a drive through movie, which is exciting. I'm doing the Junior Sampler program, which means that I'll have two sets of kids throughout the week, which means I won't be as close to them, but I do get two ice-cream parties, which should be good. Also I'm working with Ink-Pad, who I've been wanting to work with for a long time, so I think it should be a really good week!

In my last post I told you about the killer fish that tried to eat one of my campers, well it attacked a bunch more kids, so it was decided that the fish should be relocated. It appears to have made a home in the corner of the docks, where we think it's laid eggs and become territorial, so it needed to be moved. This involved fishing for the fish, catching it and putting it in the other pond. Various methods of fish baiting were trialed, including meal worms and bits of pancake, but in the end it was discovered that the only thing that lured it out was children. So we sent in Half-Pint. It worked, but I'm told that the panic that ensued when she thought that it had swum down the front of her bathing suit was so hilarious it should have come with a health warning.

Camp damp is a way of life.

I've made it to America. The trip was very good actually. I had a slight panic because I thought my baggage had gotten lost, but it turned out that mine was just the very last bag off the plane. Typical. I think the highlights of the trip was going on the silver line in Boston, which is an underground BUS. A legit bus which goes through these liittle tunnels under ground. IT was the weirdest thing ever. And there were these crazy signposts even though you could only go one way down these little tunnels. And clearly only the bus drivers go down there.

Another highlight was the little old lady I sat next to on the train from Boston to Kingston. Every cranberry bog we went past she gave me a full update about whether she thought it was well maintained or not. Which was pretty funny. I also now know the full life story of herself, her husband, her 6 children, and multitudes of grand children. What they did every summer since 1983 every house she'd ever lived in, whether the roof leaked and so forth. She also gave me some very melty cough drops from CVS which the paper is all stuck to and are currently residing in my backpack under my bed.

Being back at camp is great. Its slightly odd being a returner, because the new staff think that you know everything, and particularly since I missed staff training I don't feel like I know very much. Still it does feel very comfortable, like everything makes sense. And it's good to be back with all my friends, and it's really nice to meet new people. We have a really solid group of staff this year, they all seem very professional and still really fun. I think it's going to be a good year. Traditionally someone drops out every year, but I really don't see any of the staff we have this year having to drop out.

It's really hot here at the moment. Around 30 degrees everyday. We have a really heavy rain storm every couple of days and then it goes right back to being ridiculously hot. I'm not even getting tanned because we have to stay in the shade so much. Although on Saturday I went to the beach and got very sun burnt across my shoulders, but that seems to be dying down a little now. This weekend the staff trip is to Martha's Vinyard, which is where the President takes his holidays, also where Jaws is set. I can't decide whether I want to go, or whether I want to stay around in Plymouth. Half Pint's family is throwing a big party for July 4th and I've been invited, so I want to go to that too.

Because it's July 4th next week, it's going to be a really small week on camp, so there should be loads of counselors and not so very many kids, so we should get all our time off and stuff next week. It should be a little less manic than this week. Also the newer staff will be settling in more and so there will be less stress and tension around. Camp politics are starting to kick off a little already, which is sort of funny.

Today one of my kids got bitten by one of the fish in the lake. She told me and I didn't think it was true. But She literally has a bite mark on her arm. It drew blood and everything. The funniest thing about the whole situation was that she thought the fish hadn't done it on perpose and hadn't meant to hurt her. She's so adorable! We had to try to catch the fish and relocate it into the other pond where the kids don't swim.

That's about it for now. I'm going to post this and catch you all up on all the other news at the weekend! Hope everything is good wherever you are!

p.s. Indie if you're reading this, we miss you!

Do you talk to yourself when you are alone?

I just sat my placement exam for my French course next year. I can honestly say it was the weirdest exam I've ever sat in my life. Two of the questions were about sky diving into a field of cacti, one was about whether you talked to yourself when you were alone or not, and I think the answer to a third was 'it would have been better had she died in the car accident', mainly because the alternative answer was 'it was necessary that she died in the car accident'. Still I passed the exam, which means I can join any French class I wish. Hurrah!

(In case you were wondering I don't talk to myself when I am alone, but I do talk to inanimate objects when alone, so it probably sounds like I'm talking to myself...)