It’s now halfway through the third session and I’m on time off again. This has been the most challenging session yet, the other night when asked how I was at the unit meeting the only note made was ‘session 3′. It’s not that it’s suddenly horrible or I have a bunch of monster campers, it’s just that after 6 weeks camp food and a continual lack of sleep is building up.
In fact campers this session are fantastic. They’re all 13 and at the start of the session they needed a bit of work but now that we’re into the swing of things they are all really well behaved. It’s a great age to work with. They’re old enough to be mature but young enough to still have a sense of fun and wonder. Last night ad I was returning to the site I overheard one of them exclaiming “I wish Byron was here”.
There’s still lots of firsts and records happening in this session. The other day I won my first game of Gagaball, the longest rendition of he birthday song was sung for one of the staff members and made friends with a racoon while on duty.
One of the neat things here is that there is a whole collection of resource staff who are here to run interest groups but can also be booked for cabin activity periods. A couple of days ago we had a wellness cap where we did some meditation which was relaxing time the point that a few of the kids fell right asleep which just highlights the need for siesta everyday. We also had a nature cap where the nature guy left a trail consisting of paint for us to find him by. Both were a lot of fun because the guys have access to knowledge and resources that we as counsellors don’t. It’s also good as a break for us from having to take the lead. That being said one of my goals is to run more creative caps rather than booking a prearranged activity.
A question that keeps coming up from both kids and fellow counsellors is whether or not we’ve been homesick. I know some of the other counsellors have been. Personally I’m not homesick as much, there’s just things I miss. I miss being able to listen to whatever music I want, i listen to a lot of music and home an don’t have that opportunity here. I miss my guitar. I miss proper food, I want a nice steak when I get back. So I’m not homesick, i have just come to appreciate some things a bit more.
Rather than go into detail I’ll just list a few of my highlights from the last week:
* high five someone on the way down the zip line
* for asked if my sideburns are real
* made some hilarious films with my junior drama group
* made up facts about my campers for a media cap
* got told off for making squirty chicken squirt
* helped tow the broken pontoon boat with the working one
* got a massive sugar high from the resource staff’s mud-summer thank you party
Which leads me to now. I’m writing this from one of the overnight sites as I’m still on time off until tonight’s flagpole. On Friday night we went into Hyannis again, had dinner at a pub which has a meter high pitcher thing full of beer. Yesterday was the ride an surf trip. The group that did it the day before went the wrong way and didn’t hand back the tool needed to adjust the seats. So we asked for directions before setting off with a seat that was too low. The scenery was great, it was amazing that just minutes from the middle of town we’re in pristine condition bush. The surfing lesson was pretty neat too. The beaches aren’t like those at home broadband it was still very nice despite being a bit busy.
Last night I returned to camp to get a full nights rest and it’s really paid off. Today’s plan is to just sit and read.
Now that the camp season is coming to an end I’m starting to look towards travelling at the end. Originally I was thinking of seeing what everyone else is doing but it seems that no one really had a plan yet so I may a well just organise my own itinerary so I know that I’ll see what I want to see, if other people are in the same area then I’ll catch up, if not then oh well. At the moment my rough plan is to spend another couple of days in Boston before heading to Washington DC an working my way back to New York. I hope to have everything booked in he next week or so.
I’m going to grab my kindle now so I’ll leave you with this picture from where I’m sitting.
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