new blog

these are all the same as i put on my facebook from my travels of 2011 but i figured id make a proper blog.

its the end of the world as we know it, and i feel fine

Hey world,

I had decided not to write about chinese family camp but given im currently waiting for a hurricane to hit new york I figured it would be a good way to fill in some time.

CFC starts at the same time as everyone who isn’t doing cfc leaves… which was everyone but about 14 people. This sucks cause now the people we have spent the last 2+months with everyday are going away and a lot of them we will never see again. Sadly being part of the cfc staff we were so busy that we never got to say goodbye to the bus with a lot of people in on cause we were moving chinese families in. but this is not a violins playing tissues out sad story. Its cfc!! We had a really good crew who stayed along with good people running the show for us so it was definitely something to look forward to!

CFC did get off to a terrible start though but it wasn’t due to anything anyone did. It was the weather. Rain rain and more of it destroyed any of the plans we had for the first few days. Working in it wasn’t fun either moving people in. and it was most likely due to all of this I started to feel like I was getting a cold. But thanks to a good supply of golf carts and plenty of staff everyone was moved in with minimal hassle. Night one for us is just intros so we go to where all the kids are with the junior leaders and introduce ourselves and then do the same with the adults. After that a few of us went to supervise a dodgeball game going on with the kids but once that was done our jobs are done and its easy as that day 1 is over.

The CFC world and camp world are very very different. All the staff live together, and we do not have to work anywhere near as hard cause we have a couple of hours work here then we have a few hours off and then on again… so when its broken up nicely like that its not as full on. Like I said earlier the weather was shocking early on so this forced a lot of changes.

Working on waterfront is always fun but when its raining as much as it was even that closes. So it was basketball and ping pong for much of the time cause they were indoors. Thankfully the rain didn’t last! Some might claim cause they did a sun dance… im still unsure about that… but regardless the rain did stop and normal activities go under way. Now when I say normal. I use that term very loosely… CFC is basically a week long Red and grey. But for them it was orange vs blue. I was cheering for orange cause I like that nothing rhymes with it. They did all sorts of stuff like an athletics day which had a great event known as dizzy dragons… just get a baseball bat point it at the ground, put your head on it and spin really fast then run.. funny funny funny. There was also a swim meet where a person was all by themselves in a race and they got disqualified for diving in and coming up in a different lane, family fun day which was just all kinds of unusual with balancing races, and all kinds of relays going on. My favorite was the tug of war. We had greylock vs cfc in tug of war.. little did they know we hooked a cable onto the end of the rope to quad bike… so yeah we won round 1 of that. Round 2 we said we would do it fair.. as it turns out they did not do it fair and as soon as it started had about 20 people to our 12… so we lost sadly… round 3 was fair – at least from our end I don’t know about them.. but we won that one so that was one for the good guys :D.

One thing I had been warned about but still couldn’t believe was how much they love boating and sailing!  It was non stop! And they all seem to think they are very good when some were.. well not so very good. James, who was head of sailing, had to go and save a few of them.. or a lot of them but who was counting.

But no matter what the weather was or what they were doing everyone there was loving it the whole week long… or at least from what I could see. And that’s pretty impressive given how much things were changed the rain keeping people inside for a few of the days.

It all ends with the talent show that we went to, but thankfully don’t participate in, where there is a tshirt exchange so we get CFC shirts and they get greylock ones. By the end of the week though the starting to feel sick had caught up and I was sick. I was going to new york and I had a cold that I was very unhappy with! My week in new york has mostly been filled with me relaxing trying to get better. And so far its working! I still have an annoying cough and a little bit of a nose issue going on but its well on its way out and I can function like a normal human being again without feeling like ill die. Although the idea of a hurricane expected to be here in the early hours of tomorrow has certainly halted my celebration for my new found health. Especially when the idea of it threatening my flight to England comes into play. At the moment it is suppose to be well gone by Sunday night… that would be very good cause I fly out Monday night so hopefully by then they will have sorted everything out! After the adventure that was getting here with flights getting delayed and missed and running around everywhere, for those who have forgotten or at new to the program go back to my first post of this trip and it will fill you in, I really don’t want any issues with this next lot!! 

i dont know yet if ill write anything about england.. probably not.. but for now thats all from me. take care

the final count down

Hey world!

The last couple of days are always the strangest. The kids are excited cause its almost time to go home but also sad cause they will miss the counselors and its much the same for us. Except it seems all the tiredness that we push to the side bombards us in the final days cause we know we are so close.

A couple of nights ago was banquet. Its when we get dressed up – or as dressed up as camp people can get – and have a nice dinner at camp. Presentations are made to campers who are chosen as basically camper of the summer due to their attitude and how they are with others along with jackets to all those who are in their 5th year and 10th year. It also features the summer of 2011 slide show, which reminds us of all we have done and what we will miss from camp. Now while I enjoy any excuse to suit up – and lets face it im very good at it – that would be a bit much in this case. So jeans and shirt wins out and the camera is going non stop to make sure pictures are taken with lots of peoples. The chiefs, which are my kids from last year were very upset after the slide show and lots of crying was going on.. which doesn’t bode well given it’s the next night that is usually the one where people cry cause its our last night before kids go home. And theres a big farewell and candles… oh yeah they want us to cry!... but ill save that for now… after the slide show and people started disappearing there was no leaving for me and james cause we wanted to be with the chiefs, our kids from last year. And given the crying at the idea of leaving that was going on i think they were okay with it. Even after we did leave I think it was about an hour or so before we actually got to bed. I had boys thanking me for being there for them and taking care of them and begging me to come back next year.. it was all very full on… but it was nothing compared to the next night.

At the end of every summer we have an awards night for the kids where every department gives out awards. The swim one goes forever because every camper gets a card to say what level they passed up till plus the awards. But after that we have a cookout – it’s a bbq I don’t see why they change the name of it – and then its off to wish night… wish night is designed as a chance for everyone to say goodbye and as each division casts off their candle into the lake they make a wish and all this other stuff.. when it comes right down to it its all about the goodbyes. This was another night surrounded by chiefs although there was 1 or 2 braves around also. After the main part of the night hill camp and the braves go back to their bunks and chiefs go to a camp fire to reflect on the year and talk about the division and all that kind of stuff… no guesses for where me and james ended up. So we were at the fire and crying kids were all over the place. I think 3 were clinging to james and I had 2 sometimes 3 on me. At one stage of the night I had to hold one up cause he was that upset he just couldn’t stand anymore. I wish I was making some of this up but no they were just that upset. This went on for a long time and I wont go into it all but finally said our goodbyes and went back to brave row. Only some of them were upset. But I said goodbye to the braves I felt I had to and any others that were around so didn’t ignore them completely.

But when all is said and done camp was about to end, or at least camp as we know it. Some of the boys stay for father son weekend which has their dads join them and do camp activities for the weekend but that’s a whole new world cause the kids are now with their parents. But its still nice when they come chat to us given how rare it is cause they are so busy. So Saturday morning most of them went home. Tomorrow the rest go home.. and then chinese family camp starts… from what ive been told that is going to blow my mind with weirdness so that’s something to look forward to.

But that’s all from me for now.

Take care

holiday road

hey world...

The exhaustion level was high at the end of all the olympics with late nights sorting out songs and shopping for crazy stuff for outfits combined with early mornings to get everything ready and plan how we were going to tackle the day. Imagine how excited I was to learn there was going to be a late wake up the next day! :D… imagine my reaction when the kids in my bunk woke me up wondering why they hadn’t been woken up at the proper time… yes… it happened… thankfully we had 2 late wake ups and the second one went much more to plan then the first. These 2 days were little help though when the 3rd day after olympics was campers day out.. which for the braves and chiefs (10 and 11 year olds) meant a day out to 6 flags new england. Now I am in a situation of been there done that BUT the group of kids I was with, 3 of them in total, had chosen water park area and games arcade as their main selection.. that is the part I didn’t end up going to! Winner!! :D… the 3 kids I was with are great boys and I was so happy to be with that cause I knew there was going to be no issues right from the outset. I joined forces with james and put all our kids together so we had 7 over all and his were really good much like mine and ‘team Australia’ was born so there was no way it wasn’t going to be a great day.

One down side was that that one of the kids had hurt themselves the day before so couldn’t go on slides and another wanted to stay with him to make sure he was okay… but that didn’t ruin anything!... okay so first stop was off to the arcade games… which started at one of those water gun games where they try for the big stuffed animals. It was very funny to see the kids choosing pink fluffy unicorns and for anyone who has seen the movie ‘despicable me’ im sure you could understand why… the boy who hurt himself won an endless amount of tickets so got a lot of stuff so he was happy and me and james somehow managed to keep the kids playing these little simple games for 3 hours right up till lunch!! And they loved every minute of it… after lunch and a show it was off to the water park. We convinced the kids that instead of lining up for a long time for big water slides its better to go on the smaller, but still fun, slides so they got more turns! Big win there. The crowd favourite was definitely the ‘lazy river’… sit in a tube and get pushed by the currents with little waterfalls along the way. So simple but they loved it. The 2 boys that didn’t go in the water were still happy and being the nice counsellors we are, we bought them all snow cones – yeah the size of a snowman!!!! Wtf – to say thankyou for being so good and not making us chase them like I was imagining would happen. now all down brave row is endless basketballs and stuffed creatures, including a giant chef thing from southpark that one of the boys in my bunk won and its actually bigger then him. Not long now till the kiddies go home. 

Only a few nights left.. I’ll write about those another time. Bye for now

Take care!

i throw my hands up in the air sometimes ... continued

Hey world!

I ran out of time last time so couldn’t finish sadly but now ill try to get it done! Plus ill try fill in all the stuff I forgot from the last one so yes… brace yourself.. even have a quick glance down at the rest of this thing to mentally prepare yourselves…  cause its going to be long so if you don’t get through it that’s okay but you would be missing out…

Okay so back to the olympics! There is something that I have forgotten to mention!! Each day we had a different theme for how we dressed in our team colour of red or the colours of the flag which is mostly red and a little bit of blue. For day1 we went with red tshirt, red shorts, red hats and we all had blue suspenders… ill give you a moment to go back and read the last part again but cause yes we actually wore suspenders. Although if you find that weird then strap yourselves in cause that’s nothing.. day 2 I woke up at 5:45am and by 6am all teams were together in the art department and preperations for the days ‘outfits’ were under way. As it turns out day 2 was the day where everyone was painted.. yes… painted.. as for my team we were all red with a white southern cross on the front cause that’s also on our flag and ‘Samoa’ written on our backs. That along with our red shorts with ‘the flash’ underwear on the outside made for an interesting day that’s for sure… at the end of the way we all ran into the lake which made it go all colourful like for a little while and then it was off to showers to actually try and get all the paint off. best part for us was that we were smart and bought our paint from wallmart while the others – from what I know – used the paint at the art centre. The red came straight off.. there was still plenty of paint on other people who didn’t go with this option. Yay for us.. okay enough about that I think its day 3 time…

Day 3

Day 3 was toga day!! Yep all of Samoa counsellors had togas on! And of course looked mighty fine while doing it… Day 3 started a little rough so I didn’t coach at the start of the game for the braves basketball (my division). When I did get there it wasn’t looking good being around 8 or 10 pts down. They did manage to get back to level after I finally got them to play defense but sadly they lost by 2.. which lead to crying and ‘its not fair’ and whole lot of other craziness that would have people think they were actually playing in the nba cause of the reactions they were coming out with. By this stage I couldn’t talk anyways so it took longer then it should of to make them stop. The hardest part is making people happy with even playing time when there is 12 kids and no matter how long they are on for it somehow always ends up with them claiming to have only been on for 1 or 2 minutes. But that’s the case with every division in every sport. The braves basketball was short lived with us out of it after 2 losses in a row. But that is also a good thing cause it means there is more time for them to learn our song from song and cheer. The braves knew it best cause they were the unlucky ones who didn’t get into a lot of the gold medal games or bronze games. Our chiefs were 50/50 but were fairly successful… one of which was the soccer final where they came back from 3-2 down in penalty’s and won 7-6… but these successes meant less practice time but thankfully they learn fast. However, hill camp were amazing and just kept making medal rounds so when it go to 40 mins before song and cheer they only knew the chorus. Any fear this put in us didn’t last long given they had it in 25 mins. Our next issue was they sung the song faster then the music from the song dynamite… our solution was a risky one, no music.. just let them sing it… provided they didn’t lose the rhythm it wouldn’t be an issue. While waiting for song and cheer to start there was endless chanting and excitement given most kids see song and cheer as what decides the winner of olympics – even though it doesn’t. my team went near the end and they were so good! Didn’t mess anything up and the parts they couldn’t get right in rehearsal they nailed in the show so there was lots of jumping around from us counsellors who taught them it all. As it turns out we didn’t win. Which yes sad face boo hoo but they did so well and gave it their all so was okay with it. Plus overall we had a successful olympics so its not a total loss to lose the last event.

Given the size of this note im going to put the last part into a new note.

Take care

i throw my hands up in the air sometimes

okay this could be a huge note but i am pressed for time so i'll see how it goes. i think ill write half now and finish next time im online... but ill try!

its been busy busy times for me lately. At camp it has been Olympics!! and i was a lieutenant!! now to explain to all those reading that wondering what im going on about. okay so junior side is broken up into 6 teams which are named after countries for the big end of summer competition, or colour war as alot of people call it at other camps, which is called the olympics and none of the kids know when it starts, they have olympic break out when it just suddenly begins and they all go crazy. for senior side its called red and grey sicne they are the 2 teams... just a fun fact for you there... but yes olympics was on and each division on junior side has 2 captain representatives and 6 lieutenant reps. last year i wasnt chosen much to my disliking but this year things went my way, as they seem to have alot, minus the start, with the cape cod trip and all that, so was lucky enough to be chosen.

straight away things were going well with me being sent to 'Samoa' and the other 2 lieutenants on my team were awesome! then they start announcing the kids which was great cause they are all going crazy and really excited for it. as it turns out, 2 of the kids i missed the most from last year were put in my team!!! i was so excited!! this goes on for about 2 hours while every child is individually announced and then put into a team. After the kids are all sorted each team is given their captain.. as it turns out luck was still going for me and i ended up with james who is awesome!! - and australian so how can he not be awesome..

day 1..

day one was a wake up for those in the olympics of around 6:30am i think it was. all i know is that it was early!.. us lieutenants each had a sport of choice to coach. mine was basketball, nick was american football and dans was soccer. if there was a sport that none of us knew anything about then who ever was left without their sport of choice did it. my introduction to olympics had be 'coaching' hockey... wtf... yeah.. defend defend defend and push up... thats about all they got from me.. but here is the crazy part.. we won our first game!!! it was so funny. sadly we got smashed in our second game but who cares i coached a winning hockey team!!..

the day went really well but heres the thing about olympics.. voices are not part of the deal.. voices disappear and run away and its not long till each word feels like your throat is bleeding.. amazingly its still all worth it.. but yes but lunch time day 1 i was losing the voice.. by the end of day one it was gone.. and all day 2 and 3 it was well gone!... but i'll get to that later.. as for reasons why the voice goes so fast... it is non stop chants that we make up or alter to our advantage plus calling stuff out while coaching and having just 4 people to control a 6th of junior side all combine as one giant voice killer!..

from day one though we did know what our song was going to be for song and cheer which is the biggest event of olympics and the one the kids work the hardest for. we were doing ours to 'dynamite' .. hence the title.. as soon as i was told this i had half the chorus figured out in my head within about 5 mins.. all those times of making up random stupid songs with new words was finally paying off.. best of that was that james had worked out the other half! woop woop!

day 2

this was definitely the most painful day for my throat. but it was also a winning day!.. samoa got off to a slow start when it comes to winning gold medals but this was when things changed. i coached hill camp basketball - the youngest kids - and we did not lose a game and with strong defence and 2 kids that are just amazing we never looked like losing the gold. the afternoon was filled with the swim meet which i was put in charge of and we did really really well. to be honest i was surprised cause alot of the people i know as strong swimmers we didnt have. but we did have enough to get us through it since they are all relays and had a fairly even team. so it was alot of medals and happy kids cause some of them were gold!.. during the basketball came i was trying to call stuff out to the kids and literally nothing was coming out which was sad!.. but i fought on and ended up with a sore throat which is still on going actually..

sadly my time is now up so i need to finish this next time.... next time ill do day 3 which is the last day of olympics and ill do campers day out which was to 6 flags which was today!... yay!.. hope all is good peoples!!...

take care

cause we'll have fun fun fun...

hey world!

now i know it has been a long time since my last note but i have a perfectly good reason.. a combination of laziness and lack of internet is to blame. okay so its not a perfectly good reason but at least its a honest one.

camp has been busy and exhausting lately, but even with that it has still been good! we had a mini heat spell which had mid 30s (for the Celsius world) for about 3 or 4 days in a row. while i love sunny hot summer days its not the greatest when all activities are cancelled due to heat meaning water front gets shifted into over drive and its alot of rec swims. thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day with one of them having something like 4 - 5 hours of rec swims so lifeguarding the whole time even with our cool offs between each one takes it out of you. but being the crazy person i am i still enjoyed it. apart from that things at camp are as they have been all summer with waterfront still being the place to be - of course

luck is on my side at the moment. i am one of the few that were chosen to go on a camp trip! mine is to cape cod with the 13 year olds and is a 4 day trip. so i have left the land of camp and traded it for the land of a nice bed and awesome days in cape cod instead. i think its safe to say that im perfect okay with that. weather has been nice which is a big plus cause it makes things alot easier, especially when i hear that its been raining the last 2 days at camp which we have got hardly any of, if any at all!.. right now im at the end of day 2 - actually its late enough now that im on day 3 but the sun isnt up so i dont count it - and so far it has been amazing. going to the beach, movies, marthas vineyard and out for dinner are just some of the things we have been up to so far, so definitely looking forward to what ever is in store for tomorrow! actually tonight we went to get ice cream from what was described to me as the best ice cream i will ever have.. and i must admit it was very very good... when we arrived to pick up our order we were told that just under an hour beforehand adam sandler had been there.. sadly we missed him but who cares still makes for a good story! anyways thats all from me for now. hope all is good!

take care

today i dont feel like doing anything

hey world

interesting times at camp lately. to briefly wrap up what has been going on, waterfront is awesome, kids are still kids and one of the counselors from my bunk was moved out to somewhere else and a new one replaced him which is nice but also not nice cause lost someone.

however camp life is not what i am writing about today, oh no no no... as the title suggests that was mean im doing something work like... having already had 3 days off i think its only fair they get the attention they deserve rather then me going on about camp life. last week i had my first 32.. which is called that due to the amount of hours im off duty. so i get the night off and the following day which means, and this is the fun part, i dont have to stay at camp! naturally this was taken advantage of and me and 2 mates booked a night at somewhere i forget the name of and as it turns out a 4th joined us when he was left at the pub and slept on our floor. i still think that would be an upgrade over the camp beds so its still a win. i was very impressed with myself that night. due to the copious amounts of alcohol the others had taken in i was.. and this is sadly not a joke... designated driver in america on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car and terrified of hitting a tree or oncoming cars.. but yes.. i drove!... stop laughing its true i actually did... but it wasn't so bad and we had a good night enjoying being in beds that were decent. the following day was filled with lazing around and ended with us going to the quarry cause the weather was so nice.. so while the others jumped off the cliff i opted not to much to my disliking in case i hurt my legs which as im sure most people know by now have been a bit shit lately. after 4 hours there we found ourselves on the other side of it sitting on the rocks and then a storm rolled in.. nothing quite like swimming back across a quarry with thunder going off every 10 seconds above you. but, as proven by this msg, i survived and still had a good time :D

today was day off #3 but it was only a 24. so it was off to 6 flags! anyone who doesnt know what 6 flags is... shame on you... but its a theme park with amazing rollercoasters and, although its not this exact one, 6 flags is the theme park that was used as wally world in national lampoons vacation.. quotes were flowing throughout the day AND they played the holiday road opening song when we were in one of the ques.. loved it!.. so its was thrill rides for hours, then it was shows for a while.. which the people in the shows loved us cause being in camp mentality and not let out much to play with others we tend to go a little crazy and whatnot so we may or may not have been singing along and dancing... hem... we saw 3 shows and all had the same people in them and they came to talk to us and were waving when ever they saw us haha.. one of the shows was 'survivor live' and william, friend from camp, was selected to be in it.. so naturally cheering and going crazy followed.. but the best part is, he go through all the challenges and actually won!!... well that was it we were up and cheering. but it was good times.. and yes feel free to judge us but try being cut off from the world for weeks and then find yourself in a theme park!.. anyways that was the majority of our day. if you look up 6 flags new england just look at some of the rides they have. went on them all and the golden rule of not allowed to hang on was in forced and made it so much better!

i dont really know what we will get up to tonight. right now its relax and wind down cause its been an exhausting day. hopefully we think of something. but to date we have had 3/3 successful days off and really hoping that the next 2 are winners as well :D

take care all

wont you save me san francisco

hey world

firstly the title comes from the song playing right now and the i think part of the chorus works well but ill let you be the judge...

sorry its been so long since anyone has heard anything from me, to be fair i have written alot so far, but ive been so busy and warn out by the kids i really havent had a chance to do anything  let along get online to update people. its probably good that ive been cut off from the world actually given the week ive had, which ill try to explain to you, cause its certainly been interesting with its ups and downs but at the moment its going well so fingers crossed it stays that way.

OKAY so ill start with when we were divided up into our age groups and bunks were revealed. for all those who read my post, i was put with the braves, who is the 10 year olds, again.. at the time i was devastated since i had such an amazing time last year i was hoping to be moved up with the same kids and be with the 11s this time. sadly that didnt work out. so that lead to a rough couple of days given all i could think about was the amount of fun i wasnt going to have with those kids. i was looking forward to seeing them all again and they were happy to see me with hugs which was awesome!!... but as it turns out this didnt improve things when all the kids got here cause i got alot of them asking me if i was with them this year and then proceeded to tell me off when i said no.. so yeah.. not fun there...

accepted that i was still with the 10s but the first 2 days were raining which is terrible cause it means we are inside with them playing games and stuff which isnt the greatest cause eventually the kids get bored and admittedly so do we. as my luck would have it alot of these indoor things were done jointly with the 11 year olds. so once again the questions as to why i wasnt with them were raised. however this is not an entirely disastrous story. remember at the start i said there was ups as well as downs. one of the kids from my bunk last year may have made a single handed effort and saved everything in the space of maybe 30 seconds without even knowing it. he asked me why i wasnt with him anymore when we had me alone and i told him i tried but they still needed me with the 10 year olds - a bit of a lie on the second part but what was i suppose to say?! - but he quickly reassured me that it was okay cause we would see each other all the time and he would come and visit me all the time to have a swim.. and things have been much better since then.

my kids this year are much more... active... then last year.. or at least they make alot more noise.. alot of the time... far too much... but thing are getting better and this year, very unlike last year, i have 2 co counselors! making my job so much easier.. im sure they dont like me at the moment cause ive been a bit strict but ill ease up once they do.. its only fair.. but its too early to tell how things will really go yet.. but its looking promising which is nice.

as for everyone at home.. from what im hearing people are thinking i have lost my leg.. this is not true.. i hurt my knee which is fact.. i am not however, a cripple... so please stop thinking that if you are cause im fine. this is not like knee issues of years past im not humpty dumpty who cant be put back together again.

im going to stop for now cause i feel as though ive writen alot and although it is mostly bad.. or at least feels as if its been that way.. i assure you things are going well.. i can walk and waterfront is still the palce to be!!..

take care all..

everybody just have a good time

hey world,

after the last msg of alot of complaining about cold water i thought id start with one a little more upbeat... the water is improving... i did say only a little more upbeat im not going to lie and say its fantastic cause its not there yet. what is on the up though is the weather! sorry to all those back home freezing but it has been really really nice here the last couple of days. managed to get myself a little bit of colour which is one for the win column.

Everyone at camp as been walking wounded lately after our session with 'power george' who is a trainer that puts us through a tough, but fun, training session. my legs are still tight 3 days later but slowly getting there so really hoping that sorts itself out. but the running and endurance stuff wasnt what killed us all. one of his assistants put us through about half hour to 45mins worth of muscle workouts that left everyone unable to move, so naturally we followed that up with more running. as much fun as we have doing it im really happy we only go through it once!!

The waterfront - place to be a camp - is once again going well. at the moment everyone is taking the american lifeguard course which thankfully due to me passing it last year means i dont have to do it this year because it lasts for 2 years. so its been busy trying to help out showing people what to do and slowly getting the place up and running. but it seems like good people at there so should be easy

The excitement of camp for alot of people has been our dinners with out sister camps. 2 with romaca and 1 with belviour. if i spelt either of those wrong i dont really care so just pretend i didnt. first up was us going to romaca followed by them coming to visit us the next night. both times were very entertaining and had a dance thingy at the end which resulted in alot of the guys ignoring what normal people would do and sticking with the bernie dance from weekend at bernies.. i think its fair to say they thought we were disabled. Belviour was last night and got to see friends i met last year who are back at camp which was really good. no dance thingy after that one but it was still fun.

Apart from all that its just been orientation stuff lately teaching us how to be good counselors for the kids. they tend to drag on a little but in the end it is helpful so good to stay awake through it unlike some.

Thats all i can really think of to write for now. hopefully ill have something interesting to add again next time im on

take care

...something grabs a hold of me tightly..

hey world!

amazingly the camp internet is being very kind and working today. lets hope this is a common theme so i get to tell you about the crazy, but fun, things i get up to out here.

so majority of the remaining staff have got here, still some more to come!!, so its a mission to learn peoples names but thankfully i just call everyone mate anyways so that makes life a bit easier. some people have already been renamed, such as bill who is now billbo baggins.. to the point of when we lost him in wallmart we had them announce over the speaker for billbo to come to the front of the store.

a few games of basketball have been going on lately which is good fun, i may have done something to the right knee since its a little swollen and hurts sometimes to bend but since my shoulder hasnt been and issue i was due for something else to be annoying and hurt me.

yesterday was the first time in the lake because we started setting it all up and after 4 or 5 days of terrible rainy weather the lake was... well... cold... there is many words i can use but since there is a good chance my mum and some people who arent so happy with the use of such words ill just stick with cold or maybe 'like ice' or 'freezing' would be better... but needless to say i think all 5 of us were in need of testicle retrieval operations or at least search and rescue cause it was THAT cold. and just to add to that a little bit i had a fish that was eyeing me very closely so im expecting another summer of fish trying to eat me... game on!

on the bright side - if there is such a thing after experiencing that - we got done some of what had to be done which was nice plus the freezing cold was like an ice pack for my knee. after lunch we were back in again with the rest of the staff.. naturally we lied to them and told them how nice it was in the water being all excited swimming around. i think they may have disagreed after jumping in themselves but oh well it happens im just hoping the sun that is out today and whats predicted for the rest of this week makes it a little more comfortable.

there are more people waiting to use the computers so i better be nice and let them on, but if this keeps up ill hopefully be able to get alot more msgs out.. but given last years internet.. i wouldnt be so sure..

take care

working hard for the money

hey world!

this isnt going to be the size of the last one - i dont think - or as dramatic with filled with issues so wont be nearly as exciting a read so sorry about that.

well im back at camp and very happy to be there.. the bus ride went much better then the flights. a little bit of traffic in new york is all that slowed it down. it was a really strange feeling when i finally did arrive at camp though, after months of wanting to come back and thinking it was so far away i got here and felt like id never left it was awesome!!!

the first 2 days of camp were amazing, sun out and great weather all day! even to the point we went for a swim in the lake then things took a 180 and not so good now. the 3rd night there was a huge storm. and it was right overtop of camp so any flash of lightning was followed by some of the loudest thunder about a second later... i was loving it.. but when it wakes up 30 people at 1am its not so good. but rain has been a common story lately so lets hope that doesnt last!

in true summer camp fashion friday night was karaoke night at the rig and it was.... interesting.. counselors are for the most part tone deaf going by some of the performances and i have no idea how everyone managed to get up the next morning given there was no beer left in the pub by the end of the night. we are a classy bunch. and they love us cause lets face it, a night like that would make them a killing in the till. so the night ended with drunken lectures, unrecognisable language being used where a paragraph is molded into a single word and one person being left at the pub and having to run the 5 miles back to camp. so just an average night out in the berkshires.

last night we all went bowling followed by a party at camp. never in my life have i bowled so badly.. the ball was too light and was going all over the place.. after 4 frames with a score of 15... yes... 15... i got a heavy one and ended with about 75 so recovered but was a disaster... the only save in that score was a fought back from a clear last to finish 3rd.. but thats more a reflection on their ability then mine i think. for some unknown reason a few were doing the 'bernie dance' from weekend at bernies as they walked out and the people who worked there thought we were from a special camp and asked us where oru counselors were and if we had someone to drive us home. the concern on her face was fantastic after we said we were the counselors!

well after saying this wouldnt be long it seems ive lied going by the scroll bar on this text box. so that will do me for now. hope everything is good wherever you are reading this from.

take care

i sure know where i've been..

Hey world!!

Firstly im not going to be tagging everyone in these posts… I got in trouble last year for this and im sticking with the same theory that I just add some people and it will eventually include everyone because of friends of friends… now to the story of day one…

Once again im off on my travel adventures and ‘adventure’ is the perfect word to use after the efforts involved in getting me to new york.

So after being up nice and early for my 10:10am flight out of Melbourne I got to the airport to find out that, just like last year, my flight had been delayed till 11:10.. given the mad rush that was me trying to make the connecting flight its not something I was happy to see. For anyone who read the posts I put on facebook from Melbourne airport you know what happened next.. the flight was then delayed again!!... told that they were hoping to depart at 12!!.. as with all good beginnings to stories this is not the end of it.. I ended up boarding the plane at 12:20 leaving Melbourne at approximately 12:50… so I think its fair to say not the start I was looking for. For all the nonsense in getting out of the country the flight was very smooth and didn’t any turbulence what so ever so big win on that. Also I had a child sitting behind me which is winner winner cause they have little legs which means the seat goes as far back as I want and never cried! I also found out something today… even planes have shortcuts.. or just ignore speed limits?.. but who cares the total flight time was around 1hr and 30 mins faster then it usually would have been!.. they did say they were going a shorter route but that’s insane. Sadly that put me arriving in LA at the exact time my connecting flight to new york was departing and they didn’t hold it this time. About a third of my Melbourne to LA flight was connecting so the people on that plane would have been loving the extra room.

The reason all this happened in Melbourne was explained to us by the captain just as we were pulling away from the airport… engine #4s generator stopped worked and they needed a replacement. The replacement was, of corse, located in Sydney… so it had to be flown down here, then installed, then an engine check to be done before anything could happen for me and the rest of the passengers.. great thing to hear just as we are about to take off…

Okay so far we have plane leaving late, taking a shortcut and still getting there late… the good people at Qantas were nice enough to organise all of our flight changes.. everyone was spread out over 3 or 4 different flights, 2 united and 2 delta.. thankfully I somehow ended up on the first one! – which was a delta AND got the emergency exit seat so helllooooo leg room… naturally all good things come with a downside.. the first flight out means the least time to get there.. and apparently its customary for delta people to take all the time they possibly can to check people into flights and by the end of the chat would most likely have a family history cause it took 20 mins for the 4 people infront of me to be put through and there was 3 people at the counters!.. I got to my terminal about 3 mins before they started letting people on the plane. Right now im sitting on the plane with not a lot to do. I thought it was going to be a win cause delta has inflight wireless!!.. but no its inflight pay too much money wireless.. I think not. Fingers crossed things improve from here…

_____

Things have improved!.. only I cant tell anyone they have improved yet so im hoping the family isn’t thinking I’ve died. Given the change in planes and me not being able to get onto them they have no way to track my flights. I arrived in new york around 9 and after about 45 mins at the airport my shuttle arrived to take me to the hostel. It was once again a drive through new york im surprised I survived given the speed and dodgem cars style the driver went with. But even with that, sadly I got here at 10:45 and the part with internet closes at 1030.. on the plus side the room I got put in is a single so no weird person I don’t know in here!.. I went to buy a phone but they have none left across the road and since my energy levels are on fumes at the moment im not going exploring… I am exhausted, its 11pm here now and I have to catch a bus at 9am tomorrow.. the alarm is set and I really hope it does its job!.. so yeah.. that’s my Monday june 6th taken care of.. 1 day spread out over 2.. time to sleep..

ps if any of this didnt make sense give me a break its been a long day