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OK!! So MASSIVE apologies for not writing a blog in oh...lets see...about 2 months! basically although we have a computer at camp its incredibly unreliable and we are only allowed on it for 10 minutes at a time - hardly enough time to write a blog. so here we go, im gonna try to update you on the past 2 months in a single blog...hahahahhaha...its gonna be tough. but to be fair the past 2 months have been so amazing they pretty much just roll into 1.
so we left off in fiji. the day i flew to LA. not much to say about that except that it was boiling hot - woohoo and i got a nice massage but unfortunately the oil she used was left on her hands when she went to massage my head and as this massage was just before i flew to LA i was left with greasy hair for about 12 hours - aaaaaaaaaa! so got to LA and jane picked us up from the airport. was very strange as we left fiji at 11pm on the 3rd june and arrived in LA on the 3rd june at 1pm thanks to the date/time barrier thing. so after arriving at Janes we headed off for a bike ride down to santa monica pier through venice beach and muscle beach. was pretty awesome as jane lives right by here. after that we went out for some awesome mexican food then went via beverley hills to hollywood and graumans chinese theatre (jane was kind enought o point out all the interesting celeb spots - ie where nicole richie was arrested for being drunk, where lindsey lohan most recently crashed her car etc etc - highly amusing!) then after arriving at graumans i found my handprints matched judy garlands identically. go figure.
the next day was a late start followed by some shopping. then saying bye to paterson and jane and catching my flight to portland. robyn picked me up in portland and i stayed with her that night before driving down to westwind with her on the 5th. it was insane to be back at westwind. it has not changed at all in 2 years and i was definately not ready to be overwhelmed by it all again. so anyway, it rained. shock horror for the oregon coast. the next 5 days was program staff training (and UC training) so us UC's (unit coordinators - basically unit supervisors) spent that time planning stuff for staff training when the rest of the staff arrivied. we had a break from the saturday afternoon until sunday morning so me, and a few others went into Lincoln city to get some food and a drink. its amazing - this year at westwind - i can legally drink - woohoo!the next morning the rest of the staff arrived. was awesome to see some of the staff from 2 years ago again as well as seeing loads of new staff. we had ten days of staff trainign after that which basically consisted of sitting in a room listening to vi watson tell us how a piece of rock she found at westwind MAY have been used by the nechesne indians who used to occupy this land, followed by some mudmucking (rolling in mud), other staf bonding activities, overnights and setting everything out for when the kids arrived. we had a 2 day break before session 1 started where pretty much all of the international staff went to portland to stay with a girl called katy (camp name tala) - oh yeah camp names are a necessity at camp. mine is bula. can u guess where that was taken from?!?!?! basically we just got to hang out have a barbecue and get some shopping done. session 1 pretty much passed in a blur. it was pretty insane. in my unit we have the youngest kids and they were all pretty insane! we had a couple of crazy campers as well as some perfectly fine ones also! but anyway, after session 1 finished we had a day break where most of us stayed at camp - going into lincoln city when necessary!
session 2 was a strange session. in the sherwood (youngest) unit we had first timers at camp and the session we have first timers only takes up 4 days of the normal 6 day session. basically the whole camp arrived on the first day except the sherwooders and then on day 3 the sherwooders arrived. so for the first 2 days i was busy organising a 'boyband' themed campfire with georgia - which was off the hook insane! and organising the all camp acticity this week with vista (themed on the labyrinth). an all camp is basically 2 hours set aside each session for the whole camp to do something together. basically the bulk of our effort was in getting the aussie lifeguard walkabout dressedas david bowie and making him emerge oput of dry ice onto a deck and play 'dance magic dance'. it was amazing. so the first timers arrived and were so cute. however, due to the problem of quite possible homesickness i basically gave everyone an insane schedule so the kids were constantly occupied with doing something. oh and we had an awesome campfire the night they arrived themed the wizard of oz. the only problem was that i was dead set on being the witch of the west and had my green face paint and was blatantly not prepared for when vega (as dorothy) emerged with a hose and doused me down with water. hmm. was an awesome session. a pretty big highlight was at the beginning of the session when me and knuckles ( the other english person) had an interest group called 'an english extravaganza' where we made scones with the kids, taught them about england and drank tea and played british bulldog. oh and painted our faces again. awesome.
after session 2 was the beginning of july - hence the 4th july - basically meaning rodeo time! woohoo! loads of us crowded around robins house and went swimming in her friends lake and then over to st paul for the st paul rodeo which was amazing. and i could get in the beer tent so me, kharma (real name isabel) and flof (real name roelof - hes from the netherlands or somewhere!) headed in there. and then went off to buy some aviator sunglasses and was informed i could have them for free if i kept talking - i love having a british accent sometimes! so after the amazingness that was the rodeo we went on some of the rides - bad idea after drinking beer. we all went on this ride which twizzles you round and round extremely fast and on your side. i was sharing a seat thing with gog (real name sioned - from wales) and i basically spent the whole time screaming 'IM GONNA DIE!!!!!!!' while she spent the whole time laughing at me. hmm.
so session 3 was full on insane. i had to write my staffs evals and due to loads of stuff going on i pretty much didnt have a break that whole week and it was full on insane. full stop. during the break between session 3 and mother child camp loads of us stayed at camp basically sunbathing etc. unfortunately, when i last suntanned was when i was in fiji and there i could put on factor 15 in the morning and would not burn for the entire day. so i thought i would still be able to do that - it didnt occur to me that it was mid july and it had been a month and a half since i was last tanning so i put factor 15 on at 10:30am and at 5pm i got off the beach, looked in the shower and realised i was resembling a REALLY red lobster. all over. i put a skirt on that night and you could feel the heat radiating from my butt through the skirt. it was insane. i aloe vera'd it but it took a week to get rid of and some of it even decided to have a bit of a blisterey peeling moment. boo. so mo cho 1 went well. i spent most of the time starting off gimp keyrings in the art palace or helping out on the challenge course!
after mocho 1 me, eire (real name laura - from ireland), knuckles, gog, rainbow (real name katya - from slovenia), cat (real name katherine - from australia) went up to seattle with rowan (real name anna) to stay at her house there. it was awesome. the first day when we did our drive up there was my birthday and it poured with rain. boo. all was fine though. her parents made us this awesome prawn pasta dish for dinner and we had some wine and it was a pretty chilled birthday. the next day we explored some of seattle. however, no sooner had we left the tourist information place when katya fell and sprained her ankle so we had to find her a medical place (which tried to charge an insane amount) so we got her back to rowans instead so she could see the doctors they use. after katya left, the rest of us went up the space needle to view seattle then went to the EMP and did an awesome rendition of 'i love rock and roll'. sweet.
the next day i left everyone as they went downtown and i went and got a much needed haircut. met them downtown later and went to pike place market then down to the pier for some food before finding a sport shop and spending an insane amount of money on a much needed seattle seahawks jersey thing. it was much needed. its amazing. me and knuckles split off from everyone else and headed to the university district (my bag broke in an attempt to catch the bus) meeting everyone there later. met some awesome people who were so helpful in helping us find everywhere. i called up the flight people and changed my flight home (its set i now fly home on the 12th september so expect me in the UK on the 13th) and then sat at this coffee shop for the evening as raina rose had a gig there. raina is pretty much a legend at westwind. she used to be a counsellor here and has now gone on to bigger and better things. after seeing raina we headed back to rowans and attempted sleep (well cat and i stayed up for ages trying to stop laughing at james (knuckles) while he talked in his sleep. a lot. and then tried to stop reminding oursleves of the mental image of james falling asleep in the car up to seattle and drooling all over himself. so the next morning we drove over to freemont district and got me a new bag. we then drove downtown and to the pier and saw my parents as they got off the victoria clipper. i was SO excited im not even kiddiing. i think i remember my parents first comments - mom: 'wow hannah youre so brown!', dad: 'i see you havent chucked those sandals yet. they must smell'. my dad is so nice and was obviously so thrilled to see me. so i hung out with them the rest of the day. basicallywe went to pike place market then my dad went off to pioneer square and my mom and i raided american eagle - no joke. i literally tried on everything in store. we then went off for food and the next day went back to rowans, picked up james and headed down to mt st helens (me and james werent much company though as we were busy reading harry potter 7! wooooo!) stayed at the awesomely cute place on a lake in this little cabin - so awesome. ate at the old school diner place which was again awesome then went back to the cabin and had wine and smores. mmmmm. im so american now with my smores. arg. the next day we drove back to camp and hiked my parents in so they could see around camp. unfortunately it was pooey weather and was doing its oregon coast misty rain thing which kinda ruined it. especailly as it hasnt been like that since. its been full on sunshine. boo. so they saw camp then i headed to lincoln city with them, ate food and stayed there before coming into camp for a 7:30am start last tuesday. boo. was really pooey to have to say bye to the parents after 3 days but oh well.
so session 4 was AMAZING! full on best session ever. sherwood basically rocked. plus we had loads of extra stafff so i was able to give people more time off which was awesome. oh and sherwood dominated mudmucking this session. there is usually always a domination of sherwood in mucmucking but this mudmucking session was epic. all staff were covered in mud. all the male staff literally dunked their whole heads in the stuff. i was named muddiest UC for the second week in a row and all the other staff got muddiest something. was amazing. there was also a big crisis this week called the extinction of the bowling trophy. basically to summarise, there was a big brawl over the trophy resulting in it being ripped apart. not only that but the staff involved in the brawl had cut their hands, had swollen arms everything. it was insane. and needless to say ad staff were not impressed. nor was i as it was right by sherwood and i was SO not up foir having to deal with all of the sherwood unit being awoken by this. luckily they werent woken though. but it was a big drama. so bowling is now over. boo. there was a lot of other issues this week. we had a horse that had to be put down and a couple of staff left us this week which sucks but oh well. so that session finished tuesday afternoon and most people drove to portland for the 2 1/2 day break. i wasnt sure what i wanted to to do so drove to portland and stayed with taiga (real name emily) and here family on tuesday night then went to do some shopping (got me some leg warmers - essentials! and met up with vista (real name jessica) and drove back to camp with her - not before stopping for sushi and then at voodoo doughnut - on patersons orders i was not to leave portland without going there and i have to say it is insane. i got two doughnute - one basically just to try and one to actually eat. the one to try was the maple with bacon doughnut - it had to be done - then thrown in the bin as its absolutely foul. but the oreo and peanut butter one of pretty amazing. its gotta be said. so we drove back to camp. we decided to go via mcmenimins in lincoln city and were just driving up the ramp to the parking lot when jessicas car stops. we look at the bonnet and theres smoke. the car has overheaded. aaaaa!so we call dirk (camp name boggle!) and get him to arrive. they tell me im gonna steer while they push. ha. so i try and we start rolling backwards and i cant get the thing in park. but luckily get it just intime before i pin boggle between vistas car and his. motto of the day - dont put hannah in a car and tell her to go - because im not very good at just knowing how all cars work. there was an extra button thing i needed to press to get the stick to move from neutral to park and i didnt realise. all was fine though - dont worry mum! so basically dirk ad to push jessicas car up the ramp with his car then we had to push it actually into a parking space.so we needed a drink after this. jess is now in lincoln city trying to sort out her car atm. today has just been a lazxy day. woke up late. watched little miss sunshine then harry potter. its pretty cloudy at camp today so theres no sunbathing or anything. may head into lincoln city later. not sure. oh well! session 5 of camp starts tomorrow which will be insane. wooooo another 8 day session! if its like session 4 i will be happy.
so that was my BASIC update. hopefully i will be able to get another one in at least before i head home. probably one before camp finishes and one on my travels after camp. cant believe its only a month and 10 days before im home -aaaaaaaaa! hope all is well!
h xoxo
p.s. sorry bout photos but i cant upload onto this computer so im probably gonna upload when i get to the UK or something. see u all soon though!
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