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Well hey there guys. Its been a month and yes I'm really sorry this has taken so long. It is chaos here at camp and the only time I get off is just enough time to read the emails I receive but not enough to reply.
Well so much has happened. We started off by flying into Los Angeles and were welcomed by Jamies friend who works for Air NZ in LA. We stayed with her just 15 mins from the Airport. She was living with five kiwis all over here working for Air NZ as well. She showed us some sights including Santa Monica beach. We also bowed down to the commercial tourism and packed in a full day tour of LA, Hollywood and Downtown. Got to check outa few things like Universal studios and sunset boulevard. Also saw Venice Beach and Kodak theatre where Oscars are held. Walked the hall of fame and saw all the names.
I'm absolutely loving the meals over here. We went out for dinner most nights in LA. Meals come in size huge or massive with unlimited soda refills. Tipping and taxes was something to get my head around but is pretty sorted now. Virginia taxes are not included in the retail prices so when you see the price of anything you have to mentally add on about 5%, which I think is a ridiculous way to operate. Anyway on the 30th May we flew American Airlines from LA to Washington DC. Was a bit of a mere of a flight but eventually got there. We taxied all the way down to th end of LA runway before being told we had to turn around and go back for more cargo. We were delayed an hour. Taxying LA's runways are not a small feat.
We arrived into Washington and were met by Mike from Camp Friendship and began the couple of hour drive back to camp which turned into all day as we stopped for another huge meal and a trip to Wal-Mart. Apparently its quite a small Wal-Mart but for those who know the Blenheim Road Warehouse then its about one and a half times the size of that. It was a monster of a place and sold everything!!!! Some of them even have maccas and subway inside them. Why stop shopping to eat when you can eat and shop at the same time!! Very American haha.
So we did actually make it to camp, found our cabin and started t settle in. The camp is split up into sections. There are two senior villages (13-16 year old kids) a junior boys and junior girls villages (8-12 year olds), mini camp (5-8 yr olds), then there are the activity areas eg Lake, Pool, Tennis Courts, High Ropes, Volleyball courts, soccer field, archery and shooting range etc. Its all based around the dining hall and flag ground.All counselors arrived at the end of May the same as me and Jamie. We all piled into one village and got to know each other. The first week was life guard training and first aid. The second week was when a lot of the American counselors arrived. We got into serious staff training then where we learnt a lot of the things about dealing with children and how to go about not getting sued. Life over here is all about avoiding that potentially big problem!!
After nearly being frightened into getting on the plane out of here we carried on and got into some specialist training. I was chosen to do Canoe certification. That took three days which carried me through to the actual start of camp but not before a good night on the town with all the others where we created havoc with our international accents. Small town ameria is fantastically patriotic where all of the locals come out on a Friday night for a knees up, it was brilliant.
The 15th June bought the first wave of kds. All of the counselors were split up and moved into our separate villages. I'm in Senior Village 2 (definitely the place to be in camp) We have couches and table tennis tables muahaha. We had 20 kids come in the first week and started putting our training into practice. They were fantastic kids, most of whome were staying for two week sessions so this weekend will be sad when they all go home. Saturday is leaving day and Sunday is the opening day where new kids arrive. We can fit up to 56 kids in our village. There are 7 guy counselors and 5 girl counselors in my village and we have all become a very tight knit bunch. Jamie was employed here originally for Challenge which is designed to take kids out on trips rafting and rock climbing etc for a week at a time( she did that last year here as well) but the equetrian centre director went home sick so Jamie got offered that. She is now looking after About 20 counsellors and 60 girls who are there to learn to ride horses in a flash barn, stables and riding grounds, and she gets here own cabing with air conditioning.
The temperature has been up near 100 degress Fahrenheit a lot of the time which I think is near 40 celcius and so sos o humid. Every second day it pours down about 4pm with thunder and lightening storms, CRAZY!!! So we sometime are showering three to four times a day just because everyone is sweating so much!
I have also been qualified in high ropes so now can instruct that safely which is so much fun. Awesome to see the kids break through th fear barrier and accomplish something. Me and some of the buys have a little challenge with the climbing tower and who can do it the fastest. I managed in 36 seconds woohoo which is the second fastest this year.
This week (22 - 27 Jun) has been the second week of campers but my first proper week of activity teaching as last week was my high ropes training. We change schedules every week as to what we are teaching. This week I've been teaching soccer, canoeing and kayaking and it has been absolutely fantastic to see kids loving what they are doing and gaining new skills especially with kayaking when noone wants to go upside down then when I help them and they do it they love it and can't stop smiling. That is by far the best part of camp. We get every Saturday off from 12pm through to 12pm Sunday. They usually arrange a trip somewhere. Last week was Kings Dominion, a massive theme park mixed with a water park. They have the longest roller coaster in the world at 4500 feet long, it is a monster and an awesome ride. We spent al day there and still only saw a third of the park. I think there is another trip there later in the summer so we'll have to try and conquer the rest then.
My days exist of breakfast, flag raising and pledge of allegience then first three activities (al 50 mins each) then village time where our kids get to chill out and tidy their cabins. Inspections are during this time. We then go for lunch at 1pm and then up to snack bar until 3pm where the kids can chill and buy an icecream or drink. We then have two activities until 5pm when we go for a swim in either the lake or pool. As I'm now a lifeguard I sometimes have to be on duty doing that for 15 mins before I can swim. Then its dinner time, evening activity then maybe a camp fire before bed. Camp fire isfantastic and smores are the big thing over here. Smores consist of cooked marshmallows on the fire mushed between to gran crackers with a slab hersheys chocolate in the middle. It is definitely an aquired taste as it is so sweet but the kids love them!!!
I'm still struggling to get my head around the fact that I'm am getting paid to teach kids to play sport and chill out by a camp fire every night with a guitar. It is so amazing. We are surrounded by trees half an hour from anywhere.I get an hour free off every day hence the reason this has taken so long to write. This itself has taken three days to write. The food definitely took getting used to with cereal named captain crunch and there are a lot of froot loops and cherrios haha. Highly sugary but we've definitely got used to them. We always joke about being released back into normal society and how hard it is going to be as we have ll turned crazy. The kids all think we are mental because we are always singing and doing some stupid dances. Just the ther day we were in line singing camp songs for the roller coaster rides. A lot of weird frowns came our way from the locals. With songs like the Jigga, The camp friendship song and rockin my soul then there is no wonder why they look at us weird. I love it!!!! Everything is very cheap over here. Food is cheap. It took a lot of getting used to being on the wrong side of the road but now its normal. Don't get to see Jamie much but manage to make time once or twice a week where we get to have a catch up and organize our plans for when we move to the UK. We have made a lot of friends from all over the world and definitely plan to go and visit a lot of them.
We as this email comes to an end I'm sitting in the sun getting nice and tanned about to go for a swim in the lake.
Hopefully I can write more often but time is just so limited.
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