Hi y'all!

Right, I decided to set up this online blog so that anyone who wanted to catch up on what I was doing at Camp America this summer can just login and have a nosy! I'm gonna try and keep it updated as much as poss, but my few days at camp already have shown me how little spare time I'll probably have! So here goes…

I flew in via a direct flight from London to Detroit on an 8.5 hour flight, accompanied by a really cute little old Japanese man who tucked me in when I tried to sleep and watched movies with me! Once I'd picked up my (MASSIVE) rucksack from the baggage claim in Detroit, I had an awesome greeting from a couple of guys waving a huge handmade Tamarack Camp sign for me in the arrivals area! They took me to the bus where I met about 8 other internationals from Australia and the UK, to be taken on the hour journey to camp via downtown Detroit for dinner - Maccy D's providing a somewhat typical welcome to America! As a Boating and Canoeing Instructor, the other international waterfront staff and I arrived a week earlier than the rest of the staff to complete our lifeguard training, and the other newbies and I were shown around camp by some of the returnees. During this week, I'm staying in a cabin with a group of around 8 girls, 2 of us from the UK and the rest from Australia or America, most of them to be camp lifeguards and a couple to be water-ski instructors - all of whom I already feel like I've known for months, not just a few days!

I think I might quickly try to explain a bit more about the camp and what it's all about:

First of all, the location is absolutely beautiful, embedded between 2 lakes and surrounded by towering pine trees. It offers everything from waterskiing, to horse-riding, to high-ropes, to arts and crafts! The biggest lake is considered the heart of the camp, where most of the activity takes place and where I'll be based each day, and has 2 large sandy beaches on each side. There are 2 main villages at each beach, one for senior kids (10-14) and one for junior (7-9), each split according to gender into smaller villages. Each one is joined by winding dirt tracks through the forest, and it's so quiet and peaceful - something we'll have to enjoy while we can before the kids arrive and all notion of sleep disappears! Each village is made up of a group of wooden cabins which are pretty basic, and I've just found out I'm staying in the Fishman village, for the younger girl, which I'm happy about!

As a Jewish camp, the camp tries to uphold some of the traditions and ceremonies through their inclusion into the day schedule, for example, before breakfast, lunch and dinner, everyone meets outside the dining hall beneath the flagpoles for "Degal", where the Israeli national anthem is sang and the flags are raised or lowered depending on the time of day (the Americans take patriotism pretty seriously!). Everyone then cheers for their camp village and heads into the canteen, where a Jewish prayer is sang before and after eating (along with other camp songs J ) - I'm still learning the words to but I've got the hand actions down! Each week, Friday evening to Saturday evening is considered to be their period of rest, "Shabbat", so we international staff get taken out to a local hostel or hotel to spend the night in the city, or go on organised trips, as we don't get paid for this time. As it's Saturday night, we just finished "Hav Dallah", a closing of the week and celebration of the start of the new week, with a ceremony sitting on the beach watching the sun go down. The camp religious director and some of the other senior staff were there to sing songs with us and hold candles, whilst the music director played the guitar - it felt so magical and peaceful!

Despite it being a Jewish camp, though, none of the religious activity is forced upon us, and it actually almost feel like an honour to be involved in it - everyone respects it and it's mega relaxed.

Anyway, the weather has been AMAZING, mega sunny and warm, so we headed down to the beach in the early evening to play cards and game, before all heading in for an early night - was feeling pretty jetlagged from the flight! I did feel a bit uncomfortable being around so many big personalities, but we girls in my cabin seemed to click.

We woke up early to get to the Degal just before breakfast at 8:30am, and as it was a day for us to acclimatise to the time difference and wait for other staff to arrive, we spent the morning swimming in the lake and messing around with the huge inflatables. Apparently there are also a load of little snapper turtles living in the lake, which I really want to see! We generally just hung around exploring the camp (it's HUGE), playing basketball and meeting everyone, before having an early night before our 3 day lifeguard course began…

In the morning we met Jeff and Ryan, our lifeguard instructors, who instantly took us out to the lake for a swim test, i.e., swimming out to middle of the lake and back, then treading water without hands for 5 mins - reeally hard, especially when your feet are constantly tangling in the reeds and weed! (Punishments for cheating involved another group swim out to the middle of the lake again, which, of course, we had to do because of a certain 2 guys holding onto the float…The rest of the day was spent alternating between watching training videos and performing the exercises in the lake, being assessed along the way.

Also, SAW MY FIRST CHIPMUNK EVER!

The next day was spent learning CPR and how to use spinal boards etc - pretty intense and tough, though luckily the weather's still amazing! - before being take out to Wal-Mart to get supplies on a huge green bus (think typical USA yellow school bus!) to buy cheap linen and toiletries, etc. The boys organised a bonfire in the evening, with everyone gathered around roasting marshmallows and getting to know each other more.

Today we all took our CPR test (involving baby dummies being unexpectedly thrust in your face requiring resuscitation, and other staff yelling at you to distract you from rescuing a choking victim!), and a written exam to pass the lifeguarding course, and I am now officially an American Red Cross lifeguard, woop woop! We then had the LOVELY task of dredging the lake at the senior beach, i.e., digging up all of the weed and sludge from the bottom of the lake which STANK! Of course this led to a massive mud fight, before we realised that those of us who'd been completely mobbed were covered head to toe with tiny flesh-coloured leeches! Spent aages picking them all off one by one, so gross!! This evening was then spent recovering from the lake swims and lifeguarding, teaching some of the boys to play piano - completely exhausted.

Tomorrow we'll get taken out of camp into the city for a bit before my specific boating and canoeing training begins next week, and all of the rest of the staff arrive. Then it'll just be the kids to arrive - and camp (chaos) will officially begin…!