Hey team! I have managed to score a few hours before everyone else gets up so I can be as computery and anti-social as I like... this may sound like a bad thing but it is actually good as it means I can write the blog and email people and the like. Hooray!
First off I would like to say thank you to Grantie and Grandpa for sending me that lovely letter. I got it a few days ago and it was so nice to have that contact from home. Snail mail beats email every time! I was so stoked to get it, it is now nestled carefully amongst my books in my cabin. Thanks for the postcards too, the Canadians thought the surfing kangaroo was hilarious.
Since I last posted we have really only had one school group - the British American School, or BAS as we like to call them. They were about 30 or so kids from Mexico and their program is a little different to other schools. As they come a reasonable distance, their program is about 10 days in length and the spend a few of those days doing touristy things like sightseeing in Van, shopping in Whistler, going whitewater rafting and visiting the PNE and Metrotown. Because of this, not everyone is needed to work for the whole time, so I was off for quite alot of that week. In fact all of that week, except Tuesday when I worked with a day group. However I did manage to make myself useful, I learnt how to lube a bike chain (to go along with my mad tyre changing skillz) and I played all the camp wide games because to be honest, being chased at a full sprint through the woods by 5 15yo Mexican boys screaming in Spanish wearing a sheep costume is not my idea of work. That is just plain fun.
To make more good use of our time off Trevor invited Crumbles, Tyler, Alex and I down to his parent's house in North Van to chill out for a couple of days with some modern conveniences that I must admit I took for granted at home but have come to realise how nice they are to have. Things such as playing guitar hero on a widescreen tv, or swimming in a heated pool, or even just not having to kill the mosquito trying to drink my blood every 20 seconds. Ah the joys of civilization. We also got to do some laundry... for free!!! A big thankyou to Trev's Mum and Dad for having us stay with them for a couple of days.
Whilst at camp we had devised a list of things we needed to do while we were in the big smoke, such as going to a thrift store to get an outfit for the staff party, buying a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, getting a Moleskine notebook, trying an Orange Julius, eating something with peanuts in it, having fun (thanks Smolinski) and a bunch of other things that escape me as we actually lost the list before we even made it to Van. We also managed to go swimming in 2 different pools. The wave pool sesh was pretty epic, we played tag for like 2 hours... we looked a tad out of place, being the only people there above the age of 12. Totally worth it though. Our second pool sesh proved a bit of an eye opener for Tyler and I, we witnessed what Canadians wear when they go scuba diving.... DRY SUITS!! They were fully kitted out to the nines in booties, under suits, 9mm dry suits and hoods and stuff. They were having a training session in the pool. Tyler and I quickly realised that what we thought was cold water obviously wasn't... as our thickest suits are 3mm... man I am going to be able to surf allll day in the winter when I get back!
Our thrift store adventures proved very fruitful, Alex and I tried on about 10 of the most bizarre dresses I have ever seen. The theme for the spring staff party was Graduation so we were searching for some appropriate gear. I managed to find one that was velour, with sleeves and beads sewn on it. Priceless! At our second thrift store visit I managed to find the hat I had been wanting for some time now, all for the princely sum of $3.99 - an epic straw fedora. I feel it some how completes me. Also got a brightly coloured sports jacket that reminds me of '80s ski gear. I swear when I get back I am only shopping at thrift stores. They are ace!
We headed back to camp citied out and ready to lie on the beach and catch some Zs in the sunshine, vowing to go to bed early that night in preparation for the end of season staff party. We succeeded, bouncing out of bed after a solid 10 hours sleep, ready and raring for a morning of summer camp prep. Everyone split into work parties and we were given lists by Parky and off we went. I think one of the best jobs was taking the machetes and going to town on the edges of Boundary Trail. Nothing like hacking stuff to pieces with a giant knife. Good times.
We also had to move house. Our cosy little staff cabins are no longer home for the gappers, Alex and I. As counsellors we sleep in the back section of our kids' tent cabin, and as instructors (us gappers are usually half and half) we usually share a spare tent cabin as we are junior staff. For pre-camp however, all the girl staff (excluding the senior staff, they still keep their cabins) are in Charlie Charlie (one of the wooden kid cabins). Alex and I quickly took over the entire back section. After only having to share with one person to having to share with probably about 6 or 7 (I'm not sure yet they arrive on Monday) it is a bit of a change. But it will be super fun all bunking together so I am pretty stoked. Having to move all my stuff across the village has made me realise how much stuff I have got since I have come here. I will not be able to bring all my jumpers and shorts and things with me, not a chance. Looks like I will be sending a package of gear home. I have 9 jumpers now, I came with 2. I have purchased 3 from thrift stores, 1 from Walmart, been given 2 and I have no clue how the last one came into my possession. I also have 3 more pairs of shorts than I came with. Sooo much stuff!! Not gunna lie though, some of the most rowdy gear I have ever seen so I am super stoked.
So the Spring Staff party was last night. So much fun! We had a delicious steak dinner with amazing salads, courtesy of Marty and Sarah. There were speeches, awards given out and a slideshow. Our Valedictorian, as voted, was Crumbles. He delivered a truly hilarious speech that was exactly the reason why we all voted for him. Funniest thing I think I have ever heard in my entire life. I won the award for 'Best camp legs' (Camp legs are a phenomenon which I have gotten to know quite well over the last 9 weeks, basically your legs get super scratched up/dirty) and also the 'Up for anything award'. Pretty funny. I also got my first rope bracelet! In the camp/outdoor ed world, when people go through something quite significant like a long trip or a season working together, everyone gets a piece of identical rope which you melt on to your ankle or wrist. Now I've got to see how long I can keep mine on. There was a dude at the reunion who had worked at Summit for years, and he still had a rope that had been burnt around his ankle from when he was a camper! Sean Keast has one on his wrist from his LIT year, which was 1999. My left wrist is sort of becoming a way of storing my memories. I have my Headspace wristband, my rextape bracelet I made whilst working Crofton House, which was my very first program, an embroidery thread bracelet made by a camper called Olivia from York House and my Spring rope.
So we have nearly 2 days off before the rest of the summer staff arrive on Monday at 5pm. I'm pretty amped to meet all of them, yay new people! Smolinsk knows most of them and says they are pretty sweet so I am g'd to get to know them. I think today's plan is to chill out and head into town to get a few supplies as once summer starts we have very little time off. I will have to make an effort to keep this blog going, but with so many people sharing one very slow satellite connection, I'll just have to play it by ear.
And so Spring has finally drawn to a close, and with it 1/3 of my placement is done and dusted. Summer is a very short 7 weeks so I am sure it will fly by, so I will be making the most of it! I hope you are all loving life down under, I miss you all but I am sure Feb next year will be here before we know it. Keep safe!!
P.S. Tahnee is currently in NZ atm if you guys didn't know, she has her own travel blog (somewhat inspired by this one I like to think) You should check it out by clicking here
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
A Long time coming
I realise I have been some what neglectful of my duty to occasionally post something on this wonderful site. But you have to understand I have 24hour care of 9 kids aged 11 and 12, on my own, each week. But here I am again and I'm going to try to fill you in on the last 5 or 6 weeks...
Each week during Hector Spring school pretty much involves us doing the same activities each week. So it's really the kids that mix things up for us. But we always have such different groups each week that you hardly realise you're doing the same thing over and over again because it's jsut so different! The other week I had a group of 11 boys in my care, wow. It was a pretty crazy week but I learnt alot. One morning I was even asked from across the breakfast table whether there was goat in the toast. Yes goat. In the toast. To top things off my boys had to be up before sunrise each morning to pray. Sunrise is at 5am so alarms were set for 4.30am. After finally getting them quiet at 11pm I was awoken to 11 boys up and moving around at 1.30am in the morning as they thought it was time to go...This happened again at 3.45am and after they'd finished praying by 5, there was no going back to sleep apparently and there were yells and laughter and shouting until I threw them all out of the tipi at 7.30 to go to breakfast. A good 4 hours sleep that night. Luckily the following nights, the alarm failed to go off. Nothing to do with me I promise.
My last group of Spring (this was last week) was a group of 9 girls. They were great girls and I had a wicked feeling about the week from the word go. First activity I had with them was team building so I took them out to Hector Field and started playing some games with them. To get them all excited I decided to play the screamy runny game. Which involves just screaming and running pretty much as you may have guessed. Unfortunately one girl fell over on a rock and broke her ankle and was sent home. Brilliant...1 down, 8 to go. Even so the rest of the week was a good ending to spring, probably my best group yet!
So right now I am back on Vancouver Island and Uncle Fred and Auntie Roberta's with 2 of my friends from camp, Michael from Melbourne and Lauren from New Zealand. Fred's in Indiana bringing back a truck he just bought so Bertie's looking after us very well of course! We arrived on Vancouver Island into Victoria late last night around 11pm from Port Angeles, U.S. There was a period of time yesterday in a small town called Poulsbo that we weren't sure whether we were going to make it back to Canada but we made it!
I'll rewind briefly to the start of our 2 week break we have off between our Spring and Summer season. Last Saturday night all the staff got together and we had a wicked 80's themed night in Canmore before we all went off our seperate ways for the break. The night was so much fun and some of the costumes that came out were absolutely amazing! Pretty sure the rest of Canmore who saw us wandering the streets that night were fairly shocked. On Sunday my roadtrip crew (there are 5 of us) loaded up the Voltswagon golf with 5 massive packs and 5 of us and began our epic drive through The Rockies. Just outside of Banff we drove past a Moose! My very first Moose experience along with most of the cars occupants (including a Canadian), so we were all very excited. We were still driving at 1am in the morning having got fairly lost trying to find the house where we were staying for the night before continuing to Vancouver. This night time drive did provide us with a chance to see a Beaver waddling along the road and a raccoon. Michael preceded to chase the beaver which very quickly started spitting at him and thumping its tail on the road. This was followed quickly by michael hopping back into the car. The Canadians told him not even attempt doing the same with the raccoon.
We started our drive again the next day and drove for another 4 hours or so before reaching a town that begins with 'O' and that I can't remember at this point in time. Conveniantly right across the road from where we stopped the car was a field of cherry trees. Lauren and I ran straight to them and started to eat them straight off the trees. Soooo good and I recommend fresh cherries to everyone. We stopped right after a car being driven by the guy who obviosuly owned said cherry's gave us a fairly obvious look as he drove past. We then drove to a roadside stand and actually bought some fruit.
So the next night was spent just outside of Vancouver at Laura's house (one of my fellow roadtrippers). I should mention that we're doing a photo scavenger hunt during this break and so we're versing all the other groups from camp. We aim to win. So much of the next day in Vancouver was spent walking around in wedding dresses in Value Village. Coaxing strangers into playing games with us in a mall, doign handstands in a public sphere, asking a cashier at McDonalds for a free smile many many more. So far we've done 60 of the 130 ridiculous things to do. I'm still trying to find somewhere to donate blood and one of us needs to be seen to get arrested. unfortunately we've asked about 10 police officers if they could pose in a picture arresting us, all have said not. One did lend us their handcuffs though. We even asked the US customs officer on our way to Seattle. He told us to please try not to get arrested in the US. Good advice probably.
From Vancouver Michael, Lauren and I caught the Greyhound down to Seattle where we were staying with someone Michael's sister knew call Dagon. Such a nice guy and we had a great time in Seattle. Did a bit of shopping, mainly to make myself feel better after finidng out I only have $7 in my bank account after taking out $80. So that money was going to have to last me until I got back to Canada and was paid. Also went over to Bainbridge Island for the day which was nice and relaxing.
Deciding we needed to find the cheapest way possible to Victoria we caught a bus to downtown seattle, Ferry to Bainbridge island, a bus to Poulsbo which we got to at 1pm and then found out there were np more buses until 5pm which meant we had 4 mins to be at our connecting bus at 6.04pm in Fourcorners to get us to our next bus in Sequim so we could then get to Port Angeles to catch our 9.30pm ferry to Victoria. We were planning on the 5pm ferry but obviously that was now out of the question. The whole day was pretty hectic but eventually we made it onto the ferry. We did have a stranger buy us dinner though because he saw us counting our change to try to figure out how to feed 3 of us with very little money. Another lady working in a diner which we decided was too expensive for us offered us a place to stay. And a lady over hearing it was our first time in the US came over and gave me a hug and welcomed me. The people are just so nice in Port Angeles!
Admittedly the problems didn't fully end there. Seeing as it was now so late and we were arriving into Victoria, a fair way from Fred and Roberta's, we decided to stay with a friend who lived closer. Unfortunately she wasn't answering her phone when we hopped off the ferry so we heading hesitantly on yet another bus in her direction anyway. Thankfully we got through to her and all was good again:) The bus driver was also very close to offering us a place to stay.
Sorry to end this so suddenly but I really need to get to bed!
Will try to post more often!
Hope Perth is doing well
Alex
Each week during Hector Spring school pretty much involves us doing the same activities each week. So it's really the kids that mix things up for us. But we always have such different groups each week that you hardly realise you're doing the same thing over and over again because it's jsut so different! The other week I had a group of 11 boys in my care, wow. It was a pretty crazy week but I learnt alot. One morning I was even asked from across the breakfast table whether there was goat in the toast. Yes goat. In the toast. To top things off my boys had to be up before sunrise each morning to pray. Sunrise is at 5am so alarms were set for 4.30am. After finally getting them quiet at 11pm I was awoken to 11 boys up and moving around at 1.30am in the morning as they thought it was time to go...This happened again at 3.45am and after they'd finished praying by 5, there was no going back to sleep apparently and there were yells and laughter and shouting until I threw them all out of the tipi at 7.30 to go to breakfast. A good 4 hours sleep that night. Luckily the following nights, the alarm failed to go off. Nothing to do with me I promise.
My last group of Spring (this was last week) was a group of 9 girls. They were great girls and I had a wicked feeling about the week from the word go. First activity I had with them was team building so I took them out to Hector Field and started playing some games with them. To get them all excited I decided to play the screamy runny game. Which involves just screaming and running pretty much as you may have guessed. Unfortunately one girl fell over on a rock and broke her ankle and was sent home. Brilliant...1 down, 8 to go. Even so the rest of the week was a good ending to spring, probably my best group yet!
So right now I am back on Vancouver Island and Uncle Fred and Auntie Roberta's with 2 of my friends from camp, Michael from Melbourne and Lauren from New Zealand. Fred's in Indiana bringing back a truck he just bought so Bertie's looking after us very well of course! We arrived on Vancouver Island into Victoria late last night around 11pm from Port Angeles, U.S. There was a period of time yesterday in a small town called Poulsbo that we weren't sure whether we were going to make it back to Canada but we made it!
I'll rewind briefly to the start of our 2 week break we have off between our Spring and Summer season. Last Saturday night all the staff got together and we had a wicked 80's themed night in Canmore before we all went off our seperate ways for the break. The night was so much fun and some of the costumes that came out were absolutely amazing! Pretty sure the rest of Canmore who saw us wandering the streets that night were fairly shocked. On Sunday my roadtrip crew (there are 5 of us) loaded up the Voltswagon golf with 5 massive packs and 5 of us and began our epic drive through The Rockies. Just outside of Banff we drove past a Moose! My very first Moose experience along with most of the cars occupants (including a Canadian), so we were all very excited. We were still driving at 1am in the morning having got fairly lost trying to find the house where we were staying for the night before continuing to Vancouver. This night time drive did provide us with a chance to see a Beaver waddling along the road and a raccoon. Michael preceded to chase the beaver which very quickly started spitting at him and thumping its tail on the road. This was followed quickly by michael hopping back into the car. The Canadians told him not even attempt doing the same with the raccoon.
We started our drive again the next day and drove for another 4 hours or so before reaching a town that begins with 'O' and that I can't remember at this point in time. Conveniantly right across the road from where we stopped the car was a field of cherry trees. Lauren and I ran straight to them and started to eat them straight off the trees. Soooo good and I recommend fresh cherries to everyone. We stopped right after a car being driven by the guy who obviosuly owned said cherry's gave us a fairly obvious look as he drove past. We then drove to a roadside stand and actually bought some fruit.
So the next night was spent just outside of Vancouver at Laura's house (one of my fellow roadtrippers). I should mention that we're doing a photo scavenger hunt during this break and so we're versing all the other groups from camp. We aim to win. So much of the next day in Vancouver was spent walking around in wedding dresses in Value Village. Coaxing strangers into playing games with us in a mall, doign handstands in a public sphere, asking a cashier at McDonalds for a free smile many many more. So far we've done 60 of the 130 ridiculous things to do. I'm still trying to find somewhere to donate blood and one of us needs to be seen to get arrested. unfortunately we've asked about 10 police officers if they could pose in a picture arresting us, all have said not. One did lend us their handcuffs though. We even asked the US customs officer on our way to Seattle. He told us to please try not to get arrested in the US. Good advice probably.
From Vancouver Michael, Lauren and I caught the Greyhound down to Seattle where we were staying with someone Michael's sister knew call Dagon. Such a nice guy and we had a great time in Seattle. Did a bit of shopping, mainly to make myself feel better after finidng out I only have $7 in my bank account after taking out $80. So that money was going to have to last me until I got back to Canada and was paid. Also went over to Bainbridge Island for the day which was nice and relaxing.
Deciding we needed to find the cheapest way possible to Victoria we caught a bus to downtown seattle, Ferry to Bainbridge island, a bus to Poulsbo which we got to at 1pm and then found out there were np more buses until 5pm which meant we had 4 mins to be at our connecting bus at 6.04pm in Fourcorners to get us to our next bus in Sequim so we could then get to Port Angeles to catch our 9.30pm ferry to Victoria. We were planning on the 5pm ferry but obviously that was now out of the question. The whole day was pretty hectic but eventually we made it onto the ferry. We did have a stranger buy us dinner though because he saw us counting our change to try to figure out how to feed 3 of us with very little money. Another lady working in a diner which we decided was too expensive for us offered us a place to stay. And a lady over hearing it was our first time in the US came over and gave me a hug and welcomed me. The people are just so nice in Port Angeles!
Admittedly the problems didn't fully end there. Seeing as it was now so late and we were arriving into Victoria, a fair way from Fred and Roberta's, we decided to stay with a friend who lived closer. Unfortunately she wasn't answering her phone when we hopped off the ferry so we heading hesitantly on yet another bus in her direction anyway. Thankfully we got through to her and all was good again:) The bus driver was also very close to offering us a place to stay.
Sorry to end this so suddenly but I really need to get to bed!
Will try to post more often!
Hope Perth is doing well
Alex
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Russian Thursday
Hey team
Sorry it has been such a long time between posts. We only got like a day and a bit off last weekend as we had a group on site Saturday so I was pretty busy doing other things. However I will recap the previous week here, so get settled for a long entry.
So the Sunday after my last post we decided to be super outdoorsy and we headed in to Squamish to hike the Stawamus Chief. The Chief is a 702m high granite monolith and is world regarded as a climbing, bouldering and hiking area. Chris Sharma (this like super rowdy climbing guy) has climbed this route their called 'Dreamcatcher'. It is pretty much flat wall... I have no clue how he did it. Sean Keast (one of our staff) was so stoked he actually licked Sharma's chalk off the wall. That is how awesome Chris Sharma is. Anyhoo so hiking the Chief was so much fun. We absolutely booked it up there, like mad. It took us less than 45mins, with kids it can take 2hrs. We sorta crashed out at the top though, we were pretty knackered. Coming down was so much fun, Tyler and I were like running down, jumping off logs and sliding down sections and rocks and things. Was wicked fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the local pool in Brennan Park, messing around, swinging on ropes and diving and playing Marco Polo. They also had a spa which was awesome. Plus we got in for free since we volunteered at Relay for Life.
Monday we were super lucky and got a day off because the group wasn't coming in until Tuesday. So Alex, Jen Brown, Tyler, Crumbles and I headed into Vancouver for a day to do some shopping and veg out off site. As beautiful as camp is, it is nice to get away from it all for a day or so and just be somewhere different. I bought the rowdiest glasses ever, they are SWEET. Must get a pic of them up. The frames are rubber and bendy. Nuff said. Also got a pair of satin electric blue and highlighter green shorts from Lululemon. Oh man love that shop. Most comfortable clothes ever, like ridiculously comfortable. Insane! The shopping scene in Vancouver is very different to that of Perth. They have heaps of rowdy, brightly coloured gear and super sweet shoes. I'm going to go to Van again and get some sweet ass shoes. Tis going to be wicked.
Tuesday we got a bunch of about 40 York House girls. They were pretty cool, I did High Ropes with them, as well as Arts and Crafts. Making bracelets = good times. I have some bracelets that I am going to send home in the next couple of days. Lisa and I decided that we should make all the spring staff matching but unique embroidery thread bracelets so for the rest of the week we covertly made about 20 bracelets and handed them out to all the staff. Each one has 3 colours that we picked out specifically for each person. Lisa made mine, it is orange, green and burgundy. It's pretty sweet. I'm actually gathering together a pretty sweet set of wrist bling. I have a rextape bracelet I made when we were in Squeah running our very first program with Crofton House, I have my rubber headspace bracelet from when I worked at FGPN, I have my spring staff bracelet and I have another embroidery thread bracelet that was made for me by a student called Olivia from York House. I'm sure I will have even more by the time the end of summer rolls around.
York House left on Friday, but a West Point Grey group of Yr 12s came in for their dry grad. (Straight after graduation classes get sent somewhere as a group to hang out without alcohol. They then go home and get rooooowdy.) They stayed Friday night and Saturday so we were working on the weekend but as we had had Monday off it wasn't too bad. Plus running program for them was easy, they were chill. We didn't have to do much, they pretty much just hung out and we just let them do their thing. Did run high ropes with them on Saturday. They were actually the same age (and some of them older) as Tyler and I so we had a few cover stories. I was 19 turning 20 so I was born in '89... I think. But yeah I felt younger than them but none of them asked so I guess I looked older. Once WPG left we were free to go. We headed into town armed with a list of chores to do. Five hours later we had completed them. Items on the list included buying a chocolate and peanut butter gelato, cake mix ingredients and eating 2 two bite brownies in one go. I called them half-bite brownies because I thought they were sissy. Then the Canadians made me eat 2 in one mouthful. Bit of a struggle, nearly choked but I got there. Us Aussies are made of tougher stuff when it comes to junk food. Also took a trip to Walmart and discovered there are Coffee Crisp McFlurries. Getting one the second I go to town next. Excited!! I know Walmart is like a corporate devil that is sucking the life out of our planet, but man, it is so cheap! I bought a sweet fluro orange sweater for $10. Wicked!
This week we had a really sweet school group called Larson. They were an awesome group, so much personality. It was also fun because they didn't have any teachers with them so a few of us got to try our hand at being counsellors. It was pretty sweet, we got to change around activities instead of instructing them, and had to send them off to bed and things. It was a nice change to what we usually do. The kids were awesome. Today when I was taking a day group around the biking trail, they were all high fiving me as I rode pass. It was awesome, I really enjoyed hanging out with them.
So I am off and on over the next few days, heading down to Van for some of it, hanging around Camp, doing stuff. Will be good times. Sorry this post has sort of trailed off but I have been distracted. It happens. Anyway I hope you are all well and to make up for my lacklustre words I have included photographs:
Random shot of one of our many beach campfires
Gathered on the beach for Eddie's birthday celebration
The view from the Chief's First Peak
Me at the top of the Chief. The large body of water on the left is Howe Sound and the buildings on the right are part of Squamish, the closest town to camp.
Crumbles, Alex and Tyler in Vancouver. This shot is outside the sushi place where we missed the deadline for lunch. We went for crepes instead.
Oh and by the way, the reason for the title of this post is because today is Russian Thursday, one of our many themed days. Today we speak in russian accents for most of the day. We have other days such as One-armed Monday and Backwards Name Tuesday. Tomorrow is Facial Accessory Friday. The guys have been preparing. Shall be entertaining.
Sorry it has been such a long time between posts. We only got like a day and a bit off last weekend as we had a group on site Saturday so I was pretty busy doing other things. However I will recap the previous week here, so get settled for a long entry.
So the Sunday after my last post we decided to be super outdoorsy and we headed in to Squamish to hike the Stawamus Chief. The Chief is a 702m high granite monolith and is world regarded as a climbing, bouldering and hiking area. Chris Sharma (this like super rowdy climbing guy) has climbed this route their called 'Dreamcatcher'. It is pretty much flat wall... I have no clue how he did it. Sean Keast (one of our staff) was so stoked he actually licked Sharma's chalk off the wall. That is how awesome Chris Sharma is. Anyhoo so hiking the Chief was so much fun. We absolutely booked it up there, like mad. It took us less than 45mins, with kids it can take 2hrs. We sorta crashed out at the top though, we were pretty knackered. Coming down was so much fun, Tyler and I were like running down, jumping off logs and sliding down sections and rocks and things. Was wicked fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the local pool in Brennan Park, messing around, swinging on ropes and diving and playing Marco Polo. They also had a spa which was awesome. Plus we got in for free since we volunteered at Relay for Life.
Monday we were super lucky and got a day off because the group wasn't coming in until Tuesday. So Alex, Jen Brown, Tyler, Crumbles and I headed into Vancouver for a day to do some shopping and veg out off site. As beautiful as camp is, it is nice to get away from it all for a day or so and just be somewhere different. I bought the rowdiest glasses ever, they are SWEET. Must get a pic of them up. The frames are rubber and bendy. Nuff said. Also got a pair of satin electric blue and highlighter green shorts from Lululemon. Oh man love that shop. Most comfortable clothes ever, like ridiculously comfortable. Insane! The shopping scene in Vancouver is very different to that of Perth. They have heaps of rowdy, brightly coloured gear and super sweet shoes. I'm going to go to Van again and get some sweet ass shoes. Tis going to be wicked.
Tuesday we got a bunch of about 40 York House girls. They were pretty cool, I did High Ropes with them, as well as Arts and Crafts. Making bracelets = good times. I have some bracelets that I am going to send home in the next couple of days. Lisa and I decided that we should make all the spring staff matching but unique embroidery thread bracelets so for the rest of the week we covertly made about 20 bracelets and handed them out to all the staff. Each one has 3 colours that we picked out specifically for each person. Lisa made mine, it is orange, green and burgundy. It's pretty sweet. I'm actually gathering together a pretty sweet set of wrist bling. I have a rextape bracelet I made when we were in Squeah running our very first program with Crofton House, I have my rubber headspace bracelet from when I worked at FGPN, I have my spring staff bracelet and I have another embroidery thread bracelet that was made for me by a student called Olivia from York House. I'm sure I will have even more by the time the end of summer rolls around.
York House left on Friday, but a West Point Grey group of Yr 12s came in for their dry grad. (Straight after graduation classes get sent somewhere as a group to hang out without alcohol. They then go home and get rooooowdy.) They stayed Friday night and Saturday so we were working on the weekend but as we had had Monday off it wasn't too bad. Plus running program for them was easy, they were chill. We didn't have to do much, they pretty much just hung out and we just let them do their thing. Did run high ropes with them on Saturday. They were actually the same age (and some of them older) as Tyler and I so we had a few cover stories. I was 19 turning 20 so I was born in '89... I think. But yeah I felt younger than them but none of them asked so I guess I looked older. Once WPG left we were free to go. We headed into town armed with a list of chores to do. Five hours later we had completed them. Items on the list included buying a chocolate and peanut butter gelato, cake mix ingredients and eating 2 two bite brownies in one go. I called them half-bite brownies because I thought they were sissy. Then the Canadians made me eat 2 in one mouthful. Bit of a struggle, nearly choked but I got there. Us Aussies are made of tougher stuff when it comes to junk food. Also took a trip to Walmart and discovered there are Coffee Crisp McFlurries. Getting one the second I go to town next. Excited!! I know Walmart is like a corporate devil that is sucking the life out of our planet, but man, it is so cheap! I bought a sweet fluro orange sweater for $10. Wicked!
This week we had a really sweet school group called Larson. They were an awesome group, so much personality. It was also fun because they didn't have any teachers with them so a few of us got to try our hand at being counsellors. It was pretty sweet, we got to change around activities instead of instructing them, and had to send them off to bed and things. It was a nice change to what we usually do. The kids were awesome. Today when I was taking a day group around the biking trail, they were all high fiving me as I rode pass. It was awesome, I really enjoyed hanging out with them.
So I am off and on over the next few days, heading down to Van for some of it, hanging around Camp, doing stuff. Will be good times. Sorry this post has sort of trailed off but I have been distracted. It happens. Anyway I hope you are all well and to make up for my lacklustre words I have included photographs:
Random shot of one of our many beach campfires
Gathered on the beach for Eddie's birthday celebration
The view from the Chief's First Peak
Me at the top of the Chief. The large body of water on the left is Howe Sound and the buildings on the right are part of Squamish, the closest town to camp.
Crumbles, Alex and Tyler in Vancouver. This shot is outside the sushi place where we missed the deadline for lunch. We went for crepes instead.Oh and by the way, the reason for the title of this post is because today is Russian Thursday, one of our many themed days. Today we speak in russian accents for most of the day. We have other days such as One-armed Monday and Backwards Name Tuesday. Tomorrow is Facial Accessory Friday. The guys have been preparing. Shall be entertaining.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
A Week in SOEC
Hey everyone. Yes it does seem that I'm double posting today but I felt the last post needed to be separated from this one.
This week another 2 yr 7 school groups for 2.5 day programs. I might just run through how a week in the Summit Outdoor Education Centre goes down so you guys can actually get what I mean when I say stuff like that. This is basically how a week in my life goes down:
Monday: Up and at breakfast by 8am. Quick re-briefing on the school that is coming in that day (We had the initial briefing the Friday arvo prior). Briefing involves finding out what programs we are running, how many kids there are and any additional info such as what they were like last time, if we are trying to win the school over, if the parent volunteers/teachers are really enthusiastic or more hindering, anything Shannon (our Outdoor Ed Centre Director) thinks we need to know to prepare us for dealing with the groups.
We make sure everything is prepped and ready to go, and then we sit and wait in the Grove (a cluster of trees where the buses pull up) for the school to arrive, which usually happens from 10 to 11. When the kids get here, we are all standing there at the bus with our staff jackets on and help them unload all their gear. Shannie does a quick welcome and we lead the groups off to their respective cabins so they can dump their bags. This is always incredibly entertaining as kids manage to bring the most stuff... it's quite ridiculous. Probably about 40% of the kids bring more gear for a 2.5 day camp than I have for my entire trip. So once their gear is put away we all head to the field where Shannie introduces us and we play some silly introductory games to get them all loosened up and sort of set them up for the atmosphere of camp, which is all about making a fool of yourself and having fun. Some of the Vancouver kids sometimes struggle with this, but by the second day they've usually got the hang of it. Lunch after that, at about 12:30pm. Once lunch is over we start rotations. These are basically the activities that the kids get to do. 1 or 2 staff run each rotation and they last for 1-1.5hrs. The activities are chosen by the school but are usually from following: High Ropes, Climbing Wall, Bouldering, Archery, Campfire Cooking and Outdoor Living Skills, Low Ropes, Mountain Biking and Arts and Crafts. Certain activities like biking and high ropes are run by specialised instructors and the rest of us assist, but the other activities are run by all of us. We swap around a bit so we get a taste of everything and keep it fresh. A few of us (including myself) have our Level 1 Ropes Certification so we get put on ropes more often than the others. I have run every program at least once so I'm pretty confident with all of them. It is nice to run them with other people, especially as most of the staff have heaps of experience, have got degrees in Outdoor Rec and then years working in camps and things on top of that, so I learn heaps every time.
So after lunch there is usually 2 rotations, then we eat dinner at 5:30pm. Once dinner is over we have Evening Program, which involves a Camp Wide Game. So much fun!!! I have an absolute ball every night. A CWG basically involves the kids running all over site, usually chasing us staff, or trying to find us. If we aren't involved directly, the older staff run the game and us youngies play with the kids. We play stuff such as Zoobreak (we all dress up as zoo animals and escape from the zoo, the kids have to chase us in teams, make a circle around us by linking arms and bring us back. They get points depending who they catch), Whistle Tag (we all hide in the woods with whistles that we blow every 30 seconds, they have to find us and get points for who they find), Clue (they have a list of staff names, places on camp and objects and there is one combination that is supposedly the person who stole evening snack, what they used to steal it and where they hid it. They eliminate people by running around to the staff who are hiding and getting clues in return for doing silly things, like singing a song, dancing or building a human pyramid. At the end they surround all the staff and each group yells out a person they know it isn't until there is only one person left in the middle of the circle. That person gets a 20L bucket of water poured on their head.) and a bunch of other fun games like that. I love doing the games because we just run like non-stop for an hour every evening. So much fun!
After the game at about 7.45 everyone gets evening snack and then they head to the campfire pit. Campfire is super fun. We have a big fire with everyone sitting around and we sing songs that the campers all join in with. Hilarious times, just so funny it's insane. That's why camp people are awesome, they don't mind getting up in front on 60 teenagers and making a complete fool of themselves every night.
Bedtime and all that is up to the teachers, once campfire is over (at about 9pm) we are off for the day. We have a short evening meeting (The Ceremonial Burning of the Dog) when the kids leave the pit and then we are free to go. We usually hang out and play football or frisbee until about 10 and then usually end up talking or doing other stuff.
Tuesday: Also known as program marathon. Today we do 4 rotations back-to-back, with no break except for lunch in the middle. It ends up being a solid 6 hours of program. They start after breakfast and then run until dinner. Then as usual there is evening program and campfire and before you know it the day is over.
Wednesday: Changeover day. Runs as per usual except the school groups switch over at lunch. So after breakfast the group that has been at camp will pack and clean their cabins and move all their gear to the grove. At about 10.30 they either have program elective (choosing from programs they have/haven't done) or another camp wide game. Daytime camp wide games have been tough of late as it is usually pretty hot by the time we get going. And running about in an orange wig, a dress and a construction vest (I was 'Fire' in Survival) is not exactly a sweat-free exercise. The other school usually arrives during this game, so some staff are with them running introductory games. Then lunch is sometimes early, like 11:30am. The first group leaves after lunch and then the second group starts rotation until dinner, evening program and then campfire. Once we are free on Wed all the staff gather in the lodge for 'Family Fun Night'. Everyone is rostered on to run FFN for the staff, so they organise a special snack and a game for us to play all together for an hour or so. It is so much fun, and nice way to sort of reboot in prep for the last 2 days of program. We have played Cranium, Zilch, Speed Scrabble and some other fun stuff. It ends up being sooo darn funny.
Thursday: Just like Tuesday, big program day. Tends to fly by as you are pretty much busy the entire time running your activity. Camp wide game and campfire to finish.
Friday: Similar to Wednesday but less of a gong show as there is no other school coming in. They pack and clean, play a game or do elective programs (sometimes both) and are usually offsite between 1 and 2. Then we have 'Power Hour', where the staff (both instructors and site maintenance) work for an hour or two to reset camp, such as cleaning the lodge, picking up rubbish, cleaning bathrooms, checking all the cabins, wiping down mattresses, cleaning the staff lounge, chopping wood and restocking the fire pits and anything else that needs doing so that camp is immaculate. This means we don't have to do anything Monday morning, and also occasionally we get drop-ins, families who are interested on sending their kids to summer camp at Summit who just drive in on the weekends. Parky usually gives them a tour and is always stoked when the camp is ridiculously manicured. After that we have the week debrief, everyone names their GMIC of the week (Greatest Moment in Camping) and then Shannie briefs us on the upcoming week. We are usually free to go around 3pm. Alot of the time we head straight down to the river or play footy and stuff.
So that is pretty much my life at the moment. I am loving every second of it. This Friday (yesterday) a bunch of us volunteered at the Relay for Life which was at Brennan Park in Squamish. So much fun, we just helped set up and ran the information tent and stuff like that. We all had a ball and I think Parky was super impressed with us for having a sense of community. We wore our Summit OE Staff jackets and spoke to a bunch of people about camp. We even saw some of the kids from Mamquam (the second school we had this week) and were waving and chatting to them. They looked pretty confused. I don't think they understood us in a context that wasn't camp. I guess it's sort of like seeing a teacher outside school for the first time. But yeah we had a ball. I'm defs going to help out at the one in Perth when I get home.
Anyway it's hot, I'm hungry and I have typed a novel. I will write again next week!
This week another 2 yr 7 school groups for 2.5 day programs. I might just run through how a week in the Summit Outdoor Education Centre goes down so you guys can actually get what I mean when I say stuff like that. This is basically how a week in my life goes down:
Monday: Up and at breakfast by 8am. Quick re-briefing on the school that is coming in that day (We had the initial briefing the Friday arvo prior). Briefing involves finding out what programs we are running, how many kids there are and any additional info such as what they were like last time, if we are trying to win the school over, if the parent volunteers/teachers are really enthusiastic or more hindering, anything Shannon (our Outdoor Ed Centre Director) thinks we need to know to prepare us for dealing with the groups.
We make sure everything is prepped and ready to go, and then we sit and wait in the Grove (a cluster of trees where the buses pull up) for the school to arrive, which usually happens from 10 to 11. When the kids get here, we are all standing there at the bus with our staff jackets on and help them unload all their gear. Shannie does a quick welcome and we lead the groups off to their respective cabins so they can dump their bags. This is always incredibly entertaining as kids manage to bring the most stuff... it's quite ridiculous. Probably about 40% of the kids bring more gear for a 2.5 day camp than I have for my entire trip. So once their gear is put away we all head to the field where Shannie introduces us and we play some silly introductory games to get them all loosened up and sort of set them up for the atmosphere of camp, which is all about making a fool of yourself and having fun. Some of the Vancouver kids sometimes struggle with this, but by the second day they've usually got the hang of it. Lunch after that, at about 12:30pm. Once lunch is over we start rotations. These are basically the activities that the kids get to do. 1 or 2 staff run each rotation and they last for 1-1.5hrs. The activities are chosen by the school but are usually from following: High Ropes, Climbing Wall, Bouldering, Archery, Campfire Cooking and Outdoor Living Skills, Low Ropes, Mountain Biking and Arts and Crafts. Certain activities like biking and high ropes are run by specialised instructors and the rest of us assist, but the other activities are run by all of us. We swap around a bit so we get a taste of everything and keep it fresh. A few of us (including myself) have our Level 1 Ropes Certification so we get put on ropes more often than the others. I have run every program at least once so I'm pretty confident with all of them. It is nice to run them with other people, especially as most of the staff have heaps of experience, have got degrees in Outdoor Rec and then years working in camps and things on top of that, so I learn heaps every time.
So after lunch there is usually 2 rotations, then we eat dinner at 5:30pm. Once dinner is over we have Evening Program, which involves a Camp Wide Game. So much fun!!! I have an absolute ball every night. A CWG basically involves the kids running all over site, usually chasing us staff, or trying to find us. If we aren't involved directly, the older staff run the game and us youngies play with the kids. We play stuff such as Zoobreak (we all dress up as zoo animals and escape from the zoo, the kids have to chase us in teams, make a circle around us by linking arms and bring us back. They get points depending who they catch), Whistle Tag (we all hide in the woods with whistles that we blow every 30 seconds, they have to find us and get points for who they find), Clue (they have a list of staff names, places on camp and objects and there is one combination that is supposedly the person who stole evening snack, what they used to steal it and where they hid it. They eliminate people by running around to the staff who are hiding and getting clues in return for doing silly things, like singing a song, dancing or building a human pyramid. At the end they surround all the staff and each group yells out a person they know it isn't until there is only one person left in the middle of the circle. That person gets a 20L bucket of water poured on their head.) and a bunch of other fun games like that. I love doing the games because we just run like non-stop for an hour every evening. So much fun!
After the game at about 7.45 everyone gets evening snack and then they head to the campfire pit. Campfire is super fun. We have a big fire with everyone sitting around and we sing songs that the campers all join in with. Hilarious times, just so funny it's insane. That's why camp people are awesome, they don't mind getting up in front on 60 teenagers and making a complete fool of themselves every night.
Bedtime and all that is up to the teachers, once campfire is over (at about 9pm) we are off for the day. We have a short evening meeting (The Ceremonial Burning of the Dog) when the kids leave the pit and then we are free to go. We usually hang out and play football or frisbee until about 10 and then usually end up talking or doing other stuff.
Tuesday: Also known as program marathon. Today we do 4 rotations back-to-back, with no break except for lunch in the middle. It ends up being a solid 6 hours of program. They start after breakfast and then run until dinner. Then as usual there is evening program and campfire and before you know it the day is over.
Wednesday: Changeover day. Runs as per usual except the school groups switch over at lunch. So after breakfast the group that has been at camp will pack and clean their cabins and move all their gear to the grove. At about 10.30 they either have program elective (choosing from programs they have/haven't done) or another camp wide game. Daytime camp wide games have been tough of late as it is usually pretty hot by the time we get going. And running about in an orange wig, a dress and a construction vest (I was 'Fire' in Survival) is not exactly a sweat-free exercise. The other school usually arrives during this game, so some staff are with them running introductory games. Then lunch is sometimes early, like 11:30am. The first group leaves after lunch and then the second group starts rotation until dinner, evening program and then campfire. Once we are free on Wed all the staff gather in the lodge for 'Family Fun Night'. Everyone is rostered on to run FFN for the staff, so they organise a special snack and a game for us to play all together for an hour or so. It is so much fun, and nice way to sort of reboot in prep for the last 2 days of program. We have played Cranium, Zilch, Speed Scrabble and some other fun stuff. It ends up being sooo darn funny.
Thursday: Just like Tuesday, big program day. Tends to fly by as you are pretty much busy the entire time running your activity. Camp wide game and campfire to finish.
Friday: Similar to Wednesday but less of a gong show as there is no other school coming in. They pack and clean, play a game or do elective programs (sometimes both) and are usually offsite between 1 and 2. Then we have 'Power Hour', where the staff (both instructors and site maintenance) work for an hour or two to reset camp, such as cleaning the lodge, picking up rubbish, cleaning bathrooms, checking all the cabins, wiping down mattresses, cleaning the staff lounge, chopping wood and restocking the fire pits and anything else that needs doing so that camp is immaculate. This means we don't have to do anything Monday morning, and also occasionally we get drop-ins, families who are interested on sending their kids to summer camp at Summit who just drive in on the weekends. Parky usually gives them a tour and is always stoked when the camp is ridiculously manicured. After that we have the week debrief, everyone names their GMIC of the week (Greatest Moment in Camping) and then Shannie briefs us on the upcoming week. We are usually free to go around 3pm. Alot of the time we head straight down to the river or play footy and stuff.
So that is pretty much my life at the moment. I am loving every second of it. This Friday (yesterday) a bunch of us volunteered at the Relay for Life which was at Brennan Park in Squamish. So much fun, we just helped set up and ran the information tent and stuff like that. We all had a ball and I think Parky was super impressed with us for having a sense of community. We wore our Summit OE Staff jackets and spoke to a bunch of people about camp. We even saw some of the kids from Mamquam (the second school we had this week) and were waving and chatting to them. They looked pretty confused. I don't think they understood us in a context that wasn't camp. I guess it's sort of like seeing a teacher outside school for the first time. But yeah we had a ball. I'm defs going to help out at the one in Perth when I get home.
Anyway it's hot, I'm hungry and I have typed a novel. I will write again next week!
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