Out of the Valley and into the Desert

Hey folks

Thought I'd use YVR's free internet to my advantage and get my blog on. May as well give a reason to dragging this laptop around the world. I swear my carry-on adds a fair bit to my overall luggage weight, laptop, camera, guitar... it's alot of stuff.
However, my other pack isn't all that light either, I managed to fall on my back, beetle style, in front of some transit guards at the Vancover City Centre train station. For a second there I thought they were both going to have to come over and help me up. Ah I'd forgotten how fun it is to lug large packs on public transport and use them as a vehicle to provide ultimate embarrassment. It's been a while.

In fact its been 6 months in Canada and nearly 6 months at camp, so being in the aiport (to actually catch a plane as opposed to saying farewell/loitering) is quite a strange experience. I was the last gapper left at camp and one of the last staff, so I have already said alot of goodbyes in the last few days, but I think the hardest one was saying goodbye to the Valley. The Upper Squamish Valley has been my home for the last 6 months, is the most beautiful place I've ever worked and the meeting ground for the congregation of some of the most incredible people I've ever met. As Parky drove me out of the driveway and down the valley road, I realised how much I'm going to miss this place. It's funny, it doesn't really feel like I'm not going to be back there in a couple of days, waiting for a fresh busload of kids to hang out with for the next few days, sitting in the staff lounge watching Role Models (for the 80th time) and riding a bike with no suspension around Boundary Trail just to save travelling time between my cabin and the Lodge. I'm sure once my flight touches down in Phoenix and I find myself out of the forest and into the desert it will dawn on me. Best of luck to Emily, Duncan, Trev, Eddie and Parky who are still busy tidying up the site after our last group a few days ago.

As sad as it is to leave my 'home' and all my new friends, embarking on the next phase of my gap year is incredibly exciting! It's kind of fun to have everything I own in the world once again fitting into a backpack (well it will be like that after I go to the US, I have an extra bag right now of things I'm sending home) and to be footloose and carefree. Also, all the visiting I have in store for the next few months in uber exciting. Can't wait to see Spud, Vicki, Summer and Kylie in Phoenix! In fact, boarding just opened and for some strange reason for a change I am at the front of the plane, so I better go!!

P.S. Here are a few more pictures from the Fall:

BC Coastal Mountains on the way back from Whistler

The weekend I helped Emily move into her Whistler house. Bit of a jump photo taken by a stranger. Love it

Sunset over Burrard Bridge. We were driving into Vancouver to celebrate Vanessa's birthday/Megan's housewarming

Sunset over Kitsilano Beach in Van. We took heaps of photos of this because it looked kind of like an Aussie sunset

Duncan with his new G&S skatey

One of my favourite photos I've taken all trip. The 'Band Photo' featuring Duncan, Eddie, Tyler and Crumbles

Night shots of the cabins in West Village: Charlie Charlie, Cloudburst, Serratus and Zenith

View from the Watershed Grill, our most frequented restaurant in Brackendale (the suburb outside Squamish)

Belden and Tyler at Tim Hortons, the Canadian's answer to overpriced Starbucks. Large Hot Chocolate $1.56... my drink of choice (mainly because it sets you back less than a toonie)

Crumbles, Tyler and I looking off into nowhere the night of our very first Thanksgiving. Thanks again to Trev's parents for welcoming us into their home for an amazing meal!

The annual Valley-wide Thanksgiving potluck dinner Parky hosted at camp. As none of the camp staff can cook/have the facilities, we earnt our meal organising parking and entertaining children. Some of the most amazing food ever, prepared by residents from the Upper Squamish Valley

The driveway on the 3 degree morning when we watched in snow in the mountains around camp. If you look at the trees on the mountain, you can see a line where the snow fell to. Aussies were incredibly excited about this, Canadians and Kiwi just complained about the cold.

Crumbles, Tyler and I on the doorstep of the Fort we built on Guerilla Monday (a Monday off where we spent the entire day running about camp dressed as guerrilla fighters shooting nerf guns) The cigarette Crumbles is holding is fake by the way... we were going for the authentic Vietnam look

Outside the high-tech camouflage wall Tyler built on the Fort. Three of the happiest guerillas you will ever meet.

Fall staff dinner at the Copper House opposite Shannon Falls in Squamish. Such an amazing night, excellent food, even better company and a really nice way to round off the Fall and the whole 6 months.

The place settings at our dinner, decorated by hand by our boss Shannon Wilson

Welcome to Fall, the Season Where Nothing Ever Dries

Hey team

Yes so first off apologies for not writing in like... a month... whoops.

Anyway so Fall is definitely well under way, in fact, we only have 2 groups left until the whole thing is done and dusted. I can't believe its coming on 6 months working at camp. I've been here for so long I can't fully imagine how its going to be not being here.

So quite a few things have happened since I last wrote at the very beginning of Fall. The vast majority of these things is work. Fall has been quite literally jam packed full of kids! We saw the same number of kids in the first 2 weeks of Fall that we saw in the entire Summer.

Oh and just quickly I'll point out that I have not forgotten that it is indeed called 'Autumn'. However, as I am in a country where things do quite literally fall from the sky (mainly leaves and snow) I feel that particular moniker a rather appropriate one.

On that note of things falling from the sky, the landscape really has taken on some amazingly dramatic changes in the last few weeks. Trees are now nearly bare, their leaves in massive piles of brown and yellow. I raked my first pile of leaves and then jumped into it. Actually I pretended to die into it... Emily shot me... so to speak.

And speaking of shooting, yesterday we had the day off and so Tyler, Crumbles and I put it to good use. We found some foam dart guns under the house, loaded up and spent a good 6 hours running around in the forest pretending to be members of a rebel guerilla force fighting against a coup that had overthrown Parky (he was out of town for the weekend). The militia were the kids onsite and the other staff, we couldn't let them see us. We barely even fired any darts, it was all in our heads, creeping through the bush, seeing parts of camp for the first time, building a giant fort from trees and moss. It was such an awesome day, we stormed the kitchen (it was actually a terrorist base) and stormed Eddie as he cleaned the Lodge bathroom (he was actually using chemicals to make a bomb to take out the fort). It was a truly brilliant day.

So just before Fall began, we had a few days off, which I mentioned in the last post. We were undecided as of what to do so we headed down to Vancouver for a few days to see what would happen. Quite a few interesting things did happen, some of which involved going to airports... being kicked out of them for asking about hotel rooms in silly accents... walking... lots and lots of walking... some poor map reading... more walking... some sidewalk napping and finally a well earned coffee and muffin the following morning. Eddie took us to the cultural hub of Granville Island, before I met up with Alex. It was awesome to see her again after so long, we were pretty stoked. It's funny, Crumbles reckoned we talked exactly the same. Perhaps Perth has an accent? I ended up taking a ferry with Al over to the Island to meet up with George. It was awesome to all meet up, it was like we had never left, but at the same time we were all completely different people with all new friends, stories and experiences. It was so weird to all hang out, it felt like we were right back at the beginning of our trip, even though we had all been living in Canada for 5 months.

Other fun things have happened this Fall, such as our whole staff trip to a Vancouver Giants vs. Emmerton Silvertips ice hockey game. It was a Western Hockey League match (like the WAFL) so all the players were like 16-19 years old and busting their butts to make the big league. Good quality hockey, aggression-wise and lots of fights. The best type of hockey, or so I'm told. I had to sit next to Emily so she could explain to me what was going on.

Fall is now rapidly coming to a close, after leaving camp I'm going to head to Arizona to visit Spud and Vicki, and maybe even Mum. Then 2 weeks maybe touring some of Eastern Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa) before heading to New York then on to London. If it all works out should be a real party.

Anyway I better head off, I'm missing the mad action of Pauly Shore and 'In the Army Now'. Great film. Hopefully will post again after my very first Thanksgiving (next weekend) but no guarantees there will be one before I leave camp, so this may be the last Summit blog!!! Hope its satisfactory.

Here are a few pictures from the Fall:

George and I looking awesome? on the streets of Victoria


Alex and I dancing down the streets of Victoria.... because we can?

The Perth Reunion on Vancouver Island at Alex's Aunt Roberta and Uncle Fred's house


The Vancouver Giants ice hockey game we went to as a staff. The guy on the right is a Storm Trooper from a bachelor party that was sitting next to us.


Crumbles, Luke and Emily getting angry at the game

Nothing like a good old Canadian hockey fight


Bouldering at the base of the Chief

Pancakes and an omelette for dinner? Gotta love IHOP.


Great Wall of China? Bay of Fundy? The Pyramids? Nah, IHOP in Vancouver, definitely the greatest place the Summit flag has ever been.

Tofino? Maybe. Alberta? Perhaps but no. Random small town we have no idea exists yet? Most likely.

Hey everyone.

Am now back at camp safe and sound after our super awesome Seattle trip. Since then a fair bit has happened, we hiked a mountain, then a ridge, had staff training for Fall and our first group of the season. Right now we are struggling to decide what to do for our 5 days off before we get into the hectic Fall season.

Hiking Garibaldi was a super awesome experience. The hike 9km up pretty steep switchbacks was not the greatest thing I've ever done, however it is still pretty fun. We didn't leave til quite late in the day, so the sunset stained the surrounding rock faces pink and purple, which was pretty nice. Getting into camp in the dark at 9:30pm not so nice but do-able. We pitched our tents and feasted on Hamburger Helper... it did take a while for the Canadians to explain to us what on earth 'Hamburger' was... beef mince. Some good times were spent sitting in the food shelter.
The next morning we got going kind of slow, and didn't start the day hike up to Panorama Ridge til 12:30pm. It was a 14km round trip where we climbed a decent amount. The last k or 2 was super sketchy, steep slopes of loose rock. The views when we got to the top made it all worthwhile. Garibaldi Lake, in all its ridiculous-blue glory, splayed out beneath us. To our left was a huge old snowfield leftover from the winter, to our right we could see our campground, a miniscule little settlement dwarfed by the gigantuan body of water. We had carried the Summit flag all the way up there so everyone took turns getting photos.
Hiking down was a whole lot of fun, waayyy easier. Tyler ran down in like 40mins, he's nuts.

Since Garibaldi we have met the three new staff, Duncan, Emily and Krista, and had Fall Staff Training which was a grand total of one day... nearly everyone has worked with Summit before, as well as the Squamish Elementary coming for a day of team building activities. It was pretty chill, and now we have 5 days off. We were going to go to Tofino, but its thunderstorming all week. We were then going to go to Alberta, but couldn't afford it. So now we are going to head down to Van and see what happens from there. We were thinking of heading to the Interior, maybe Nelson or something. But right now we are eating cereal and watching Die Hard 4, so I think I better go get on that. I'll try and post again once Fall is underway.

Here are some shots from Seattle and Garibaldi:
Pike Place Markets, Seattle

Looking 'American' at the Elliot Bay Cafe, near Pioneer Square in Seattle

Seattle Storm vs. Indiana Fever. The Storm won.

At the top of Panorama Ridge

The Garibaldi Trip Crew, from left to right: Crumbles, Tyler, Luke, Eddie, Alex, Megan, and in front, Kate and I.

Summer Ends, Seattle Begins and My Life is Somewhat Completed

Hey people

So my first season at Summer Camp has come to a regretful however somewhat needed end. My last cabin, Charlie Charlie (a group of 4 junior girls) was absolutely wicked. They were well behaved, tonnes of fun and were up for anything despite the 2 days of pouring rain we (finally!) had at camp. Plus my co-counsellor was Kate HB, so we pretty much had the easiest week ever. Kids just about counselled themselves, which was awesome.

The last few days of camp were probably the most hectic of my life. The day our kids left we were put in groups to organise our station for the staff party, handed in our feedback forms then headed straight to town to buy all our necessary preparations. We then headed back, set up for and had staff party, which was an absolute blast! The next day we cleaned camp for about 6 hours and sort of wrapped up the season with dinner and a movie all together. (Quick note, G.I. Joe = Hilariously awful). The following morning we were all meant to be on the bus for 10am to head down to Vancouver, I found out about 15 mins beforehand that I had to move all my gear to my staff cabin for Fall. Managed to get that finished in time so I booked it to the bus with nothing but a small daypack, thinking I was going to spend a couple of days in Van before heading back to camp. As I was about to hop on the bus I spied Tyler with rather a bit more luggage than myself. When I asked him about he said "Yeah, we're going to Seattle, remember?" I had in fact, forgotten. Thankfully Parky made the bus wait for me so I didn't have to survive a week with one pair of jeans and a waterbottle. Never have I packed so fast in all my life. Threw whatever into my pack, booked it back to the bus and we managed to roll out only a bit late. Spent the rest of that day hanging out with the staff, we went to a Vancouver Canadien's baseball game (they won 2-1) then to Eddie's house for a BBQ before Alex, Anna, Ely, Tyler and I headed to the airport where we met Billy and Crumbles. Alex was flying out that night, then Anna and Ely the following morning. Spent alot of time racing trolleys, drinking caffeine and eating cookies, finding trippy bathrooms, spilling things, sleeping in a sort of home we made from two rows of chairs and just general aiport-related tomfoolery. We had plenty of time to fill, we were there from 8pm that night until 2pm the following day when Tyler, Billy, Crumbles and I caught a bus to Seattle. Had about 3 hours sleep, we were all already totally spent by the end of summer, and all this hectic-ness has left us with a rather large sleep deficit.

So right now I am staying in a hostel in Seattle. It is the nicest hostel ever, pretty much new and as there are 4 of us we have filled a whole room so its basically a hotel. Plus the bunks are bigger than camps, the water is hotter and the showers huge. And you don't have to worry about/listen to 8 kids, so this place is pretty much heaven right now. Seattle is a cool city, we spent today wandering, seeing some sights like the Pike Place markets (where they throw fish) and perusing a mall or two. Free samples = godly/lunch. Getting my thrift on in a big way.
When we were in Westlake mall today the most amazing thing of life happened. I was just walking along, minding my own business as I perused and I saw this chick in one of the shops. She had cool clothes and shoes and I was like I dig that look. As I continued to walk, I noticed she was super tall. And blonde. And strangely familiar looking. Then it hit me. It was Lauren Jackson!!!! Yes THE Lauren Jackson, star player of the Seattle Storm, best Aussie in the business, Captain of the Opals, my like life hero! I freaked out big time, and told Billy and Crumbles. We scouted for a few minutes just to make absolutely sure it was her. They managed to talk me into getting an autograph, I was too scared at first. So I got to speak to Lauren Jackson (who noticed I was an Aussie and said cool when I said I had tickets to the next game) after only being in Seattle for 1 day!!! Best day ever!!! So stoked! So I am guarding the paper with my life and can't wait to go by my jersey.

Anyway these communal computers need to be just that so I better quit hogging the machine and share the love. Just thought you needed a little update from the road. Am heading back to camp around the 23rd... Will try and write one more time before I leave.

Catchya on the flipside

Minioning

Hey team

Apologies for the last post being so short. I will try to sort of make up for it with this one, I have arisen early so as to use the phone and found myself with a bit of time to jot down a few things.

So the 2 week session was an absolute ball. I had a wicked cabin of 8 9-12 yo girls who were pretty much self sufficient by the end of the first week so my LIT Tricia and I just lived the good life, unlike some of our colleagues who had less than agreeable cabins shall we say. I loved the longer session, I felt I got to know the kids alot better, and it was fun to have things like trip where we could all just hang out and you could just chat to them. Cheakamus Lake was a beautiful place to stay for a few days, nothing quite like a glacier fed lake for a bit of refreshment.

After the 2 weeker we had 2.5 days off. This was much anticipated as we had been working pretty much 3 weeks straight (we had 3 hours off one evening... we took off to Brohm Lake and lay on the rocks after a quick Walmart run). The majority of the staff headed up to Whistler to hang out, shop and have a bit of fun. We had a pretty sweet time, playing soccer in the main square at night, staying in hotel rooms and eating ridiculously priced supermarket food. I'm reasonably sure all I ate that weekend was peanut butter, oreos, honey nut cheerios and cinnamon bagels.... healthy? no. But delicious.

Now we are back at work, everyone returning from Whistler more tired than when they left camp, but I suppose that just shows we had a good time. The scary thing is there's only 2 weeks left of summer camp and then half the staff pack up and leave! 2 one week sessions remain. This session running now is probably one of the smaller ones camper wise, so Tyler, Crumbles and I have been swapped out from being counsellors and are on site work, or 'Special Ops' as Parky likes to call it. We're giving Trevor a hand with some of the maintenance around the site/being the kitchen hand. It's super fun, we get evenings and rest hour off and we get to listen to music all day and pretend to be council workers. Yesterday we painted some protective stuff on the fresh plywood around the base of all the wooden buildings. Being the smallest minion, I did all the parts underneath the porches, so I spent most of the day trying to keep spiders out of my hair. Good fun though. Today I think we are staining everything we sealed yesterday.... and after that who knows what wonderful jobs are in store for us. I also went on the bus run with Aaron yesterday to pick up the fresh campers from Vancouver. Always a good time, Tim Hortons from brekky and then listening to tunes through the bus speakers. Ah it's a hard life I lead!

In the upcoming break I am planning on hiking Garibaldi to see the mountain lake that is up there for a few days and then maybe a trip to Seattle with the other gappers/anyone who is still hanging around. Will try not to spend too much moolah... will hopefully get one more paycheck before the break starts.

Just wanted to shout out to Grantie and Grandpa, who I understand are in the UK at the moment so might not be able to read this, and say thankyou for the letter and the newspaper articles. I love getting mail so much, it totally makes my day when Shannie or Parky hands me a letter. Kicks email any day. But yeah, thanks again guys!

Hope everything is well in the big smoke of Perth... it has been hottttt here, like 37 degrees plus. It is cooling down this week to high 20s, low 30s which is like ultimately awesome perfect-ness. Summer should finish off amazingly.

Am semi freakin out not being able to go surfing/even buy an Aussie surf mag. American surf mags suck even more when it comes to equality between men and women in surfing. I just get frustrated every time I read it so I have given up. If I ever see an ASL I am hitting that up in a big way. Planning a trip to Tofino in the Fall when its meant to be super chill and less people and all that so should satisfy the craving which by then will be a fever pitch.

Here are a couple of shots from the 2 week session:

This is the view from the campsite we stayed in at Cheakamus Lake. That's my and Tricia's tent on the left and yes those are sweet glacier topped mountains on the right.

Here is Serratus, the tent cabin which is now pretty much mine as I will have lived in it for a month by the end of this week. Been there 2nd session for one week as an instructor, had it when I was a counsellor for the 2 week and now as a minion I have had it for another week.

A shot I took one evening when there were some sweet thunderclouds and the sky changed colour from golden to purple to red... And just to cap it off there was a double rainbow!

Tacky Tourist Dinner (one of our many themed dinners where everyone has to dress up), it was so hot in the lodge that butter melted off my face. Gross.

I think I will go listen to the humourous bingo game that is currently occuring in the Lodge and make a cup of tea... finally got myself some English Breakfast. Take care y'all have a good time til next we meet/vicariously meet through the world wide web..........

Trip, Olympics, Grilled Cheese and Vegemite Necklaces

Just a quickie as I haven't posted in a month and felt awful about it. So today is the last morning of the two week session. I am farewelling campers I have had for the longest time period all summer, so it is a pretty sad day. The reason I have managed to snag computer time was because I was up at 6am getting 4 of my campers packed to catch an 11am flight to Monterey. There is quite a strong Mexican contingent who fly up for the 2 weeks. They are really awesome kids and I was pretty stoked when they started teaching me some Spanish. So far I can only name about 6 colours, but hey that is more spanish than I knew before thats for sure.
Two of our Mexican LITs also left as they had to head back to school, so it was sad to see them go as they have been with us since the beginning of Pre-Camp at the end of June.

Oh the bell just rung so I better skedaddle and wake up the remainder of my cabin so they can get to brekky! Adios.

Here are a couple of pictures. They were taken on the camp camera and uploaded to the Camp Summit website. They upload a few pictures from the session every day so feel free to check it out. The link is here.

Serratus (My cabin) all dressed up for Halloween dinner

About to head out on trip with Aaron to Cheakamus Lake for 3 days

Being chased as the sheep in a camp wide game called Zoobreak

All the Zoobreak animals

Opening Session

Hey crew. Sorry it has been a while between postings but I have been a rather busy little gapper so let me fill you in on all the goings on of late.

Firstly would like to thank Mum for sending me that awesome package. Parky and Megan and everyone were like Issy you have a package! And its like the biggest one I swear I've ever seen. Trust me, the caramello koalas were well shared

Just got off my first session of the summer! I had 7 7-9yo girls for 5 days of non-stop activities, getting up, going to sleep, eating, showering, crying, laughing, running, screaming and everything else that happens when you are looking after kids 24/7. Not gonna lie I was a bit nervous before they first showed up on Saturday, never having counselled before and everything, but the whole thing went off very smoothly. My LIT (Leader-In-Training/my cabin second), Krystyn, is one of Summit's first lot of 'stayer' campers - she has been a camper for 5 years and is now working her way up to being staff - so she knew exactly how stuff worked. But yeah, counselling is so much fun but rather exhausting. I now have 2 days off before being plunged into a super marathon of work, I think it is about 5 weeks or so straight with only a couple of stray nights off in between sessions. It's going to be so much fun.

Last night a bunch of us headed down to the beach and let off some steam. We set some giant logs on fire which burnt for about 6 hours. It was pretty schweet. The summer stuff are a really cool bunch of people, we have another Aussie who has joined the ranks - Luke, as well as a Mexican - Alex Belden, a couple from Van - Stu, Kendra, Matt and Kate, and some from the States (Hawaii, Utah and Washington DC) - Ely, Garrett and Anna. All the LITs are a cool bunch too, Priscilla and Lucy are from Spain, Trisha lives in Hong Kong I'm pretty sure, Julian is from Hong Kong and Connor and Krystyn are locals. I think that covers everybody, will rectify if I realise I'm a terrible person and have forgotten someone or got a detail wrong.

Next session is a 7 day but this time I am an instructor. So that means I don't have my own cabin to look after but I run the programs that kids rotate through, such as ropes, archery, bouldering and the like. Less intense as no 24/7 responsibility but also not quite as fun as don't get to know the kids as well and can get boring if you instruct the same thing day in day out. I am looking forward to it though. It will be a good time.

So today the plan is for a girls road trip to Whistler, just to grab some lunch and mess around. We have some serious fun pumping music and dancing in the car so that will probably come into play quite alot. I think the guys are heading to Whistler too so we will probably all end up meeting up. I unfortunately don't have more than about $6 as I have been unable to cash my last pay cheque but we shall see how that goes.

Anyway lads and ladettes I am a little peckish and really desperately need a shower so I will catch you all on the flipside. I hope life is treating you all well and that the bad weather clears up! Miss and love you all!