The Music of the Night

It has been a crazy two weeks! Much has happened since the last post and I'm so sorry I took so long to update you all! 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was lucky enough to fulfill a lifelong dream of watching the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway! We watched it in the Majestic theater, which I thought was rather apt :) and as the famous chords of the theme song rang out around me and the chandelier swung towards the ceiling to shed a little illumination on the Phantom's past, my skin was covered in goosebumps and my eyes may have been slightly misty :) what an awesome night! I will never tire of that story :)

My hosts Donna, Stephen and Holly were kind enough to invite me out to Fire Island with them for a weekend. It is such a cute place! It is a part of Long Island and acquired its name from a story. Legend has it that pirates used to set fires to trick ships into thinking they had found the New York City shore, and then plunder the ships as soon as they had docked. Pretty neat story methinks :) the island is about 800m wide in total, and none of the residents have cars there. It is a thirty minute ferry ride across from the main land and once on the island, everyone bikes around on the proper old fashioned bicycles (bells, baskets and the works!). Too cool :) Donna and I spent an afternoon on the beach where we saw whales! I spotted them :) I saw a splash on the horizon and (not wanting to look foolish for crying "whale!" if in fact they had none there) I innocently asked Donna if they had whales at Fire Island. She laughed. Of course they did. We spent a blissful few minutes watching the playful fella breaching to his heart's content until, unfortunately, Shamu tired of the game before we did and went off in search of better things to do, leaving us scanning the horizon fruitlessly for more activity. It was awesome though! :)

After a lovely week spent in the New York area with my wonderful hosts, and a horde of new and exciting experiences behind me, I headed up to Niagara Falls in search of a border crossing at which I could switch visas so that I can legally travel the States a little longer than my work visa would allow. I climbed on the Amtrak train at 7:39am and endured a rather exhausting ten hour train trip across the state of New York to Niagara Falls. I arrived at my hostel quite proudly lugging my newly acquired hiking backpack behind me (it's blue! Yay!) and checked in before being given the grand tour. I think the best way to describe it is quaint. It was basically just an old house with rooms stuffed full of bunk beds. Not unpleasant though :) they made us breakfast every morning and there was a lounge/tv room downstairs for us to relax in. 

The following day I ventured out to explore the tiny town and switch my visas. I met a few Brits, Lithuanians, Chinese and Hong Kong(ese?) people at the hostel, but unfortunately as I was the ONLY one who could not get into Canada, I flew solo for the day. I also failed to switch visas as I could not get INTO Canada (not even walk through the door and back) and thus apparently did not leave US soil, even though I walked ALL the way over the bridge into the Canadian customs building and got an important looking stamped piece of paper to prove I had been there. Grrrrr. Stoopid rules. I decided not to let this ruin my day, however, and had a wonderful time wandering through the Niagara Falls park and thoroughly enjoying my amazing new camera! :) 

The guy at the Niagara customs office told me to switch visas at an immigrations office (thus making my entire trip to the falls a rather pointless affair) so I took a bus down to Buffalo the following day to the immigrations office there. Of course, once I got there, they said they could not help me. Wonderfully organised people these government officials. They told me to fill in an online form, pay an obscene amount of money (more than the cost of both visas put together!), and my visa status would be changed for six months. No thank you. I will try Mexico first :) (I would make a deadpan joke here about making a run for the border if I weren't concerned about the 0.0000000000000001% chance that some humourless government lackey reads this and might not see the funny side).

On Friday, I returned to New York City on another ten hour train trip, arriving at 10pm in the middle of the bustling metropolis. A hop, skip, subway, train and cab ride later, I finally got back to my hosts' house outside the city at exactly midnight. Feeling slightly exhausted I headed straight for bed, although not before I got the very exciting news that my cousin got engaged! Congratulations Steve! :) #specialshoutout! Lolsies.

The last two days were spent getting organised. I have found a place to stay in Nashville from Tuesday until the weekend with a very exciting looking host. I also had my first door-to-door Jehovah's Witnesses encounter today. I almost turned them away, but could NOT resist being able to put it in the blog! Hehe :) they gave me brochures on the evils of Halloween and I assured them (read this in a deep Southern accent!) I would pray real hard and read my Bible extra careful to prepare for the second coming. For the record, if that didn't sound like Mater the tow truck in your head, you read it wrong :)

I am slowly catching up with putting pictures on my blog! It is slightly hard because they are uploaded all higgledy-piggledy and out of order in my picture folder of thousands of photos, so I'm having to put them up as and when I find them! Be patient :) Anyway, tomorrow evening I am hopping on a bus to Tennessee and saying a fond farewell to the city of blinding lights and a very excited hello to the South! Eeeeekkkk! You could bottle my excitement and sell it on eBay :) Apparently it's an entirely different world down there... Let's see what I can find to share with y'all :-P 

Stay classy! c",)

New York State of Mind

Guess who went to the Opening Ceremony of the US Open and watched Serena Williams play live tonight? Me! That's who :) :) :) but I get ahead of myself.

The past few days have been the time of my life so far! On Saturday I left Connecticut for the shining lights of the Big Apple once more... I am staying in Mount Vernon, New York, with one of my campers. They have a beautiful house in a gorgeous neighbourhood just outside New York City and have very kindly welcomed me into their home. Sunday was somewhat of an adventure. Many of you don't know it yet, but I chose to invest a small portion of my savings in a decent little camera, so I walked into Bronxville (a very cute little village half an hour from where I stay, NOT to be confused with the Bronx) and took the train into the city to take my camera for a test drive. The train took me to Grand Central, glorious as always, and I spent a few moments admiring the beauty of it before walking out into the city. It felt like I had never left.

I saw some very interesting sights. The first was Pakistan's 67th Independence Day parade down Park Avenue. Huh??? Colour me confused... Thought I had come to America?! I was so confused, I forgot to take pics! But hey it was funny to see all the fat dignitaries (I assume) marching in their fancy suits and sashes behind their little green and white float in the sweltering heat! :) the float reminded me of RAG and I spared a moment of silence for the poor souls who sacrificed their fingers in the making of it. (Tuks students will understand that reference!)

A few blocks further was an even funnier sight: the museum of sex. Yes you read it right and no I'm not joking! Although in all fairness I couldn't quite believe my eyes either! I thought it might just be a store with a funny name to attract customers so, naturally, I went to investigate. Boy was I wrong! For the more modest readers among you (and those prone to mild heart failure if exposed to scandalous materials) I will spare you the details. But let's just say I got more of an education from eight minutes in that store than I did from all the sex ed talks at school! Lolsies sorry mom ;) I was also amused to hear the not so melodic sounds of Die Antwoord playing in the museum! Ten points for internationally misrepresenting the South African music industry! :-/

Next I found Macy's... The world's largest store! It has eleven floors!!! IN. SANE. They have three Starbucks(es?) and a McDonald's IN the store. Score one for bigger and better! I was gobsmacked (I finally REALLY understand that saying). I also visited Madison Square Garden to see if I could take a peek inside, but sadly it's being renovated so it was all closed up. Shortly thereafter, my camera battery failed me, so I slowly (tired feet hindered me slightly!) wound my way back up to Grand Central and headed back to Bronxville. It was a LONG walk home from the station! Need to recondition my feet to get ready for this tourist lifestyle! :)

Today was AMAZING! Camera battery fully charged and ready for action, I caught a ride into the city with Donna and Holly. They had tickets to watch day one of the US Open which took place in Queens. As we arrived, we ran into Billie Jean King. Merely the first sign that it was the start of an incredible day. I'm struggling to type fast enough to satisfy my enthusiasm! :) I hopped on the subway into Manhattan, again arriving at Grand Central, this time well prepared (camera charged!) and spent the rest of the day looking up and snapping no less than 562 photographs! It was the best day :) got lovely pics of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings; visited the famed Fifth Avenue Apple store and took a ride in their Great Glass Elevator (sadly not Mr Wonka's) and made friends with a cart horse in Central Park whose name was Samson. He was a beautiful muscular black horse with a white star and the sweetest personality. I fed him carrots. He liked me... I could tell. Lovely fella :) I visited the Central Park zoo and Central Park and watched some of the seal show. Sadly that was at 16:30 and the park closes at five, so I deemed it unwise to buy tickets. But I'll be back! I then walked fifty blocks up Fifth Avenue to find the Woolworth mansion. It was the eleventh most expensive house in the world (jury's still out on whether I found that one...); found a turtle in the Jackie Kennedy reservoir dam in Central Park; named said turtle George (it felt right); got back to the tennis stadium for my ride home, and they had been handed free evening tickets and thus had decided to stay for the opening ceremony and evening matches (S. Williams and R. Federer!) so we got me a ticket and off we went! 

Well, today was my day for celeb spotting, 'cause they were all out in the Open (get it? :-P). I saw... (Drum roll please!) Billie Jean King, Selena Williams, Lenny Kravitz (performing, no less), Kevin Spacey, Zachary Levi, Olivia Wilde (didn't get a pic, sorry brother! :-P), Jason Sudeikis, Cuba Gooding Jr., Anne Burrell, New York Mayor Bloomberg, and Donald Trump and family (the whole stadium booed him, it was awkward :-D). Probably more that I've subsequently forgotten in all my excitement but that's enough name dropping for this post :) the match was a bit one sided I'm afraid (as all women's matches involving Serena tend to be because the woman is an amazon and hits the ball so hard it may as well have been shot from a canon!) unfortunately, just after Serena stylishly concluded her merciless obliteration of her poor opponent 6-0, 6-1, the skies opened and Roger's match was cancelled! I was very sad :'( But WHAT A DAY! I shall sleep with a smile tonight! :) 

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, you shall see hundreds of photos! Finally :) And then, as the sun sets, I shall be comfortably cushioned in a Broadway seat watching a Broadway production of a Broadway show ON BROADWAY!!! Phantom of the Opera... I'm lucky, I know :-D 

Stay classy beautiful people, you shall hear from me soon! c",)

Let the adventures begin!!!

I arrived in Connecticut at 5:30 on Monday evening and Jess fetched me at Hartford station. We headed off to meet her fiancé, Jimmy, at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The food was amazing but the dessert was mind blowing: white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake. They had three pages of menu dedicated solely to cheesecake (Mom, you would die!). After dinner we headed back to Jess and Jimmy's gorgeous new little apartment in Meriden and watched a movie.

This morning Jess and I headed to Hamden to hike up the Sleeping Giant (previously mentioned in "the inside scoop"). It was a lovely day and a beautiful trail. We got to the top and decided to FaceTime both our moms. Totally awesome :) when we got down, we headed into Hamden to visit the bank (I used a drive thru ATM!) and almost got hit by an absolute idjot (spelt like that intentionally) on the way out. Jess called her a poephol - I was so proud! :) 

We stopped at a jewelry store and I got myself some Alex and Ani bracelets and one for Jess as an engagement gift. They are huge thing in America right now. A sort of charm bracelet. I love them :) they are made from recycled materials and each charm has a meaning behind it. there are also various charms connected to charities which means a portion of the profits goes to the charities when you buy them. I got five bracelets: a western saddle, a feather, an Aries charm, a medallion that says Live Music and one that says Completely Blessed. I shall be a trendsetter when I get home! I am sure of it :) 

Anyway, when we got back to her apartment I met her new pet - a hedgehog named Omri! He is too cute!!! He curls up in a ball and sticks his spikes out all around him if you out him on his back! I had a good giggle when I met him!

Jess and Jimmy and I went to Sakimura for dinner and had habachi. It was awesome! They cook the food in front of you and put on a whole show, squirting saki and tossing zucchini into the patrons' mouths and spinning their spatulas etc. I caught the zucchini :) lolsies. It is awesome to watch! We took half our food home in a doggy bag, and I found out in America you make your own doggy bag! They bring the box to you and you do the rest! 

All in all a great first day back in civilisation! 

Stay classy beautiful peeps c",)

Summer camp ends

Sadly, not much to report on the end half of camp. As usual, I am so sorry for the long silence, I simply had not a moment to myself! And also, not enough happened to be worthy of a blog until camp ended. A few storms, some performances at logs, a couple days off and my tent won tent inspection two weeks in a row :) other than that not much else happened. The end of camp was interesting though.

I had a few lovely days off in second session. One of which took me on a long 4.2 mile walk down the road for a break. It was lovely! We had a few more falls which were mostly amusing and not at all serious. Poor kiddies were traumatised though :-p they're so funny when they're scared! Lolsies. Camp ended with what I can only describe as a ritual. It sounds terrifying, I know, and it was! Basically a Waldorf wedding ceremony without the rings. 

We all walked in to the camp house in our tent groups (except for myself and three others who were playing the Canon in D by Pachelbel - memories mommy? :-p) and were handed a thick birch twig as we walked in. Once all the ceremonious "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..." speeches were out of the way (yes, I'm mocking a little but not exaggerating by much!), each tent went up one at a time and our birch twigs were bound together while someone stated that the campers in tent blah blah blah were forever bonded together in camp friendship. The tent counsellor then threw the bonded twigs into a fire. I felt incredibly squirmy and awkward. After that, the campers left the next day and we sorted out all the tents for family camp before the families arrived on Tuesday! 

Family camp was far more relaxed than actual camp. Mostly we did pony ride style lessons. Some kids were so little that we had to quintuple roll the stirrup leathers and their legs didn't even reach the bottom of the saddle! Bless them, they were so cute :) one particularly cute little four year old fella, Emmett, took a shine to me. He was absolutely adorable! He asked his parents to go away so that I could babysit him. Too cute :) he was a real proper little rough 'n tumble tyke. Arrived at camp with a black eye! They just don't make kids like that anymore :) after family camp, we had a very tearful goodbye with the horses :'( for some of us, it was as close as we had ever been to having our own horse and it was pretty hard to let go! We closed up the barn far quicker than any of us thought possible, got fed far too much pizza for dinner on Sunday night and left early on Monday morning for the bus so that we could finally GTFO (Google it :-p) of Maine. I've never felt so happy and free.

I took a bus to Boston with all the riding girls. Had a tearful goodbye at South station as they went off to New York and I headed to Connecticut to meet up again with my beautiful friend Jess. As much as I won't miss camp I will definitely miss those girls! We had an amazing team. 

Stay tuned for adventures in Connecticut! And as always, stay classy c",)

Summer camp continued...

My goodness I have so much catching up to do! Days off are so precious now, I mostly do nothing but Skype home. Sorry for the long silence! 

The day after my last post was our first beach day. The weather was mizzy when we woke up, but we optimistically packed our bags for the beach and piled into four large American style school buses and off we went! Had a right giggle to myself when they sang thank you to the bus driver upon arrival at the beach :) of course, being in America, every child must have at least one life guard and someone over 21 watching them at all times in the water, so all the poor life guards had to climb into the freezing water to form a barrier for the campers to swim in. I did not envy them! The beach is not particularly exciting... We sit on rocks and the sand is dark grey. Weird, really. 

Next came my first (and fairly unexciting) Fourth of July experience. Obviously being in this environment we are limited to candy (which is usually a banned substance here!) and pretty colourful balloons instead of the more grown up experience of excessive amounts of booze and pretty sparkly fireworks. Boo :( but we had fun. We had a Shrek themed day, played loads of games, fed the kids far too much sugar and then struggled to get them to fall asleep. Surprise surprise :) we had campfire that evening and saw a few fireworks over the trees. 

After that it got blisteringly hot! Melting kind of hot. We had four falls the next morning... A day for the books :) I spent a good amount of time and energy that afternoon up to my elbows in bubbles washing  Gandalf (the grey) until he was spotlessly shining clean, released him into the pasture to graze and watched him immediately and gleefully (I know he was laughing at me!) roll in the first gloopy patch of mud he could find. Hmph. I found out that in America, when we hear thunder (take note, lightning is not mentioned here) we run for cover and walk under the trees for safety. I thought this was funny until they held me captive in the infirmary for over an hour until they deemed it safe for me to be outside again because of one dim roll of thunder in the hills. I tried to inform them that I had no fears because African thunder comes with loud noises and lots of flashing light and thus is far scarier but to no avail. I was stuck. 

The next event worth mentioning was the tent overnight. Pitched (unintentional pun!) to us as: Two tents get chosen to go on an adventure together through the woods to a random out of the way tent; light a fire; have s'mores; get to know each other and go to bed late. Basically a massive slumber party. Excited children pack their overnight bags. Laura envisions staying up late next to a dying fire while enjoying the night and maybe lying gazing at stars. Reality: walk further down the hill from the bathroom to tent that has no beds - first surprise, we sleep on the floor! - I am somewhat less than thrilled by this concept when it dawns on me that I will be doing this without the comfort of the sleeping pads that every person except me has brought with them; light a fire, quickly make s'mores then put out the fire all within the space of twenty minutes; send children off into the bush with the very real possibility of them inadvertently squatting over poison ivy, before all climbing into our sleeping bags and not sleeping all night because one of the children screams in her sleep and another kicks my head while stumbling her way out of the tent in the dark. 

The next two nights we had barn overnights. These were great fun! We split all the campers who ride into two groups and invited them to come to the barn for a night of games and fun before all sleeping on the floor in the barn. We played tug o' war, wheelbarrow races, apple bobbing and made a massive bran tub dip in Gandalf's stall. It was grand. Had a chance to go out for a counsellor ride on Friday and we got to race around like mad things in the field jumping logs and tyres. Great fun! Sunday brought in another awkward flag raising experience. I took my girls down to the lake for our last Sunday afternoon picnic together. Lovely sunset :) can't believe first session is almost over! I sang The Scientist at Logs with two of the counsellors. Really fun :) spent my day off on Tuesday in Rockland with some of the counsellors. We just wandered around and enjoyed the sleepy little seaside town. I pranked my kids back by sneaking into the tent and moving all their beds around and then pretending I knew nothing about it the next day. They were well and truly vexed :) I only admitted it was me on the last day of first session! They were thrilled. 

The full season campers put on a play called Bye Bye Birdie which was really sweet and pretty hilarious. A lot of talented kids here! Packing was a terribly stressful affair, with four trunks to do in one day and four kids who had managed to spread their goods almost over the entire camp property. But we succeeded! Parents weekend and beginning of session two will follow in my next post.

Stay tuned and stay classy c",) 

Summer camp starts!!!

Tuesday 25th... Camp has officially started!!! :) we all got dressed in our super sexy camp shorts (that was sarcasm) and tees and waited, melting slightly, in the ridiculously humid and sweltering heat for our campers to arrive. Three of mine came at 10am and the other at 3pm (it was her 10th birthday, bless her) and they are such sweet girls! Thrilled that I have such a nice group :) the one girl is almost straight of the Parent Trap (pranced into the tent like a little madam, announcing that she has an addiction to sunglasses! Lolsies.), the second is very sporty, the third is just overflowing with mischievous energy and the fourth is a quiet, socially awkward girl that asks me very profound questions about Africa... My best so far was (please read in American or it won't be half as funny) "Do they have bathrooms in Africa?" 

Woke up the next morning to very excited whispering and giggles. I myself was less than thrilled when I glanced at my watch to find out it was 5am! Even less thrilled to hear Reveille on the bugle at 7:30 and find out that that's how we'll be waking up every morning. Taps sends us to bed too. It's almost too much American for my ears to handle! (Find them on YouTube if you ain't sure what they is :-p) the first full day of camp was spent with campers wandering around seeing all the different activities and getting acquainted with camp. Felt great to be back in the barn and my filthy jods and boots! :) did a few practical assessments on the campers who boasted their abilities. Hilarity ensued and we tried our hardest not to laugh when we watched the best riders on paper ("I can walk, trot, canter and jump") bouncing like useless sacks of potatoes at a trot. We got assigned our tables today (the campers rotate, counsellors stay put) and I'm paired with a lovely girl. Yay :) 

Activities started on Thursday, and from then on my days are pretty much all the same with the exception of changes in the weather... A typical day at camp is as follows: 

7:30 Reveille blows

8:00 Breakfast

9:30 Activities begin

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Tent time

14:50 Activities resume

17:30 Tent time

18:00 Dinner

19:30 Evening activities

20:45 Taps blows (lights out)

Duties are done in shifts, either off duty during evening activities then on after Taps until 11:30pm, or on duty for evening activities and off after Taps. Sunday has no activities, Wednesday is beach day, which means everybody is shipped off to the beach for the day! Tomorrow is the first one and I'm praying desperately for warmer weather because it's currently a very chilly 14 degrees outside! Everybody is on duty on Sunday evenings. We each get one day off a week and it might never be the same day twice. I will try to post every time I have a day off.

Friday came with some bad news from the horses... Ivy had a massive gash on her near hind leg and Clover came down with colic the next day. Friday night I had my dinner night out and I went into Camden with a bunch of the girls for dinner then came back and watched a movie in Topside. Saturday I got back to my tent after activities to find my bed in the rafters (these are proper permanent tents) and all my left shoes were missing! Little monsters pranked me :) as soon as I had very convincingly feigned my shock and surprise at their cute but so predictable prank, I made them undo all of it and they had been so delighted by my reaction that they didn't even mind or notice :) bless their little hearts they are so cute and innocent. 

Sunday came with another episode of the cult gathering before we sat in some enjoyable meetings while the kids went off to write letters to their family. Later we went and sat down among the pine trees  and talked about settling in. This is a deep and serious hour we spend discussing important matters in a nondenominational manner rather than a church service because of the different backgrounds of the campers. Afterwards we had an afternoon of tent time. I read to my girls most of the afternoon. I'm reading The Magic Faraway Tree to them and I'm glad to report that they love it :) 

So today was my day off, as you have probably guessed ;) I have added a few more pics to the Washington post (taxation without representation) and done these two camp posts. I hope these will sate your appetites until my next day off! Please please please feel free to write me as many letters as you will... If you would like to write me a letter, you can get the address from mom or ask me on Facebook. I will treasure them and reply in kind! :) that's all for now, dearies! 

Stay classy c",)

Summer camp! Pre-camp!

My dear loyal followers... I am so sorry for the long silence! This is my first day off in almost a month and BOY am I tired! No technology allowed in camp (hence bad communication) so I have to leave it all across the road in my locker at Topside, the counsellor house (place of rest where we relax during our dearly needed breaks). As I warned a few of you, my updates will be few now until camp ends. But never fear, I am keeping a detailed daily journal so that you miss out on nothing in between my breaks! :) 

So, where to begin? Pre-camp, I suppose. I arrived on Saturday the 8th of June with the other riding girls. The riding staff consists of three British girls, two Irish girls and myself. Our boss is also a crazy, loud Irish woman. Hilarious and awesome. We definitely have the best department in camp! :) We quickly dumped our bags in the cabin and raced off to meet the geegees! We have twelve horses: Pi - a piebald; Penny - an appaloosa; Kirby - a little black fellow; Nico - a roan mare; Clover - a brown mare; the three greys - Fagan, Mitch and Gandalf (get it?) and the four chestnuts - Jinx, Duchess, Dory and Ivy. Duchess is one of my favourites (saucy little minx, always giving us attitude). They are a bunch of scruffy raggamuffins, but their personalities are shining through and they really are all very sweet. The first few days were spent mucking out stalls, clearing out the tack room, cleaning, sweeping (a lot! Karn is pretty strict about the barn always being clean), and just generally doing a lot of heavy labour. The beds are terrible though, they're basically hammocks in a frame. I sleep on my tummy mostly, so my back was bending like a banana! I managed to find a board eventually but for a few nights I struggled to sleep! It was also very strange to me to hear the ghostly calls of the loons on the lake and wild howls of the coyotes in the woods rather than the crickets and choruses of frogs and jackals that I'm used to when I'm sleeping on a farm! 

Our first day riding (Monday), we started out by testing all the ponies in Western saddles (definitely took some getting used to... I bruised my hand so badly on that damn horn!) then Karn took us on a manic trail ride, jumping any logs we could find, racing through forests and basically just being complete reckless twits :) We ended our ride by taking them swimming in the lake! It was so much fun!!! :) Haven't ridden like that in a long time. The horses had a bit of a surprise though because they hadn't been ridden in ages, so they were just as stiff and sore as us the next day! :) and we were SORE!!! And our boots and chaps were wet for DAYS after that because it rained for three days straight. Summer... Yay. Riding in the rain and knee deep mud was a less than pleasant experience. The horses hated it more than we did, so they were horrendous to ride! The first rainy night, the seven of us went and sat in the library next to a cosy log fire and chatted for hours. It was a nice way to get to know each other :) 

Next morning (for me) I watched mom and Charlie's wedding on Skype. Good thing my camera and sound were off! Lots of happy tears were falling :) we had loads of fun designing a poster for the riding staff of 2013. I'll post a pic soon with explanation! The next few days were filled with loads of riding (and pain!) and plenty of learning. Karn is a really great teacher. I've learned a lot from her! Sunday was a bizarre experience - standing for the raising of the flag and the pledge of allegiance. Very hard not to giggle, as I felt much like an intruder looking in on some sort of cult gathering. 

On Tuesday the rest of the counsellors arrived for pre-camp. It was hard for us riding staff to integrate as they are all old hats at this and already have their friends here. We sat in many fun meetings while the overly PC big wigs skirted around the issues we were meant to addressing and basically achieved nothing at all. The riding staff went into town together to get our social security numbers. I'm still convinced that the lady who helped me literally walked straight out of the Flintstones. She spoke the way the birthing teacher from Baby Mama speaks! (Lolsies. YouTube it, please! It will make your day!!) On Friday night we had camp fire. I was expecting a FIRE (the way we do it) but sadly the American idea of a camp fire is about the size of a Weber fire for us... Me disappoint. Found out on Sunday what tent groups we were getting... I got the little ones! Yay, just what I wanted :) so I decided on Finding Nemo as my tent theme, drew an awesome (I think :-p) poster for the tent, and got ready for my little ones to arrive! That night all the staff went out together for dinner at the Lobster Pound. I'm ashamed to admit I was too chicken to try lobster (those legs freak me out!). Finally had a chance to make friends with some of the American counsellors which was nice.

Next post will be my first week at camp :) pics might take a while... Please have patience!

Stay classy! c",)