The first campers are here!

Yes, the day has come - the first campers have arrived to Iawah! This week's a short week, Tuesday to Saturday, and it's family camp, meaning whole families are here. This allows parents with children younger than would normally come to Iawah to spend a few days as a family and enjoy everything camp has to offer! This is also quite nice for me, because as activity staff... it means lots of time off(!) No worries, i won't get bored, it'll allow me to catch up on sleep and reading. I'm also rediscovering my creative side, which is great.

So as i type this, it's early evening, i'm sprawled in the staff lounge, looking outside the window i can see lots of green and Wolfe Lake. I can hear the excited shrieks of kids and parents outside playing icebreakers. And I have the evening as free time. Which is great, as it's giving me a chance to update you, dear readers! (and hopefully to finally get an early evening!)

Quick recap of the last 24 hours:

• Completely sucked at kneeboarding yesterday. It was windy, the waves were choppy... and i got frustrated. Not too proud... kudos to my instructor Matt who kept encouraging me throughout.
• Moved out of Robin's Nest, the cabin where i stayed during Staff Camp (the first week) yesterday morning, and into room 3 of Upper Iawah (the upper level of the main lodge). This room is quite small, there's 5 of us in it, and everyone else brought about twice the amount of personal belongings I did. Very crowded.
• Just before lunch today, the staff at the table next to mine started a plastic glass tower. If you've been to Iawah, it's the plastic drinking glasses at every meal! They got to 17 glasses piled up before the great collapse. Basically, they had the tower going from the tabletop to 2 inches below the ceiling. Futur engineers, maybe?
• Moved out of room 3 after lunch today and into room 1, a quieter room with older staff. Much better for my sanity ;) I will be there for the next three weeks.
• Got my first real camp experience as I served dinner tonight (table-hopped). It went well!

The rest of my week is pretty mellow, I'll be teaching archery in the afternoons and helping out for various camp-wide games in the evening. Since tomorrow's Canada day, there's talk of the entire camp heading into Westport to see the fireworks! How cool would that be?!

Last but not least, camp name update! The votes were cast, and I shall now forever be known at Iawah as.... *drum roll* Flick!! It's funny that none of the original nominations got kept, but i do quite like it.

Good night!

Flick

5 days down, a lot to go!

Hey guys,

So - it's here, my first day off, and to celebrate, I'm home! Well, at the Roebucks really, but it's just like being home :) 

In short, this first week has completely blown my expectations. Camp is what i wanted it to be, but so much more as well... everything is amazing. Peter and Proulx came to visit/pick me up earlier, and Proulx marvelled quite a bit at the sight of my summer dwellings! Peter did oooh and aaaah as well, but he'd been there before, so it doesn't count, right?

To start, i've realized today that my theme for the summer is COMMIT. Meaning don't do things halfway, stick your mind to it and dive in, all out, 100%. Commit to running my butt off at waterfront drills, commit to pulling out of the water on the first try at waterskiing, commit to figuring out that 360 turn at wakeboarding, commit to that verse i'm studying, commit to my faith, commit to that trampoline trick I've been trying to learn, commit and tell your story when someone asks you to. Go. Do it. So far, it's been humbling as i've wiped out, fallen on my face, cried a few tears, taped my ankle, swallowed a mouthful of lake water... but it's also been GREAT. 

Things i've learned this week:

• Camp food rocks. I predict that i will have gained 20 pounds by the end of the summer. 
• Camp games are silly but fun. Pick up ultimate, idiot ball (a variant of european handball, i'm told) and brog (a mix of capture the flag and flag football) totally brought out the competitive kid in me. Sweet.
• I can now kneeboard and waterski. I am so proud to announce that i got up on my own for the first time in both sports today, and didn't wipe out once in session this afternoon!! Wooooo!
• Last but not least, and perharps more importantly, I've learned to make time in a day for what really matters. Each morning, we were given a particular verse or self-examining questions to meditate on alone for 30 minutes. Then, we met with our IAWAH pods to discuss thoughts and feelings relating to our individual meditations, and finally, head into a session given by a guy named Gary (he used to play ultimate! So he's automatically cool!), a fantastic speaker who really drove points home. Very, very good. Left me good to go for the rest of the day. 

On a final note, the search for my camp name continues! I have had several nominations, and do have a favorite - but we'll see what gets voted in! Dear readers, maybe you can pick your favorite? Nominations are, in no particular order:

• Swiss Cheese or Swissie: because, like the cheese, i have many holes (piercings)
• Ultimate: duh.
• Indarye: the association is a bit more complicated - from "catcher in the rye", keyword being "catcher" because i play frisbee, but Indarye because you have to figure it out.

I'm heading back tomorrow evening, have more training planned for Monday, then Tuesday, the first camp starts!! It's a short week of family camp, so a bit easier than usual, but i'm looking forward to the real thing! Eeeek!

Bug-swattingly yours,

G

End of day 2!

So I've now been at rockin' Camp IAWAH for 1.5 day, and its been AWESOME!

Highlights:

• Spending Tuesday afternoon in the water learning to kneeboard and water ski;
• How everyone is super friendly and fun and how the fact that i'm on average 8 years older than most staff doesn't matter (they all think i'm 25... except my cabin ladies, who now refer to me as the big sister/mom;
• Tying an egg to an inverted paper cup parachute-like with straws will NOT protect said egg on impact when egg is shot out of a catapult;
• My Ipod (IAWAH pod), basically a mini-Bible study group, ROCKS. I totally got the best one. Blue rocks!!

Lowlights:

• Only one so far: rolling my ankle while attempting a front flip on the trampoline (didn't quite stick the landing... sigh) Meaning i have to sit out on the night hike tonight, poopy! Oh well, more quiet time for me, and less getting eaten by bugs. Have to see the good side, really!

Three more days until my first "escape" home. I can't believe how attached i am to camp already. It's crazy!

Marshmallow-roastingly yours,

G

Tranform, and roll out!

Tuesday June 23, 8:02am. 

My bag (yes, singular) is packed, and we're leaving in 2.5 hours for camp. Bit anxious, excited. I think there's a little colony of butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of the day, the week, the summer to come. 

A few things I've discovered while packing:

• Sleeping bag compressors are your best friend;
• Writing your name on tiny underwear tags is quite hard when all you have is a fat-tip Sharpie (hopefully, no one else will have a black blob masquerading as "g" as ID);
• No matter how hard you try to pick up everything you need two weeks prior, you'll still need to hit Mountain Equipment Co-op and drop another $150 the day before leaving.

Off to shower and breakfast. And hopefully, find a way to zip up that duffle bag without warping the Frisbee inside.

G

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Summer of....

[blog resurrected]

By now, most of you know that i'm giving up ultimate and heading off to work at Camp IAWAH for the summer, leaving Ottawa June 23. 

During that time, i'll do my best to post weekly blog updates, so that my 2 (or is it 3?) faithful readers can follow my outdoors adventure. 

Stay tuned....