It's sunny!

Good morning readers! I am sooooo happy to say that we *finally* woke up to some sun here at Iawah! It's been cloudy and cold the last few days, with rain on and off, which made some activities a bit difficult. I was lucky to be wearing a wetsuit at waterski, but campers were visibly cold after runs. On Tuesday, it was warmer in the water than out. Ick.

The past few days have been rather uneventful. I'm settling into the waterski routine, and as the week goes by campers don't require as much instruction/help, meaning more "dry time" (on dock) for me. It's still fun though as i get to chat with campers about their day, what they like, what they've been up to. It's a really relaxed and chilled atmosphere.

On a related note, i've been finding the job really rewarding. For example, on Tuesday during fifth period (free time, this is when the kids who don't come to waterski as one of their set daily activities have a chance to come by - not the best time, as water gets choppier as the day goes by), a kid came by who had only tried kneeboarding once, at a cottage, but hadn't been able to get up. I took him out 1-on-1 (we usually do two campers/one instructor) as he was visibly nervous, and prepped in the water much longer than usual, reassuring him that it was going to work and that he was going to have a great time. We finally hit it, i popped on, then rode over to assist him, stabilizing his board while encouraging him non-stop as he took a loooong time getting up. But once up - that kid was having the time of his life! His ear-to-ear grin said it all, and back at dock he immediately wanted to go out again. It's times like those that make the work easy, and really fun :)

The flip side, of course, is during a wipeout when a kid's stray kneeboard wacks you in the back of the head - making you very thankful for the lifejacket you're wearing and your own floaty kneeboard you're holding on to! (no worries, it's only a bruise!)

Some other fun moments of the past few days:

• having a toenail painting party with my roomies. I now have green-with-purple-polkadots toenails;
• watching the campers on the Blob (giant inflated air chamber - one kid sits on the end, another jumps on the other end from a height, making camper one fly off into the water);
• during a waterfront emergency simulation, i had to be hauled out of the water into the old waterski boat, which is quite a challenge as it doesn't have the dock-thingy out back. A few minutes before, Bowser and I had been discussing how amazing the cafeteria's muffins were, but when Bowser had to haul me in (i guess i was heavier than expected, ha ha!), he exclaimed "dude! exactly how many muffins have you had?!" and we had a good laugh about it once in the boat.

Ahhh.. okay, off to breakfast. I'm starving!

Flick