Stay Safe

I hope that everyone in the Dallas area stays safe, you're in my thoughts xxx

Daily Positive #4

Well I discovered that trying to do the previous day's positives after I've come home from work the next day doesn't work so well. So I'll do today's positives before I head off to bed :)

- Being invited on a random night out on Thursday with my work colleagues! (I very rarely go out)

- Spending my evening sat on the floor (in my work clothes!) playing with my littlest sister

- Getting a lot of work done - I had a pretty productive day!

- My littlest sister buying a pack of Starburst, then deciding she didn't like them - guess who got to eat all the red and purple ones?!

- Getting to wear my contact lenses again! I actually got to put them in yesterday, but forgot to add that to my Daily Positive for yesterday. But it's such a positive Positive, it deserves to count for today too!

I hope you're all having a good day too :)

Daily Positive #3

Well, as this post shows, yesterday was a little frustrating, but it wasn't all bad!

- I had a nice day at work, without too much frustration.

- I got to watch a Disney film with my siblings.

- I got to go on a random trip to KFC with my work colleagues.

- Tasty take out for dinner! (I do usually eat healthily - honest!)

Confession #4

I'm also rather addicted to checking my blog Stats...

I'm fascinated by imagining who is reading this blog, where they're from, why they're reading, and how they found me.

So if you're reading this, make sure you stop by and say Hello :) I promise I'll keep the frying pans in the cupboard!

Confession #3

I'm a little obsessed with stalking camp counsellors online...

Twitter...Pintrest...Blog...If you're out there, I've probably found you and I've probably read your whole online presence, start to finish, in one sitting! I love hearing about their experiences, their suggestions, what they thought about it all, what problems they had, what games they played etc.

What can I say, I like to be prepared!

Taking the Initiative : Problem #1

So a few days ago I contacted a few camps directly, as advised to do by a Camp Director. He said he has people do that every year, and it's not an issue. I took this as gospel truth and started hunting out camps. I'm now in discussion with a camp who are very interested in my application. I contacted CCUSA to express my interest in the camp and requested they forward my details to the camp. Today I received this reply -

I am afraid that we will not be able to send your application to [CAMP] as we advise against contact camps. This is mentioned in the Interview Checklist which you signed:

Please note that CCUSA is now responsible for finding you a camp. Do not contact camps directly.

Our US Office are fantastic at finding great camps for all of our counselors, and once you are accepted onto the program, we are not able to send your application to camps that you have been in contact with. I am extremely confident that our US Office will find an amazing camp for you!

Honestly I'm quite frustrated by this reply. How was this any different to going to a Camp Fair and talking to a director there? How is this different to the FAQ question on the CCUSA website which says -

A camp in the USA has agreed to hire me - do I still have to go through the application process?

Yes, please follow the normal application procedure and include a letter of invitation or an email from the camp that is offering you a position. You must make sure your camp is currently an active camp with CCUSA. If not, please have your Camp Director call our head office in the U.S. at 1-800-999-2267. If or when your camp becomes active, we'll make sure the camp receives your completed application form so they can hire you. As your visa sponsor, CCUSA is required to thoroughly screen all applicants, even if they have a job already arranged.

I've now emailed what I hope is the USA Office for some clarification. Are they now refusing to allow me to work with this camp? Am I being punished? I'm very frustrated and quite disappointed.

I'll keep you all posted *sighs*

Confession #2

I watch too many American films and TV programmes. I've spent enough time in America to know the truth about most of the stereotypes, but I've never been to a Summer Camp before.

So I have a confession...

Part of me kind of thinks the Summer Camp will be like Parent Trap!

Or maybe Camp Rock...

(Though according to this post at the Secret Diary of a Camp Counselor...it's not that much like Camp Rock...but there are similarities!)

Daily Positive #2

Hello and welcome to #2 in my Daily Positives series!

Today is Sunday, and it's been a pretty quiet day. Me and Mum were supposed to take my two youngest siblings out, but it was such a lovely day it seemed a shame to drag them in from the garden to drive to an indoor play area! It's unusual for us to get such nice weather in March here in the UK, so we should let them enjoy it while it lasts! I've heard there's snow in the forecast soon, so there's plenty of time for playing indoors.

Today's positives -

- Getting to watch Disney DVDs with my siblings (when they weren't playing outside)

- My 3 year old sister making us all laugh with her "Rock Star" air guitar moves

- Knowing that my 3 year old sister has enough stickers on her sticker chart to earn herself a trip to the indoor play area (she has trouble sleeping, and my parents are trying to wean her into her own bed, so she gets a sticker each night she falls asleep in her bed. Baby steps, but it's proving quite effective!)

- Getting up to date on my application journey so far on this blog

- Having a very tasty, and relatively healthy, lunch of tomatoey, garlicky, cheesey pasta

- My eye is so much better I might even be able to put my lenses back in soon! This is VERY exciting since I don't wear glasses usually, and my prescription has changed a lot since I last got new glasses (about 10 years ago!). Let me tell you, it is NOT fun trying to use a computer at work all day when you don't have the right prescription glasses...!

- Being an eBay bidding machine! I successfully, manually sniped something I wanted as part of a White Rabbit costume for my friend's upcoming Alice In Wonderland Tea Party.

- Finding lots of camp games and activities on Pintrest

I think that's enough for today, like I said, it was a pretty quiet day :)

Hope you've had a lovely day, and that you find at least one good thing that happened today :)

Application : Pre-existing Medical Condition

There is a question on the exhaustive, initial application which asks "Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions?". I was aware at this point that I would have to complete a Medical Form.

Now I had recently been told I had some "potential kidney scarring". This doesn't cause me any trouble at all, other than the confusion of not knowing why I have said scarring. I had an appointment with the Urologist coming up, but that wouldn't be for a few weeks after I was filling out the application.

I originally said "No", I did not have any pre-existing medical conditions. Then I found out about this Medical Form. Would this scarring be mentioned on the form? If I said "No" originally, and then my doctor answered "Yes", would I look like I had lied? Would that then be detrimental to my application?

I eventually decided to be better safe than sorry, and be honest. So I said "Yes" but explained that I had no trouble, no medication, and it was almost unremarkable.

Turned out to be more trouble than it was worth!

CCUSA still accepted my application, but now require that I complete a "pre-existing medical condition" form, to be signed off by my doctor. I explained that my referral appointment wasn't for a few weeks, and I wasn't even sure what would happen at that point. But they insisted.

So I went to my appointment, knowing that camps might not want me, or I might be put on hold, until I can prove that I'm not on dialysis, and won't to die on them.

And my doctor wouldn't sign the form.

He's sending me for some more tests (but admits they probably won't show anything, and will confirm that really...it's nothing!) and won't complete it until then. Argh! Mostly I think it's just because the department was running over an hour behind on their appointments and he was in a rush...

So, much to my irritation, I'm still perfectly fit and healthy, but still don't have one daft piece of paper confirming that.

The most frustrating thing?

It didn't even get mentioned on my Medical Form.

Application : Police Check

I've been putting off completing this form for weeks. I've filled out a lot of CRB forms in my life and I just couldn't bear the thought of trawling through the long, tedious from.

But today I finally sat down and went at it. And it wasn't that bad! It's not the usual CRB form, it's some other police check form. It literally took me about 5 minutes to do.

Now all I need to do is add my passport number to the form, take a copy of my passport photo page, make copies of 2 recent official letters with my name and address on, and take a passport sized photo. All this then gets sent off, with a cheque for £35, wait a while, then I'll get a certificate confirming that my record is clean enough to eat off!

This certificate will need uploading onto my CCUSA account, and I'll also need to take it with me to camp.

I'll come back and update this post once I get my certificate...

Application : Taking the Initiative Replies #1 & #2

My first two replies to my email, which was me contacting camps directly, both came through the same night I sent it.

The first one was within 45 minutes. Sadly it was just to say that they were fully staffed for the summer, but thanked me for my interest. That's why I combined the two replies into one blog post - not worth an individual one for such a short reply!

The second reply came through 3 hours after I sent it. It was from one the program director of the camps for "at-risk" children.

He was really positive, was delighted I was so passionate about what they do and was very pleased I'd come to them directly. Score 1 for being cheeky and impatient!

He directed me to their "job-listings" page, so I could familiarise myself with what my options would be (not fencing unfortunately, but this woman has many hats!). He asked if I had any restrictions on dates (I don't) and invited me to contact my CCUSA rep and express an interest in their camp. He has contacted his CCUSA rep to see if it "makes sense to put me on review with the camp", and sounds very keen to get the ball rolling. He's actually out of state on a Spring Break "service trip" with some of the teens for the next couple of weeks, but is still keen to get things moving with CCUSA and see what we can get done next week. This is even though he'll apparently have limited internet/email access!

Positive sounding indeed!

I think the work they do sounds really wonderful, and I would love to be a part of that.

Fingers crossed :)

Application : Taking the Initiative

So I'd been turned down by a camp - the only camp to have shown an interest in me. What now?

Well, I picked myself up, dusted myself off...and got on with my life.

I'd learned something very interesting...that it was OK for me to contact camps and do the "leg-work" rather than wait for them to come to me.

I got my rejection email that morning, and that night I sat down, and started searching the American Camp Association website.

Obviously there are a lot of camps out there, and I couldn't apply to them all! Rather than search by state (which is an option), I decided my search criteria would be -

- Co-ed Camp (I think it's important for boys and girls to learn to work together, respect each other, and that girls are just as good as boys)

- Overnighter Camp (I know it'd be half as much work to be a counsellor at a Day Camp, but it also seems like it'd be half as much fun!)

- Fencing and Archery Programmes (I do both sports, and it'd give me a variety of activities I could take part in)

This brought up quite a few camps, though insisting on a fencing programme seriously reduced my list! It's not a very common sport, I've found. I was still faced with pages and pages of camps, so I added to my criteria, to get a short-list. I decided not to go for states that I knew would be almost unbearably hot. California and Florida were immediately struck from the list!

I also decided that to begin with, I wouldn't apply for camps that were hugely focussed on religion. I have been raised to respect all religions and views. If they're not causing any harm...what does it matter that they're different to me? So I chose to exclude religion-specific camps to begin with.

Eventually, after some more whittling, I ended up with a short-list of about 6 camps.

Then I reviewed my search criteria. These were all Traditional camps. I was quite disappointed that none of the camps offering Fencing were "Inner-City/Underprivileged Camps". I'd felt really drawn to this type of camp.

So I started a new list. My initial criteria was the same - Co-Ed, Overnighter. But I searched for camps that catered to "at risk" and "inner city" children. This brought up a much shorter list to choose from. In the end, I had 4 camps on that short-list.

I applied for all 10 camps that night. I wasn't sure what I needed to say in my email, since I didn't know if all they needed was my name and they could search an online database or something. I think it took about an hour to construct my basic application email!

In the end I -

- Attached my CV (resume)

- Explained I was using CCUSA and had taken the initiative to apply direct to them

- Enthused about their camp

- Briefly explained who I was (name, age, location, bit about me, etc)

- Gave a brief summary of my most relevant work with children

- Explained why I want to work at camp/with children

- Summarised my university study, my full-time work and my future career aims

- Detailed my interests/hobbies

It was quite a short email, four paragraphs long, each paragraph about 5 or 6 lines. But it had all the important details - the "highlights" of my indepth CCUSA application. It was to the point, bubbly, perky and enthusiastic! I channeled my inner-American and bounced away from the typical British reservedness!

Then it was time to once again sit...and wait...

***Warning*** Please see this post which involves my reply from CCUSA following my emails to these camps. I'll keep updating when I hear more from CCUSA.

Application : Interview #1

Once my application was sent over to America, I thought I had to just sit and wait.

So I did.

Seventeen long days went by without a word, then suddenly...

An email arrived! A camp got in touch and invited me to have a Skype interview with them. I emailed back within 2 hours (it went to my junk mail so I didn't see it right away - watch out for that!), and by the time I went to bed, we'd arranged a time...

...For the very next day!

Wow, they were keen! This was great! 8pm the next day I dressed up into a nice top (bright, fun, but smart-ish), put in some pretty earrings, did my hair etc, and sat down for my interview.

The camp director was a lovely man, very nice and cheerful. It felt like an overall positive interview. He praised my application, said it was very enthusiastic, I had a lot of experience working with kids, and it was great that I was a fencer. He said any camp would snap my hand off, since that's quite a difficult skill to find.

Part way through the interview though, he told me that I was able to apply to camps directly, and encouraged me to do so. He said I could search for camps on the American Camp Association website and contact them myself. I could send an email over, explain I was with CCUSA and ask if they would be interested.

This confused me a lot...was he politely trying to let me know I should be looking elsewhere? He said he and the other directors would be discussing the latest batch of applicants the next day, and I'd hear by the end of the week. He did warn me that they were almost full, as they'd had a lot of early applicants that year. Again...letting me down gently...?

A couple of days later he got back in touch, to let me know I was unsuccessful. I'll admit, I was pretty gutted. I had picked up signs in the interview, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but still...no-one likes being rejected! I did ask for feedback though, and got this reply, which others might find useful too -

Hi,

I thought your interview was fine and I don't have any specific feedback. Because we interview so many people, often it is a mixture of many different factors that go into our final decisions. Something to keep in mind when interviewing is that camps want counselors who have both a big, enthusiastic personality and good judgment and decision making. Other traits to play up include a positive attitude, the ability to adapt to changing situations, and a focus on kids, kids, kids!

Good luck, I'm sure you will find a great camp for the summer.

So, rejection does happen, and it can hurt! But it was a useful experience.

It was my first ever Skype interview, so now I know what that's like.

I got feedback which I can bear in mind (when asked "Why do you want to work at camp?" should I have focussed more on my love of working with kids, than my enthusiasm for learning new thing?).

Most importantly - I learned that I can apply to camps myself. I didn't know that before! I thought I had to sit and wait for camps to contact me.

Also, remember that no matter how positive and keen a camp seems, until you have that offer...don't take anything for granted.

I know it's hard to think it might fall through, God knows I'm a very optimistic person! But if we weren't optimistic, if we were pessimistic and all "Oh this will never happen for me...", then we probably shouldn't be applying for Summer Camp :)

So it's ok to be researching costs and be looking at the local area, it's good to be excited about the idea and to know what you'd be getting yourself in for if you DID get accepted...just don't start booking flights just yet :)

Daily Positive #1

I can't promise to remember to update this daily, but I think it's really important to take time to think about at least one positive from every day.

I find that it does me good to think about all the things I have to be thankful for, and the ways that I'm a very lucky young woman. Some days it might be small things, some days it might be big things, but every day, I'm very lucky.

When I'm having a bad day, when it's hard to smile and be "perky", it's good to remember that there's a little good in everything, if you take the time to find it.

My positives from yesterday (Saturday)...

- Having a lie in

- Hearing back from a camp I really want to work with

- Starting this new blog!

- Getting to spend the day playing with my two littlest siblings

- Having a lovely luxurious bath

- Seeing that my eye is healing quite nicely (I'm recovering from a bout of shingles that affected my left eye)

- Getting to chat to a couple of friends I haven't heard from in a while

- Take out pizza for dinner!

- Starting a Pintrest board to "pin" camp games and activity ideas to (called "Camp Granada" after the song 'Hello mudda...hello fadda...here I am at...Camp Granada!')

Application : Medical Form

As part of the application, I was required to complete a Medical Form. This had to be signed by a medical practitioner and basically had to show that I wasn't going to keel over and die on them at camp!

Rather than explain this to the receptionist at the doctor's surgery, and risk having them try and make me pay for a medical, I simply made an appointment to see the doctor.

I went to see my GP, who's known me since I was 10 (and was very shocked to realise that I'm nearly 23!), and is a very nice doctor. I explained what I was applying for, and that I needed this form filling out. I'd completed most of it, it was just the end section I needed doing.

He gave me a very quick medical exam - checked my height, weight, bone structure, teeth (we're not sure why my teeth) etc, then signed it all off. Done and dusted in less than 10 minutes I think!

It was all very quick and simple, and most importantly - free! Don't let them try and make you pay for your medical, it's really not necessary.

Application : Step Three

After my interview I had to get my skates on and get some paperwork together. I needed three references, from people who were not "friends, family or relatives" (I'm still puzzling over the difference between "family" and "relatives"!). For people in education this would be quite simple, get a reference from teachers, or from your part-time job etc. I was stuck with a big problem though. I work full-time, haven't been in education for a few years, and didn't think my team leaders could do my reference! Luckily three of my team leaders agreed to fill out the questionnaire :)

There was a moment of panic though, as my interviewer told me I needed the references in within 7 days of being accepted onto CCUSA. This was incorrect. It was 7 days from my interview.

My interview was on the Sunday, and I found this out on the Wednesday night! Cue major panic! I hassled my team leaders on the Thursday and got it all sorted out in time though. I scanned them onto my online profile and sent them in the post on Friday. Then emailed to make sure they arrived!

Approximately a week and a half after my interview, I was accepted onto CCUSA. Yay!

I now had to pay some more money (I chose the "non-flight" option, which I may live to regret, but based on me being utterly broke at the time, it seemed to make sense). This was my acceptance fee.

After that, my application winged it's way over to America...