Summer Camp!

Eight days in and I don't think I stand a chance on catching up on Camp NaNo.  I've only written something on one day, and even then it was only 500 words!

That's right, summer camp has officially started (for me)!  The kids all arrived yesterday, and my cabin are a lovely group of six girls aged 11 to 14.  My co-counsellor is from New Zealand, and she's lovely too.  It seems like we have a great group of girls, though I suspect there's potential for some serious attitude. Going to have to stamp all over that!

I'll be teaching archery this summer (for real this time, not like last summer where I got qualified and then switched out to Journalism!).  The activity leader was one of the youth leaders (known as a CIT - Counsellor in Training) last year, so it's pretty cool to see her as a full counsellor, and leading the activity that she helped out at most last year.  Another of the CIT's I knew last year is also a full counsellor now - she was my CIT almost every session, so I'm like a super proud parent.  One of my campers is a CIT this year, and I'm very proud of her too!  It's great getting to see campers I knew from last year, and realising just how many of them remember me.  I keep having to enlist assistance from people to sneakily find out names - I feel guilty that the kids know my name, and I don't always know their's!

It's not quite so hot in Indy this year, though it has its moments.  It's much more overcast and damp, which I think means more mosquitos.  Yuck!  My feet are already covered in bites, and my legs are looking pretty bad too.  I try and avoid walking through the grass as much as I can, but it's not always possible.  Tuesday night will be our camp-out night, so I'll probably get bitten up so bad, I'll not know what I was complaining about today!

Today was the first proper day, so it's hard to say how I'm doing, and if I'm getting back into the swing of things, but I'd like to think that I am!  I'm feeling pretty tired, but I didn't sleep too well last night so I'm not surprised. I'm a light sleeper, and I've stopped being used to sharing a room, so being in a cabin with six girls who snore, talk, and wriggle...Well it doesn't lead to a great night's sleep.  Hopefully tonight will be better.  The kids should be pretty tired, so should probably go to sleep and not be so restless.  They all woke up at 7am today, even though they didn't need to get up until 8am. I was laid in my bed like...go back to sleeeep!  I was wanting to nap on my break, but I don't have a device with an alarm with me (it's in the cabin). So frustrating!  Plus all my bedding is in the cabin too, not in my staff quarters...

I'm hoping that I get to go to Walmart (or Walgreens, or whatever, I'm not fussy about that!) sometime soon.  I'd like to stock up on snacks for when I'm being fussy about camp food.  I need to pay more attention to which Americans have a car.  The ones I know of aren't on the same break as me.  It can be quite frustrating not being able to get anywhere independently.  I'm used to having my own car and being able to go out on my breaks if I want to.  Last year I got to know everyone very well during staff training, so there was always someone with a car.  I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough, though!

All the best,
Charli