Adventures at Camp
I spent my Labor Day weekend at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch as a camp counselor. As much as I was dreading it, it turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience. It was amazing!
9/1/2006 8:59:58 PM
9/1/2006 8:59:58 PM
I just arrived at the camp where I signed in and moved into my cabin. After a long two hour car ride through lots and lots of fog over Berthoud Pass (NOT FUN!), I’m finally here. Traffic was horrific. Everyone was rushing to try to leave town. My head is pounding at the moment. And, poor Chisolm - the last text message he received from me read, “OMG. I’m in the middle of no where. What did I get myself into?” The next thing I knew, I was out of service area and never got back to him.
You see, I agreed to be a counselor at this camp, the OLDEST counselor, the ONLY ADULT COUNSELOR at this camp this weekend. Apparently, last year, there were some strange pranks played between the boy & girl counselors so they changed the age limit to 18+ so in order for the under 18 counselors to participate, they need a “supervising adult” to share a cabin with. Enters, Samm. So, I’m sharing a cabin 10 17-year-old girls. Oh joy… Ugh…… Seriously! What DID I get myself into?
Well, thankfully, there were no activities scheduled for today. I went to bed so late last night and got my hair done at 1 o’clock today. It ended up taking four hours! I miss Chisolm like crazy! He was gone for a week and a half in Vegas for the APA team thing, came back for 3 nights, left for Vail for two nights for golf, came back for one night, and now I’m gonna be gone for three nights only to see him for only one night and then won’t get to see him again for another two nights later. This sucks!
9/3/2006 7:14:58 AM
Day 2. So, as it turns out, the 10 teenagers I was expecting turned out to only be six (one of whom is an older sister that is staying with us to hang out with her younger sister). The two sisters speak my native tongue, one girl has a serious chip on her shoulder & is bitter towards everyone (especially me since she’s forced to share a cabin with me), one is a foreign exchange student from China (Sophia), and the other two are good friends from the same h.s. (DiDi and Megan). They’re my favorite! I wish I could’ve been just like them at their age. They’re two beautiful, intelligent girls with such a great head on their shoulders and so much going for them. They’re so mature and I found myself having hours and hours of intellectually simulating conversations with them.
Yesterday was a jam-packed day that started at 7a.m. and ended somewhere after midnight.
At 7:30a.m., we headed over to the cafeteria for breakfast. There, I met Terrence. I had no idea at the time that he would end up being such a great resource for the weekend. He just asked to sit at the table with us and we quickly became friends. He is half Chinese and half Dutch. His wife is 100% Dutch. They have two adopted children, a 10 year old black daughter and a 7 year old white son. He wants to adopt an Asian baby next. He is really a true Samaritan.
From 10-11-ish, the counselors huddled in a huge group in the parking lot where we participated in several team building activities also called “Friend Groups.” Some activities included passing the hula hoop through a circle while holding hands with the person beside you, passing more foreign objects while only using specific parts of your body, and various other tasks that required running, chasing, and nearly injuring ourselves. Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
The next hour was would be absolute torture. The group I was selected to be in was the “Independence Red Dogs.” The groups are all named after dogs of some color. This simply means that two other counselors and I were in charge of 30 sixth graders. Potential nightmare, you’re thinking? Yes, it would be for this next hour.
Unfortunately, the next hour would be scheduled for “Friendship Groups” and no workshops or activities were planned. It would be our first hour with our kids and we (some as new counselors) would be expected to spontaneously entertain them with random get-to-know-each-other activities. Since we had an older group, many of them had participated in most of these things for years and were not very interested in being involved. I had a heart to heart with the two culprits but it didn’t seem to help.
Fortunately, there were these two adorable friends who had taken a liking to me and had deemed themselves my personal right and left hands. Mandi & Tessa. They were very sweet.
Lunch was next
From 1-2p.m. we were scheduled for an art project where the kids were allowed to iron on their own Chinese Zodiac sign on their shirts. There were also small words that went along with each sign that they could cut out and put on their shirt however they wanted. Amazingly, only one camper burned herself.
Next, we broke into three groups, Chinese Dance, Kung Fu, and Tai Chi. I requested the Tai Chi (not to be confused with Chai Tea) because it seemed like it would be the mellowest. It would turn out to be an enriching experience. I really enjoyed it a lot. We learned a routine that will be performed Sunday night. I hope I don’t screw it up. My thighs are sore from practicing.
When we got back to the cabin, we walked around and collected some firewood. I started a huge fire in the fireplace. Megan, DiDi, and I pulled the cushions off the couches and hung out in front of the fire telling stories about ourselves. It was really nice.
9/3/2006 7:14:58 AM
Day 2. So, as it turns out, the 10 teenagers I was expecting turned out to only be six (one of whom is an older sister that is staying with us to hang out with her younger sister). The two sisters speak my native tongue, one girl has a serious chip on her shoulder & is bitter towards everyone (especially me since she’s forced to share a cabin with me), one is a foreign exchange student from China (Sophia), and the other two are good friends from the same h.s. (DiDi and Megan). They’re my favorite! I wish I could’ve been just like them at their age. They’re two beautiful, intelligent girls with such a great head on their shoulders and so much going for them. They’re so mature and I found myself having hours and hours of intellectually simulating conversations with them.
Yesterday was a jam-packed day that started at 7a.m. and ended somewhere after midnight.
At 7:30a.m., we headed over to the cafeteria for breakfast. There, I met Terrence. I had no idea at the time that he would end up being such a great resource for the weekend. He just asked to sit at the table with us and we quickly became friends. He is half Chinese and half Dutch. His wife is 100% Dutch. They have two adopted children, a 10 year old black daughter and a 7 year old white son. He wants to adopt an Asian baby next. He is really a true Samaritan.
From 10-11-ish, the counselors huddled in a huge group in the parking lot where we participated in several team building activities also called “Friend Groups.” Some activities included passing the hula hoop through a circle while holding hands with the person beside you, passing more foreign objects while only using specific parts of your body, and various other tasks that required running, chasing, and nearly injuring ourselves. Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
The next hour was would be absolute torture. The group I was selected to be in was the “Independence Red Dogs.” The groups are all named after dogs of some color. This simply means that two other counselors and I were in charge of 30 sixth graders. Potential nightmare, you’re thinking? Yes, it would be for this next hour.
Unfortunately, the next hour would be scheduled for “Friendship Groups” and no workshops or activities were planned. It would be our first hour with our kids and we (some as new counselors) would be expected to spontaneously entertain them with random get-to-know-each-other activities. Since we had an older group, many of them had participated in most of these things for years and were not very interested in being involved. I had a heart to heart with the two culprits but it didn’t seem to help.
Fortunately, there were these two adorable friends who had taken a liking to me and had deemed themselves my personal right and left hands. Mandi & Tessa. They were very sweet.
Lunch was next
From 1-2p.m. we were scheduled for an art project where the kids were allowed to iron on their own Chinese Zodiac sign on their shirts. There were also small words that went along with each sign that they could cut out and put on their shirt however they wanted. Amazingly, only one camper burned herself.
Next, we broke into three groups, Chinese Dance, Kung Fu, and Tai Chi. I requested the Tai Chi (not to be confused with Chai Tea) because it seemed like it would be the mellowest. It would turn out to be an enriching experience. I really enjoyed it a lot. We learned a routine that will be performed Sunday night. I hope I don’t screw it up. My thighs are sore from practicing.
When we got back to the cabin, we walked around and collected some firewood. I started a huge fire in the fireplace. Megan, DiDi, and I pulled the cushions off the couches and hung out in front of the fire telling stories about ourselves. It was really nice.
posted by Samm @ 9/04/2006 08:01:00 PM
3 Comments:
I love Tai Chi, but I do not like Chai Tea.
only adult counselor? not really...as all but a handful were over 18. and there was a large group of us over 21. and quite a few over 25. :D
sounds like fun. i didn't get to hear about your experiences as much so i'm glad you blogged about them.
Excuse me, not the "only" adult counselor, but (almost) the OLDEST...
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