Session B

Ok so session B is on the road, and almost finished. This fast and furious week has been a whole lot of fun, but it's certainly been tiring!!! Session B is only one week. Campers arrive on monday, and go home on the saturday, but we manage to pack a whole lot into that short amount of time. One of my favourite activities we've done this week is Counselor Hunt. As the name tends to suggest, it involves the campers hunting for counselors. It's kind of like hide and seek, except that the people hiding know the terrain, are willing to hide in simply ridiculous places, and most were wearing camouflage clothing of some description. I deviously hid in plain sight in the second round... sitting on the dining hall porch with other counselors, and the campers simply overlooking me!!

We had the talent show tonight which is always fun, and tomorrow we have our last full day of activities, then cabin afternoon, where we do an activity with just the guys in our cabin. So for those of you who are interested, the activities I've been teaching this week for session B have been: hiking, archery, free swim, and campfire cooking.

See you next time!!!

Almost the end of the beginning

Well session A is starting to draw to a close. It feels like it's only just begun in a lot of ways, you get to know the campers you see regularly better, and you're just getting comfortable with things, and then it's time for them to leave again.

Well there's been a few events since trip day, most notably the talent show, which was Wednesday night, and tonight we had Chinese restaurant and the famous square dance. It's always a very festive night, with everyone getting dressed up in their best clothes for the meal. We decorate our dining hall with themed decorations (in this case dragons, lanterns and pandas) and we have waiters who serve us food. It's a big step up from regular camp food, so it's really nice!!! It was also quite amusing to see so many (counselors and campers alike) struggle to use the chopsticks which had been provided. Many resorted instead to the "plan B fork" which had kindly been provided by the kitchen staff.

After the meal was over, we all got into out overalls, straw hats, and checked shirts for the square dance. A highlight on the session calender, the square dance really cannot be described in words, it must be experienced. After an exhausting few dances, it was time for greens (the younger campers) call to quarters. This is because they also have an earlier lights out time, so it gives us as counselors plenty of time to make sure that campers are getting changed, showered and ready for bed, and not sneaking into empty cabins or throwing sticks at each other (I know i was probably similarly behaved at that age, haha )

Well as i mentioned, session A is almost complete. The final full day is tomorrow, which will culminate with the final council ring, where songs will be sung, awards will be given, and memories will be made. Session B is right around the corner... it's only a 1 week session so it's pretty fast and furious. We have time off over the weekend, and I've received several offers to stay at other counselors places over the weekend. I have the option of staying at camp also, which I have to admit, is mighty appealing, considering the rest I could get by just relaxing and not road tripping all over the countryside. We'll see i guess!! Til next time...

Trip Day Session A

The Chaos Crew
My raft hitting some big rapids on the Chattooga River

Ok so every 2 week session at camp there is a trip day. On trip day, we leave camp, and the campers get to go do something cool for the day. This can range from going tubing on a local river, to whitewater rafting on class 5 rapids, based on how many years campers have been coming to camp.

Most fortunately, I was selected to be the trip leader for the 6th year camper trip. Whitewater rafting on the Chattooga River. Now I was going to try to get through this entry without making a reference to the movie Deliverance... but I think I'll just mention it now, and be done with it. Part of the movie was shot on the Chattooga river, and we even went through the rapids from the movie. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We arrived at the NOC (Natahala Outdoor Centre) Chattooga River Outpost at about 8:10am. We were briefed on the dangers, and adventures that awaited us on the river. We then all jumped aboard a blue schoolbus which took us to the put-in. We were introduced to our guide Brian, who we collectively decided to nickname Chief Eagle Flame. We referred to our raft as the chaos crew... ironic because we were like a hot knife through butter through every rapid except the last one. Other nicknames in our raft included Squirtle, Hammertime, Toodles, Snickers, Rocksteady, and Bebop.

We did well up until the last rapid, where i didn't shift my weight fast enough and subsequently fell out of the raft, taking out another person in the process. Not my finest moment, but hey, I had a whole lot of fun. So after it was all done, we wandered back to camp, and got changed for dinner. Every trip eats dinner somewhere out of camp, depending how far away their trip takes them. Since the rafting place was only 20 min down the road, we were going to the local pizza place for dinner. We had a great time there, and soon enough it was time to head back to camp. An epic trip day, filled with fun, adventure, and new friends ;) GOOD TIMES!!!

Session A

Well, the summer proper has finally started. The camp is full of kids, and all's right with the world. Session A (as you probably gathered from the letter) is the first session of the summer. It runs for 2 weeks, and already, has been a lot of fun. Here at Chatuga, counselors teach activities, as well as live in the cabins with the campers. Due to the large amount of counselors this session, I'm a co-counselor, which means I'm paired up with another counselor in a cabin. The other counselor in my cabin, Joe (aka Gonzo) is a first year counselor, but has really connected well with the kids so far. We make a great team!!

We had our cabin campout last night. We take our campers out, and let them experience cooking on an open fire (and for boys, poking sticks into the fire then waving them about while flaming/glowing/smoking, meanwhile we, as counselors are making sure nobody's being dangerous) making shelter, and for the older campers, sleeping out under the stars. This session, because I have younger campers, we just cooked our dinner over the fire, then came in at 10pm, and slept in our cabin. The campout was punctuated by rain (it may be a dry week, but it always rains on campout night, FACT!! :) ) but we had a nice big fire going, so it wasn't too bad. We had the boys singing, and generally having a good time in the rain so our mission was accomplished. Lots more to come in this session, plenty of fun activities, and lots of thrills and spills. I'll give you a little hint as to what may or may not be coming up in the next few days: aliens invading camp, dunking booth, other amazing things.

Stay tuned!!!

Staff Training

Well staff training is almost over, just a few more days and campers will be arriving.

Staff training has been great. There's been a lot of instruction in everything from how the camp day runs, to how to deal with difficult campers, to how to plan lessons. Right now I'm feeling quite prepared, and ready for the challenges that campers will surely bring. The weather has been pretty patchy to be honest, but that's the thing with camp, you never know what will happen. We've had a lot of rain over the last 2 weeks, (wow, has it really been 2 weeks already?) and had some nice big storms rolling through yesterday. Needless to say my poncho is getting a lot of use!!!

Today is staff training "fun day." We're heading to wal-mart, which is like K-mart but much much bigger. They sell pretty much everything. And I'm not even kidding. Hardware, groceries, clothes, fireworks, fresh fruit, you name it!! I'm thinking I'll get an umbrella (ella ella ey) and some more cheap clothes so it doesn't matter if they get trashed over the summer. After wal mart we're heading down to the nearby lake to hang out, and probably throw a frisbee around. Tonight we're having a "shrimp pot" which is an opportunity for us to get dressed up and have a nice meal as a staff before the summer kicks off officially. And after that tonight, we'll be having a staff square dance. (kind of like a bush dance except... umm squarer?)
Til next time!!

-Michael