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I'm in New York!

Benn a fairly traumatic day, as on the way to the bus I witnessed my friend crashing his car, but they reckon he's going to be OK - very scary though.

Camp is over, and now I have just a few days left with my friends before flying back home. It feels like my summer has vanished into some kind of hole - I really did blink and it was over. The crazy thing is though, all I can think about now is returning to Camp. One day I'll have to wise up and get a real job, but for now, doing this every summer suits me just fine.

We're in a hostel called Jazz on the Park, which is quite nice, but more importantly has cheap internet and food - my two basic needs right now. We were going to go out to dinner tonight, but unfortunately we didn't manage to cash our checks before the banks closed, so that might be off. We do intend to go see a Broadway show on Monday, though - I'm pushing for Lion King.

Anyway, hope Jolly Old is doing alright - heard you have Foot and Mouth over there - a bit of a drag, eh?

Oh, and I'm very excited by the new football season. :D

(That's real football, not American Football)

A Note from Ameriqua

So I'm still in America.

This time, I'm at the house of my surrogate parents - the Camp Nurse and Medic - Barb and Steve.

Camp's been it's usual excellent self - I'm still the Unit Leader of the youngest boys unit - Apache, which means I work with eight year old boys. A lot of fun, but hard work. One of the children decided it would be a good idea to pee in the rubbish bin in my cabin this week, so it smells a bit iffy, and we had a child with multiple personalities, who frequently had to be restrained for his own safety, but apart from that, all is pretty stress-free.

I'm cultivating quite a nice tan at the moment, and this morning I bought some sunglasses, so that I don't give myself a headache from squinting.

None of you really care about this, but I thought I'd tell you anyway.

I'm back in the UK in a couple of weeks - just two more weeks here, and then a smidgin of travelling, and then back to Newcastle for more work with children - hurrah!

Dedicated Traveler

I clearly don't do staying in one place very well.

Having returned from Illinois a scant five weeks ago, this Sunday I'm off to America again - this time back to the camp where I've spent the last two summers. I'll be working as a Unit Leader - a supervisor, working with one particular unit. In my case, that'll be the eight year old boys of Apache Unit. I also get a staff that varies in size depending on how many kids we have. Last year there was one week where there was only four of us, and the next week we had ten staff. That'll take me up to the middle of August.

When I return to the country, I have two weeks of work (interspersed with the most awesome party ever on the eighteenth) and then back up to Edinburgh to work and start on my dissertation! Huzzah!

Also, I worked out this morning that the last time I spent every night of one week in one bed was back in April. (I hasten to point out that this isn't because I'm ridiculously promiscuous...it's just that I move around a lot).

So anyway, if I don't see you before this weekend, I hope you have a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you in the autumn.

Unless you're American. In which case I'll see you soon, I promise.

I Still Know What I Did This Summer, Part the Nineteenth

So anyway,

we took a busride to the camp the next day, along with the rest of the international staff. At this point, we were all being horrendously polite to each other, to avoid making a bad first impression. They all seemed nice, and, in truth, they all were nice.

We got to Camp William Penn just as the heavens opened, and one of the biggest rainstorms I have ever seen was unleashed upon the land. It was pretty wet. The Camp Director, Michael Shelton got onboard the bus, and asked me forward to check everyone was there. As I came up to him, he passed me the list of names, and then said "Oh, by the way - you're going to be a Unit Leader this year."

My response to this was: "Ah. Right."

Basically, I got a promotion in everything but money. I was in charge of around 10 to 20 kids, and four to six staff (Although one week there were ten staff. Crazy). There were four ULs in Boys' Camp (although one of them got fired the day before the kids arrived), and four in Girls' Camp; and between the eight of us (seven after the training week), we managed the everyday operation of the camp.

The kids this year were, on the whole, pretty good kids. I did have the unfortunate reputation of being the only UL to send kids home (one after only forty minutes at camp), but at least none of my kids got arrested for aggravated assault, unlike one of the other ULs. Another good thing was that this year, no-one tried to sue me, which was nice.

On the downside, however, I did quite seriously damage the muscles in my back around my lung. That hurts. On the other hand, I'm on enough painkillers that I wouldn't know. :D

In summation, then, I had an awfully large amount of fun this summer. I'm pretty sure that I'm going back next year as well. Right now, I'm camped out in my Aunt's basement for a week. Next Wednesday I fly out to Chicago, and then take the shuttlebus to Urbana, where I shall start the next stage of my exciting adventure.




That's going to the University of Illinois, in case you hadn't worked that one out.

I Know What I Did This Summer...Part the First

So, it's been a while.

Camp is now done. And it was officially awesome.

We finally got to America, after a series of farcical cock-ups. First the airline lost my reservation, then they found it, but couldn't confirm it, and then the check-in lady at Glasgow just gave up and decided to let the people in Heathrow fix it. I had a pretty low opinion of her by this point, but that plummeted after the following conversation:

Me: Could I have my passport back?

Her: I gave it to you.

Me: No, you didn't.

Her: Yes, I did.

Me: I don''t think so. [checks pockets, and asks travelling companions] No, I'm sorry, you definitely still have it.

Her: [v. sarcastically] Oh, well maybe I'll just check under my seat then. [she does so. she finds it] Oh.

Me: Yeah.

I mean, really.

When we got to Heathrow, through a series of more screw-ups, I ended up havinig to completely check-in again, and go back through Security. This could have taken about an hour, but I managed to blag my way into the Speedy Check-In, cutting out 90% of the queue. Nice.

Still, it could have been worse - the lady at Glasgow managed to actually cancel my friend Clare's reservation from Heathrow to Newark.

I think the moral of this story is clear - never, ever fly BMi Baby.

When we finally did get to America, the fun hadn't yet finished. They nearly had to divert us to JFK because of a bomb threat, and then when we finally did land, the man at immigration managed to stamp the wrong visa on my passport. Idiot.

Roger, of course, managed to get himself left at the airport, after forgetting to fill in a form at customs. Using his traditional flukey luck, however, he somehow managed to get picked up by the Camp Director of a different camp, who gave him a lift to the hotel we were staying at, so he arrived before us. Crazy.

Anyway, I have to go to the beach now, so I shall update you on what happened next at a later date. Suffice to say, with me and Roger involved, it was just a little bit farcical.