Session 1: Speedboats, golf carts and lots of sparks

Camp has gotten incredibly busy since the campers arrived, I am on the go all the time, up at 6:30am and go to bed around midnight each day! I am really enjoying it though; I'm not sure where all the counselors get our energy from but we somehow manage to always keep going and play games with the kids even when we are not doing properly organised activities. The first session went really well; DJ and I had a fantastic cabin of girls who were very well-behaved and we didn't have any major issues with them, there were no huge fights between the girls or anything. Our work assignment for the first session during camper choice time was to help at the waterfront which was so good. This meant that whenever I was on waterfront duty I had to help either at swimming by the lake by handing out wristbands to ensure each camper had a swimming buddy (this job was made fun by Dom helping me so we just got to have a laugh the whole time), or else I helped out at boating where I had to pull in and push out paddle boats for the kids and I also got to help with tubing so I spent a lot of time sitting on the back of the speedboat letting out the rope and pulling the kids back in. This was definitely my favourite job! Getting to relax on the back of the boat and look at the lake, soak up the sun and have a laugh with the campers is a pretty good job! I am on waterfront duty again for this session this week which is great! It's a much better job than some of the others such as sitting at the gate guarding it so campers don't try to escape.
I took my cabin on rotations on the second day and it was a bit of a nightmare. I had to take them to Athletics and Swimming, and it was incredibly hot that day and all they did was moan and complain during the games. They perked up when they got to go swimming though, thankfully, and it was a fun rotation as the three cabins that were together for that activity had to do relay races against each other. The relay races involved spinning around an oar three times and running into the lake, swimming to the end of the first section and back, then putting on a lifejacket and doing the same thing again etc etc. The kids loved it, especially when they then made me, Maddie and Justin (the counselors) all race against each other too. After that they got to have free swim which was a bit of a nightmare for me as the campers all have different swim bands dependant on their level of swimming and those mean that they can only swim in certain sections, so I was being constantly yelled at by girls in different sections to come play with them. If there was one thing I wished for last week it was that I could multiply myself so I could be in several places at once to keep them all happy!
Each session the counselors have to create "clubs" for the kids to join and participate in for an hour each day after their camper choice time is over. For session 1 Jaime, Makayla, Meaghan and I took Group Games club. Jaime and I had thought this would be a walk in the park and that we could just play huge games of tag etc each day but no... There were a couple of boy campers who were really badly behaved and they started to ruin the games for everyone and we had to make them sit out a lot and try and discipline them. This meant that the kids tired of the games easily and we were starting to struggle for new ideas. So, for session 2 we've decided to give this club a miss and create different clubs. This week I am taking Taylor Swift club with Melanie and Danielle which so far looks like it's going to be a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable. All first session my campers made me and DJ play Taylor Swift music and they kept telling me I looked like her because of my hair, and they loved us singing her songs to them at night to get them to go to sleep so I decided a Taylor Swift club would probably be pretty popular among the next batch of campers. Yesterday clubs started up again and loads of girls signed up for our club which is great. I did a Taylor Swift quiz with them and then we decided that all this week we will sing and perform a dance to her song called "Mean" which the girls can then perform on Awards Night at the end of the session. They're so excited, it's really cute, hopefully it goes well!
During the first session the main problem DJ and I had with our girls was boys! Our girls were all 9 years old and they were boy obsessed! It was ridiculous. They started inventing code names for the boy counselors they liked, eg. JAG = Josh and Graham, and MAJ = Magnes and Jared. They would not stop talking about boys and getting worked up about asking boy campers to be their boyfriends that it got so bad that we had to enforce a ban on talking about boys in the cabin. It was all really hilarious.
Each night there is a different evening program for the campers and sometimes the whole camp is together for it and sometimes the boys and girls' units are split up. On Opening Night all the counselors and staff put on skits for the kids so they could get to know us, which were funny. Then one night the girls unit threw a Dutch Auction which meant that we divided up into our cabins and we had to create scenes or things such as cars or houses out of what props we had and however many people were in our cabin. Then we had a bit of a dance party and then at the end each cabin was asked to create a cabin chant to perform on stage for the other cabins as part of a competition. I took charge for this and put my old cheerleading skills to good use and did a proper cheer with them. They all went on stage and performed it and Quincey did a cartwheel across the stage as the big finale and they won! They were ecstatic! It was also very cute as that night each cabin was asked to come to evening program all dressed in a certain colour of their choice so our girls all wore pink and we did their hair and put some pink eyeshadow and nail polish on them. They loved it, I loved it! Another night the girls unit had a huge dodgeball dance party where they played big games of dodgeball and then everyone danced afterwards. It was a lot of fun.
Then on day 3 we had to camp out. I had been dreading this but it turned out to be one of the best nights of the session! After the campers went to bed the counselors had so much fun! The whole younger girls unit went out into the woods a little bit outside of the main camp grounds and we all sat around a camp fire and Sam told all the girls a Bible story and they made smores then went to bed. Everyone had to sleep in tents, which were basically made up of a huge wooden platform and then canvas sheets for a cover. Each cabin had a tent and it was a nightmare trying to get the girls to sleep because they were all so scared! To make matters worse, we could hear fireworks going off over the lake as it was the 4th July weekend. Eventually they went to sleep though and the counselors made smores and talked and had a laugh around the camp fire. Then we decided to take the golf cart and drive back to camp to get more snacks and grab our pillows etc. This was hilarious. We managed to get six of us into a tiny golf cart. Sam drove, and Maddie and Katie squeezed into the front seat beside her, I then sat on their laps and held the flash light so we could see where we were going, then Abby and Emily sat on the back. We then drove back to camp really stealthily, grabbed snacks and our stuff and drove back up. All the counselors shared a tent which was fun, I thought I was going to hate sleeping in it but because it was dark that meant I couldn't see any insects which would normally freak me out. We were all exhausted that sleeping on just a wooden platform wasn't a problem either. We were up at 6:45am the next morning to bring the campers back down to get ready for Lord's Day. Lord's Day was great. All our girls dressed up really nicely and we had our mini church service, then everyone played sideline soccer which was even more fun with the campers there this time. All the counselors just goofed about dancing crazily and getting the kids to join in when they weren't playing. In the afternoon a carnival was set up with different stalls and such, I managed to get the easiest job of helping at the card making stall, so I just got to sit and make my own encouragement cards for the counselors. We have an encouragement board in the dining hall where the counselors post nice cards and letters to each other, which is really nice.
There were quite a few storms this past week because it has been so hot and humid, so that meant that all camp swim was cancelled as a storm started rolling in. A storm happened later in the week too whilst I was on waterfront duty. I had just come back from being on the boat when the storm alert alarm went off and everyone had to run to Sebago Hall to take cover and watch a movie instead.
It was sad saying goodbye to the campers on closing day; my girls that week were really cute. On Awards Night the night before honor camper awards were given out and there was an honor camper for each cabin and then an honor camper for each unit overall, Quincey one of my girls got the unit award which was great! Awards night was on the 4th July and Wazzo and Buckley's "Historical Reinactment" club performed by giving the story of how America gained its independance. It was hilarious, especially as Dom (who is English) played along with it and acted as if he was really outraged the whole time. Wazzo was hilarious all week; she let Dom read her diary out loud one night at staff snacks, in particular an entry about her first date with her boyfriend when they went to Best Buy and their "pinkies touched and sparks flew". It's become a running joke now around camp.
Once all the campers had left on closing day, after ourstaff meeting our day and a half break officially started. About 24 of us all went to Olive Garden for lunch which was really nice, and it was also great to eat a proper meal for once as we have to eat the same stuff as the campers usually which is just a tray with small portions of food and when you're on duty for meal times with the kids you don't really get to eat as you're always doing something whether it's pouring them glasses of water or tidying everything up. After lunch then I went home with Sam to her house to stay over that night. Sam is amazing! I got to skype my parents which was good and then we had dinner with her family and started looking up hotels for when everyone goes to Boston next week on break. I am so excited for that trip! There is about 17 of us going down there for a night and I can't wait to shop and hopefully see Harvard and maybe do a duck boat tour to see the city. The next day after I'd stayed over at Sam's we met up with everyone else at Old Orchard Beach and spent the afternoon there sunbathing and wandering around the touristy shops. We came back to camp in the evening and a big storm started and I got stuck in the cabin with Wazzo for about an hour; she kept freaking out about it which was not helpful but quite amusing all the same. When the storm blew over we had our first Bible study that night with our units. This was really good as my unit definitely got to know each other better. I love my unit, the girls are great. I have met so many great people here at camp, everyone is so so nice and fun.

Now we are into session 2 so new campers have arrived. This week we have 9 girls in our cabin ranging from ages 9 - 11. They are called Rebecca, Ivy, Maddie, Tess, Courtney, Shelby, Chelsea, Abby and Mikayla. They have been great so far, really well-behaved which is good. Yesterday during our time off me, Maddie, Abby and Magnes went down to the waterfront and swam out to the floating dock and lay there for ages sunbathing - amazing. Definitely planning to spend more breaks doing that! Last night for evening program the whole camp played a huge game of Clue which was fun. And there was yet another storm!

Anyway, have to go, my break is almost over. Dom and Soobs are beside me currently so this their special mention, they are awesome!