Session 2, Boston Break & start of Session 3

I have been really busy as usual at camp the past week and a half. Session 2 went really well and DJ and I were very lucky to get another great group of campers who behaved really well. There were some great evening programs for the kids during the second session, one night the girls unit had a big knock the bottle tournament, and my cabin got to the final and I scored the winning strike for them haha. Another evening program we had was a spa night for all the girl campers, which was really cute and they loved it. Stations were set up in Sebago Hall with nail painting, hair styling, make overs and a catwalk. Another fun thing from session 2 was Taylor Swift club which I took with Melanie and Danielle. 15 girls joined it and some of them were so keen, it was really cute. On awards night we performed for the whole camp singing and acting to the song "Mean" and they did so well, I felt like a proud parent! I have a video of it which I will have to upload at some point.
It was really hot and humid last week so we went swimming a lot on our breaks. We normally just swim out to the floating dock and lie there for ages until we get too hot then do a running jump off of it; definitely one of my favourite ways to spend breaks. During boating rotation with the campers we got to go on a pontoon boat ride around the lake, which was great for me and Maddie as we just lay out on the upper level of it sunbathing while the campers sat talking with each other. On one of our breaks me, Sean, Maddie and Abby went to Walmart and we all split up when we got there so we could get whatever we needed. So I was strolling around the store when suddenly I hear over the loudspeaker "Sarah Feeney please come to customer services, your party is waiting". I was in a bit of shock and started panicking as I hadn't got everything I needed so started running around the store frantically until I got to customer services to find that Sean had got one of the store assistants to say it as a joke.
Lord's Day during Session 2 was probably my favourite day despite it being the hottest day of the summer. We have a church-style service each morning which is really nice and then we all play sideline soccer. I scored a goal which was quite remarkable seeing as I'm rubbish at soccer and everyone was dying in the heat. In the afternoon there was an all camp swim which I actually had off as a break but went to it anyway with the other counselors who were off too as it was so warm. All camp swim is pretty crazy as counselors basically have to fight through swarms of campers to get out into the water to swim, they all just rush for you and all want you to play with them which can get stressful when they are so demanding! After that we had the carnival which ended up being hilarious. Justin and I got into a big water fight with the kids and then the campers pressured us into racing each other on the Blob. The Blob is a huge inflatable water slide and obstacle course contraption where you have to race through the first section, climb up some inflatable steps and slide down to the bottom. After they had seen us race each other then the campers wanted me and Justin to race them which got very tiring!! Especially as Brent pushed me off the top of the stairs back down to the bottom so I had to start over, ugh! For dinner on Lord's Day we have a cook out which is a nice change from the dining hall as we sit outside at the pavilion at picnic tables and have barbeque stuff. Lord's Day was particularly good during session 2 because of Jesus Theater. Jesus Theater is a a performance by some of the staff which shows Jesus' life through music, acting and dancing, and it is narrated by Jesus speaking to an emo girl who is going through a lot of issues such as her parents divorcing. It's a pretty big deal at camp because usually the campers are really affected by it so I was a little disappointed during session 1 that my campers didn't really seem to take much from it. However, session 2 was completely different. All my campers were affected by it and some got really upset. One girl, Rebecca who is 9, told me that she related to it because her parents are divorced and she lives with her mom and her dad has stopped calling her. It was really sad to hear this as kids do not deserved to be treated like that. But it was amazing to hear from her at the same time that she had taken so much from Jesus Theater and had so many questions about it and wanted to pray and become a Christian. This was the case with a lot of me and DJ's campers, they had so many questions, some of which were really difficult to answer but I think we did pretty well talking to them.
The last day of the session it was really hot again so for athletics rotation a slip and slide was set up. Of course, the kids love it when the counselors join in so they kept chanting "Sarah and Maddie" until we would go on it. So we went at the same time and did a big run up and landed on the mat and went flying along it. The next morning though I woke up and found it painful to move my neck - definitely got whiplash from it!

We got a day and a half break after session 2 so 19 of us went down to Boston which was SO much fun! We roadtripped down and stayed in a nice hotel (really nice to actually have air conditioning for once). The first night we all went into the centre for dinner but with such a big group conflict was bound to arise and people started getting annoyed right off the bat from when we got on the train as some of the boys started mucking about singing songs which were irritating other passengers, then we all didn't want to go to the same restaurant so we split up into smaller groups. That night after dinner a group of us went up to the top of the Prudential Center to its observatory and admired the view of the city at night. It was beautiful and we had a really nice time just walking around the top of the building looking out at the city. We then went back to the hotel and most of us congregated in me, Sam, Sammy G, and Kelsey's room and hung out relaxing. The next day we got up and me, Kelsey, Dom, Sean, Lyle and Magnes had decided to stick together and do a lot of touristy stuff while the others just went shopping or to visit their school friends as a lot of my friends at camp go to college in Boston. So my group first went on a duck boat tour which was so much fun! It took us all around the city and then it turned into a boat and sailed along the river Charles. The driver let me sail the boat which was fun! After that, we went to Harvard and walked around the campus there which was incredibly nice, I loved it and was totally in my element! We tracked down the Law School so I could get a Legally Blonde picture in front of it, haha. Then to finish up the day we went to the aquarium which was pretty fun. Sean made friends with some penguins and we all touched some rays and a baby shark! It was one of the best days ever! We just had so much fun, I loved Boston!

We are currently half way through session 3, which is music camp. I have 10 campers this week and we got moved up to the Older Girls unit as most of the campers this week are a lot older. The classes which I am helping with are Worship team and chorus, where I don't really have to do much except sing with the kids. This week has been quite tough so far as the girls aren't being as well behaved as our previous groups and they are all hypochondriacs and constantly moan that they don't feel well even though nothing is wrong. Definitely had my patience tested a few times! Last night there was a talent show, which I was in as part of "Tito's Blondes". Me and Tito sang Amazing Grace to the tune of In the Jungle from the Jungle Book whilst Sean, Dom, Lyle and Jake danced fantastically with an inspiring aire of dancing genius which I can only hope I will see again at some point in the future and although no prizes were awarded we know that we were the true winners (as you can tell Dom just made me write this). It was actually a lot of fun and there's a video of it which I'm sure will get uploaded eventually.

Here is a picture of me and my unit the Younger Girls!

Anyway, I will have to go, think I have covered enough!

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!

Orientation Week & Opening Day

I have been at Camp Sebago for a week now, and it has been great so far. Orientation lasted until Tuesday and it was a really good few days to get to know the other staff and learn about camp life etc. It was a really busy couple of days, we had a lot of talks and bonding exercises to do. After a lot of rain at the start of the week the weather brightened up and it got really warm. All the staff had to take a swim test in the lake which was freezing!! The swim test wasn't hard, just swimming two lengths and treading water for a minute but the water was so cold that it knocked the wind out of everyone. Though the lake is much more bearable when it is really hot out, the waterfront was opened up to the staff on our last day of orientation for the afternoon and we went swimming then and it was a lot more enjoyable! The lake is beautiful, the shore is covered in pebbles and fir trees are all around it. The lake gets really deep quite quickly and there's a floating dock further out that you can jump off and there are paddle boats, kayaks, a pontoon boat and there's a speed boat that can be used for tubing. In the evenings we had an evening program organised for about an hour and a half which was basically just icebreaker bonding exercises; one night we played team games and another night all the units had to do skits like I mentioned briefly in my last entry, which was fun. My unit is called the Younger Girls unit because we are the counselors for the younger girls aged 7-9 which come to camp. I love my unit! The girls are great and we get on really well. One night we all left camp and drove 20mins to the nearest Walmart so we could get white tshirts for tie-dying in arts & crafts. Camp is in the middle of nowhere so you have to drive quite a while to go anywhere, but we make the car journeys fun blasting music and singing along. For most of the evenings during orientation everyone just hung out talking either at the basketball court or in the Rec Hall where we got some games of round robin using the table tennis table, pool and foosball going. On our last night of Orientation we had a big cookout where we ate on the picnic tables outside by the pavilion instead of in the dining hall which was really nice and we got to make smores which are so good. We also had this thing called vespers which is like a staff worship service where we sing some worship songs and people can get up and share something if they want, like talk about their expectations for the summer etc. It was good because it got everyone focused on the fact that we are here to do a good job for the kids primarily. We also have a day each week called Lord's Day which is basically the equivalent of Sunday only it falls sometime during the week because camp sessions start halfway through the week so Sunday isn't necessarily at the end of each week. Lord's Day is really fun; everyone dresses up a bit more nicely in dresses and shirts and we have a short service where Captain Brett (the camp director) gives a short talk, and there's songs etc, it's a bit like church only shorter and more informal. Then after that everyone goes back to their cabins and gets changed and heads back out onto the main field to play sideline soccer. Sideline soccer is a lot of fun; what happens is everyone lines up on either side of the field, so the younger girls and older boys units on one side and the older girls and younger boys units on the other side and music is blasting and everyone dances and then when someone yells out for example "Everyone wearing red!" then everyone wearing red has to run into the middle of the field and play until a team scores. It's a tradition so we'll play it every Lord's Day when the campers are here.
I also found out that session 3 is a music camp so the campers that week will all be a bit older and they will just do music activities, so they sign up for whatever class they want during the daytime, like guitar or timbrols, and then they also sign up for a chorus (choir). I found out that I am assisting with the worship team that week which means I'll just have to help lead the kids with the songs, and then I am also assisting with one of the choruses which I'm really looking forward to because I love choir, I am also down to accompany the choir as well but I don't think my piano skills are really that good but apparently I'll just have to bash out a few notes along to a backing CD so it should be ok.
Another thing I found out is that each week our unit will go up into the woods and camp out in tents. I am not looking forward to this, my unit leader Sam tells me it'll be fun and we sit around a camp fire with our campers and sing and make smores etc but the idea of sleeping in a tent with so many bugs around creeps me out. Dom, who is English and has been a counselor before told me that he complains for two days before he has to camp out each week and complains for two days after...so I'm not expecting great things. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I anticipate.
Yesterday the campers arrived for the first session! It was really nerve-wracking because there is so much stuff that the counselors have to do and know, but me and my co-counselor DJ got a really good cabin, with 8 girls who are all 9 years old and they have been really well-behaved so far. Their names are Quincey, Nytasha, Krystina, Cheyenne, Destiny, Shelby and there are two Emilys. Very American names! They are so cute though, and as I helped them move into the cabin Krystina launched at me and gave me a huge hug and said she's so happy I'm here. Me and DJ played some team games with them until it was time for lunch. Meals are crazy now that the campers are here, we have to line up with them and collect our trays of food, go back to the table, and make sure they eat and drink all their milk and water. At dinner last night our girls really wanted Blue Juice which is full of sugar so we said they could only have it if they all drank their milk cartons and the two pitchers of water...I have never seen anyone drink so quickly. Quincey was downing glasses like there was no tomorrow, not so sure we should go with bribe again! Then we have to clear and stack all the trays and collect the rubbish and the kids start firing the trays at you all at once so it's a bit chaotic but we'll get used to it. After lunch yesterday then the kids went on rotations. Rotations means that they had 4 different activities to do that afternoon, starting with swim tests, then playground, then arts & crafts and then athletics. DJ and I are able to take time off during these so she took the kids to swim tests and playground and I was meant to be on arts & crafts and athletics after my break. Unfortunately, I have been suffering from some horrific mosquitoe bites the past few days, I have literally been eaten alive. I've never been so badly bitten before which is weird seeing as I spent a lot of time in Florida growing up, and these bites aren't even small they are huge. They were so bad yesterday that my ankles were completely swollen up and it was painful to walk, so I went to the infirmary on my break and Dr. Bill made me rest and put enormous ice packs around my ankles, and gave me medicine. I was so gutted though that when it came to 3pm which was when I was meant to go take the kids to arts & crafts he decided that I shouldn't go because the swelling hadn't gone down very much so Sam had to cover for me, which was so good of her. So I was stuck in the infirmary all afternoon whilst it was really good weather outside and I was missing out on getting to know my campers. Sean came and visited me though which was good so I had someone to chat with for a while but then the medicine I was given must have made me really drowsy because I totally passed out and jumped in total fright when I heard my name being said and I opened my eyes and saw Becky, Dr. Bill's wife standing over me. We both jumped in fright, it was hilarious. When I was allowed to go back to my cabin my campers gave me this huge get well soon card that they had made me in arts & crafts, saying "We love you Sarah" inside and they had all written little messages, it was so so cute. After dinner then we wentup to the outdoor theatre thing where there's a stage and a lot of benches and all the units had to do a skit to introduce themselves to the campers. The skits this time got messy, there was a lot of water being thrown and shaving foam everywhere, but they were funny and the kids loved them. Then some of the program staff dressed up all in black and rode up to the theatre in one of the maintenance carts and started pie mafia. Pie mafia is where the program staff mafia pick out counselors in the stands and bring them onto the stage and throw a whipped cream pie in their face. Thankfully I was not picked last night! Though my campers were screaming "Pick Sarah!!!" and pointing at me the whole time!
After that then we took the campers back and got them ready for bed with lights out at 9:15pm. Each night DJ and I have to do a devotion for them like tell them a Bible story or something and encourage prayer and sing for them so they go to sleep. Once they are all quiet for 20 minutes then we can leave and go on our free time although last night I was down to do Angel Watch with Jaime and Leann which meant we had to sit out in the field in front of the girls cabins and make sure everything's quiet until our curfew. All the girl counselors rotate on this though so I won't have to do it again until next session.
Then so far today it has been wake up at 6:30am so me and DJ can get showered before the kids and then get them ready before breakfast at 7:55am. I didn't sleep well at all last night - first of, three of our campers were snoring - I hate snoring - and then I kept hearing them coughing and getting up and going to the bathroom during the night. Hopefully I'll be tired enough tonight that I'll just pass out. Now opening day is over we are onto our normal schedule so we have breakfast then JAM session which stands for Jesus & Me which is where the two younger units get together and sing songs and see a drama and learn a memory verse, then it's cabin clean up where all the campers have a chore to do to tidy the cabin and then it's onto rotations. I got this morning off so DJ is on rotations with our campers at the minute and then this afternoon she will get time off while I go down to help out at the waterfront during camper choice time, where the campers get to choose whatever activity they want to do. Then after that we have clubs in the late afternoon. Clubs are run by the counselors for the campers and they can be anything, eg. dance club, swim club, but me and Jaime are taking Team Games club so hopefully some kids want to join it!
Anyway, that's all for now, I've given a pretty big update on what's been going on, and now we're just on the daily schedule until the end of this session, then we get a day and a half off after the 4th of July so the counselors will go and do something fun then; I think a group of us are going to go down to Boston on one of our breaks which I'm excited for!

Start of Orientation

On Thursday morning I had to get up super early to go back into NYC to get to the bus station to get the long bus up to Portland, ME. I met up with two other British guys, Sean and Dom, who are also counsellors at Sebago so we traveled together. We had some time to kill before the bus arrived so Dom and I walked to Times Square at 6am which was fun. Can't wait to visit NYC properly! We had a long ride up and passed the time playing 20 questions. Arrived in Portland and the camp director and my unit leader picked us up and took us to camp. I share a cabin with 3 other girls, Meaghan who is from New Zealand, Nicole aka "wazzo" and DJ who is my co-counsellor. On the first night despite being super jet lagged me and Meaghan stayed up til 2am chatting to Josh and Ryan, so the next day we were pretty tired still. It has rained heavily for the past few days but it finally brightened up a bit today. Proper staff orientation started today so we had a few talks etc and then just chilled out playing frisbee etc in-between talks. Earlier tonight every unit had to present a skit to the rest of the staff so my unit (younger girls) did this like choreographed clapping thing which sounds weird but it was pretty funny! Anyway have to go we are just in mcdonalds chilling and leaving now to go back to camp!

Journey to the US

I have arrived in the US after a very long day of travelling. Made it up to Belfast International Airport for 5:15am after about 2hours sleep from being so nervous! Queue to check in was massive but thankfully made it just in time to go through security and straight to the gate and onto the plane to London Heathrow. (My suitcase was well overweight, no surprise there). In the boarding queue I got talking to 2 other girls, Whitney and Naomi, who are doing Camp America too and turned out Naomi was on the same London to New York flight as me which was great as I had a travel companion the whole way there. Long haul flight was ok,convinced I saw a supermodel boarding the same flight but forgot to enquire as to whether that was true or not. Upon arrival in NY JFK a Camp America representative met us and another guy, Hubert who was Polish, and he drove us to our hotel in New Jersey. Carl our driver is such a legend! He did a detour on the route to the hotel and drove right into Manhattan and I got to see the NYC skyline and then we cut across Park Ave, Madison Ave and 5th Ave (my idea of fashion heaven) and through Times Square. It was incredible! I can tell that I am going to be a total city girl when I get to visit the city properly later on in the summer. The fashion was so great!
Have to be up super early again in the morning to leave the hotel at 4:45am so that I can catch the bus to Portland, Maine. Long roadtrip ahead. Once I get to Portland then someone from camp will pick me up and take me to Sebago. Nervous for camp starting but looking forward to it also! Intrigued as to what it'll actually be like and what stuff I'll get up to!

Introduction

Hello!


I'm Sarah and I have just finished my second year studying French and Spanish at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. I should really explain the name of this blog - when I am not at university I live back home in the countryside in Northern Ireland and my home town is called Holywood (pronounced like Hollywood), when some of my American friends from St Andrews came over to visit during our reading week, my friend Catherine pointed out as we passed a road sign for Holywood, "You live in the Holywood Hills! You're like Northern Ireland's own Lauren Conrad!" For those of you know who know me well, you'll know this is a pretty good way of describing me - I love Lauren Conrad (star of The Hills) and I seem to always have some new drama happening at university. 


I decided to start a blog because this coming academic year 2011-2012 I am doing a year abroad in Lille, France teaching English to French children in a secondary school and I wanted to document my time there. I start teaching in France in October but decided to start this blog earlier because last week I got hired at the last minute by an American kids summer camp through the program Camp America, so I am now spending 8 or so weeks of my summer in the US. I am going to be working as a camp counsellor at a Christian camp called Camp Sebago which is located on Sebago Lake in Maine. I am leaving this coming Wednesday to fly out there and will start staff orientation on the Thursday before the campers arrive the following week. From what I have seen and heard of the camp so far it seems just like the camp from the film The Parent Trap! I will stay in a log cabin and do activities like arts and crafts, boating and swimming with the campers. I am quite excited but incredibly nervous! I have never gone properly abroad before by myself without knowing anyone so I hope that everything goes ok and that I make friends! Upon reflection I'm glad I have the opportunity to do this before going to France for the year where I won't know anyone and there will probably be a lot of communication difficulties as it hasn't set in yet at all that I won't be going back to St Andrews for the next year. 


Basically what started out as a 7 month academic year abroad has now turned into a bit of a gap year as I will now get to spend a prolonged period of time in another country apart from France. It's pretty crazy as I was never the sort of person who wanted to do a gap year but it's quite exciting and I hope I will have lots of good stories to tell!