The End?

That's it from my little detour to the US... for this year, at least.

Back To Reality

(Will's World)

Alas, Poor Teddy...

My mum insisted that I get on the scales pretty much straight after I dropped my bag in my room.

Weight before flying: 17st 3 (241 lbs or 110kg)
Weight upon return: 15st 11 (221 lbs or 100kg)

Total loss: 20 lbs, or 1 lb less than a stone and a half.

P.S. Obviously I'm back :D

Weather Forecasts + The Mountains

A lesson learned: When the weather forecast says "Overcast" don't take it as "Less heat, more bearable to walk in" when you're in the mountains. Take it as "Fog will cover everything and render travelling on a path through dense woodland marked only by a white painted mark every 100 metres or so rather foolish."

Day 1: Having wandered around D.C. from about midnight to 2am, admiring the lit-up buildings and monuments, took bus at 2.30 to Charlottesville. Taxi to Shenandoah N.P., walked into Shenandoah about 10 miles (uphill most of the way. Very fun).

Day 2: Woke up feeling knackered from previous day's wanderings (at least an extra 3 miles in Washington plus hiking). Decided to have a lie in til 12. By 12 the mist/fog had descended. Stayed put.

Day 3: Some rain overnight. Lots more fog/mist.

Day 4: Smattering of mist, mostly down in the valley on either side of the mountain range. Got out while the going was good. Walked most of the way on the road because A there are look-outs without trees in the way and B it was much easier walking. Got a "Trail Angel" lift to Charlottesville where you pay a local keen-bean fuel money to take you to/from the Appalachian Trail.

It's the first day of 'college' almost everywhere in the States, including at the University of Virginia here in Charlottesville, so the place is suddenly full of students, which is pretty cool. Remembering Mr Hoult's inclusion of using Bill Gates' donated library computers in Arizona, have been sitting in the town library for about an hour and a half because if there's no demand your time limit gets extended by 10 minutes every ten minutes. How handy!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Shenandoah

More on the last part of camp later.

Since then: New York was... big. The hostel that about 10 of the English counselors stayed in for the first 3 nights was good... I did have to point out, even to the pair who stayed there last year, it's in the fringe of New York's gay district. It took me about 5 minutes of exploratory wonder before a "Free HIV Testing" sign in a pharmacy window triggered the connections. 8-) Went on a free (Camp America voucher) speedboat around the Statue of Liberty, watched sunset on top of the Empire State Building, got served in an 'Irish Bar' and stuck my hand into a ceiling fan. Ooops.

Andy (English counselor from my bunk) and I are currently staying with one of the American counselors in rural Maryland, experiencing the real, ignorant countryside America. Sarcasm is considered rude and irony sounds like something from a chemistry class she slept through. [Edit 29/8/05 - She got quite offended from that. Twas only me being my usual obnoxious self :p. Sarcasm is considered rude though.] Top stuff. There's actually a compulsory two years before you can do a 3 year degree course which is spent learning at uni ("college") what should have been learnt in High School. Sigh.

Went to Washington with her, her friend and Andy today. I persuaded them to go on the tour of the Library of Congress and Andy got scared by the sheer volume of knowledge and had to go outside. Also went to the White House, Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and various other interesting things along the way, including the Korean War Memorial which was... something other than awesome, but my vocabulary has become limited over here. Emotive, evocative and other stuff besides. Pictures will show why.

Tomorrow (today) Andy and I are setting out on...

Travel plans: The new version:

Shenandoah National Park.

Its north end is about 90 miles from here and we're hopefully getting dropped off there. We then plan to walk along the Appalachian Trail which runs through the park for about 105 miles from North to South. This should take us until Friday the 2nd of September (10 days) then bus back to Baltimore to be picked up and stay another night with said Maryland residing counselor. On the 3rd we bus up to New York, out to JFK straight from the bus terminal (Port Authority) and fly home in the evening.

As far as camping supplies go, fortunately the aforementioned counselor's "Mom" is an outdoors type and has a tent to lend us. Rations etc are being bought on the way tomorrow.

For those doubting my capabilities, Andy did a 3 month Raleigh International trek/building in the Malaysian rainforest, so I should be reasonably safe.

As the US commander at Bastogne replied to the German demand for surrender:

To the German Commander those who said I should have planned ahead:

Nuts!

In brief: Lost color war, won building competition, forgot mothers birthday. Oops

1 2 3 4 WE WANT COLOR WAR 5 6 7 8 WE DON'T WANNA WAIT

Cracking stuff that happened recently:

The night before last I had the 'Debs' (11 year old girls) for a camp-out. I cooked them supper, then had to go do a campfire at the fireplace in the centre of camp for evening activity for 20 Robins and 30 Rangers, which was hectic even before the counselors started a marshmallow fight. I then had to go back and make a third fire for the debs to make marshmallows on and they woke up at 3.30am screaming about a bear.

Last night I had the girl horseriders for a camp-out, complete with horses (I had the boys last week, if I haven't already said). The horses all broke free at 3am last time so this time the riding staff slept by them and caught the first trouble-making one when it got loose, but I still got woken up. I then had to get everyone up at 6.30am to ride back, plus I led out and held two horses which were, of course, the last to be saddled 45 minutes later. Top stuff. By that point I gave up on sleeping so I just cleared up and joined the coed counselor staff emerging from the girls bunks, because there was a counselor switch last night in which all but one counselor from each bunk swapped with their opposite bunk. Top stuff also, especially trying to tell the girls to get dressed in the morning while sitting outside on the steps.

Since I'd missed last night's counselor meeting it was only then that I found out that the big (North) American vs Alien 'soccer' match was today at 10am. Normally it's USA vs all but this year the Canadians changed sides because it was so lopsided. Even so we still destroyed them 4-0, with about 20 shots at goal compared to a token one from the opposition. I was the No. 2 keeper in a squad of 27 and got put on as striker for the last 30 seconds as a consolation for the No. 1 not getting injured (unlike the other team). The victory was definitely all mine :p

As far as travel plans go, I'm currently planning on 2/3 nights in New York and then using prepaid 'Discovery' (Go anywhere) Greyhound Bus tickets to go down the east coast to (the streets of) Philadelphia, then possibly visiting a native counselor in Maryland before staying in Washington and on towards Florida. There's a handful of British counselors (English plus I'm-not-English-I'm-Cornish Ross, my archery accomplice) staying in the same hostel in New York, then the bus plan is just me and Andy, the other English guy in my bunk.

My kids have been pretty awesome in their sports competitions, winning the Wayne County Camp Association 5th grade baseball tournament and coming 2nd in basketball and 'soccer', mostly due to injuries in both finals.

The big final week of camp is approaching, with 'Color War', in which every bunk is split between Blue and White and there are matches and comptitions in everything, rumoued to be 'breaking' tomorrow or Wednesday. I've volunteered myself for building which, along with plaque and scenery, is one of three counselor only competitions. Plaque is painting a roughly 5ft square commerative board based on the team name (eg Blue Aztecs and White Conquistadors) that hangs in the dining hall or gym and is for heavily arty types. It gets worked on around the clock all week and some of the finished ones are absolutely amazing. Scenery does exactly what it says on the tin, for the Color War sing, which is like the division one but with much more practice and intensity. In 'Building' the two teams get given a wooden thing to construct, with the wood, nails, hammers and basic dimensions being the only things given. Previous examples were huts at the lake for storing lifejackets, canoe paddles, sails and suchlike, the boys side and girls side Ga-Ga courts and the outdoor stage, which has one side by each team. The best bit about doing it, however, is that you get off doing duty for the entire week.

Post-Camp Plans

As yet, none. I plan on staying on this side of the country, that's as far as I've got.

Important things that have happened recently:

Saturday was Visiting Day. Swarms of families sharing bows at archery, general suprise at no-one getting injured. Also some Mafia style palm-off tipping, but mostly in Upper Camp. Downside: I had to shave for the first time since the kids arrived.

On Sunday I finally got to go down the zip-line from the climbing tower, which was awesome. On the slower swing back from the brake block at the end I span myself upside down and floated back upside down. One of the kids walking past thought I fell off and a rumour spread that I was in hospital when I didn't appear that night (I had a camp-out).

Yesterday I took some surplus camp-out food stashed in the HC office fridge on another day-off outing to Skinner's Falls, which, with a disposable BBQ from the campsite shop there, was awesome.

And that's how for now.

Update

Important things that have happened recently:

[Inserted 13.00hrs 20/7/05]
Last Tuesday: Went to "Skinner's Falls" which is somewhere just across the state border into New York state, on the next river past the Delaware (which is the state line for that stretch). Spent the day going down them on inner tubes from truck tyres and doing circus tricks in the shallows with the 'Carnies'. They work on the circus program, have small feet and hands and smell slightly of cabbage. Boom boom. Anyway, at one point there was a guy with one girl on his shoulders and another girl with her feet on his thighs leaning out the other way, and he was sitting on my (pink) shoulders. Ouch.
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Thursday night: The Rangers won lower camp sing, beating 5 other divisions. We ruled. It was like House Shout but with 3 practices a day for 10 days, 3 songs each and rewritten words for each song.

Yesterday: Got my first Ga-Ga injury. Ga-Ga is an awesome game which, in its Westmont house-rules adaption, is played in an octagonal wooden court about 4 metres across, using a volleyball which is hit at peoples legs to elimnate them. Knee and below is out, skimming your knuckles on the astro-turf floor covering is painful.

Today: Went to Dorney Park, which is somewhat like Thorpe Park but with a much better set of waterslides. Very fun. Went on one Nemesis-style one with a beetle on my shirt and was amazed that it hung on all the way. It did, however, poop itself in terror.

[Inserted 13.00hrs 20/7/05]
Tonight I will be taking my lovely, angelic bunk on a camp-out.

Also, I am officially the most special counselor on the camp, because I have 3 specialties, 2 more than anyone else, and I also spend so much time playing Ga-Ga in evening "Free Play" that I'm the honorary specialist for that too. I rule. You knew that bit already.
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7/7?

At least it prompted me to finally phone home.

P.S. I hope everyone wishes a happy birthday to Zulu.

Born in the BDR

Behold the almighty blog. Cower before it and marvel at its might and majesty.

In the last week there have been a whole load of 'meetings' about how to do various things, lots of free time to play water polo and the occasional evening activity such as last night's tug-of-war in which there were about 10 different match-ups of various groups, such as girls divisions versus the oppostite boys division. I sat out of just one. Despite wearing the compulsory socks (!) I still have blistered hands. Oops.

I'm with the Rangers which is 8-9 year olds, in Blackfoot 'bunk' (cabin). There are about 18 cabins, of which we're the third, because there's a reception-type bunk for the tiny ones and then alphabetically ordered ones named after Indian tribes: Apache, Blackfoot, Commanche, Delaware, etc.

Now, as promised, the long-awaited pictures. They've been ready for about 3 days now, I just haven't had the time to write the accompanying text. Apologies for the lack of ability to rotate them.

First, the guys from my hotel room outside New York after the flight:


Ben and Phil from Westmont and Random Guy from Camp Equinunk, which we play at sports.

Now my awesome tan after the first day:


A very fetching shade of pink

Three more counselors, Claire, Zack and Liz, in the camp canteen (like a house common room with a tuck shop):


The earthquake damage was quite severe

Me in the transport for the big day off during orientation week:


MTV should pimp my ride

One side of the huge supermarket sized t-shirt (and similar) shop in Scranton, where everything was $6:


$5.98 is about 350p (no pound signs on US keyboards)

The spoils of war (not including the present for each sister):


The best one is bottom left: "Rub my belly for good luck"

I wrote most of that on or before the 27th of June. The kids arrived on the 28th and it's been manic since. Anothe update will cover the week since then.

Hi, I'm Will and I'm...

Greetings Limeys.

I'm at the camp. All those who bet on me not making it, you lose. It's pretty cool. The grounds are the same size as Felsted's (since there are as many campers as pupils) but there's also a load of woodland, which is my private domain.

Brief interlude about the journey: The plane didn't take off until 17.45, so we spent at least an hour and a half sitting on the tarmac. I say 'we' because the whole of the English Camp America contingent for my camp was on that flight. There are around 120 counselors, split pretty evenly between the US, Canada and Britain. There are at last 30 Toronto natives, mostly from the University of Western Ontario (just for Podgy), and at least 20 from "Essex, in England. It's to the north-east of London."

I was recruited at the fair to run the overnight camping, but when I arrived I discovered I'm on "pioneering and overnights" which seems to mean I do orienteering and similar cool stuff as well. There was then a call at one of the first meetings for a guy to work on the climbing tower, because they had enough people (3) but they were all girls. Being well trained I didn't volunteer immediately, but went up to the instructor afterwards since no-one else did either. I'd just said "I'll do it" when the Associate Director (Ross, the Director's son, who runs all the day-to-day stuff) turned up looking for "the pioneering guy, he can do it". Proof that everyone is out to get me. Due to legal requirements I have to put the harnesses on all the boys. The awesome zip-line from the top of the tower should make up for that though!

At a meeting today the Director was checking what everyone thought they'd signed up for. When no-one came up for assisting with carpentry I said I'd do that too, if it didn't clash, and Fred (the Director) looked at me like I was nuts (the term of choice here). That should be ok, because I know the 'wood-shop' has air-con. So I'm pretty sorted. I've also met the group-leader who runs the canoe trips and volunteered myself for that, should I get any time off!

I went pink yesterday, having been out putting up nets along the edges of the baseball fields and hauling up the rigging poles for the outdoor trapeze which is impressively massive. My awesome proto-tan comes complete with an impressive watch-strap mark and a huge white ring where my sweatband was on the other wrist. D'oh! This morning my arms and legs are already darkening to brown and my neck might be too. My face is still rather rosy, but don't worry Mother, I have put on suncream today!

Yesterday evening was spent playing some team 'sports' such as passing a baseball from neck to neck, running to a baseball bat, spinning around with your head on it five times and running back. I was the only person in my group who ran back the right way, which was apparently impressive despite being a total fluke. Afterwards I joined the crowd in the 'canteen' (the common room) to watch the Detroit Pistons lose the East Coast/West Coast winners play-offs and then warmed up my table football skills. I won one game playing with one hand behind my back against two people, but they were girls. Mwahaha!

I'm off to lunch, which is bizarrely early at 12.30 (other meals are at Felsted boarding times), so I shall bring my camera and upload some pictures asap.

Drink bright pink lemonade.

Whisky India One One, out.

Bye Bye Love... Bye Bye Happiness...

Yeah, right. I am required at the airport in 31 hours time. Hurrah!

My big backpack (green army 'bergen') is now packed, apart from the trainers I'm wearing today. My small one ('daysack') is also complete apart from the MP3 player which I've been gradually filling up using the direly slow Sony software for the last few hours. My set of clothes to travel in is complete apart from my walking boots which I'm wearing on to the plane (to minimise the bergen weight) and are drying off after two coats of waterproofing spray.

Today, when I've been to bed for a few hours and risen again, is the day of the gathering. My dad reckons that I could leave Sarah with the laptop and excel spreadsheet of what tracks I want from each album and she can do that while I'm out enjoying myself. I wouldn't risk the influence of the evil eye just before flying, personally.