Parents then Basstan

Wowa, The last week has really flown by,
On thursday we took the kids to 'AQUABOGGEN' a water park, so that the rest of the staff could clean up ready for the famous/ infomous 'PARENTS VISITING WEEKEND' (Cue Dumm Dum Dummm)

Parents weekend was very interesting and all the parents i met were lovely, so the nightmares were totally unfounded! Unfortunatley it rained for a large period of the weekend meaning that a massive game of oaks(11's) Vs. sycamores (12's) dodgeball was set up with parents included. Several of the dads got very competitive and i thought that one was going to take my head off!

After a complete washout of the annual 'Carinval' event, which did have Gladiator style pugil sticks which were a lot of fun, came today which was my day off, which i really needed

Myself, Joe, Ben and Louise the secretary from northern ireland headed to Boston, Had nice stuff to eat, Walked around lots, Got lost (not through my directions i might add!) Went to Paul Reveres House, a very surreal church (More another time), The Boston Common Park, Cheers (well, we had to) and a resturant called Dicks Last resort which was a unique dining experience with deliberatly rude waitresses and silly hats! Had a great day, and am now nice and relaxed after the hecticness of the last week and ready to attack camp again!

Also lots of mail arrived on friday, thank you to Grandad + Trine, Ele and Dad, as Well as Mum for the magazines and Becky for her postcard! Keep it coming guys!

Hope everyone is safe and well

T
XXX

The Even Bigger Game

On friday I swum the lake at camp for the first time along with ten of my kids, who went there and back! Some of them struggled but it was fun for an hour or so even if some of them struggled quite a bit!

On sunday we had the staff soccer game which was Great Britain Vs. The rest of the world. In typical fashion, we dominated the game, had several great chances but managed to lost 1-0 thanks to a flukey goal from the new lacross guy who managed to somehow smuggle it over the line in the last minite! typical. Tho all of us brits took it well and all stayed after the game just sitting on the feild to have a chat and warm down while the americans went off to gloat to the kids, how typical!

Sunday night was my kids turn to host campfire, which was hands down the best yet (even DJ the head councellor said so!)

Yesturday was a sad and very strange day. First of all Darren, a general councellor from the sequoias (next age group up) was released. I was quite upset at this as out of all the general councellors who have come to radio with groups of kids, Darren was one of the better ones as he always seemed to take an interest in the activity and the development of the kids, and I considered him to be a good friend. However this was obviously not the view of the administration. As Darren was going, Aarron, a general councellor with the oaks (the age group down) decided he had had enough and would leave with his friend.

However these events were eclipsed by what would happen later on that evening. Earlier in the day, Richard, a lacross councellor who lives in the ajoining bunk, number 17 had lent his car to Ben, the golf councellor who was on his day off, As it turns out, while he was picking up rich's keys from his bunk, he helped himself to two new t shirts Rich had bought from Conway a few days previously.

To cut a long story short, and unfotunately in turn remove much of the drama from the tale, it turns out that Ben had been 'helping himself' to many items from both councellors and kids including things such as cash, video games and even an I-Pod! He was promtly taken to pack up his things and fired, and along with a member of kitchen staff leaving took the total of staff leaving to 4 in one day, which has now been coined as 'the pre-visiting day massacure' .

Events like Ben's don't so much shock and suprise you, but make you question your own outlook on things and how open you are with people. Camp is a very sharing and trusting environment. As i have discovered over the last few days, Solitude is very hard to find therefore everything that happens to you becomes public knowledge, sometimes much quicker than you might like as many have found to their cost. Therefore when someone breaks this trust, eveyone is rocked to the core, as was shown by the distinctly muted atmosphere around camp this morning. Ben may not have been the most popular guy but his actions have caused a lot of pain, and despite this, i along with several others feel sorry for him and hope he is able to get help for the problems he has and continue to lead his life on from here.

In lighter news, the hot weather that has been killing us for the last few days has hopefully now subsided as we had two big storms this afternoon, Visiting day is in a few days and from there on in it is all supposed to fly by, considering it already has, it should be fun. Sunday marked the one mounth anniversary of my arriving within the States, meaning i am now roughly a third through my adventure. Im now really missing stupid, little things about home but missing them none the less. Things such as tea, proper chocolate, cricket over baseball seem to be much more important when you don't have them, as do friends and family, something i already have learnt this summer is how several people are very important in my life, and altough sometimes i take them for granted, these people do mean a lot to me. Hopefully you know who you are. Reciveing post has never been as important to me as it has at camp, so thank you to those who have taken the time to write, it is hugely appritated and i promise to make the effort to write back as soon as possible.

Anyway, it is now time for bed
Hope everyone is safe and well

T
XXX

The Big Game

On Monday night i made my Street Hockey debut in the 20th Annual Staff Vs. Admin ( All the top people plus all of the campers turned councellors). We had a combination of roller and foot lines and i was in the third foot line. I thought i did ok and when i got back to my bunk my kids said that i had 'an awesome game' and that a lot of people had played worse than i had! Some of the other kids cheered me on to the rink and chanted my name, it was awesome! My carear in the NHL will be commencing from next week.

However the game got quite heated especially with some of the former campers and we wound up losing 3-2, partly due to the inexperience of our roller lines compared with the opposition, and there was very nearly a fight with Bolter and Chris Keefe, and Ben, our captain threatened to pull the game as there team were getting very physical and there were several points where people from each side jumped onto the rink in anticipation, But all the kids loved the game and especially enjoyed the staff serving them breakfast in bed as our part of the deal!

Yesturday was trip day number two where we went to 'Lower Falls' Which was basically an arrangement of natural rapids/ mini watefall type things. It was great as was something you'd never be allowed to go on in the UK especially not take a group of 40 kids too! I had to get in to help one of the kids out who was stuck on a rock and then got swept down one of the waterfalls. I was ok, usual life flashing before eyes package which was fun, Managed to bang my hip and bum which are both a bit sore now, tho a nice combination of ice and advil has helped. (people that know me well enough will realise how much it hurts that i actually took medication!) then spent the next hour helping the kids as they came down the waterfall. We were very lucky that no one was seriously hurt!In the afternoon we went to pirates cove for minature golf! wooo! Then ice cream and home.

Now, the mail contest has been jointly won by angharad and my grandma as both letters arrived on monday, but please keep sending stuff! The kids are starting to get care packages now and im getting jealous!!!

T

Trips Trips Trips

Wowa what a couple of days

Yesturday was the first offical trip day, Mark (the camp director) told us we were going to big pond mountain so we packed up all 39 sycamores and 11 councellors . We all put our walking boots on and packed into a good ol fashioned american schoolbus and set off from camp. We drove for about an hour before pulling into a side road by 'Maine's Big Adventure' Where Louis (our group leader) annoucned 'did you really think i was going to take you guys walking? So we spent the day enjoying miniture golf (im becoming a pro), some big water slides, bowling, a rock climbing wall, and best of all a laser quest arena! I came top in two of the games! The kids loved it, but the councellors even more so as we could just let the kids go off and they were all back on time! We then went to 'the gazebo' for ice cream and headed back to camp for cook out in the evening, what a great day!

Today was my third day off, so myself, joe, ben, issac and gavin (another brit) headed south on 302, firstly we hit portland for some relaxation and a nice walk around, then we got a text from some girls we knew from Mataponi asking us to come to the beach at Onquitport about an hour south again, so we headed over and hung out for a few hours, then went to the portland mall on the way back, followed by miniture golf (another course,) then we met the girls again at the pool hall, where i dont think i actually played any pool!

Hope those letters are on their way people!!!

T
p.s. im guessing its lyndsey