Long time no see! First week of work is now over. Actually to be honest the second one is over for me too! So the first one I was cos with Bza who I went to trail with, so I was pleased with that. We had 10 15-years old woodcrafters at cabin 11, which is the nicest cabin out of all (lucky us). They told us Sunday morning (which is always the first day of camp) that it's gonna be Camp OZ, which means all of them had epilepsy. I was pretty nervous, but luckily Bza had been a counselor here before so she knew what we were supposed to do and helped me a lot.
Every week is almost the same for everyone. At first we get our co-counselors and cabin assignments (I hate packing my stuff twice a week!!) + schedules for the week. Then the campers arrive, we have a whole camp opening seremony, do rotations about safety, play all camp game and have the opening campfire. at the campfire we do skits and songs and play games, I absolutely just love them! Then during the actual week we have 2-4 activities per day; some of the examples would be swimming, riding horses, archery, arts and crafts, sailing, teambuilding, rock climbing, high ropes, different sports, nature etc. I'm so thankful that I get to be here, cause I really love everything we do and I get paid for it!! At the evenings we either have all camp games (like capture the flag or predators pray) or unit activity, where all the same agegroup campers do something together. Every evening we have devotions before bed, and that's a time when we go over the day and get to know eachother better. On thursday night we do a closing campfire and then Friday it is goodbyes and staffparty!
So the first week was crazy. My campers were having seizures everyday, and one day one of them had 6! I was so stressed out, and couldn't sleep at all, cause they kept waking me up to go to the bathroom or cause they had a seizure. I absolutely just loved all of the girls, but it was hard work! I'm really proud of myself that I actually survived the whole week! I feel like I will learn so much during this summer about leadership, the activities and myself.
I was ridiculously tired at the end of the week so I ended up not going to the party. On Saturday we volunteered at Croixathlon, which is a thrialthlon that raises money for the YMCA camp. It was really fun actually, and after that we ended up going to the mall of america and to river fall movies! It was tota;;y awesome, that mall is the biggest thing ever. No kidding. Also during the night we saw something umbelievable pretty, a firefly show over one field at the camp. We kept staring at it for like 15 minutes.
This week I ended up being cos with Ringo who's originally from Sweden (yay team Slingo) it was super nice! We had 7 summer samps, so they were tiny little kids and they stayed only for two nights, so now I'm off for the rest of the week! I was at the beach for 3 hours today, it beautiful outside! <3 Tomorrow maybe to the cities :) More later.
Love, Sling.
ps. I also had a doctor haunt last week, after two days finally found one who would accept my insurance. They found a mark of a broken bone (thanks doctors at finland), but it's almost healed! I get my cast off at the end of this week! woppwoop, I'm super excited!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
I wanna wake up in the morning at the dear old camp St.Croix
Staff training is over!! We are ready for some action. Campers arrive tomorrow, pretty exciting. I'm a bit nervous, since we don't know anything yet, like co-counsellors or what agegroup we are getting.
One highlight of the training was that stafftrail. I went canooing, but wasn't actually able to paddle at all, so I was the dougher (spelling?) the whole 3 days. Boring may I say. There was 8 members in my team and we ended up doing 35 miles. The weather was absolutely beautiful, but the downside is that I got really sunburned. The river was amazing, we saw lots of wildlife: turtles (WHAT?), deer, eagles and other cool birds. The second day my group decided to wake up early in the morning, so we could pass all the other groups. One of the best decisions ever. It was amazingly pretty and calm.
Our groupleader made us do about bajillion inis and devos. But I don't complain, I learned pretty good games to use in the future! Also we all had to make a one match fire. Mad skills ;) The last night we all 8 fell asleep in one tent while doing devos of the day. So we ended up sleeping there. A bit crowded feeling since those tents are made for 4 kids, not 8 adults (we also happened to have three biggest guys from the whole camp). But that experience really made us more close and even though at moments it was a bit uncomfortable, that was the best part of the whole trip! I think I had the best shower ever after trail, I was so dirty...
On Thursday night we were done with the staff training so we felt like doing something. We ended up going to the twincities and visiting some peoples family and got some icecream. The actual party was on Friday. After spending our first day off at the social security office at Minneapolis we headed out to one counsellors cabin. The party was......a bit crazy. Not going into the details :D We got back today (Saturday) lunchtime and since then I have just been sleeping.
So, campers tomorrow and maybe visiting doctors to see what we could do to my hand. Wish me luck for my first session! :)
Love, Sling! (that is my camp name)
One highlight of the training was that stafftrail. I went canooing, but wasn't actually able to paddle at all, so I was the dougher (spelling?) the whole 3 days. Boring may I say. There was 8 members in my team and we ended up doing 35 miles. The weather was absolutely beautiful, but the downside is that I got really sunburned. The river was amazing, we saw lots of wildlife: turtles (WHAT?), deer, eagles and other cool birds. The second day my group decided to wake up early in the morning, so we could pass all the other groups. One of the best decisions ever. It was amazingly pretty and calm.
Our groupleader made us do about bajillion inis and devos. But I don't complain, I learned pretty good games to use in the future! Also we all had to make a one match fire. Mad skills ;) The last night we all 8 fell asleep in one tent while doing devos of the day. So we ended up sleeping there. A bit crowded feeling since those tents are made for 4 kids, not 8 adults (we also happened to have three biggest guys from the whole camp). But that experience really made us more close and even though at moments it was a bit uncomfortable, that was the best part of the whole trip! I think I had the best shower ever after trail, I was so dirty...
On Thursday night we were done with the staff training so we felt like doing something. We ended up going to the twincities and visiting some peoples family and got some icecream. The actual party was on Friday. After spending our first day off at the social security office at Minneapolis we headed out to one counsellors cabin. The party was......a bit crazy. Not going into the details :D We got back today (Saturday) lunchtime and since then I have just been sleeping.
So, campers tomorrow and maybe visiting doctors to see what we could do to my hand. Wish me luck for my first session! :)
Love, Sling! (that is my camp name)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
What's that you say?
Busybusy. Staff training has started and the days are really full! It feels like I have already been here forever, camp days seem to last 3 days, but I absolutely love it. I'm just really exhausted all the time since we always want to do stuff after training, so we usually go to bed at midnightish and get up at 7 am.
So the cabins. It was nothing like I was expecting. I walked into one when I arrived here and boom! It was a crappy and creepy one. There are 12 beds, bugnests, but HUGE bugs everywhere, racoons partying at nigh outside, and small shelves where to put your staff. It's super crowded now when all the national staff have arrived. A BIG minus, NO AC. We are burning up! Other minus, you can't adjust the temperature in the showers. Which means lobstershowers everyday!! :s
The food here at camp is phenomenal, but not very healthy. We usually have eggs, sausages, pancakes, muffins etc. for breakfast and somekind of a sandwhich for lunch and then dinner usually varies. But I think I have only eaten two (2) proper meals here :D I'm gonna be so fatty at the end of this summer!
In staff training we have gone over our policies and how to act in different situations etc. But also we have had the opportunity to try out different activities (including canoeing, rock climbing, horses, archery, high ropes) and learn about the safety issues. One day we built a dock at the waterfront, we have also done some teambuilding, and tomorrow we are heading out to staff trail. Mine is a canoe trail, but I can't really paddle at all, since my hand hasn't still healed, which sucks! I have a pretty good feeling about this summer, I'm really going to learn so much, and if I put myself out there I can get so much out of this!
Everyone in here is extremely nice and outgoing, so I have already made some pretty good friends! We are actually planning a group trip at the end of the summer with the internationals, sweet! It's a close community and we like to spend the nights also together. So far we have done few camp fires, which I absolutely love, gone out to restaurants or just shopping, bars, and yesterday we went to drive-in movies! It was awesome, since I've never seen one before. I liked it, it cost 8$ and we got to watch two movies. The program group is planning some weekend trips for us internationals, which I find really nice, since that's just some extrawork they are putting in, just for us. I'm really, really loving this place <3
That's all for today, I really have to go packing for the trail! I try to get more organized post someday, I'm thinking the end of the week when we actually get some days off. Also I will try to upload some pictures here! Happy trails :)
So the cabins. It was nothing like I was expecting. I walked into one when I arrived here and boom! It was a crappy and creepy one. There are 12 beds, bugnests, but HUGE bugs everywhere, racoons partying at nigh outside, and small shelves where to put your staff. It's super crowded now when all the national staff have arrived. A BIG minus, NO AC. We are burning up! Other minus, you can't adjust the temperature in the showers. Which means lobstershowers everyday!! :s
The food here at camp is phenomenal, but not very healthy. We usually have eggs, sausages, pancakes, muffins etc. for breakfast and somekind of a sandwhich for lunch and then dinner usually varies. But I think I have only eaten two (2) proper meals here :D I'm gonna be so fatty at the end of this summer!
In staff training we have gone over our policies and how to act in different situations etc. But also we have had the opportunity to try out different activities (including canoeing, rock climbing, horses, archery, high ropes) and learn about the safety issues. One day we built a dock at the waterfront, we have also done some teambuilding, and tomorrow we are heading out to staff trail. Mine is a canoe trail, but I can't really paddle at all, since my hand hasn't still healed, which sucks! I have a pretty good feeling about this summer, I'm really going to learn so much, and if I put myself out there I can get so much out of this!
Everyone in here is extremely nice and outgoing, so I have already made some pretty good friends! We are actually planning a group trip at the end of the summer with the internationals, sweet! It's a close community and we like to spend the nights also together. So far we have done few camp fires, which I absolutely love, gone out to restaurants or just shopping, bars, and yesterday we went to drive-in movies! It was awesome, since I've never seen one before. I liked it, it cost 8$ and we got to watch two movies. The program group is planning some weekend trips for us internationals, which I find really nice, since that's just some extrawork they are putting in, just for us. I'm really, really loving this place <3
That's all for today, I really have to go packing for the trail! I try to get more organized post someday, I'm thinking the end of the week when we actually get some days off. Also I will try to upload some pictures here! Happy trails :)
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
It's a great day to be a lifeguard!
So apparently I never have time to write to this blog, but now I'll try my best. Starting from the beginning, Friday morning bright and early I was surprised at Helsinki airport by some fellow classmates, pretty sweet! They came to say good bye to me at 5.30am and they had made me a survival book that has a diary part at the end. The flights were long and boring, and I was soooo dead while I got to the Minneapolis airport. I found out that no one is there picking me up, not cool. But then I called some of the camp staff members and all was fine! When I arrived to the camp, we found out that all the other staff members who had arrived (mostly internationals) had gone out to Hudson, so I had the cabin all for myself. I passed out like the second I hit the bed.
Saturday we were free to do anything, so me and couple other internationals were wondering around the camp area (it's huge btw) and went swimming to the beautiful river. It's like really hot in here all the time, so usually when we have freetime we just go down to the beach. It's just the hardest path ever, it's only about 300meters, BUT it's all very STEEP downhill. At the night most of the people were going out again, so I joined them. We ended up going to two bars at Hudson. It was nice, me + 14 guys.
On Sunday we started lifeguarding training. First we had to do some swimmig tests to be able to continue, like 500 meters w/o stopping, saving a brick and diving for 20 meters. It was pretty exhausting and after that we learnt lots of different saving techinques. We swam over 4 hours straight just to figure out that back at the camp they forgot to pack us lunch. So all we got was crackers and strawberries. Lifeguarding continued for 2 more days, with classroom sessions, test, first aid, CPR and more swimming, but NOW I am a lifeguard!!!! I can save some lives.
It's totally different to be at the camp now, cause there are now kids. So basically the few staff memebers who are here are just fooling around, and we are able to go shopping to places like TARGET <3 etc.
Tonight more national staff members will arrive and tomorrow starts staff training.
But now I want to go burning my pale/pink skin some more to that 100F/35C weather!
Saturday we were free to do anything, so me and couple other internationals were wondering around the camp area (it's huge btw) and went swimming to the beautiful river. It's like really hot in here all the time, so usually when we have freetime we just go down to the beach. It's just the hardest path ever, it's only about 300meters, BUT it's all very STEEP downhill. At the night most of the people were going out again, so I joined them. We ended up going to two bars at Hudson. It was nice, me + 14 guys.
On Sunday we started lifeguarding training. First we had to do some swimmig tests to be able to continue, like 500 meters w/o stopping, saving a brick and diving for 20 meters. It was pretty exhausting and after that we learnt lots of different saving techinques. We swam over 4 hours straight just to figure out that back at the camp they forgot to pack us lunch. So all we got was crackers and strawberries. Lifeguarding continued for 2 more days, with classroom sessions, test, first aid, CPR and more swimming, but NOW I am a lifeguard!!!! I can save some lives.
It's totally different to be at the camp now, cause there are now kids. So basically the few staff memebers who are here are just fooling around, and we are able to go shopping to places like TARGET <3 etc.
Tonight more national staff members will arrive and tomorrow starts staff training.
But now I want to go burning my pale/pink skin some more to that 100F/35C weather!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
I'm alive!
Hello USA! After traveling for 30 hours I finally got to the lovely Camp St.Croix. I have already met a lot of people, most of them are the other international staff members, and I can say I'll have a pretty good summer :)) It's really hot outside, so I don't feel like writing atm. And today is the last chance to fool around, cause tomorrow we start our lifeguarding lessons! I'll describe everything later on!
Taalla ollaan. 30 tunnin tuskallisen matkustamisen jalkeen paasin perille leirille. Olen jo tavannut joitain ihmisia, useimmat on toisia ulkkareita ja voin sanoa jo nyt, etta timanttinen kesa tulossa! :) Ulkona on kuuma, joten en halua tuhlata aikaani sisalla. Varsinkin, kun huomenna alkaa jo tositoimet, nyt pitaa siis nauttia lomapaivasta! Kirjoitan paremman matkaraportin myohemmin!
Taalla ollaan. 30 tunnin tuskallisen matkustamisen jalkeen paasin perille leirille. Olen jo tavannut joitain ihmisia, useimmat on toisia ulkkareita ja voin sanoa jo nyt, etta timanttinen kesa tulossa! :) Ulkona on kuuma, joten en halua tuhlata aikaani sisalla. Varsinkin, kun huomenna alkaa jo tositoimet, nyt pitaa siis nauttia lomapaivasta! Kirjoitan paremman matkaraportin myohemmin!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Äiti älä pelkää, kyllä pidän itsestä huolen!
For my mom who's a bit worried:
Haloo Helsinki- Maailman toisella puolen
I'll take care of myself!
2.40am leaving home
3.10am bus leaves from Tampere
5.40am bus arrives in Helsinki
8.00am 1st flight takes off
9.10am I'll arrive in London
11.45am 2nd flight
2.15pm I'm in Chicago USA <3
8.30pm 3rd flight
9.50pm I'm finally in my destination (Minneapolis)...well almost.
~11:ish pm I'll be in Hudson, Wisconsin
(these all are local times, so it will be like 7am Finland time when I finally get to the camp!! It means over 28 hours of traveling for me, gotta love it <3)
PEACE OUT FINLAND!
Haloo Helsinki- Maailman toisella puolen
I'll take care of myself!
2.40am leaving home
3.10am bus leaves from Tampere
5.40am bus arrives in Helsinki
8.00am 1st flight takes off
9.10am I'll arrive in London
11.45am 2nd flight
2.15pm I'm in Chicago USA <3
8.30pm 3rd flight
9.50pm I'm finally in my destination (Minneapolis)...well almost.
~11:ish pm I'll be in Hudson, Wisconsin
(these all are local times, so it will be like 7am Finland time when I finally get to the camp!! It means over 28 hours of traveling for me, gotta love it <3)
PEACE OUT FINLAND!
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