So I guess I need to face it. Summer is over and I need to do my final posting and end this blog. First of all I want to apologize that I stopped writing at the end of the camp, but I just did not have any time! Camp Needlepoint went from Sunday to Saturday and we did not really have any free time during the week either. Also it was very tiring, but I’ll tell about that later..
So the last week of regular Croix was awesome. That weekend we had some kids at camp cause they couldn’t go on trail (water was too high and fast at Croix river), so we created some activities and had a Harry Potter dinner. We had the long house tables where people were awkwardly sitting far away from each other. We also had the sorting hat, and Belly on walkie-talkie telling which house everyone belongs to, it was something ridiculously amazing!
Me and Criss-Cross were absolutely crazy that week, I can’t say if our kids loved us or hated us for that, but we had so much fun! haha. I think my schedule for that week was pretty much the best I’ve had all summer. We had all good activities and a day trail. For camper choice we were facilitating SLIP’N’SLIDE <3 It was amazing, particularly in batman clothing. Our day trail with Eddie and Ray was perfect. We were playing at the water fall and after that walked to the beach. The kids absolutely loved it: “Are we there yet?” “How much further?” “I caaaaaaan’t walk anymore!” “I’m hungry” “I’m thirsty” “I’m tired” “I hate trail” “I have never walked this much”. We had fun :D After that we visited a nature center and did a tree trail! That tree trail was awesome, if you ask me. We learned about the nature and saw 7 deer just standing there really close! We also had to wait for our ride for 2 hours and me and Eddie missed our time-off because of that.
On that Friday, our last day of Croix, we did some crazy stuff together. We created a super bed with the people who were staying for needlepoint (which was pretty much the internationals and few amazing nationals). We had 12 mattresses covering one room’s floor. We thought that it was gonna be a party at super bed every day during needlepoint…little did we know. So landmines that night wasn’t the best idea for the next day’s training that we were facilitating for the diabetic staff. We did something stupid and on Sunday night we got to pay for it, the saddest and scariest night L Don’t wanna go to the details, but two of my great friends had to go home because of all of us, and because quite stupid reasoning too! Anyway the training on Saturday was awful, I’ve never felt so sick. But somehow we did it, never back down! That night we had our end of the summer banquet with all the Croix staff. There were tables down at the beach and it was beautiful. Have to say, some tears might have fallen that night. Mostly it went in cheerful atmosphere. We took lots of pictures, we ate good food, gave out recognitions, gave speeches, had the longest boogaloo and baptized people at the river! ;) “Oh come on let’s go down, down to the river to pray….” Then it was time to head up to Mufasa’s cabin for LSP. That night was so good until the dirty boogaloo, which was the most ridiculous and best we’ve had so far. (Went on for 30 minutes, learned later on that summer, since someone filmed it…..8D) After that idk what happened to my spirit, but it wasn’t as fun anymore. I guess I realized I didn’t want everything to be over and say goodbye to those people!
Sunday came and so started Camp Needlepoint and my time as an arts and crafts director. I was P-staff!!! Camp Needlepoint is a huge user group, but they have their own staff so they only needed few Croix people for program areas and for life guarding. It was so weird all of the sudden having so many new people, they all knew each other already, so we had the feeling of not knowing anyone while walking around the property. I didn’t particularly like it :s Also some of their staff weren’t good counselors at all, and all the trash that they left! Being diabetic doesn’t mean you can do anything!! Enough of that, there were also good people :)
Our boss had changed and it was a good thing since Gonzo was way better getting stuff done and listening to us. We had a lot of different responsibilities those 2 weeks. As I said I was A&C director, but I also had to do parking duty, cleaning up, parent letter, life guard etc. I also had to go on 3 day canoeing trail that week. It was fun, but also hard and not the thing I really would have wanted to do. During the nights we were first told we are off, but after not behaving well enough that one Friday night they didn’t trust us to have any freetime, so we were stuck at camp to do stupid stuff. We also had to break down super bed cause it was a fire hazard and sleep in single sex rooms. Haha. LOL. (One night me and Mufasa fell asleep to the same room while watching a movie or something and Gonzo actually kept coming to the room every 30 minutes to check what we are doing…I heard in the morning, obviously I was sleeping). Those weeks were fun, but also we were all tired and kinda were already ready to be over..not whit the people though, just with the work. The last week there was so much work, cleaning up the whole camp and preparing it for fall and winter! Also on Friday the CNP director just decided whitout asking me or CC that everyone who wanted could do tye-dying..WHAT?! So we had 70 EXTRA kids at A&C doing TYE-DYING! It was a total mess. For all those extra activities only the Croix staff was helping, it was hard and our motivation wasn’t that high anymore. Everything got done though. Except that mouse is probably still at the Savannah (the building we were sleeping the last 2 weeks..ewww).
The very last day of camp was my birthday. It was surreal, cause I had to say goodbye to so many people. I was crying a lot. But also we partied and before that visited Mall of America the final time! Pretty epic 22nd birthday, not the most memorable, but the most epic! B-day fireworks and everything <3
Early in the Monday morning (August 29th) it was time to say goodbye to dear old Camp St. Croix that had been my home for the past 3 months! Weird…BUT HELLO MIAMI!
Me, Criss-Cross and Cuda had an amazing time in Miami, even though we got the last bits of the hurricane the first day.. We rested, laid at the beach, and went on some tours. I got to hold an alligator!
I also did a quick weekend trip to “home”, Charlotte NC. I saw friends and went to see my hoods. It still felt like home. It was a perfect weekend :)
On Tuesday the 6th of September it was time for NEW YORK CITY! I was so excited! I got to see some camp people again and pretend it was not over yet and stuff..So I met CC and Cuda at the airport, I took Cuda with me and we went to find our hostel. It was in china town and it was hilarious, our room was smaller than a closet. But why would we be in our room, we were in NYC!! We met Mufasa and ATL and they were showing us the city a little bit. The next morning we had to face the fact that we didn’t have a place to stay anymore. (all the hostels were booked, maybe cause 9/11?) We had a hostel haunt, but we didn’t find anything. I was quite stressed, but we didn’t slide into despair. We took our bags and walked to ATL’s and then just walked into some hostels and finally found a place. They had single sex dorm rooms, so me and Cuda had different rooms, oh well, can’t win always. We went to the National History Museum, and only paid $5 for 3 adults (suggested amount $57). That place was so interesting that we didn’t wanna leave at the closing time. After that we went to the Central Park and rescued Prawn from Time Square <3 It rained the whole night and we walked for bajillion miles (the Manhattan Island is HUGE) and because we wanted to have a break before taking our huge bags from ATL’s to the hostel we decided to have few drinks at ATL’s. Well we ended up all sleeping at his tiny apartment. Me, Mufasa, Prawn and Cuda slept in a small futon spooning. So uncomfortable, but oh so nice! I feel young and alive! The next day we went to ground zero, Battery Park, Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall and Rockefeller Center. We also saw CC and her sister J On Friday we went to a boat tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! At 5ish Prawn and Cuda had their own stuff they wanted to do so they just left me alone. I went to ATL’s to hang out with him and Mufasa. It was my last night in NY and in the US, so we wanted to go out. The guys also forced me to drink my first 40 ever, oh lord…:D An Irish couple and Prawn came with us also and we went to one club. That night was awesome, but then it was Mufasa’s time to say goodbye to Prawn and that was awful. I had to run after him and we walked together to ATL’s both in tears. L That night was bitter sweet. We were just lying in silence for a long time, but then started talking and talking and talking. It was an amazing night, one of the best! We didn’t sleep at all.
I don’t even want to write about the next morning. The hardest thing I’ve ever done, I had to walk away from there even though everything was saying I should not. I cried the whole walk to a café where I met CC and had to say goodbye to her too. I had been scared of those two moments for so long…I don’t even know how I managed to get to my hostel in that state of mind and pack my bags. The whole day went by so fast, my mind was just a haze. Said goodbye to Prawn and Cuda too and then took the subway to the airport at night. I didn’t even check if I stepped into a right train, I was lucky and I get to the airport on time.
I kinda didn’t even realize that I was leaving, until I heard two people speaking Finnish at the bathroom. That moment I almost past out, I couldn’t breathe and I started panicking and almost crying. I hadn’t heard Finnish at all on live during the whole summer and that moment it all just hit me, I was actually leaving. I had said my final good byes, maybe goodbye forever to those people I had spent the whole summer with. And I mean the whole summer 24/7. They all had become so close to me, they were my towers of strength this summer. I can’t even write about this now, but that was the end of my summer adventures. I don’t wanna be misunderstood it was also nice to come back to Finland and see my friends at Mikkeli bus station <3
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe I hate to go
This summer was an incredible experience and I grew so much! I also changed a lot and I just wanna thank some people for helping me out and helping me realize something about life <3 Never forget!
Sorry for the long final report, if anyone actually read the whole thing :D Thanks for following or just sneak peeking the best summer of my life! :)
And it's sad to walk away with just the memories
Vilmaaaa soita mulle.
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