Day 99.........NYC, the last stop before home!!!!

So here we are!! 16 states later and Im back where I started, in the hostel in New York where I spent my very first excited and terrified night in the city! Its actually mad to believe that so much has happened in the last 15 weeks, and even more amazing to think that it actually went all as I planned it, with an extra stop along the way!!! If you ask me, knowing my luck, its the most amazing yet baffling part of the whole trip, but hey ho!! My knee has pretty much completely given out at this point, its pretty painful and keeps swelling up and is refusing to be walked on mostly but I have a bus tour pass for the next 3 days on one of those hop-on, hop-off dealios so I should be ok, I dont have to walk up and down subway stairs and hopefully will get dropped off directly at most of the sights. Then I need to be at the airport at 3pm on Friday and have to check out by 11am so am just considering getting on the subway then and heading over. If JFK is anything like Heathrow I should be able to amuse myself there for a few hours quite easily!!

So what have I been up to since I last posted?? Well Ive been in 3 states, haha, so you have another epic post to read sorry!! Denver was lovely, its an absolutely gorgeous city and the university isnt bad either!! Didnt see any musuems in Denver in the end, in my defence I tried but the US minting place was closed by the time we got there so we went and got our nails done instead to get over our devastation!! :) Ha. We also had lunch in the cutest little clocktower cafe where I had a lovely pizza cooked in an outside oven and Julia had the randomest hotdog with apricots in it!! She says it was nice though......... We then went home and ordered a Dominoes (its not as good as in the UK, no complimentary crust dip!!!) and went to bed ready for my early start.

And early it was!! It was still dark, which was ridiculous and I got my shuttle and headed to Denver airport. Its a really nice airport, with the most hilarious underground train system that plays different pieces of jaunty (Im sorry I had no other word for it!) with every different announcement. I got on my flight, its true what they say about Americans treating aeroplanes like buses, mine stopped at Chicago to let some passengers off and more on, then in Louisville where I got off, then it was heading on to Birmingham, Alabama before finishing in Orlando, Florida. And this is all one flight! Bizzare! Met Brittany at Louisville airport, had the expected tearful reunion (haha) then went back to her house in Lexington, about 50 miles away. We dumped my stuff and headed out to meet Keara (her sister who was also at camp) for a southern dinner. I had chicken and sweet potato fries, with yeast rolls and mashed potato. I then had strawberry cobbler for dessert which was delicious! We then went for a tour of Brittany's old neighbourhood including her high school, which looked just like Grease :) We then headed back to hers so I could pass out after my ridiculously tiring day of sitting........

The next day was awesome, we went apple picking at an orchard!!!!!! We had apple cider slushies (wierdly apple cider here isnt alcoholic!) and went out and ate and picked a load of apples. We then took some ridiculous photos with some scarecrows and headed in out of the heat (it was a non-apple-picking-friendly 94 degrees!!) It was Brittanys birthday so we'd done present stuff that morning, my necklace I bought her in Vegas survived the trip and Keara got her a beautiful floor lamp that we put pink bulbs in and it looked awesome!! She had vouchers to spend so we went to a lovely air conditioned mall and had tea there in a delicious Chinese restaurant. We then headed back and put on Sweet Home Alabama to keep the southern theme going and fell asleep!! After Keara got home from classes the next day we went out to a village that had been run by a group called the Shakers. They are similar to Amish people (although different enough that there were some Amish people visiting, who I confused with the people working there, oops!!) They were a religious group with some pretty interesting and convincing religious ideas that I think I need to look more into to see if they actually happened like we were told!! We wandered around there for a few hours then went to a steak restaurant for a somewhat awesome steak dinner!! We then decided to go to downtown Lexington to see if anything was going on for the start of the World Equestrian Games that are being held there, but it was raining so aside from the concert we had nearly missed there wasnt anything!! So we went back to the house, put on 10 Things I Hate About You (which is still so sad coz Heath Ledger died!!) and fell asleep to a movie again!!

Had to get up at stupid o'clock again (I dont know why I booked my flights as early as I did, in hindsight it was an error!!) but once again had a smooth flight to Washington DC, with a boring change in Detroit, Michigan. Arrived at the airport and met Fatemah, the girl who was kindly letting me stay with her, who I lived with last year for a term when she was an exchange student at Lancs (so that damn flat gave me something good in the end!!) We got some food and went back to hers to eat it and to catch up, then went out and wandered around her town of Rockville, Maryland whilst eating frozen yoghurt with fresh peaches and strawberries, yum!! We then went back to hers so I could once again pass out from exhaustion, ready for the epic day of sightseeing the next day. And epic it was!! Im thinking of writing a book on how to see all a city has to offer in a day, coz once again I managed it, with the exception of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress, but that wasnt my fault, they were closed!! I went around all the monuments, the Lincoln memorial is pretty impressive and saw the White House, which is a bit of a let down, as bizarrely its just in the middle of a bunch of other buildings and is actually quite tiny!! Finally got my museum trip in the form of the Holocaust Museum, which was a pretty awesome place. We then went to Fatemah's sister-in-laws for some food, she made us quesedillas, which are mince, tomatos and cheese in tortillas with sour cream and are delicious!! We then spent a couple of hours scaring ourselves watching Criminal Minds and then I was nearly asleep so we went home! Had another early start the next day, Fatemah dropped me off at the train station before she went to work at 7.15 and I got the train into DC. Dropped my bag at a storage place and went for a tour of the Capitol and then to the Library of Congress. Tour started with obligatory and hilarious video on how wonderful America is, but the rest was pretty interesting, had a very amusing tour guide called Brandon, who clearly loved his country and his job!! Library claimed to hold lots of interesting things but I couldnt find any of them so went back to station to collect bag and wait for train. Did some stuff to prepare for coming home, which was a bit depressing (making docs appointments about my knee, ugh!) and then slept for most of the journey. Was awake to see Philadelphia station and one in New Jersey so can say Ive seen the states :) Getting the subway to the hostel went very smoothly, and am now probably off to bed (at 7pm how sad!!) so I can get up and start my bus tour at a decent time tomorrow!!

I dont have that many days left to blog about now so there will be no more epic posts, Ill probably update you on what happens here from the airport on Friday. Im actually really excited to be going home, I didnt think I would be but Im definitely ready to stop travelling now!! Im so bloody tired!! Its been amazing though and Im so excited to see New York! So Ill write soon, and see you in less than a week, eeeeeeeee :)

Day 92......Hello from Dever, CO!!

Ive moved again!! I had a lovely week in Utah with my family and am now in Denver, Colorado with my friend Julia who I worked with last year, who is studying out here for the next couple of years on a scholarship (shes really very very clever!!). Theres currently a massive and very impressive thunderstorm, which is amazing to watch, the skys gone all sorts of gorgeous shades of orange and pink and the lightening is lighting up the Rockies, its so pretty!! And hopefully it will break the ridiuclous heat and humidity!!

I really enjoyed my time in Utah, its such a gorgeous state. Salt Lake City is one of the cleanest and prettiest Ive ever been in, and of course this is credited to the Mormons. Have to say I wasnt hassled nearly as much as I was expecting to be on my day jaunt to the city, and there was even a Starbucks!! Those of you who dont know the religion will be shrugging at this but as caffiene is banned, I was impressed. Of course it is a Starbucks and they do get everywhere, and Im not surprised even a divine intervention couldnt stop them :P

I really didnt do a lot in Ogden (the city just outside Salt Lake where my Auntie, Uncle and cousins live) and its been freakin wonderful! I cant believe I was only there for a week, it feels like so much longer, and the lie-ins, sunbathing, baths and general lazing around was definitely worth it!! I had a day of pampering on Friday and feel much better after having a haircut (my head feels about 10 pounds lighter) and an amazing pedicure from "an aggressive asian woman" (I have such pretty toes!!) I was taken to the states largest gift shop, The Rainbow Gardens, and was amazingly restrained and didnt buy anything! The only thing I was tempted to was a Christmas Decoration that was made from the salt from the salt lake the City got its name from, but was told the humidity in England would probably cause it to fall apart once I got it home, so I decided against it! Ive also done some shopping and bought a stock of the shower gel I love and some long sleeved tops, mostly as an incentive to come home, to a place where I can actually wear them! Its still at least 90 degrees in most of the places I have yet to go to, so I wont be wearing them for another couple of weeks! Its quite nice to see the rain here actually, although its a novelty Im sure will wear off quickly back in Lancaster!

I went to watch my baby cousin play football on Saturday, although not proper football, but American Football. (And technically at 13 hes not a baby anymore.......) I didnt really understand most of the game, although it made a lot more sense than the one I saw in Lancaster, but I still managed to "Woo" in all the right places, and had loads of people to talk to, parents who were attracted by the accent! We then went home and had a stir fry followed by the worlds most disappointing cheescake. It looked amazing, it was huge and made up of 2 slices of 6 flavours of cheesecake. Unfortunately in true American style they added damn cinnamon to EVERY flavour, even the chocolate ones!! It was totally ruined, and very sad :( The evening was saved however by me and my auntie and cousin snuggling up and watching "Across The Universe", which is a film much like "Mamma Mia" but with Beatles music. Its really good and almost made up for not getting to see Cheap Trick do the Sergeant Peppers album in Vegas. The lead guy was also really cute, its been a long time since a found a guy with a Scouse accent attractive lol.

The flight to Denver went really smoothly, it felt like we had only just finished gaining altitude when we started coming back down again, and got to Julias in time to distract her from her course reading for a catch up of the last months Ive missed by being over here. I went into downtown Denver today, which is really lovely, and spent a few hours wandering around the 16th Street Mall and going to the state Capitol building, which is really beautiful. The whole area around it is designed to look like Washington DC, and its made me really excited to see the real thing! Walking up 99 stairs to see the view from the top of the Dome really gave my knee a bit of a shock after a week of resting but its nothing some ice tonight couldnt cure! Im heading in again tomorrow with Julia (who had classes all day today) to see a museum or two (I feel like one of my stops should have a little culture!) and maybe the place they make money, one of only two US Minting factories in the country! I intend to ask them to at least make their note denominations different colours, if not different sizes!!

As an update from other blogs, I have a Utah magnet that I managed to find at the last minute in the airport, but as of yet still not Illinois one and a Colorado one didnt show itself today :/ I found a shop with all 50 in Utah, but in true my life style, Illinois and Utah were the only 2 missing!!! (Utah I get, but why Illinois?!?!) So I am endevouring to keep on searching, and then hit Amazon when I get home!! For anyone keeping count Im currently missing Illinois (I think I mentioned that, ha) and Nevada.

Also, Mum, Im sorry this post has a distinct lack of apostrophes, Im using Julias Spanish computer and they look weird!!

See everyone in 12 sleeps!!!! :)

Day 86.......Time for a welcome week of sleeping!

So this post comes to you from the lovely state of Utah! Its actually really pretty, all one town of it that Ive seen!! My escapades in Utah so far are really easy to update you on, I arrived yesterday after a 6 hour drive from Las Vegas, which I slept through. I got here, ate dinner and fell asleep. I got up today at noon-ish, had some lunch, had a bath and read a whole book, then had dinner and now Im informing you all of my life in the past week before I go to bed again!! Its amazing, for anyone who is wondering travelling is EXHAUSTING!!!!! (and yes, I know I could sleep before I left, but even I wasnt this ridiculous!!)

So that's Utah so far covered. Before I tell you all about the bright lights of Vegas, Im going to go back a week or so and tell you all about San Francisco! Im going to be honest, I wasnt a massive fan of the city, the hostel we were staying was in the dodgiest area of town and it was honestly terrifying, even during the day, and especially at night. Amy (the girl we drove up with) had a horrible experience when she went out early the first morning we were there, with people yelling at her and harrassing her for money. She came back all freaked out and really worried me and Lorna, by the time we left the hostel it was much better but still not a holiday kind of place! We got a bus (for free coz we got on the wrong end!) up to the tourist part of town and it was much nicer, but Im still so unimpressed that a hostel would be in the worst area of town. As a tourist I didnt know to recognise the address and when they send me the survey asking for my views Im going to be very cross. It probably wont do anything but it'll make me feel better!!

Anyways, all was not lost and me and Lorna spent a very lovely afternoon on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. Whoever said retail therapy makes you feel better was right!! :) We tried clam chowder from a traditional sourdough bowl and got most of our presents for people and I got some pajama pants that are actually long enough for me!! (Theyre New York Giants ones, a team I had no idea what sport they even played, but its upset my 13 year old cousin who is a massive fan of the team they beat in the Superbowl last year, the New England Patriots. He took some convincing that it was an accident, oops!!) We then booked our tours of Alcatraz Island for the next day and (very reluctantly) headed back to the hostel. Very randomly a friend of mine, who Im meeting up with in New York, was in San Francisco so we met up with her and her travelling companion and went for dinner in Chinatown. It was a really nice meal and the area is so cute! I could've bought so much stuff (being the souvenir whore I am!) but limited myself to just a beautiful silk purse. We were then insanely cold so headed back to the hotel for a rock and roll cup of tea before heading to bed.

Just as an aside, the weather in San Francisco is RIDICULOUS!!! Its so windy, especially on the piers, and cold even when its sunny! It did however give me an excuse to take advantage of the Gaps $35 jeans sale, and got some very nice skinny jeans, that serve the purpose of keeping me warm and fitting under my brace! I havent used them since I left San Fran but heyho, Ill use them when I get home!!

Our second day in San Francisco we actually got up and me, Lorna and Amy headed out to do stuff. We started with going to get our tickets for the Greyhound the next day, in yet another dodgy area of the city!! We then started our sightseeing with the Yerba Gardens, which were very pretty and contained a lot of people doing some morning yoga. We then wandered through the very attractive Union Square shopping centre and sought out a cable car stop to take us to the Wharf. We stood on the outside of the cable car which was very exciting, and went whizzing through the city for the bargain price of $5. We got off just before the Wharf at a place called Lombard Street, which is apparently the 'crookedest street in the world'. It was designed that way to make it easier for cars to go downhill safely. If you're interested Google it, its mad looking!! We then headed to the Wharf and hung out for a couple of hours, and maybe shopped some more, and then me and Lorna headed for our Alcatraz tour. The island was amazing, and if you ask me all prisons in the world should be designed like it!! It was a fascinating couple of hours, but eventually we headed off to get some slices of pizza to have while we packed and got ready for our bus journey at stupid o'clock the next day........... 4am is a really early start but we managed it and got onto the first of our buses for our epic trek to Las Vegas. It took forever but went fairly quickly and was fairly uneventful. We slept a bit and didnt eat much, and after several hours of boring landscape (the Mojave desert is really really dull!) we reached the bright lights of Sin City! We arrived at night, which was definitely the best time to get there as it was an amazing sight!!!!!!!!

The hotel we were staying in was called New York, New York and it was genuinely amazing!! It was designed inside to look like New York city, and it really did! There was a Statue of Liberty and a Brooklyn Bridge outside and a rollercoaster going around it. The inside was naturally Times Square and was very well done. We got to the hotel and said hello to Gill and Mike (my aunt and uncle) and Steve and Julie (my uncles brother and his wife) and then went to our GORGEOUS hotel room to get showered and changed for dinner. I had a very nice steak, Lorna chose to pay for cocktails rather than food, and then we headed out to check out the bars in the casino. There was a rowdy Irish bar, a dueling piano kareoke bar which was awesome, a 'nightclub' which as it was only one room we classified as a 'nightarea' and the Coyote Ugly bar. It was amazing at once but the girls weren't nearly as good looking as in the film, and it got pretty old pretty quickly!!! We were then on the verge of being up for 24 hours so headed off to our queen size bed each, which was dreamlike after the hostel beds we'd been in!!

We got up the next day and headed down to the box office to take advantage of the hotel's 3 for $54 offer, we got tickets for an aquarium, the CSI experience and Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden. The Secret Garden tickets were traumatic to acquire and we had to walk miles to get them, but they were so worth it coz we saw some incredibly beautiful dolphins and then some of the cutest tigers EVER!! They were white ones, and there were two 11 week old cubs that were the most adorable things I have ever seen!! Lorna got some gorgeous photos that Ill post as soon as I can! We then headed up the strip to the MGM and the CSI Experience, which was awesome and yes, I did indeed solve the case! In case you're interested it was the guy's twin brother :P We then went back to the hotel where Gill and Julie had rented a cabana, a private tent thing by the pool with a fully stocked fridge, sunbeds and a personal waitress!! It was awesome and we sat and ate some fish and chicken and chips (the hugest portion ever - 2 pieces of fish!) until the pool closed. Then we decided to take advantage of another of the hotels offers and bought tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil show that the hotel had on. It was amazing and they were clearly talented, unfortunately they were also showing us the sensual side of Cirque, so at times it was pretty uncomfortable, as Lorna said!! But we survived it, and it was in keeping with the tone of Vegas so we were happy!! We then wandered for a bit and had a couple of drinks at places like Caesars Palace and MGM before pausing to watch the Fountains at the Bellagio. Which are genuinely the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. They are unbelievably elegant and graceful, which are odd words to use to describe water but they really are! They are so well choreographed with the music and they gave me goosebumps (or duckbumps as Simon and Tina re-christened them in Chicago!!) I could go on about them for hours but you can never really appreciate them till you're there so I'll shut up!! I was so taken with them Im ordering a book on them off Amazon so I can learn how they work, yup Im that geeky!! :)

So after another comfortable night in a gorgeously comfortable bed, we got up to say a sad goodbye to Steve and Julie, who were heading back to Denver, then the plan was to go to the Grand Canyon. However Gill had vastly underestimated the time it took to get there, she thought 2 hours when its actually 6, and after learning that a helicopter ride was out of the question ($450 per person plus tax and gas charges is ridiculous!!!) we decided to head for the much closer Hoover Dam, which was only 45 minutes down the road. It was a good decision as it was a really good day out, the Dam stuff is fascinating, although marred slightly by our insanely annoying tour guide that even the Americans among us couldnt handle!! We finished wandering around under Lake Mead and over the Nevada/Arizona border and headed back to the hotel. We then had a brilliant dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, with very good food and a balloon giraffe and turtle bracelet, then headed for one more look at the Bellagio fountains. We did this via a Hawaiin Market which was cute and I got some lovely jewellery. I also got harassed by a woman determined to sell me a dress but I managed to outrun her in the end!! We then had one last drink at Caesar's Palace and then went back to the hotel to gamble what money we had left! Which in mine, Lorna and Gill's case was $10, so thats what we put in the slot machines!! We were all up at one point, and all inevitably lost it!! And so went to bed for one last amazing sleep happy with our Vegas experience!!! :)

So that's about all Ive done since I last updated, and blogging about it was nearly as exhausting as doing it!! Lorna is now, very sadly, safely back in England and Im almost on a 2 week countdown till I join her!! Im now off to continue my week of sleeping and being looked after before I head to Denver on Sunday. So keep reading, coz the trip aint over yet!!!!!! :)

Day 80....... And a 12 hour drive later, we arrive!!!

Im in San Francisco!!!! It took 12 hours yesterday and 4 hours the day before, but we saw some beautiful coastline and I got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge!!!! :) We set off from LA at about 4pm on Monday, and drove for about 4 hours till we found a random place to stay (Buellton, CA anyone?!). We did this via Malibu, where we had a quick wander on the beach and had our photo taken with a real life Malibu life-guard, who invited us to a Labor Day BBQ on the beach that night. Had we not needed to get further than Mailbu we would have gone, but it was only a half hour down the road!! After a comfortable night in a Motel 6, we got up and headed onwards towards Santa Maria. I should point out at this point that 'we' is not just me and Lorna, but a girl called Amy, who we met at the LA hostel and who wanted to drive to San Francisco and offered to share the costs with us. She's a really nice girl and it was nice to have someone else along for the ride!!

The incredbly long journey yesterday was broken up with several stops, mostly for Amy and Lorna to go to the toilet, but a few more interesting ones! We stopped at a place called Hearsts Castle, which bless the Americans is their idea of history (its been there since the 1940s!!) but was actually quite interesting. We didnt get chance to do the tour as it wouldve taken too long but we did look round the museum and obviously the gift shop!!! We also stopped at a look out point where we saw some elephant seals who had come in for a couple of months to shed their skins and to mate, to look at some Giant Redwoods (which really are huge!) and so take some pictures of the genuinely beautiful Big Sur coastline. We stopped for 'gas' once at a really cute gas station, it cost $30 to fill up a big Hyundai (small rental car my ass!!) which we all thought was amazing, and told everyone we saw for the rest of the day that it was!! We also stopped at some really randomly cute restrooms, that had a spiritual garden and an abundance of Bluejays. We had a slightly stressful time getting into San Francisco, the excitement of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge overtook us all and we missed the (not very well signposted) turning off to it and had to turn around. (For those of you who know the Gretna Green story, this one involved much of the same people!!!!) We then had to find the hostel in the complex one way system, and then had to take the car back to the airport (a very sad event, we had become very attached to Hilary) and then get back again. We managed it though and after having a Burger King promptly passed out! The hostel is much more what we expected than the LA one, which was genuiely lovely! This one has a much more hostelly feel to it, and I dont think we'll be sad to get to a proper hotel on Friday!!

We had a brilliant time in LA, we spent Monday before we left at Universal Studios, which is AWESOME!!! We did the studio tour and saw such amazing places as Wisteria Lane, the set of The Grinch, the set of War of the Worlds, the shark from Jaws (whos name is Bruce!), the set for Back to the Future and the cars used in Back to the Future, The Fast and The Furious and Jurassic Park. There's loads more that I cant think of right now, but dont worry, I have thousands of photos for you all to see :D We also went to a special effects show, which was fascinating. We would have done more, but time didnt allow it, but we saw enough to keep us amazed till now!!

Our first day in LA was a busy one, we started by taking a trip round all the stars' homes, seeing loads of random people's houses as well as some interesting ones (a house owned by the Beach Boys, Magic Johnson and Richard Gere!!) We also saw the place where Michael Jackson died, which is still very sad and covered in flowers, and the toilets where George Michael got arrested. Ha! We also saw Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Graumans Chinese Theater and the Avenue of Stars. We then got the bus back with the intention to sunbathe on Santa Monica beach for a bit, however it had other ideas as it was very cloudy and pretty cold! So we went for a coffee instead and did a bit of shopping. I bought a lovely blue and white dress, that I wore out to dinner that night with Liz, a nurse from camp, and her son Greg. We went to a bizarre restaurant, a mix of Latin and Asian foods, and everyone who knows me should be incredibly proud that I ate enough to feel full by the time I left!!!! I had finally had some tuna the day before, after we landed in LAX and took a somewhat terrifying bus ride from the airport to the hostel. (Venice at night is not pretty!!) The flights from Chicago went smoothly (if you overlook the fact I booked me and Lorna on different flights.......oops) and I even managed to get a seat on the aisle with a spare one next to it so my knee brace had plently of room. Sadly no upgrade was available, despite the best efforts of the man next to me!!

I had had a lovely couple of days in Chicago, and was very sad to leave! Rachael's family are lovely, and their couch is really very comfortable so it was a good time!! Helen left us at 5am on the Friday to head for Green Bay (quietly God love her!) and the rest of us got up and went to do some touristy things. It turns out there aren't that many of those in Chicago lol but we did climb Sears Tower, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and, discounting a random building in China, the world!! We were 103 floors up and at one point 40 feet out over the street below. Thank goodness for the cute Spanish football team who were also there to distract us :) We were going to track down the ER hospital but it was too far out of the way, so settled for a subway station instead!! We (who in this section is me, Tina, Simon and Rachael) then went down to a pier and wandered down it, have to say piers just arent the same without fish and chips!!!

For those of you who know about my souvenir magnets plan, it isnt going well :( not one place in Chicago had an Illinois one, and nowhere in LA had a California one. Its getting desperate, and Im going to have to hope I come accross a shop that sells all 50 or my NY and VT ones are going to look very lonely on the fridge!!

I think Im very overtired, and in hindsight should have gone to Gills first to have a weeks to catch up on sleep, because I keep having massive homesick pangs and teary moments. It didnt help being away for another baby's birthday (Tom was 3 on Sunday, very sad times!!!) To her credit Lorna is helping a lot with those, but thank you to everyone who's sending me messages and making me smile, I appreciate it lots and will see you all very soon!! If I dont look pleased to see you its coz Im massively jet-lagged, give me a week and I will be I promise :) And get ready for my next post from Utah with all my Vegas news........its gonna be good :D

Day 75........ Welcome to the Windy City!!!!

So its all over!! I left camp 4 days ago, and man has a lot happened since then!! After a fun staff party (that Ive only really been told about, as I left at 10pm to ice my knee coz it hurt coz I was dancing on it and fell asleep!!) so the 5 hour coach trip to the city was full of some very hungover people! Luckily no-one was sick (that I know of!) and we arrived in a massively over-heating NYC at about 3pm on Monday. We drove via New Jersey, and I got very excited thinking Id seen all the New England states, as it would turn out I havent, flipping Rhode Island is part of it, so if I want to complete the set I have to go there....and who wants to do that?! I was amazed to see that the cost for a car on the toll roads here is only 35 cents, how ridiculous is that!? We also stopped to cash our cheques (or checks as they are here) which was amazing as Ive genuinely never held $1000 in any currency, it was awesome!! We changed it into travellers cheques when we got into the city, and task that was more stressful than it seemed, as only one place did it and it was hidden in a hotel that not even the locals knew it existed!!

The hotel we stayed in in New York was lovely, quite central to things, and we headed out to see Times Square, which was insanely busy! Honestly its not great during the day, the lights are all on and it doesnt make a lot of sense, but at night its amazing! A guy tried (not very hard or successfully) to mug us by saying things like "your shoes are untied" (I was in Birkenstocks so that worked!) or "you dropped your sunglasses". Luckily we all knew he was an idiot and carried on!!! We trawled round for a few hours then went and ate at The Hard Rock cafe, sadly then I had to miss out on the night out everyone had as my knee was not happy with the amount of walking we did, so it was just me and a bag of peas for the night! The sleep was good though, we were all so tired!

Tuesday saw us sleeping in then get up and go out to see some more of the city. We started at Times Square and moved out, we saw the Rockafeller Center (and Tina Fey filming outside!) and 5th Avenue, I bought some books from Barnes & Noble (the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books, which are awesome and English people should get ready to read/hear all about when I get home!!) and wandered round Saks, which is pretty much a smaller version of Harrods. Also saw The Rainbow Room, where Blondie was playing, and Radio City. We were going to go up the Empire State Building but its $20 and that seems a bit ridiculous, so we settled for just seeing it!! We ran into some girls who were from camp, seeing people you knew was really strange, and then went and met up with Simon, who Im at university with. Me and him went to go and get Wicked tickets, which sadly sold out just as we got there, so we got Jersey Boys tickets instead which was amazing!! Helen and Brandon (one of the guys from camp who was staying with us till he flew back to Florida) went to see Mary Poppins and LOVED it, they went on about it for hours!! Jersey Boys was really good, Simon had never seen it and really enjoyed it, the tickets were only $27 which was a bargain!! The guy who played Tommy actually was from New Jersey unlike the guy I saw in London, and his accent was a little hard to understand at times, and 'Frankies' voice could hit the high notes but was very nasally, but it was a fantastic show!! We sat in Times Square for a bit, and at 98 degrees it was still to hot to be outside at 10.30pm but it was still amazing. The atmosphere is great, we sang 'happy birthday' to a random girl who got all overwhelmed and cried, it was really nice! We then got a slice of pizza, which is the best idea ever, and went back to the hotel. The subways are confusing but much like the Tube, although like most of New York, I prefer it to London. Its so very very hot on the subways though, Ive devided vitamin water is the best invention EVER!!!!!

We got up on Wednesday and checked out of the hotel, posted my giant parcel home (I had too much stuff to carry, it took my lovely roommate at camp 4 attempts to pack my bag for me, coz I had a tantrum after trying twice and gave up! Then when I got it unpacked in NYC there was no way it was going back in so I just posted a load of it home, look out for that Mum!!) then we dropped our bags at the train station and headed to hang out in Central Park till it was time to leave. We met up with Mary-Liza, one of the nurses from camp and had ice cream for a couple of hours, then went to get our train to Chicago. The trains are amazing, they have so much leg room its insane, and we were so very impressed......until it was time to sleep on them. It turns out that although they are wonderfully comfortable to sit on, to sleep on they're like panes of glass! I woke up somewhere in Ohio, having been asleep for about 2 hours, FREEZING cold from the ridiculous air conditioning with a massively stiff neck and two very grumpy travelling companions. I slept through all of Pennsylvania, so there's some debate as to whether it counts as Ive been there now, but saw Ohio and Indiana, both of which are very boring once the excitement of seeing traditional red and white farmhouses with big silos next to them has worn off!

It was raining when we arrived in Chicago, as it had been the whole way through OH and IN, typical seeing as me and Helen had posted our waterproof coats home the day before! It was still warm though and we didnt have far to go to get the train to Rachaels house, one of the girls from camp who very kindly let me, Helen and Simon descend on her, as well as already having another girl, Tina, there!! Her parents are awesome lol. And very patient!! We had showers and food and a nap and headed back out into the city. We met up with Paul who taught bass last year at camp and had dinner with him, then he became the world's most enthusiastic tour guide and took us round some of the Chicago sights, then we sat and listened to a jazz concert in Millenium Park. It was a great end to the day, and after braving a thunderstorm to get back to Rachaels we finally got into a comfortable bed and passed out!!

Helen set off at stupid o'clock this morning to go to get a bus to Wisconsin to see some friends, and me, Simon, Tina and Rachael are about to head out to do some touristy things in Chicago! Then tomorrow my LA adventure starts when Lorna lands in Chicago, which Im so very excited about its insane!!! I shall update again when I can, although be warned it may not be until I get to Utah so it'll be a longer post than this one!! Hope everyone's ok and missing me lots :) Ill see you all in about 4 weeks!!!!

Day 64...... Its The Final Countdown......

........do do do dooooo. Do do do do dooooo!!! (Random bit of 80s singing there for you all!!)

So yesterday marked the 'one week till camp is over' point! A week today we will all be (probably asleep) on a bus merrily making our way down to New York City. Where we will have a night of excessive drinking and merriment before everyone goes their separate ways for the rest of the summer. Or in my case stay another night and then move west to Chicago :D I somehow volunteered myself to book a hotel in NYC for people, a task which of course has become epically stressful, with people changing their minds that they want to, or dont want to, stay, a week before we go! So Im very close to just telling people to book their own hotels and Ill stay in this one on my own! My temper remains calm so far though haha.

I have physio later, hopefully he'll say I can come off my crutches as Im pretty much walking without them now, the brace is enough support. Stairs are still a bit of an issue, but I can work on them in a week!! So travelling looks safe for now, keep your fingers crossed for me though! I went to the doctors on Thurs, (yay fun last day off!!) and he was so lovely I suspect last time I saw his evil twin, and told me I was doing well, ran through the various surgery options he'd consider if I was staying with him (they all sound very fun, Im very excited!) and wished me good luck! I got a refill of my lovely painkillers, but the pain has become more bearable so Im taking them less, which is good because I dont enjoy the nausea they cause!!

For those of you who knew she was doing it, Lorna survived her jump out of a plane for charity and so will be joining me in one piece in LA 13 sleeps from now. Which is VERY exciting! Tech week starts tomorrow, so its a joyous week of shows and rehearsals, then parents weekend (yum lovely food!), camp clean up, staff party and done! Woop!

Am still planning on calling people, sorry if I havent got to you yet, Im working on it!!!! :)

Day 58....... Does anyone remember what sleep feels like?!

So the countdown to the end of camp has begun! We have 13 sleeps left here before we all pack up into a bus and travel back to New York City. Where I will be spending 2 nights before moving onto Chicago (this is all a hopefully scenario at the moment, my knee needs to keep improving the way it is for it to all go to plan :/ but more about that later......) A few things on my travelling plans have changed, so for those of you who are interested here is a link to my new and improved Google map, which, yes, I updated all by myself :D http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109629027493582904002.000487588e1fda26f9ebd&ll=38.959409,-98.261719&spn=32.907523,78.662109&z=4

I quite like the new plan, it looks much better on the map, more of a circle than me crossing myself several times! I still get 3 stop offs in NYC but Im sure there's enough there to see on all my visits!!

As for my knee, well I went to physio yesterday and he was pleased with my progress. I remembered some of the things I was told from last time this happened and so had been doing some of them and it seemed to have done some good coz he said I had much better range of movement than he expected based on my notes. The pain is still ridiculous but its at a stage where regular painkillers will stop it and its become more of a background annoyance than the only thing I can think about!! I am currently sporting a fetching 'hinged brace' which 'provides both stability and movement' (ha Americans make me laugh) which seems to be doing the trick. Its a bit uncomfortable coz under my kneecap is still pretty swollen but the guy said that would get better as my knee does. So fingers crossed it keeps going the way it does and that my travelling will be ok, Im still refusing to admit defeat and look at what effect cancelling flights etc will have :/

Work-wise things are plodding along. Devastatingly I didnt get in the pit for Fame :( but Im doing 'Into The Woods' and 'Once Upon A Mattress', both of which are fairytale type shows. The music is really pretty, 'Mattress' is fairly straightforward, I switch between clarinet and flute only ever in between songs and not during so thats all ok, 'Into The Woods' is a bit more of a pain, Im reading of a piano/vocal score and picking the parts that are needed. Which would be awkward enough except Im doing most of it for clarinet, and from the bass clef, and sight transposing the bass clef is not an easy task! Those of you who understood that please feel sorry for me, and those of you who didnt can marvel at how impressive it sounds and what a genius I am :) (its really not that hard!!) I have more advanced students this session so Im putting together a flute ensemble, which is really good fun, the kids pick things up really quickly! Other than that there's nothing really new to tell, we're all just focussing on getting this session done with!!

Ill try to call everyone before I leave camp, I probably wont get much of a chance to when Im travelling. Ill have my cell phone so feel free to text or call, but I cant dial international numbers so I wont be able to call you :)

Day 53......We welcome 3rd session, and a knee brace!!

So its been an interesting few days!!! We had an amazing end to session 2, Parent's Weekend went really well, the weather stayed nice and the shows all went off really well (well except for a small incident where a child who forgot his lines said the f-word off stage before his mic had been turned off :/ but we glossed over that....!) It was really sad saying goodbye to these kids and unlike with first session the bunk didnt seem peaceful and quiet, it seemed a bit miserable and sad :( But whatever it was a quiet lie in was had by all, and we got up ready to face the session 3 kids!! Who are now all here and pretty much settled in, the shows are decided and I find out which pits Im in on Saturday from Annie, Once Upon A Mattress, Fame, Into The Woods and Urinetown. Fingers crossed for Fame, that would be amazing!!

In a side story, last Thursday whilst doing some ballet to try and get my skills I used to have back, my bad knee decided to give out in protest. It had fluid under it so was compressed and iced to try to get rid of it and was in an attractive bandage. Nothing major though and all was fine, until an ice cream fight at the ice cream social between some counsellors got MAJORLY out of hand and I twisted it. Lots of ice and painkillers and a short but fun trip to the ER later and Ive chipped a bone and done something to the ligaments down the side of my knee and possibly to the miniscus underneath my kneecap!! Fun times all round!! I was on a very fun drug called Vicodin for 2 days, which made me unconcious every time I took it, not good seeing as I cant teach the flute whilst asleep! Luckily I got a trip to the orthopedic guy who works on the US Olympic team today and he took it out of its brace and referred me to physio, so hopefully in a week or so I should be back to normal. Everybody cross your fingers, coz camp is no place for crutches, and all my travelling is booked :/ I informed Mum and Dad by phone of this mishap, and have heard all the sarcastic comments you can throw at me, and Im sorry if I havent rang you and told you and this is how you're finding out but I only have so much phone credit :/ At least you know now :)

I think this is all my news for now, today was my day off and it was spent going to the doctors (who knew such a place existed in the randoms of New York state?!) so I have no exciting news from that! Will post more news when I have it, hope everyones well, and Ill try to talk to you all before I leave camp. Which is 2 weeks Monday, damn how time flies!!!

Day 46.......Where did second session go?!?!

So its been an awesome few days! Had my day off yesterday which was lovely, we just went into Long Lake and chilled out on the beach after having a lie in, enjoyed ice cream and an off camp dinner and got back in time to see the dance show! Which was AMAZING, I thought last sessions kids were talented (well they were, these are just insanely talented!) I missed the Crucible which I was sad about, apparently it was really good, but Ive scheduled it into my parents weekend plans so I can see it then! Oklahoma went really really well on Tuesday night, the musical director Drew is awesome, and I think we played it the best we've ever done! One more show of it on Saturday and the songs can finally go out of my head!! West Side Story is tonight, genuienely the most stressful pit ever but nearly over!! The play looks amazing though the kids have done really well so Im excited to see how it all comes together tonight! We saw 13 on Tuesday as well, which is genuienely HILARIOUS!!! And not in an 'oh the kids made a joke, we should laugh way', its actually really amusing! If you get chance to see it, do!!

Think thats all my news for the moment, tech week is so exhausting, all free time is taken watching shows and bedtime is much later, so all the staff and kids are grouchy! But in 3 days the session is over and it all starts again, madness!! Ive booked nearly all of my travelling now, I just need to book accomodation in New York and Im done!! And obvs its expensive so Im trying to find somewhere relatively cheap!! If you know anywhere, let me know!! It was my little brothers birthday yesterday (happy birthday Sam!!) and it was so sad that I wasnt there, its the first time ever Ive missed a birthday!! And its madness that hes 6, it doesnt seem like 5 minutes ago he was a little red thing that fitted on my chest, and now hes writing me emails!! (Ive also learnt that my Dad checks this most days, so Hi Daddy!!!! Love you lots, miss you!!)

Probably wont get chance to update this till after Parents Weekend (and wont have anything new to say!) so wish me luck and Ill post again soon!! :)

Day 43.....Whoever invented camp sleep is a genius!!

For those of you not in the know, camp sleep is a marvellous invention that the camp has been allowed this session. Its logic is very simple, everyone has lunch then goes to their bunks, sits or lies on their beds in complete silence and cannot move until 2.45 (roughly 2 hours later) Needless to say counsellors LOVE camp sleep, most of the kids are ok with it and some fight against it! Mine weren't all that impressed and had to be threatened with death a couple of times to make them be quiet (Im kidding!) but I got pretty much the full 2 hours and it was AWESOME!!!! We're into tech week again now which means late nights as we watch all the shows the kids are putting on and changed schedules which mean everyone just kind of wanders through the week following the person in front of them! Then these kids leave and we get new ones, in some ways its gone really quickly, especially this session, and in others I can definitely feel every day of the 6 weeks we've been here!!

In other news, (and reading through my blog I realise I use this phrase a lot!!) I have added Lexington, Kentucky to my list of places Im going when I hit the road after camp. An odd choice I know, as is the rest of the mid-section of my trip, Americans keep looking at me blankly when I say Salt Lake City and Denver after LA, San Francisco and Vegas, but that is where my bunkmate Brittany lives. She's promised to show me some southern American stuff and who can turn that down?! Plus its another state to add to my list, which is vastly diminished after the train fiasco! This unfortunately means that my habit of saying "y'all" that I've picked up from her isnt going to go away anytime soon, but I promise Ill have gotten rid of it before I get back!!

Day off is Wednesday this week, due to rehearsals and performances so only 1 more day to go yay :) No real plans I dont think, just a chilled day, fingers crossed the weather stays nice for it!! Will post again soon, love to everyone back home xxxx

Day 39.......I love Gerfs :)

.......and today I got to feed one!!!! Eeeee!!! Am still excited lots by it, we made it to the Adirondack Animal Land, which wasn't amazing, but had enough animals to entertain us for a good couple of hours! Obviously there were the very exciting giraffes (translation of 'gerfs' for those of you who don't know my baby brothers!), big one, a littler one and a baby one, possibly the cutest thing EVER! I gave the giraffes some crackers, and have exciting photo evidence of it yayyyy :) There's a facebook profile pic if I ever saw one!! I'm going to say again that I'll upload pics but as it would seem, that may never happen you'll just have to wait for them to go on facebook / for me to sit you down and show you my slideshow / scrapbook :) Other animals we saw included zebras, ostriches, bears, camels, ring tailed lemurs and black bellied goats, which I do believe I ate in Barbados and found to be delicious!!! Oh and there were also goats, chickens and cows which everyone found hilarious and not a real subsitute for lions and tigers! I saw and fed a giraffe though so I was happy with whatever else turned up!!

On the way up to the next town over to camp for dinner, we very excitingly got pulled over by Border Control!!! They checked all our passports and visas etc and then sent us on our way, but me and Joy (piano and voice teacher) got very overexcited at the fact it was happening! Joy also had to be severely dissuaded from taking photos given how well that went down at the social security office, so sadly we have no photo documentation of this :( We also got stopped on the way back to camp, a fact we pointed out to the 'bad cop' of the two on duty, who told us in a somewhat arsey voice that "we hadn't been southbound today, so he still needed to check us all" and could we pull over immediately. Luckily the 'good cop' in this routine lived up to his name and was lovely, giving Joy a 'cheeky wink' as we pulled away. While we were stopped we were all fascinated by a guy who was being given a drink driving 'walk in a straight line' test and so were paying no attention to the rude officer checking passports, which went down well!!

Came back to camp to find 2 lovely parcels, one containing an actual waterproof coat, not like the one I currently have which is just a regular coat masquerading under the illusion of being waterproof. I can assure you it is not. Even a little bit. So thanks to Mum for saving me from eternal dampness (the random weather has decided to add the odd thunderstorm into the mix, woop! Keeps us on our toes!!) The other parcel was the most gorgeous one from my little brothers that contained the cutest pictures and notes from them and a lovely postcard from my Dad and Tanya. Thanks to the notes from Sam, quite a few staff at Long Lake Camp are now 'Club Penguin' members, if you don't know what it is check it out, its pretty awesome!! (Many thanks to May for being in the right place at the right time to explain a Puffle to me!!) Id also like to point out how epically proud I am that Sam, at nearly 6, has learnt the importance and correct placing of apostrophes :) I dont care how sad this is, its an insane picky habit I learnt from my Mum and Im glad its been passed on!!!

I think that's all my news, I have solved both the flip flop and Chicago crises and so have buying to do tomorrow yay!! This time in 5 weeks Ill be off on my travels which is pretty mad but very exciting, eeeee can't wait!!! :)

Day 37.......DEVASTATING NEWS!!!!!

VERY sad times!!! I just went to book mine and Simon's train to Chicago......and it's all booked up!!! :( :( And here was me thinking I was booking early!! There is another train that gets us there, with a transfer in Washington DC but it doesn't go the same way to Chicago and doesn't go through any as good places :( It's very bad news and I'm a little bit upset!! I also couldnt buy my new flip flops coz the site wouldn't accept people could have cards from countries other than America and couldn't have my dance lesson coz the studio got used at the last minute so it's been a bit of a let down day!!

And that's my whining done!!

In other news, I was finally allowed off camp on a trip yesterday!! As I'm half of Evening Activities staff (don't ask how that happened, complete accident!!) and the other half (Linzie) is also Trips person I have to stay on camp. But yesterday I was allowed to go to the water park :) Which was actually insanely boring, following kids around and waiting for them to go on rides is not a great day, but hey it was a day off camp!!

Will post after my day off, Adirondack Animal Land here we come woooooo :)

And thank you Mum for emailing to point out Oklahoma has only 2 'a's in it. Deepest apologies!

Day 35......Time for the ironically named pits again.....

Yes thats right! Its Sunday!! So while the rest of the camp gets to spend their afternoon hanging out by the waterfront (although maybe not today, its overcast and will probs rain, ha) I get to spend 4 hours in pit rehearsals yayyyy :/ This session Im in West Side Story and Oooooo- OAK-lahoma, both of which should be fun, especially as the directors Im with are both very good at what they do and very amusing with it!! Im playing clarinet (and possibly bass clarinet) for Oaklahoma and flute, piccolo, clarinet and alto saxophone for West Side Story. There is me, the woodwinds teacher and 2 students reading off of 3 reed books so working out who plays what and where could be interesting, but hey its all part of the fun!! 4 hours is going to kill me though, then with performing arts night tonight Im going to be a zombie come 10 o'clock!!

Have just logged onto facebook and seen some photos from this years session at the summer school I worked for for the past couple of years. Its made me kind of sad, as much as last summer was really stressful I miss being there and I miss some of the people. Ive definitely come off better this year, what with being in America in a music camp, and the company clearly didnt learn from their mistakes last year as the woman who caused all the problems is in the exact same role this year (good work!) so Im definitely best off out of it! But still, I enjoyed working with the kids, and really really miss my mornings off and separate room haha, and seeing the photos has got me all nostalgic :( PLUS they gave them company hoodies this year which has massively annoyed me coz we asked for them all last year and were told we had to be cold!!! But anyways, back to the summer at hand!

Am planning to book trains and hostels for Chicago later, then once Ive got my flight to LA Im all booked as far as I can be until Julia gets to Denver and tells me its still ok for me to go there!! Exctitingly Charlotte (a girl from my cours at uni) is definitely coming to see New York with me, and has booked onto the same flight home (yayyy!!) so what with that and all the camp people who are going to be around it should be a pretty brilliant 5 days!! Time seems to be going very quickly this session, just like I was told it would do, so it should be here before I know it!!

Mum.....Ive worked out how to upload photos so Ill do that as soon as I can :)

......Day 31.....Too tired to think of a witty post title......

Too tired or possibly too overcome with excitement!!! I just booked my LA hostel, Pacific Coast Highway car rental, San Francisco hostel and Greyhound bus to Vegas. Its so so exciting that the travelling I was planning 6 months ago is actually really close to happening!!! Got it all fairly cheaply, although my bank balance has officially suffered! I just have to keep reminding myself that thats what the moneys there for and thats why I spent so many months sitting in and saving, its still hard to see the numbers going down!!! My next mission is to book the train to Chicago and hostel while Im there, had a bit of a panic with whether or not Simon would be joining me as he's been poorly but he assures me all is fine and we'll be crossing the States before we know it! Also had exciting news that Helen might be joining me for the train part as she has people she knows just outside of Chicago and there are several people from camp who live there so its all dovetailing nicely as my Mum would say!

Day off tomorrow, and a good nights sleep in a motel tonight, will let you know how that goes as soon as I can! The new kids are lovely, so much quieter than the last lot, they were all sparko at 10.15 last night which was amazing, here's to hoping it continues for the duration of the 3 weeks!! The horror that is orientation day is over for another session and come Friday I start teaching again, with new pit rehearsals on Sunday (West Side Story is a definate, could be in any of Oaklahoma, All Shook Up - the Elvis musical or the teenage musical Thirteen as well), so all is plodding along nicely! Had some bad news from home, a relative of mine passed away so Im feeling like a bit of a terrible grand-daughter at the moment, I just hope everyone knows how much I would be there if I could be :/

Going to try to keep in better contact this week, will try to do phone calls tomorrow, if I dont manage, be awake around 3am :) And people who have said they'll send me post, please do!! It's sad how much post the kids get :( (although thanks to Mum's one letter and postcard a week I do get more than some!!) Thaaaaaaaanks :)

....Day 28......What a difference a day makes!!!!

So when last I posted I was sulking. Dont ever let anybody tell you this doesnt work! Just hours into my sulk about having to stay on camp on my days off as transport was unavailable, one of the nurses overheard my moanings to one of the other counsellors and God love her, offered to lend us her car to go to Vermont!! Cue much excitement, so on Thursday thats where we went! Am monumentally proud that I managed to drive interstate without dying and/or driving on the wrong side of the road, and so 5 of us managed to have a very lovely day off. We went to a place called Burlington in Vermont, which is a lovely town with actual shops, very excitingly, although I have to say I got a bit overwhelmed with going from no shops to so many and didnt actually manage to buy a lot! :/ We also took a trip 30 minutes down the road to the Ben and Jerrys factory, which was EPICALLY exciting! Mostly for me if Im being honest, bless everyone else for tolerating my determination to go there! I got some amazing Ben and Jerrys cow socks and enjoyed some samples, and as a warning, am going to bring this up every single time I have Ben and Jerrys for the next 5 years. At least. Just so you know! :D

But sadly that nurse has now left, along with most of the kids!! Because session 1 is over!! Woop! Tonight my bunk is childless, which is going to be amazing, Im off to bed very shortly to continue the nap I had for 4 hours today! Sleep is hard to come by in this place so we're taking all the opportunities to have it we can!! New kids arrive tomorrow, quite excited to meet a whole new bunch, and cross my fingers that this lot stay nice, the last bunch had definitely gone downhill by yesterday and (which is sad) I dont think any of us were sad to see the back of them! But hey ho, new kids, new start, should be great!!

The weekend shows were AMAZING!! The kids put on such an awesome show of Little Shop, I was actually taken aback by the talent that they have! The 2 leads are definitely ending up on Broadway, Im gonna watch out for them!! Everything went better than the weeks performances, which given how some of them went, is phenomenal!! Tomorrow sees me starting the music for West Side Story, we also find out what other shows we're doing around Wednesday, but MUCHOS exciting news for 3rd session, one of the directors is doing Fame!!! Eeeeeeee!! Ive demanded that if a flute part doesnt exist, one is created, I actually cant wait! (ah the life of a Music Geek!!)

Im definitely going to do better at keeping up with people this week, let me know what times people are free for phone calls, and Mum sorry Ive not emailed you back, let me know your off duty and Ill give you a call. Parents weekend really made me miss people, I wish I had people to come see me who I could show off camp to!! But never mind you can all see the photos when I get home. Ha. Try to get away.

Hugs to everyone!! :) xxxxxx

........Day 24, the (1st) end is near.......

So tech week is going well, we had our first play last night as well as the dance show, the dancers were amazing and Im fairly sure have inspired me to take a couple of classes before I leave, Ive been meaning to go back to ballet for years and I think now may be the perfect time! The play was good, it was a comedy about the final dress rehearsal of a cast who were putting on Cinderella. Little confusing in places, we never knew if they'd actually forgotten their lines or if it was part of the script but I guess thats part of the beauty!! Sat feeling like a proud parent as several of the girls in my bunk were performing, its weird to see how talented they all are! And to think that in 4 days they'll all be gone and we'll be waiting for a new lot! Time seems to last forever here (mostly because the days are 14 hours long so breakfast seems like it happened several days previous!) but at the same time I cant believe that Session 1 is nearly over! I met one of my girls' parents yesterday, it was weird but really lovely, she wasn't what I expected and said how she'd heard all about how lovely we all were! It'll be interesting to meet some of the other parents, there are definitely a few kids (although not from my bunk) I cant wait to see where they come from!!

Have had some rather rubbish news today, thats caused several sulks over camp, and from the counsellors for once, not the kids!! We've been told we cant take a camp vehicle much past Lake Placid, a town thats an hour away, that has marginally more shops than Long Lake but not many. So this puts total squash on our plans for Montreal and Vermont, unless we can convince one of the returners who has a car on our day off that they want to go to. Which for Montreal may be possible but is unlikely for Vermont (no Ben & Jerry's factory, you have no idea how much this devastates me!!!) and even then there are waaaaay to many of us off for us to all fit into the number of cars there are so it means that we wont all get to go even if thats the plan for the day. So that very much sucks and there are a few not very happy campers around today! The plan for tomorrow now is probably to get a motel tonight so we can get a decent nights sleep, even on your day off the kids get you up at 7 and its impossible to go back to sleep so its not much of a day off!! But we'll see, obviously things havent been going very to plan recently with days off!!

The sun's back, so its back to shorts, apparently this kind of weather is unprecedented in the Adirondacks, just wish someone could have predicted it before I bought my wellies!! Still havent worn them, am considering wearing them down to the lake just to let them feel water!!

Had our penultimate Pirates rehearsal today, its sounding much better, and although I cant play it all I can play more of it! Luckily the girl who teaches strings, Ally, is playing the 2nd flute part (but on a violin) and is a slight genuis at it, so there's always someone playing God bless her!! Our performance is Friday night, and Ill be glad when its over! Its nice to experience being in the pits though, although slightly annoying that I cant see the show thats on, just hear it! How the kids have learnt everything for all the shows is beyond me, but I guess thats why Im the counsellor and they're the arts kids!!

Right Im off to count down the hours till my 26 hours off, woop!!!! :)

....... Day 21......Sun's out, Guns out!!!!

Its Sunday again!! And that means another day of sitting in pit rehearsals watching everyone else playing in the sun and eating ice cream on the waterfront! Fun times! Pirates is going a lot better, its still flipping hard but it seems to be coming together more. I found out Im definitely playing in West Side Story next session (which starts in a week argh!) so Ive got the music for that to get a head start on it! Have to play piccolo, flute, alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet for it so it should be interesting to say the least! Ive always avoided playing the piccolo what with it being the root of all evil (seriously I have found no faster way to get a migraine than to be the poor bastard flautist who gets to sit next to the piccolo in an orchestra!) So anyone who has any tips on how to learn to play the piccolo in the next 3 weeks Ill love you forever. And no just because its just a small flute does not mean I can automatically play it!

Had another day off on Thursday, we were vaguely planning to head for Montreal but as it turns out we were all exhausted and it was 100 degrees so we sacked off that idea and went to a waterfall area in town called Buttermilk Falls instead, where all 20 odd people on the day off alternated between swimming in the lake and lying in the sun on some rocks. It was amazing and such a beautiful place! (This is where I promise photos, I swear Im trying to get round to it I just dont get the computer very often and its time consuming!) Id still give a rather large sum of money for a lie in though, even on your day off the kids wake you coz you're still in the bunk with them, Im considering sleeping in my shack next week! That or get a hotel room, although Vermont is being talked about so we'll see what happens! Started and ended the day off at the Cellar which is the bar down the road everyone goes to, quite small but ok, plays Glee on occasion which is slightly awesome! Have been driving back from there a couple of times, when people have had too much to drink, and have driven the camp van a couple of times so should have had plently of practice for the Pacific Coast Highway in September!! (WOOOOOO Lorna Wilson if you're reading this, email me dammit I miss you!!)

Next week is the last week for these kids, I cant believe its nearly the end of these kids' session already! Just 2 more and Im done, scary times! Next week is apparently a bit of a nightmare, no real schedule just activities thrown around rehearsals then watching 2 shows every evening, culminating in Parents Weekend where everyones parents come (odd that!) and all departments put on shows etc and then the kids head home! We have a night of relative quiet (some kids stay for 2 sessions but not many) then it all starts again on Monday! So if you dont hear from me for a week thats why!! Well that or Ive fallen into a coma from lack of sleep!

Gotta run, its teatime! Then got a chamber music night which we're playing in as a rehearsal for next week, several boring jazz pieces in which I pretend to be a trumpet and play about 4 notes on the clarinet and then Bohemian Rhapsody on clarinet, Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse on the flute (much better than it sounds I promise!) Wish me luck :)

P.s......WOOP go Spain!!!!!!! :D

............Day 14, Happy 4th July!!!!

Its Independence Day!! And the kids really get into it here, not one child isn't in red, white or blue or a combination of all 3! We get to go down into town tonight, there are fireworks and a band on the beach. It should be a really good night, the weather's finally calmed down into a warm temperature, sometimes its sunny, sometimes not so much, but shorts weather either way!! Never fear though my legs are resisting all attempts at being tanned, even when I forgot to put suncream on yesterday there was no change in colour so it looks like I'll be coming home as pale as I left! With a Rudolph nose of course, it's scarily red already and we've been here 2 weeks :/

Pit rehearsals start today, I'm only needed in one, Pirates of Penzance. Really wanted to play for Rent or Little Shop of Horrors but no flutes needed sadly!! Means I get to watch them though, and given how amazing the kids were at Performing Arts Night on Friday the shows should be awesome!! We had a Glee Club rehearsal yesterday, they're doing Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and of course Journey's Dont Stop Believing, it should look brilliant!!

Had my first day off on Thursday, we had to go to a place called Glen's Falls about 2 hours away to get a social security number in order to be paid!! It's truly brilliant American logic, now I have a social security number its mine for life! Which means they'll have to have a very good reason to refuse me a visa if I want to work here in the future! Good times! After spending a good hour that definitely models itself on the Embassy in London in terms of scariness, we all went and did some much needed shopping for a couple of hours then had tea and headed back. Was nice to get off campus for the day, although it hadnt occured to me to feel claustrophobic until we got back! Possibly heading up to Montreal on our next day off, fingers crossed coz that would be amazing, it all depends on drivers and cars etc.

In other news my toe is getting better, its unstrapped now which means I can wear more weather appropriate shoes, trainers and socks could cause death in this heat!! Its still a funny purple colour and hurts sometimes but its so much better than it was and has un-jammed itself, thank God, I dont think I couldve coped with it for much longer, it was so stupidly painful!! And campus is up and down hill a lot!

Think thats about all, I had a massive post card writing session so hopefully most of you should be getting one in the post. If you dont then thats either coz stamps are insanely expensive or I dont have your address. If you desperately want a postcard fb me your address and Ill try to sort it out!! Haven't heard much gossip in the past few days, so either England is blissfully boring or y'all are leaving me out, if its the latter I wont be happy haha!!

Even though I dont agree with it in principle (the English staff here are wearing Union Jacks to make a point!!) its pretty exciting to be part of it, so Happy 4th July everyone!!! :)

.........Day 9, The kids have arrived!!!!

Hey all!!

This is going to be an epic post, I have so much to tell you!! The internet has been down for about 5 days (it stops working when it rains and has to be reset) so I havent had contact with the world! Its been stressful! Actually I havent really noticed coz its been so busy, did want to check the football scores though, the camps been going mad about that!! Sad news about losing to Germany, cant say any of us were surprised!!

Today is a pretty easy day for Music people, the kids are on callbacks for the dance show and various plays they auditioned for yesterday, so not many of them want lessons! Proper timetables start tomorrow so Im looking forward to that!! Ive been co-put in charge of evening activities as well so I get to do that at night, which is nice coz its kind of like being back at Stafford House! Except this stuff has more of a drama theme, last nights was 'Paperbag Dramatics' which involved getting a bag with 7 items in it and they have 5 minutes to create a skit out of it. Then during it we throw random items at them and they have to include them and they get points for how well they do. The kids are scary amazing at it and dont even blink, last night was so much fun!!

Was very glad when the kids arrived, mostly because it meant we could stop having 'trainings' about when the kids arrive!! As funny as Geoff (my boss) is with the millions of camp anecdotes he has, it got to a point on Saturday where I literally couldnt take on any more new information and switched off. It all seems to be going ok though, no major disasters yet!! There are twelve 12 year olds in my bunk, which sounds like a nightmare but actually theyre all really good kids! And they sleep which is great coz although my body is adjusting to how long its awake during the day it really isnt ready to lose any more sleep!! I decided to go sleepwalking the other nigh, I woke up by the front door of my bunk carrying my blanket wondering how and why I was there! All very odd, it hasnt happened again since though thank god, coz that would really freak the kids out!!

The weather here is insanely schizophrenic, it can go from gorgeously hot and sunny to a total downpour within 5 minutes. I did wake up to the most amazing thunderstorm over the lake the other day though, it was actually beautiful! We've had one full day of sunshine since Ive been here, which I spent inside painting! I have wooden shack that I teach in and it was boring and plain when I got here, its now a lovely yellow and white colour with tie dye sheet coverings! Its immense, and as soon as I work out how to, Ill get the pictures up. I cant wait to start teaching, we had orientation day yesterday where we had to introduce ourselves and play something (I played the damn triplets from the Beethoven, not particularly well lol but from memory so not too bad!!). I did however miss most of the day though as I was out checking out the surrounding areas medical services! Thats right, its taken me a good week, but Ive finally injured myself!! Woop!! I was walking down some steps and slipped and kicked a golf cart thing that the directors use to drive around camp, and as I was in flip flops I came off the worse!! The nurses thought it was broken so sent me to the doctor, but lots of driving (we're in the middle of nowhere!) and millions of x-rays later (they thought I had metal embedded in my toe, turned out to be a glitch on the machine, flipping radiographers freaking me out (sorry Becca!)) it turns out its not broken, Ive just jammed the joint. Which is as pleasant as it sounds! Its so insanely painful its ridiculous, its hideously bruised and swollen and means I cant wear my new wellies (if the damn things ever show up!) It should heal in a few weeks, once the swelling goes down it should un-jam itself, the doctor offered to do it manually for me but it was politely explained to him that if he pulled my bruised toe Id kick him in the head so he said we'd wait!! I go back Friday so will let you know!! :)

The food here is still great, I got another (belated) birthday cake today which was AMAZING!!! it was 2 giant brownies with milk and white chocolate sauce in the middle with cheesecake flavoured 'frosting'. It was unbelievably good!! We also had a BBQ the other day with corn on the cob still in the husks, which was by far the best corn ever! I will say though, Sloppy Joes are as disgusting as they sound, luckily theyre chilli so I had an excuse not to eat them!! Oh and the American version of Walkers have the green and blue flavours the opposite way around which was very disappointing! :(

Went out on a random boat trip the other day, the owner was going out and rescued me and Joy (the piano teacher) from sweeping to go to! We went for miles, and he showed us Sigourney Weaver's house (apparently her daughter works in town) as well as the best house ever that was on an island surrounded by trees, but up on a hill so to get from the boat dock to the house there was a train!!! Oh to have that kind of money!! We found the end of the lake and he told us that it goes for 75 miles north and east before you so much as meet a road, its that remote up here!!

Its not just the campers who are talented, the staff are a bit mad too!! As part of my new evening activities job I co-hosted the staff talent night on Saturday and its amazing what people can do! The tennis guy is amazing at the cello and my co-counsellor in the bunk is the third best in Sweden at jump-rope (skipping!) Shes going to teach me to double dutch when I can walk again which is something Ive wanted to do for years so yay!! Helen (the girl who got me the job) sang Daddy's Son from Ragtime, which annoyingly choked me up again, I even knew it was coming this time!!

Spent last night on the phone catching up with England, was good to say hi and thank you to everyone who stayed up and talked to me at stupid o'clock in the morning, Ill try not to do it again! Good gossip all round haha and I miss everyone!! Orange performed a MIRACLE and actually did as I asked them first time, so my UK phone is now suspended so my US one is the one to contact me on: 001-801-389-3817. The signals pretty dodgy here but Ill get back to you ASAP if you text!! Hope you're all ok, email, facebook or text anytime you feel like it and Ill get back to you as soon as I can!!

Loves!! xxxx

.....Day 2 - it gets you when you're tired!!

Still very tired!! And as it would turn out that's when the need to cry gets you!! Have no idea where it came from but a phone call to my Aunt unleashed quite a few tears, think it was just generally all a bit overwhelming as everything seems fine now!!

EPIC 6 and a half hour bus drive to camp today, it seemed to take forever, all except the stop off at Pizza Hut which was over far too quickly! Camp is beautiful, its truly in the middle of nowhere, I don't really have any signal on either of my phones up here so Facebook or emails is the way to get me! (UK phone gets suspended on Friday so if you do feel the urge to text its on 001-801-389-3817) I saw my shack today, a little hut where I will be teaching for the next 9 weeks, tomorrows task is to decorate it with various photos. Ordered some wellies as rain is a common occurance and I didnt want to travel them over, so Target.com has supplied me with some I can leave behind at the end. Another beef roast dinner for tea then an ice cream social and its time for another early night!!

Will post photos when I get some when its not raining!! :)

.......Day 1

So so tired!! Landed in New York a few hours ago and came to the hostel we are going to be staying at tonight. My body currently thinks its 2am so its mildly confused as to why Im awake, and I suspect will only stay concious for another hour max! Just been out to find some food before bed, had a slice of pizza from a shop, very American but actually a good idea and something England should do!! Breakfast is at 8am tomorro then orientation at 9am and the bus leaves at 10am so a busy time, but then a six hour bus journey to make up for it!! Wanted to go exploring with some of the others who are going to camp from here but even the thought is exhausting so Ill save it all for one of the other 2 times Im here!!

Flight was fairly uneventful. There was a fracas at the bag check in when a random Chinese woman started shoving people. She successfully got 5 to the floor before security took her and her companions away, they weren't seen again so I dont know if they were allowed to fly, muchos amusing queue entertainment though! Got stuck with random Orthodox Jews on the plane, Im all for religion but the girl next to me was reciting the Torah out loud the whole 7 hours and it got very very wearing after 2!! The most random event of the flight award goes to me getting on the plane and realising the uni's piano teacher Peter was sitting a few seats in front of me, it took a while to place him!! Food was nice, sausage and mash with (very excitingly) Gu puddings afterwards, sadly they had decided to ruin a chocolate mousse with raspberry compote but the free chocolate brownie afterwards made up for any upset caused!! Got to watch the pilot of Glee again (and used all my effort not to sing along!) as well as a very amusing Michael McIntyre. All good really!!

Right, and now to call Utah to let them know Im here, then to sleep!! Should be an interesting attempt in a room with 11 other girls :/ .........

.......IT'S TODAY!!!!!!

Woooo!! Finally, after months and months of planning, I am at Heathrow waiting to get on a flight to JFK, NYC!!!! Eeeeeeee!! Im massively excited, which doesnt bode well for my fellow passengers!! I am reliably informed that there are 49 other BUNAC people flying on the same flight so hopefully at least one of those will be heading for Long Lake.

Have decided backpacks are insanely annoying (ha, after 2 days with one, this is going well!!) I keep forgetting I have one on my back and whacking people with it. I took out a small child on the way to the airport, backpacks are also good for self defence from irate mothers, just FYI. Judging by the shocked look on a womans face on the Tube yesterday it looks as big as it feels, I imagine its somewhat like going from a Mini to a LandRover, I just need to get used to the fact Im twice as wide as I was 2 days ago! Im not yet bow-legged from the weight, although it shouldnt be long, I havent stood up straight with it on yet, thats what I get for needing my life for the next 4 months to fit into 80 litres!

Have heard a lot of American accents so far today, (I have no idea why it didnt occur to me that on a flight to New York there'd be Americans, guess I didnt think about it!) and its very much making me miss my Auntie in Utah! I havent seen her properly in over 5 years and I cant wait to go stay with her! Just sucks that Im gonna have to wait another 10 weeks, its like being homesick, I just want to get there!! But all in good time, I can at least ring her when I get there and it wont cost the earth so thats something!!

Right Im off to peruse the duty free shops, there's a Harrods and a Tiffanys here (Im definitely not in Newcastle anymore!) so the chances of me leaving with English money are slim to none haha. Shall see you all on the other side of the pond, eeeeeeeeeee :)

.......minus 1 day!!

Have to type fast!! Am being allowed access to the Crew Internet Lounge at the hotel at Heathrow and can't be on too long!!

Yes that's right, I survived the trauma that is getting in and then out of London unscathed, the journey actually went rather smoothly, the only hiccup being when the train from Kings Cross to Heathrow had to stop and we all had to get off because it was running so late they just took it out of service!! Once at the Terminals 1, 2 & 3 I got the worlds most expensive taxi (£9.80 for a journey that, had pedestrians been allowed, I'd have walked) to what turns out to be a fairly posh hotel! In keeping with it's London home, the hotel has just charged me nearly £30 for my tea, although it was a fitting last English meal of a roast beef sunday dinner (yes Mum, I ate my veg) with chocolate fudge cake to end :) Needless to say breakfast in the morning will be avoided and some form of french pastry 'avec' chocolate will be being sought in Terminal 3.

Encountered some very interesting people on the train, was at on a table with a Music professor from Oxford, a Music student from Kings College, Cambridge and a Music student from the Birmingham conservatoire. Needless to say they looked at me and my Cosmo with some disdain, and I resisted all urges to ask them to come and have their conversations somewhere near me the next time I couldn't sleep! Speaking of, that's something that is unlikely to happen tonight, the excitement has finally kicked in, and it's all become very real! I plan to spend tonight having a bath in the lovely deep bath in my room, then trying to sleep in the really rather comfortable double bed!! I also get to sleep in my new pajama bottoms tonight, which is pretty exciting too!! (For those of you who dont know the pajama bottom story, I had to buy them especially off the internet at a somewhat ridiculous cost as regular shops havent quite realised that tall people not only want their trousers to fit, but their sleepwear too! So no more jogging bottoms from now on!! Woop!!)

Right have held this computer up long enough, its amazing how helpful people are when they think you have money to spend haha!! :)

Saturday 19th June - Minus 2 days!!!

Moved out of uni yesterday, I now have nothing to distract me from the fact that in 2 days I am going to be on a plane to an entirely different continent for nearly 4 months. I'm having more and more panicked 'whos stupid idea was this' moments, it's all becoming a bit real and a bit terrifying! Clearly I forgot that, while I was having the time of my life planning this trip, that I was actually going to have to do it! I think my future career my lie in arranging this for other people, that way I get the best of both worlds!! All of the planning, none of the palpitations!!

Have had a lovely last week at Lancaster, and leaving was actually really emotional, God knows how I'm going to cope next year when I'm leaving, never to return! There's several people back there who I'm going to miss loads while I'm away (and no I'm not going to name names, I'll have told you if I'll miss you, if I haven't.....oops sorry!!) and they really made my birthday week special, and turning 23 that little bit more bearable :) Just one last night out with Mum and Lorna (for which I have the most gorgeous dress!) and then there is literally nothing else to do but get on the train to Heathrow!!

Mildly concerned about the weight of my bag, it's nowhere near the limit but it's worryingly heavy and it may not be that easy to carry :/ however shall carry on regardless and play the damsel in distress if I need a hand carrying it :D (ha, Jeremy I heard you roll your eyes then!!) Although given that my life for the next 15 weeks is in there I'm not sure I trust anyone with it! I've packed and re-packed several times, and my list is nearly worn out, it's nice to be home where the reason for my crazy exists though, Mum is just the same and is proud of my efforts!! :)

I now have a 'cell phone' for while I'm away, as of Friday my English number will no longer work so if you feel like giving me a text between now and October (and I expect important gossip to be passed on immediately, none of this Facebook nonesense!) then this is the number you'll need......

001-801-389-3817

Obviously I will be able to check Facebook and emails while I'm away, so any non-urgent gossip or general musings on life may be sent there!!

That's all for now, I'll update you from Heathrow!! :)

Friday 11th June - minus 10 days!!

MY FLIGHT TICKET IS HERE!!!! EEEEEEEE!!! It's all official, I'm actually booked on a flight in 10 days!!
(In case you can't tell, this is me excited!!)
:)

Tuesday 1st June - minus 19 days!!

So its June 1st!! And that means 3 things; its 10 days until the World Cup starts, 11 days till I take one more step closer to 30, and 19 until I officially start my travels by getting on a train at Preston. 3 weeks today I will be in Long Lake, NY at the camp I will call home for 10 weeks, and Ive gotta say Im pretty damn excited! Although as it would turn out theres a fairly thin line between excited and terrified and I cross it on an alarmingly regular basis! I cant believe I get to get paid to teach the flute to people, it sounds so perfect its insane, and to get the chance to do it in America just makes it all the better. I have occasional wobbles where I wonder if Ill actually be able to manage it, but Im assured I will so Im just going to act confident and hope everything else falls into place!

Im mostly ready to go I think, Ive got a few things left to get, and those of you who know me well can congratulate me on waiting until now to pack!! My visa was sorted back in April during a short but terrifying trip to the Embassy in London, my travel insurance was eventually sorted out shortly after and last week I finally won my fight with my doctor to get enough medication to last all summer so hooray for not having to spend $500 of my savings/wages on that!! Ive also got most of my travelling sorted for afterwards, and although some details may change depending on camp, they should mostly stay the same. I wont go into it all now, but have done a handy Google map, so those of you who are interested and I havent already told in great detail (although there cant be many of you who exist!), feel free to look here........
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109629027493582904002.000487588e1fda26f9ebd&ll=38.959409,-98.261719&spn=32.907523,78.662109&z=4

Its weird planning to be away for the whole summer, I wont be back in England till October so that part of my diary is going to be fairly empty!! Theres a lot of people Im going to miss loads when I have the time, and I suspect having Helen (a friend of my course who got me the job for those of you who dont know her) there will be an absolute godsend! Seeing the babies at the weekend was hard, I wont see them till Christmas now, Im missing both their birthdays and just generally 6 months is a long time in little kids lives!! Ive had to promise to send postcards, although not one for all of them, obviously Sam gets his own :P I also wont feel like Ive had much of a break from uni, I leave the last week of term, and miss the Extravs (end of term parties) although maybe spending close to 12 hours covered in Strongbow and blackcurrant wont be such a bad thing to miss! I am feeling left out of the planning though, and have to constantly remind myself that Ill be here for it next year, and at the end of the day Im doing something much better!! (Im not always convinced!!)

Its also been a surprise that I really feel that Im going to miss Stafford House this year. For all that was awful last summer there were a lot of good times and Ive got some lovely memories and its weird to think I wont be going back. I always make good friends there too, and usually in some excellent holiday places (I had a lovely week in Barcelona last year courtesy of Julia!), although I can see this year being the same in that respect! I will miss learning more of a language though, camp was always an excellent place to practice Italian, and this year I picked up Spanish as well, so being able to speak English all summer could make it a very different experience of working with kids.

I have several things left to do in England before I leave though, turn 23, watch England beat the USA (one can only hope), do my end of year recital, which officially finishes my year, and then lug all my possessions down 4 flights of stairs and argue with Mum about where in the car they go! Who cant look forward to all of that?! Probably not much more to say until after that, so Ill let you know when Im on my way :)