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!!! :)