Week 2

Week two started on the twenty first of July, which dawned hot and sunny with a swim in the bath-like pool water! Lots of people are up for early morning exercise this year, which I hope continues. I don't want anyone to have cause to call me chubby when I return to Scotland, here.

The week of orientation went really slowly, but not in a bad way at all. I love that the time is going slowly, that there seems to be more hours between sunrise and sunset than there should be naturally, that the shadows of the trees creep so slowly across the basket ball court. I would be perfectly happy if the summer never ended, so content am I here.

Not that I don't miss you all at home, cause I do. All my uni and Hawick crew, you are sorely missed. Solution…y'all should come out to the Berkshires and become part of camp!

Orientation week involved lots of setting up camp and socialising. It was a great week of weather and chat, games and food, smiles and hugs. Some of the maintenance things we had to do included putting up ping pong tables in the new youth centre, discussing our activity areas and lesson plans, more guitar maintenance, assembling beds, general organisation, and my personal favourite…raking pine needles off roofs of the cabins!

We also had lots of sessions about camp rules, possible scenarios, special events, and general information, which was nice to sit and listen to in the sun! It's amazing how quick the things come back to you.

Some of the fun non-maintenance work we did during the week included trust walks with blind folds, tip-testing in kayks and canoes, lifeguard training, camp songs sessions, dance competitions, chilling out at the pool, a camp fire, tribal games, practice lessons [I taught a kayaking lesson], playing games in practice for rainy days.

As well as that, we had lovely informal chats, time spent playing in the sun, watching epic thunderstorms, trips into town for essentials [snacks!]. Everyone is gelling together like some amazing happy clock, which is awesome!

We had some time off over the weekend, during which time we had a great meal out in town, a night out in the local bowling alley, and breakfast in town the next morning. One of my good friends has a car here with her, and she has been kind enough to ferry us around which is awesome! Wandering around Great Barrington was like stepping out of a time machine that had landed a year ago. SoCo is still there [the home of the infamous brownie sundaes], the people are the same, the place has not changed at all. It's awesome…I would love to come back here to live at some point!

The weather for the week was incredible, so we had loads of fun in the sun. The summer tan is coming along quite nicely, and it really brightened everything up and made all the hard work easier. Awesome!

The highlight of the week has to be my first waterskiing experience to test out the camp equipment. I had never done it before, but on my fourth attempt I got up and went a good long distance before a spectacular wipe out! Was such an awesome thing to do, and one I definitely want to do again and again! I think Morgan may be rubbing off on me, turning me into a water baby more and more every day. Which I am fine with.

And then on the Sunday the campers arrived. It was such a buzz to stand on the camp road and watch all the new and familiar faces come in, hear people shouting my name, reconnecting with the campers and their parents and getting such nice conversation! Happy days. I am in a cabin with nine and ten year old boys who are all awesome...I am so excited because two of them were in my cabin last year! I can't wait to reconnect with them, and learn all about the new ones. Let's hope they are a good bunch.

I hope everyone's summer is going ok, and no one has had more horseshoe related incidents, or road crashes, and everyone is staying out of trouble. I would really love some mail to read, thank you to Alison for my first piece! If anyone wants a letter, post your address on the old bookface and I will hit you up!

Love!