billie's big adventure

weeks 1-4

hilarywilson_nz — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:37:00 GMT

Camp week 4, wow! It's flown by so fast! for the first 3 weeks I was counseling and working on the rock block, this week I'm "Full time". So no kids, but I work 12 hours a day, 10 of which are on the block (yay nights off!!). My main task is running our high ropes course, but I also spend a lot of time mulching and woodchipping (not so much fun in 35 deg+ heat) and doing other maintenance with the climbing director.

Camp life, one kid on the dvd summed it up pretty well "you get up at 7am for breakfast at 8, then you have a blast!"

The days are long, but awesomely fun! we do get up at 7 for cleaning and breakfast at 8. then the kids have 3 sports sessions during the day (9am-12, 3pm-5 and 6.30pm-8.00.) there's also 2 "rec" sessions a day, 1pm-3 and 8.30-10pm where we have games and competitions, or dances, and during the afternoon session things like the waterfront, mountain biking, archery, beach volleball etc are open. When counseling you work 2/3 sports sessions and you're either stationed somewhere or you're hanging with your kids during the rec sessions. So to sum it off, if you're lucky you get 3 hours off a day, but for me, being on the block, i usually get 1.5-2 hours a day. we sleep in the cabins with our kids so i'm 100% serious about only having that smalll amount of time off. hense me maybe not posting as often as i would like!

But back to the last few weeks: weeks 1 and 2 I had a group of 12-14 year old girls. they were lots of fun, but my lord were they hard work some days! I also couldn't beleive some of the clothes they would come out in and how much make up they would wear to go play soccer... but i guess that's what 13 year old girls want! It was a really steep learning curve, but we still managed to have a pile of fun, come 2nd and then 3rd in the cabin of the week competition and there were lots of hugs and tears on check out day :)

Week 3 I had a cabin of the most amazing girls but i've just realised it's 5.55pm and i'm due back at the block at 6pm. will write more (and maybe even some about my days off....) later

xoxo

Camp Wondermere!! O-week (day 1-11)

hilarywilson_nz — Sat, 9 Jul 2011 03:50:00 GMT

Camp is everything and nothing like what I thought! But it is everything I wished for. Who can complain when you're getting paid to sit on a jetski or at the top of a tree sending kids down a zip line?

The Camp I'm working at is a mix of traditional/sports camps, and no Wonderemere is not it's real name but for security reasons I can't publish it. 260 kids (8-17) come a week, for 5-6 days of sports, games, swimming, jet skiing and climbing. Within the camp there is also an extreme camp for 15-17 year olds, and they get to go dune buggying, play laser tag and learn to drive a jet ski amoungst other things. We have cabins of 10-30 kids, with 2-3 counselors, just depending on where you get placed each week. I'll write more about that in another post though. The camp is set on 300 acres, 100 of which is a private lake :)

Orientation was an experience, so much energy, so much enthusiasm, so much to learn! There are 100 staff here, and I think I can now confidently name all of them! The training has been incredubly intense, but awesome. It has made me feel more confident, but at the same time helped me apppreciate the enormity of the fact that parents are trusting me with their babies for the summer.

I've learnt so many games, chants and songs I'm not sure how I will remember them all, but it's so much fun! I feel like I'm going back to school days, but with a whole pile more american cheesyness, and I'm loving it!

The staff are all so friendly, it's almost overwhelming, but at the same time I can see how so many amazing relationships and friendships come out of this place. You've already got something (if not multiple things) in common just by being here, its so nice to meet a group of people who like me never want to lose that child-like enthusiasm for life. It does make me wish I had done this years ago!

As for actual training, we did a 3-4 days all camp training, then 4 of counselor and 4 of rock block, which seemed VERY short! Although after 11 days we were so pumped to have the kids arrive that I'm glad we didn't have to wait much longer.

Every morning I went running around the lake with other staff, which #1 was beautiful and #2 was a good way to get to know people :) we had a camp fire with s'mores (I like the NZ version better....) and got to play on the blob finally!! (imagine a massive air inflated pillow on the water, we jump from a 12 foot platform onto it, then someone else jumps on and you go flying into to air!!) We also had a barn dance, complete with square and line dances, and I learnt to kick an AFL ball.

We had 1 day off over orientation, which equalled a lot of shopping and beer!

geepers my time off is over and I need to go get my girls, will write more later xoxo

billie

SFO & NYC

hilarywilson_nz — Fri, 8 Jul 2011 05:54:00 GMT

Eek I can't believe I’ve been away for a month already! Currently I'm sitting at camp, orientation well done, week 2 with the kids nearly over!! But I's so behind on this i better start from the start!!

So: San Francisco rocked!! I think I wrote a few bits and pieces before, but it was really hard to sum up how much I loved just walking around that place in a few highlight paragraphs! from the Golden Gate Park, to the Haight and Ashbury, to the Grace Cathedral and Union square it's an amazing city, so much history, so much to do! It was really inspiring to see how the city had re-built itself after a massive earthquake and fire which leveled the city early last century.

I met some AMAZING people! Everyone was so much friendlier than expected! I also made some great friends at the hostel :) Anna, Sarah (x2), Mags, Mary, Danny, Paul and Andy deserve honorable mentions! Nights out at crazy Irish and american pubs, DJing the last set, and just sitting in the Hostel Dining Room till 3am chatting about everything and nothing. (including a rather heated debate as to whether NZ or the UK would be better off if the worlds economy collapsed?!?! Paul I'm still saying I won that one!)

After 5 whirl wind days I spent my last day in California with some old family friends, we went out to a beautiful national park just south of the city and spent the day trekking and talking. It was a wonderful way to end my time there :)

Following came a beautiful early morning wake up call to catch a red-eye to NYC, a bit of advice: never fly American Airlines! They have the most ridiculous in-efficient check in system (I got there 2 hours early and nearly missed my flight) the food costs and there's no TV on a 6 hour flight! Oh, and they're not even cheap!!

NYC is CRAZY! I got lost on the airport train! Lucky I met possibly the ONLY nice new yorker in the world, and he ended up staying with me and chatting all the way to my stop on the subway, even though it was 7 stops passed his! When I got it I met up with Kate Funston (Funno) for 3 days of shopping, chilling and drinking beer! Highlights include: getting our photo's taken with some police officers in central park, and getting to wear their hats! (and getting their numbers....hahaha) going to wall street, and seeing the statue of liberty, and last but not least, seeing Ground Zero. Not to be missed, I never fathomed the enormity of the disaster until I went there.

We did spend a lot of time chilling out, we knew that camp would be full on & I'm sure I'll get back there through the summer :) one of my friends from SFO Paul flew in the day after me, so we met him and another kiwi guy Mitch in Manhattan and painted it red! (the upper west side at least...) On our last day we did grand central station and time square, then met up with all our new camp buddies for dinner and drinks! we ended up at a place that was like time zone, but with a bar! It was hilarious and a good way to get to know a few more of the people we were about to share a summer with!

That's it for now, camp is both wonderful and challenging, I wish I had done it earlier! But all those details will be in another post.

Much love xoxo Billie

I heart SFO

hilarywilson_nz — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 03:39:00 GMT

First Blog! Unfortunately it's going to be a short one, I've got 15mins until my ride turns up....

But the adventure has begun! I've spent the last 4 days in San Francisco. Amazing city, so easy to get around, so much fun! Everyone's been a lot friendlier than I expected, american's are hilarious! I still haven't figured out the tipping system but I'll get there...

Highlights so far: High fiving a guy coming the other way on the cable cars, 20mile/hr high 5ing! whoop! Also, getting taught how to eat pizza properly by a real life New Yorker! and of course finding the painted ladies & getting a picture like the start of Full House. To anyone that didn't know me as a child, I might have been a tad obsessed with the show, just a little, honest!

Yesterday I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge and down into Sausalito, beautiful town! Though the trip did highlight how much fitness I've lost in the last month... I also did the Alcatraz tour, very interesting, has to be done, glad I didn't do it at night!!

I've met a pile of people in the Hostel, and had some great nights out too.

eek rides here, g2g xx