I know I have been very busy and slack with the blog writing but I think I maybe back on track so here is most of it just another week or so to write up and then I will be up to date…….
It’s now Wednesday afternoon and I have officially had enough! (But we’ll get to that later)
Yesterday was the infamous counsellor day, which for us really was no big deal, we were too tired to care! However Holl, who is in upper dorm this week, decided to get up at 1.30am and blow her whistle as loud as she could and bang and wake them up. Then 4 am rolls around and Verena and Kel come into the dorms and the 3 of them get saucepan lids and tins and smash them together, banding and clanging, get them up yell at them like drill sergeants to grab their cozzies and marched them down to the waterfront. Made them change in the boat house without lights, then as they were walking from the boatshed back to the water they threw buckets of water at them! Yelled at them to get in and swim in the lake then get out roll around in the sand get back in then out and in and out and in then marched them back to bed. All very funny apparently.
Meanwhile as I am in lower dorm I can hear anything that goes on in upper dorm so I was awake when all this was going on and I was having trouble going back to sleep as I was still so scared of the mice that are running around in this place (not to mention ‘Bobby’ our resident chipmunk, that runs through the place like he owes it!) So here I am lying there and I start to hear a noise which sounds exactly like a mouse trying to eat a lolly wrapper, the kids have candy in here all the time and just leave their half eaten candy lying around. I start hearing it more and more and sounds like its getting louder – the whole gang is out their (most likely being headed by ‘Bobby’) torturing me just outside my room ready to attack me any second! “Why the hell aren’t they dying a long slow death, previously that evening I had put out 3 of these big green rat repellent blocks that are meant to kill them if they eat it. At this point im too scared to get out of bed and turn the light on to try and find my ear plugs in case I see one. Instead I just pull the covers up and hold it tight over my ears to try and block their horrible taunts out. After about 5 minutes I was sweating to death and decided to take the bullet and get up and just as I sat up to get out of bed I realised …………. It had been raining and the noise the mice were making eating a lolly wrapper was not in fact a band of crazed mice trying to eat a lolly wrapper but instead the rain dripping of the roof and onto the porch roof which is just outside my window! Ohh thank god and with that I fell back asleep!
So up at 7.30am with pan lids and up to upper dorm to wake them up and we made the kids march and sing ‘left, left, left right, left. Then every time they went into the pavilion to eat they had to do the conga, we got served first at all the meals and we ordered the kids around making them get us stuff. Then when we blew a whistle they had to run around the outside of the cabin. We made them wear their undies and bra on the outside and drew mono brows and beards. Some of them wussed out and cried because they had a moustache. We didn’t really make them do anything to bad and they complained all day which was annoying. Then after dinner we were all going on a trip to a town near by called ‘Duxberry’ to have ice-cream. Lower dorm were being naughty and not listening to what we told especially one girl in particular who is a brat and a half so they weren’t allowed to go, which was a good punishment but they had just received mail that afternoon which was a huge box of candy and chocolate bars, so they weren’t to perturbed that they missed out they were just going to eat them selves sick with candy, aarrgghh these kids are killing me.
Last night after we got back from ice cream the kids told me that there was a mouse running around and it ran straight into my room! Great now it’s real and they are back! So out goes more rat bait for the little suckers. Reading in bed I had to kill a beetle crawling on my bed then up pops a huge 5cm long black ant slash hybrid scorpion thingy – geez can this get any worse? I have officially have had enough! So I decided to be proactive about the gang of crazed evil mice and I got ready for bed and put my eye mask on put my ipod in and put Wendy Matthews album “Lilly” on repeat and finally fell asleep round 1am until 5am – bliss that’s the longest stretch of sleep I’ve had in 7 weeks!
So today is Wednesday, trip day, its Boston Aquarium today but they only needed 3 counsellors “because the camp cant afford to take us all” which has been the case with all the trips and the camp not having enough money (despite the fact that a day camper for 6 weeks costs roughly $3000, and overnight camper for 6 weeks is $4000) So anyway all the more fun for us as Hol, Leigh and Nicky get the day off. So we got the kids ready and set them off, FOUB you will be pleased to know that they were catching the train into Boston. They had a few troubles as there was rail works and had to catch a big yellow bus between the stations but their journey back was trouble free. The girls said the trip was good but some how they didn’t get lunch packed for them??? But one of the nuns some how managed to have 2 sandwiches for lunch…. What the???
Once the kids were gone we headed for ‘Kingston Public Library’ for some much needed internet. We got there at 10am and 2 and a ½ hours on it and that was literally just booking things and trying to organise hotels and things, I didn’t even get to check Facebook. On the up side I now have accommodation booked for Toronto staying at the ‘Clarence Castle Hostel’ if any one is interested in looking it up. After I head to Canada Hol and Kel are doing a 3 day trip to Washington Philly and Niagara Falls and then I’m meeting up with Leigh who will already be in Canada and we are all heading back to NY to meet up with Nicky and her friend from Melbourne. So we booked the Marriot in down town Manhattan which is exciting. Thanks to kate for looking up those places for us it was good to see what else there was but we somehow managed to get it for the cheaper price at the Marriott.
From the library we headed to Plymouth and Mexican for lunch, had a quick look round and then headed to Wal-Mart for a few things. I wanted to get some ear buds but in this bloody place its big bigger and biggest. I only wanted a small pack but all I could get was a pack of 100, 200 or 500!! What am I going to do with the other 96 ear buds when I have finished at camp? Back to camp for a snooze. The kids have just arrived back and are again eating candy, candy, candy
We are going to have a spa night and do the girls hair and paint their nails and stuff so it should be fun!
Not looking forward to tomorrow though its campers day and they can do what ever they want to us
Shout out to the Sussex crew love receiving the letters and updates go kids and all the awards! Rach you’re a star…
Its now Friday and the last of camp WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! Not that I’m excited or anything haha.
Back to yesterday campers day, seeing as though I’m a dorm mum I was exempt from being woken up by the girls in upper dorm because Suzanne didn’t want the little girls being woken up in the middle of the night. I had settled quite nicely into bed with actual ear plugs and my eye mask but then at 1.30am the bloody girls came in and woke me up grrrrr, looking for the other counsellors to wake up “Gemma, Gemma do you know where the other counsellors are?” Yeah you dummies try the counsellor cabin where the sleep der, I could of killed them, I could feel it in my waters that I was going to have a good (uninterrupted) nights sleep – apparently not.
At breakfast that morning each time we took a bite of our meal they made us run around the tables and then have another bite and another run, not so bad. Then once we had finished we had to line up while they used their super soakers on us and wet us all – still not too bad I just went and had a nice warm shower straight away. They also dressed us up in out fits, I was wrapped in bubble wrap and looked like the Michelin man! Great way to loose weight though, I was so sweaty it was a re-enactment of Cambodia “Sweat drips down my balls”. I had to wear that around all day. At lunch the blindfolded us but I could see straight down my nose and everything that was on my plate so that didn’t bother me too much. After lunch was rest hour and my periods off so they couldn’t do anything then and that was about all they did which really wasn’t bad at all.
After dinner we had to play the dreaded ‘Underground Rail Road’. Hopes of a severe thunderstorm and the game being called off were unfortunately dashed. So when it started to get dark we got ready in long pants, sweaters and loads of bug spray. We had 4 walkie talkies between 8 of us and I didn’t get one – eekkk! We trekked of into the school grounds and the deep dark woods in the pitch black, great my idea of the best game ever!
We then were all separated off along the track and were all alone in the woods, was so scared I felt like I wanted to dry wretch haha it was horrible. We were told the we would have to wait 10 mins and then the groups of kids would come through and we had to pretend to be southern bounty hunters and ask them what they were doing out in the woods and if they had seen any slaves, they of course were meant to be slaves and had to make up some story to us as to who they were and what they were up to. Anyway still waiting 20 mins later still no kids and all I could think about was the bears and animals out there. I could hear these barking noises off in the distance “oh was that a domestic?? Or maybe a wild dog??? or coyotes??? This game sucks big time. 30 mins later still no kids, what is going on. Off in the distance I can see these red lights “what is that” I wondered to myself. “looks like a UFO, ahhh ET has landed out in the woods and im all alone”. Then I could see white mist around the red lights “@#$% it really is a UFO, what the hell is going on here?” Squinting off into the distance I realised that the mist and smoke surrounding the UFO was actually a sprinkler system that was water the schools grounds and the red ET lights were just the tail lights of a car way off in the distance.
Right its now been 40 mins off standing here and being scared witless and hearing this constant ringing off bugs in my ears (mum I think for those 40 mins I know how you fell with your tinnitus). Finally I can hear the kids coming, thank god and after all that there was only 2 groups of kids that came through and then it was over. We practically ran back to camp because we were so scared whilst deciding that “under ground railroad” is the worst game invented!
Friday was the last day of camp for the day campers. In the first half of the morning I had to help pack up the beads and things in arts and craft, this literally took us 15 mins and then I just chatted to the nuns and with Hollie who had run into arts and craft after telling the kids that they were playing arts and craft and she was hiding in with us, needless to say they didn’t find her. We then took all the kids down and had a swim in the swamp for the last time and then back to the cabins to rest for a bit. As we were walking down to lunch we saw a fire truck up the road from the office and towards the woods, Suzanne told us that the police were up there and that us or the kids were not allowed to got near them, very strange indeed?? After lunch, us counsellors laid out in the sun and read our books while the kids ran around playing with each other.
As it was the last day we didn’t have activities but instead it was ‘Carnival Afternoon’ there was a snow cone machine, balloon animals and Nick dressed up as a fortune teller and was reading them their palms which was quite funny, “I can see you living in a really big, big, big …..caravan” or “ I can see you doing lots and lots of travel in your life time your going to be a …..taxi driver”. After dinner we had a special last campfire, where the parents came and we sang songs and gave out special awards and stuff. It was nice and then they all got little wooden boats that had a little tea light candle stuck on it and light them and set them out onto the swamp, but it was too windy and the candles didn’t light oh well. One of the girls that was a day camper for the whole 6 weeks – Hannah Boyd, her parents were there and they bought every one of the counsellors a ‘Guess’ charm bracelet, it was such a nice thing to do and was much appreciated. Joanne the cook told us that the reason the police were at the camp was that a man’s dead body was found in a car on camp grounds…. What the?? And too think we were out there by ourselves in the woods the night before when anything could have happen to us and all we had to alert anyone we were in danger was a messily plastic whistle!
I then took all 3 of my kid back to the cabin and we watched Harry Potter 5 on my computer, and as I predicted fell asleep quite nicely which was good because I was exhausted.Up early the next morning to the little munchkins ready for breakie and then home time!! So gradually the kids got picked up and we all said our goodbyes, it was sad to see them go and I really enjoyed camp, defiantly an experience but once is enough for me. So after the kids left we just had to clean up some bits and pieces around each of the activities but we had already done most of the work in the days before hand so we had everything done just after lunch and Suzanne had to then inspect everything that we had cleaned and once she was happy we just relaxed, had a little snooze, Suzanne then drove us into the bottle shop and we got our supplies for a pool party that we had been invited to by the bikies that Leigh had meet with last weekend, Donny one of the guys (who owns a motor bike dealership) had kept in contact with her and invited us all around. We got ready and call Borat and all 10 including him piled into the van and drove us out to a place called ‘Bridgewater’ about 30/40mins from camp.
We got there met them all and could you imagine more American names that Donny, Bobby and Randy?? Ha so funny there were a few others too. They had a nice house with a good deck and pool outside. So a few drinks later and some dancing and drinking games everyone was having fun. By about 12.30am me and kel had, had enough and we fell asleep on the lounge (yeah I know party poopers) by about 1.30am we were ready to go so we called Borat and only me Kel and Hol left everyone else stayed to party into the night.
The next morning we got up for breakfast and the girls still weren’t home but eventually turned up around 10ish. Suzanne then took us to the bank to get the second half of out pay check –sweet! Then back to bed, there was a function on at the camp that was associated with the school and they were having a BBQ so we were told to make ourselves scarce and that we had to get our own lunch and dinner – cheap skates! So feeling slightly worse for wear we hauled ourselves outta bed and called trusty ol’ Borat for the last time to take us to T.G.I Fridays, it’s the best restaurant and has fantastic service! Back to camp and pictures with Borat then onto packing, it took me all afternoon and night and there was still so much that wasn’t fitting in, oh the pain. I tried for an early night but it was still 12am before I got to sleep.
Up early on Monday as we were catching the 8.30am bus to Boston and for our last day it was raining great just what we needed while trekking with our packs and bags. Dropped at the station and Kel, Hol, Nick, Leigh, Verena and myself left for Boston, Ola & Kasia had to stay back and continue to clean and finish the kitchen. Marie decided to stay with ‘Kevin Bacon’ for a few nights after camp, which suited us just fine because she is undeniably the most strangest person I have ever met, and I have met some pretty strange people ( sicko’s, chicks with beards, houseo’s & she is still the strangest).
The train took about an hour and it was still very overcast and had the occasional spit but thank goodness that rain had eased. Out at the main terminal in Boston ‘South Station’ which is really nice, changed to the red line to ‘Park street’, changed at park to the green line to ‘North Eastern’ and then hopped off there. Boston’s rail system is really great, its easy to use and it costs $2 to get anywhere or $9 unlimited ticket for the day, and it is the oldest subway system in America (How do you like that trivia FOUB) We hopped of the train and walked and walked and walked we had to find # 12 Hemenway St. So it was either going to be really close or right at the other end of the street, and which do you think it was??? Of course all the way down the other end of the street, I think when we found Hemenway we started at #200 so we walked with all this luggage and crap down the street and to make matters worse the rain had completely gone and it been replaced with humidity ohh the sweat was really dripping at this point.
We finally made it and dropped our bags off but couldn’t yet check in as we were too early. We headed off to a little coffee shop around the corner and had the best coffee and home made bagel ever! We spent a good few hours there just relaxing then headed back and checked in. We of course had the top floor which meant we had to lug our big bags up 5 flights of stairs ohh geez.
We had all 6 of us in one room with 3 bunks so that was good and the shared bathroom was just down the hall, we had a little nap and headed out into Boston and back on the train and off to Harvard University, which is in the town called Cambridge. The actually uni was really really big and spread out and you could just walk around and have a look. So we had a squiz at some of the buildings, they were so old and beautiful. Had a look around at some of the shops and the Harvard coop shop that had everything you could think of with the Harvard label.
We then hopped back on the train and went to downtown Boston and ‘Quincy Market’ and ‘Fenuil Hall’ which is something famous in American history but now has a whole lot of shops and restaurants. We browsed around and then went to ‘Dicks last resort’ which is a restaurant were the waiters are rude to you and make fun of you, we had to wear silly paper hats but didn’t think it was really worth it as it wasn’t that funny. Caught the train back and Kel and Hol went back to the room and Verena, Nick, Leigh, Gimpy and I headed to an Irish pub ‘McGreevy’s’ for a ‘Magners’ cider – it was actually really nice. We watched some of the pre-season NFL games and decided that the New York Jets are our new favourite team! Gimpy even got a ride on pug dog! 1am latter we got back to the hostel and went to bed.
Next morning Kel left for New York to meet up with her family and went back to the coffee shop. Then back on the train into the centre of Boston (FOUB I think I’m giving you a run for your money with the amount of train trips I’m taking) for some more browsing the shops and half the group went and walked the rest of the freedom trail that we started last time. I opted for the window shopping option which was really nice just strolling around with no time limits or any real plan. We went into Macy’s and as we walked in there was a man on the floor with about 6 security gaurds on top of him while he was screaming “Help, Help I’m being assaulted, Help, Help” we walked passed and started talking to a shop assistant who said he had tried to steal something. More screaming from the crazy guy and we turned around and copped an eye full of his box and tackle! His pants had fallen down and were hanging around his ankles while security has trying to pull them back up and get him out of their. Later on in the day we all met up in the park and went and said hello to ‘Ash’ the guy that Leigh was selling sunglasses with last time we went to Boston. We took some pics and even gimpy got in on the action. Went to ‘Wendy’s’ for lunch and then back to the hostel.
No time for a nap we got ready and headed out to Fenway which is just a block or 2 away (the hostel is in such a great location def recommend it). The Red Sox were playing LA Angles, we went to a bar called ‘Bleecher Bar’ which is actually situated under the bleechers in the baseball stadium and one of the walls of the bar is actually a big mesh roller door that is on the baseball field. Its so cool you can watch the game from the bar right at eye level and so close and no ticket required! After the game and the Sox won we went across the road to the ‘Lansdown’ bar and had a few more drinks when 3 sailors in full dress uniform walked in “Hello Sailors……” we got talking to them and got some great pics, Verena and I then jumped up on stage while the band was packing up and got pics of us on the drums and guitar – so rock star!
Last call at the bar and we still wanted to party so we hailed a cab – but in the meantime some big guy who looked like a black version of Hagrid came up to us with a white hard hat and a bunch of signs saying “ninja’s killed my family need money for karate lessons to get revenge” another one that said “need money for beer so I can get drunk and find 2 women to take me home and molest me” so funny so we had to get a pic of course. The place we ended up at was right next door to ‘McGreevy’s’ and was called the ‘Pour House’. It was so funny because we were all pretty hungry as we hadn’t had dinner but at this bar we were getting free hotdogs –Awsome! I got talking to this big buff black guy that said he was a famous rapper/singer and his name was ‘Ray Diamondz’ haha I laughed and then all of a sudden he leaned & burst into this really loud love song “oh maybe he is a singer’ haha still very funny though. Walking back to the hostel the pizza shop round the corner was a def stop. Into the hostel at 4.30am and into bed.
To be continued………
Cheerio for now!
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