An average day at Camp, by Rachel Mayes.
7.30am – Wake up and check in with my co-counsellors about the previous evening’s activities and make sure everything is A-OK with our awesome Campers!
7.45am – Get the speakers blaring, today’s wake up call is going to be my choice and I’ve decided that Under The Sea from the Little Mermaid will be the song of the morning! Time to get everybody up and either in the shower or getting ready for the day.
8.15am – Breakfast! The line for the egg bar (where you can get your eggs made to order!) is once again ridiculously long but so worth it. Two eggs, some home fries and a glass of OJ later I’m sat with my cabin discussing when we think the candy drop is going to happen. They think the counsellors know – we really don’t!
8.45am – Hey you guys! Morning meeting with the whole Camp and there are a variety of announcements and daily skits to get through and a Happy Birthday to wish to a Camper in one of our older cabins!
9.20am – First class of the day! Campers get to pick their own classes and I’m teaching ukulele first period and we’ve found two songs from Hamilton the Musical (a firm favourite of almost everyone at Camp) to learn for sharing night. It can be tricky with mixed abilities but luckily everyone helps each other out and we laugh together as they all put on their best English accents to sing ‘You’ll Be Back’
10.30am – Second class period: I’m off so I head back to my cabin for a much wanted shower and then head to our staff wifi area to quickly Skype home; it’s easy to forget there’s a world outside Camp sometimes!
11.40am – Third period: I’m a scheduler which means I help to make our class schedules for the Summer. Another counsellor and myself spend our hour working through a rather large spreadsheet to make sure we have enough staff covering every class. It can be complicated but I love the challenge!
12.40pm – The bell goes for lunch and we all head through our dining hall for some more grub. Normally I make myself a sandwich and grab something from the salad bar before heading outside to find my cabin. We don’t have to sit as a cabin during lunch but we usually have ‘our spot’ where we can find a few of our Campers at daily and lunch is spent catching up each other’s mornings.
1.30pm – Rest period: Eventually, we rally up our Campers and head back to the cabin for an hour. Typically we spend 5-10 minutes doing our daily chores, from taking out the trash to wiping down the bathroom sinks followed by 20 minutes in our bunks having ‘quiet time.’ During this time mail gets passed out and Campers can read or nap in their bunks. After that, some free time to hang out with their cabin mates (and occasionally an impromptu jam session!)
2.40pm – Fourth period: I’m back teaching! I pitched a ‘Pinterest’ craft class at the beginning of the Summer and I’m loving it. Today we’ve decided to cover our dining room notice board with Post-It notes with little illustrations or inside jokes and around 200 notes later, it looks awesome!
3.50pm – It’s time for interest groups! This part of our schedule changes daily, and counsellors offer a variety of optional activites at morning meeting from tetherball tournaments to card games in our barn. It’s also snack time and I definitely can’t resist a Rice Krispie treat and soda before heading back to the office for another hour. This time I mainly spend my time answering phones and organising the incoming mail, (and there’s A LOT of it!)
5.20pm – Evening meeting time: Similar to our morning meeting the whole Camp gets together for some more announcements and skits before heading off to dinner; at this point, one half of our staff is off for the evening while the other is on.
5.45pm – Dinner! Time for more food and it’s Korean food night which I am SO ready for. (As are our group of Korean Campers!) Once again we’re sat as a cabin, usually discussing the evening programme or my use of a fork AND knife (apparently Americans use forks for just about everything).
6.30pm – Evening programme and this can be anything from a movie night to a dance to a crazy circuit of activities better known as Llamapalooza. It can get kind of wild but it’s always super fun!
8pm – While our bed time changes nightly depending on the evening programme we usually start heading back to the cabin around 8pm and start our routine of brushing teeth, showers and getting into our pjs before heading round the bunks to say goodnight to each Camper. It’s a great time to check in with them and see how their day was, hearing funny anecdotes from their daily adventures. After saying goodnight, it’s lights out!
9.30pm – Within ten minutes of opening my book I’m already falling asleep and so I head to bed and set my alarm for the next morning of fun!
