week 2

So week 2 began! After arriving back from Coombs’ cottage, we rushed into Cadence and then into GRSing (welcoming). Welcoming the guests this time was much less hectic as it was not the first week and we knew what had to be done. There was less cars as well. Saturday night came along and Fusion for staff was tubing!!! Unfortunately I did not get released to drive the tubes for all the other staff members which would have been a blast but I got dressed up in my yellow ninja suit and mucked around on the docks. Then at the end I got to have a turn in my suit. It was scary as I couldn’t see much at all. Then when I fell off it was a little bit hard to breathe through the wet suit and let alone see. This made it extremely scary because it was like tubing with your eyes closed.

Sunday came and I was on split boat in the morning with Amanda (mum) taking out three girls and two guys. One of them was Jose from mexico and it was sooo difficult to communicate as he spoke pretty much no English. So there was a lot of exaggerated movements when explaining.

Sunday night was a spiritual triple play, where we had ski staff hopper time, ski boys small group and then soul house. It was really great. Had some awesome discussions, great group of people here as well!

Monday involved a bit of practice for impact which was on Wednesday night. I played keyboard in a couple of songs – Metric; gimme sympathy, and the almost; amazing because it is. It was great fun! The theme of the night was identity. I’m looking forward to next weeks impact program! I’m really missing my music but this is a great chance to keep it up. Would love it if there was a real piano here that I could just go and play on in my spare time, but its cool that I can go to Sonny’s band room and play the keyboards when I am in the mood. On monday i also had a one on one chat with Doug, my one on one mentor. its pretty cool because everyone here has a one on one to stay accountable with, and they meet every week. So its a good chance to connect, get to know someone and share ideas and thoughts on stuff.

On Tuesday we had switch em up and I was looking after 9 junior boys, who nicknamed me bee for bumblebee. After lunchtime I taught the boys how to play rugby. It was their first time and they loved it! The next day all the boys searched me out and wanted to play again. At night we played animal races with all the other J2’s. It was not bad but the seniors had an awesome game that I’m shattered I missed out on. They did a turkey hunt with all the other councillors and instructors, where the kids had to tackle/kidnap/catch an instructor and take them back to the building. The instructors could punch/push/run/ do whatever it takes not to be caught from the kids. So they had some great fun wrestling and running around the whole camp. Shattered I didn’t get to play that game! Apparantly the nurses office was full of people after that game.

The boys I had loved me, and they were so well behaved! It was fantastic…I had a great time with them. Throughout the week I would here ‘BEE!’ being called out from across the oval or at the dining hall haha. They went to sleep straight away and slept until five minutes before breakfast. Good sleep! That night just before bed, I ditched the boys for a couple of minutes to see a bear that was roaming around camp. I looked at it up a tree through the night vision goggles which was pretty cool. Later that night it was just wandering around the cabins, but luckily all people were safe indoors.

Got up early on Thursday morning for a barefoot with Taylor (swifty), mum and Jon. The water was not glass like it had been on previous mornings but was still nice. We tried long line barefoot. I had no trouble getting up onto my bum with the coffin drag start but the difficulty was getting outside the wake and standing. I managed to do it once in about 4 tries but only stood up for a second. Luckily for me no painful bails happened. After that I had a quick go of slalom ski. The others in the boat were laughing at my goofy style of slalom skiing so I need to work on fixing that up hahaa.

Thursday was the most miserable day we have had so far with rain in the morning for split, which made it a bit unpleasant but still fun. And then in the afternoon the programs were called off due to wet weather. So I headed to the hangar to help out with the J2 (junior) wet weather program. We played a bunch of games and watched a gymnastics demonstration by all the gymnastic staff.

In the afternoons this week I was on the general program and every day in the sixth period, we did tubing. I love driving the tubes! And all the kids loved my driving but Canadians seem to be a bit softer than us Aussies back home. I got told to tone it down a couple of times during the week by steve as a couple of the leaders who were watching from their cottages radio’d in and said I was driving too hard. Haha. Canadian softies. Injury count from tubing = 0. Except Blake who dislocated his shoulder about 2 seconds into a ride. But that one wasn’t my fault! I swear! Haha.

On Thursday night I signed up with some of the boys for staff bounce which was an hour of free time on the professional trampolines. It was really fun doing flips and such. They had a ski rope tied to a pole near a trampoline as well so I could practice wakeboard tricks on the trampoline. After that, a few of us boys headed up to the B3 skate warehouse and had staff skate. As many of you know I cant skate for toffee so I just watched all the pro staff doing their thing.

On Friday, in the afternoon program, I was driving the 206 ski boat and the waves/ wind were sooo intense. This boat sits very low in the water and waves constantly kept coming over the bow which was very frustrating. Luckily no kids were trying to ski and it was just tubing. Disaster struck when out on the lake we pulled a couple of kids in off the tube and just as we were about to take off again, the waves had pushed the rope under the boat and it was just too late….I propped the rope!!!! Ski of shame for Rhys. Going to have to tarp all the boats as my punishment. Boo. So I had to get the goggles out and swim under the boat to untangle the rope.

On Friday arvo/night, Mark, Jon and myself drove into Huntsville where there was a midnight madness festival. All of the shops were open until midnight and there was bands and stalls in the street. We hit up the Thrift salvation army store. Bought me some awesome op shop clothes in Canada! The laundry was shut so we are going to have to slum it and try and just savor our clothes until a later date. We arrived back at camp around 11:30 and then had a chat to my favourite sister on skype. Then went back to the room and stayed awake until 2:30 am. That sleep is definitely going to stuff up my routine. Slept in until 11:30 and then prepared for week 3!

The food at camp is going great. I can ask for a vegetarian meal when I want. I have a pesto pasta from the salad bar nearly every day. I should probably try and mix it up a bit. And last night, I was going to buy a 4L chocolate milk for my R&R’s for only 5 dollars. What a bargain!

The showers and toilets at home I am really missing. Here it is like being at big camp for a whole summer!

Still yet to see a moose. But I have seen a few moose heads on the walls of buildings. Seen plenty of squirrels which are very cute and entertaining to watch.

Week 2 has absolutely flown by which is a bit sad. Hopefully it wont be this fast the whole summer….i want it to last!

It’s been great hearing from and skyping with friends and family back home. Still haven’t heard from lots of people though so I am hoping to get a chance to chat.

Now I am off to cadence and the start of week 3.

Goodbye my precious’s

Rhys

Ps. Rhys is not a guys name over here. And noone can spell it!