Week 8

Cadence on Saturday was really cool talking about what you would really do in real life situations and having active faith. GRSing (welcoming) has become very much repetitive and easy now, so it’s a good chance to chat and hangout in the breaks. Unfortunately it was raining during this period so everyone was out in their ponchos. Saturday night Mark, Jon, Pete and myself went into walmart to grab some supplies including a new hard drive to house all my movies and photos I have taken. We got a bit lost on the way back, nearly hit some deer, but had some great chats in the car.

Sunday morning, I got to have a quick skype before breakfast and starting off skills for the week. I turned out to be on wake split in the morning, with Mr Incredibe Mark which is great, its his last week. In the afternoon I am in a ski boat with Taylor – expert skier!!! Both boats are really great. Our morning boat has four boys who are all really cool. The afternoon started off with 4 girls, one guy but the next day dropped back to two girls, one guy which is great. Taylor and I also had Julie Rains come along with us in the boat to spot and provide entertainment. We shared many a good laugh. At lunch we got our weekly game of tennis in…fun as always.

Sunday night we had our final hopper time which was an awesome time. Then bible studies where we had baked beans and root beer to provide for some gas – the reason – blue angels. If you don’t know what they are, you probably don’t want to know. But many laughs ensued throughout bible studies that night.

On short short Monday lunchtime, I got to participate in a really great game of volleyball with Mark, Brendan, Josh, Kelly and Finney…not that those names mean anything to those back home.

Monday night the ski staff got to finally visit the epicness of Woods lake. The private lake owned by Muskoka Woods. It is always calm, they have a jetski there with a bunch of rails and kickers for wakeboarding. Only wake x use this equipment but our staff party was there so we got to have a turn. It was so much fun! Really really different to riding on the water and jumping off the wake so I was pretty terrible but it was still very fun. We had a campfire and barbeque, played some guitar. A really great night!

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early for a morning ski. I was in a boat with Ben, Jon and Mum. Since it was raley Tuesday, I wanted to perfect my raley’s. Frustratingly, I seemed to regress in my ability to do this trick and can no longer do them…grr. Another bad thing is that I seemed to pull a muscle deep in my shoulder.

Tuesday was stayover, but this week I was in a senior high cabin so I didn’t have to look after the kids during lunch, which was good chance to relax. The boys seem pretty nice and friendly. I got my package from Martin and Sarah at lunchtime which was definitely the highlight of my week. They gave me a bunch of goodies from Australia, Thailand, and Europe, my favourite probably being the latest hillsong cd which is now on constant repeat. LOVE IT!

Tuesday night, the game was fire and ice, where each person had a cup and had to try and go to the other teams fire and put it out with water in the cup without the other team stopping/catching you. It was really good fun. Then there was bedtime with the senior highs! I was fiddling around on my computer until about 1am. Some of the boys were planning to sneak out at one but since I was awake they regrettingly fell asleep and were very annoyed in the morning that they didn’t get to sneak out and hook up with the girl cabins.

Wednesday morning we got to sleep in which was great. Our morning boat was great with Mark! The water was soo smooth all week long which was fantastic for riding. Our afternoon boat was awesome we went to windermere and I got to play the piano there which was definitely a highlight of my week. I also bought a beer mug brownie which was very rich and tasty – not quite as good as Shelley’s chocolate pudding. I was stuffed by the end of it! We also went bird hunting in the boat – even with a skier on the back. The afternoon boat was heaps of fun. The kids were dancing to the music whilst on the ski’s and we played many games of ichi – ni.

Wednesday night I went out for another ski session with the ski team which was good fun but I injured myself. Then we went with all the other staff instructors to plant a tree and ‘leave a legacy’ – my legacy was a YES legacy. I played at impact that night – the metric song again. Stayed in the boat that night because all my gear was still down the bottom. It was a surprisingly comfortable sleep! Woken up early for another wakeboard session with a chase boat to get some cool footage.

Thursday – another great day! Port carling at lunchtime where I had a fantastic nap. In the afternoon boat, no one skied at all and we just relaxed and chatted for the whole 3 hour period. Thursday night I was going to go visit woods lake again but that fell through and I went to the staff party at the beach. They had fire, food, swimming, games and blobbing. It was really fun! After the party we had cabin cleanup which took us a good hour to clean up the pig sty that was Gwitmoc trailer 4.

Friday morning got up for a skype back home before my birthday on Saturday. My family had gotten together with the tills for my ‘birthday’ dinner. It made me miss home seeing them all. Unfortunately the connection was bad so the chat was short. I got to have my vegemite and avocado on Canadian bagels for breakfast. Perhaps the first time that combination has ever been put together. Let me tell you right now it worked!

Friday night after cleaning up the boathouse, I left for Liz’ cottage with Jess, Jacqueline, Blair, Adam and Louise. We had a wonderful homecooked dinner with some beautiful homemade pecan pie for dessert. We had a campfire, swim and some good chats. Liz’ father was massive into hunting and there were taxodermied animals all on the wall throughout the house. Pretty crazy.

So Saturday was my birthday. No longer a teenager so now I guess I have to start acting mature which is a little bit sad. I opened my present which has been in my bag since I left from Tim and Mali which was sooo nice, made my day. The crew here gave me a cupcake with a candle and sang me happy birthday which was very nice. Then we headed back to camp to start off the week they call CLASSIC!