Last Few days of real camp

So I am now into my 10th week in the US. The last week has been a bit hectic. It was the last week of camp, and it started off with a rainy day, which was actually really great! On rainy days, we get to sleep in, then we have breakfast and an extended cabin clean up. We then do to the mess hall, and the kids get to play board games, and do a bunch of indoor activities, basically they take care of themselves. I got a lot of reading done, I was borrowing a Terry Pratchett book from a friend, so that was cool, then we had to go back to our cabins for an hour and a half before lunch. In this time, we went mud sliding, the field in front of our division was ankle deep in water, so the kids had a lot of fun! We also went to the soccer field which was a lot more muddy! At lunch, there weren't any top staff present for some reason, so we went a bit wild, they were pumping music through the loudspeakers, and the kids were going off! Normally, in the mess hall, each division has chants, and we kinda compete against each other, but this time we did some Camp Fuller chants, and it was really great, to be all unified and whatnot... We also turned off the lights, and had one of those lines where you follow each other in a line. It was a great vibe. On Wednesday we had Sunprod, which is kinda like an outdoor music festival, basically it was founded by some people who couldn't make it to Woodstock, so instead they made one of their own. One of my campers' fathers was actually one of the founders of it. I sang "We are the Champions" by Queen. In its entirety, it was a bit tame, but at least we got funky T-shirts with glow in the dark writing.

Then on Friday it was the end of camp, so we had our final Council fire. I did the song "Froggie" which has become a bit of a tradition now, and had some girls sing it with me, although I think they weren't quite aware how much energy it entails.

At the end of each session the council fire is a "chips fire" which is basically where everyone takes something flammable to the fire, and at the end tosses it into the fire, and the ashes get spread around camp, symbolising that a part of you remains at camp. So we had that on Friday. As one of my council tasks, I had to make a "
spirit stick" which is basically a stick that you decorate with things that are meaningful to you. I had made one of those, so that was what I threw in at the chips fire. Then after the fire, the most senior counselor in each cabin is given a flaming torch, and we go from the council fire to the docks, where we wait for everyone, and then toss the torches into the water, symbolising the extinguishing of camp spirit. It was a very moving ceremony, and a lot of people where in tears. Then on Saturday we had a staff banquet, which was quite nice,  it was basically a lot of cocktail snacks, and then we had some awards, and a bit of a fun slideshow. We then went off to a party down the road from camp. This turned out to be a bit boring, so I left at about 01:00, I was later told that they went swimming later, which was disappointing, but me and one of my friends from the kitchen staff walked back together, which was great, the weather was nice, and the sky was clear, so that was great. About 500m from camp, a car drove past us, and it was some people from camp, so we got a lift for the last bit.

Then we got our new kids on Sunday, but they were vastly less. It was a bit irritating, since we were supposed to move at 14:00, but the guy whose cabin we moved into hadn't moved out yet, and only really moved out at 15:30, which was when we were supposed to get our kids, so it was a bit tight. then last night we watched a movie. Today I worked with the head counselor, Katy, to sort out the lost and found, and then in the afternoon, I "helped" take down the high ropes course, although my helping was just helping take down one belay cord, which a spider had decided to claim, and then tried to attack me, which wasn't fun, then I got stuck in the middle of a wire, and once I had made it to the end, was told I needed to do another one. I definitely don't enjoy high ropes! The view is good, but its entirely too much work!!!

Today we went to arrange the payment for our post camp trip. Me and 3 other support staff are going to be taking a tour from New York through Canada via Niagara falls, which should be fun.