UPDATE: campers arrived! now day 4 first session!

oh my goodness. The campers are here!!!

They arrived on sunday after lunch and since then it has been pretty FULL ON. I came into this not knowing at all what to expect - from the camp, the campers and myself - but let me tell you one thing: it. has. been. incredible.

Seriously, there are some of the most amazing kids here and i've only known them for four days! I am in the Buckskin (Bucks) cabin with Caitlin, who is my co-counsellor (and the best person i could ask for :P), and 13 campers, aged 11-12 yrs. I am also teaching a riding group called the Haflingers, which has six riders in it.

I have already taught 5 lessons so far, and am learning as i go along, but we seem to be progressing well and i'm really impressed with how they are going. Most of them have either never or only a couple of times been on a horse so it is the real fundamentals of riding which i am enjoying teaching.


I don't really know how to explain it, but being here is just the most amazing feeling... it's like being in the middle of the "real", natural world, surrounded by people and "little adults" who just plain want to enjoy life and have a good time. Although it is a lot of hard work, and even a little stressful at times, i am constantly staying energetic and positive in order to keep up with the kids, and it just makes for such a great experience. Although i often think of all my loved ones at home and do miss you all, i am not feeling homesick as i simply don't have enough time to think about being homesick!

So far this week we have had Opening Campfire on Sunday night where all the counsellors from different villages in camp  peform a skit from each village and sing songs (much fun).
On Monday night we had Ranch Campfire. This was amazing and involved walking on a solo 2-3km hike through the woods following lit torches and the sound of a distant "Ba-dah" drumbeat to get to the ranch fire site at the top of the mountain above the horse pastures.

We also had Spirit Fest on tuesday, which is basically a night of singing songs loudly and cheering for 2 hours with the entire camp... They also had all the international staff come up and all say the word "banana" in the different accents, one at a time, and whoever recieved the most cheering won. I am proud to say that my good ol' eloquent Aussie "banana" won, which was a huge confidence boost too. It was a crazy night!

Tonight is the Ranch Dance which all my campers were excitedly dressing up in tie-dye and bright socks to have an awesome night.

what else, what else...

first day welcoming party... Julie, Allison, Katie, Me, Caitlin L (Maverick), Sarah (maverick), Alana, Emma

My bed. :)

last day of freedom

Had a completely action-packed week thanks to the start of main-staff training at camp. I'll just give you a brief summary:

• swim tests
• Several "lost person" drills, searching the lake
• Opening campfire - we did a skit from Saturday Night Live, "What up with that?"
• training, training, training
• Chilli at Jodi's house (realllllllly delicious, with cornbread (a first for me) too!)
• Dessert cook-off over a fire - me and emma and aaron made 'no-bake cookies' which were YUM, plus had banana boats and a slightly, err, different pineapple upside-down cake
• The "really lost person" drill, running around camp looking for Hobbs, the tiger (who was moonlighting as our lost person)
• International banquet dinner - really delicious, but aparently a traditional Australian meal is Pork with coffee and port sauce? (maybe it is? maybe it isn't...?)
• Got  a host family! I'm sharing with emma and we have an awesome family who have worked/are working at camp jewell - the father is Australian! so refreshing to talk to another Aussie. :) They also got us a cool crate full of stuff to help entertain kids!
• Closing campfire - singing, war cries, skits, earnt myself a ranch neckerchief, hung out :)

Tomorrow the kids arrive! Feeling very excited, a little nervous, but looking forward to it. My next day off is Thursday (that's Friday to you... Aussies...) so i may not get a chance to email, blog, etc. until then. please still send me emails etc. though :)

Wish me luck!

rocking the suburbs

Hey all,

Just a quick update on my weekend.
Got back from road tripping to Moorestown, New Jersey (just oustide of Phillidelphia). me, emma, bryttany and katie drove for 3.5-5hrs down to stay at Katie's place, which is this gorgeous house in the middle of a very "american" looking suburb (apparently looks just like Wysteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, if anyone has seen that...).

 bryttany, emma, katie

katie's mum was sooooo nice, she has this real southern tennessee accent which was awesome to hear and she was so hospitable! she cooked a huge chicken and vegetable grill which was deeeelicious, and made us a traditional southerners breakfast too.

We did a lot of swimming in their pool and general mucking about. i finally got to get some new clothes too!

we drove through NYC too (which although isn't that big of a deal, it was pretty cool, cos it was like just there), through Bronx and saw the smog of Manhattan and NYC skyline.

awesome xx

overnight ranch staff camp

just got back from BobWrika (which i always thought was spelled "baaba wreequa" cos of the american accent) campsite where we had our overnight ranch camp. It's just across the border, about an hour-ish ride, in Massachusetts. was lots of fun though i was riding a horse called Rhubarb who just about killed my hands on the way home - wouldn't stop jogging!




The campsite was gorgeous (as everywhere here is) - a kinda cleared area of lush wild grasses among maples and acorns and raspberry brambles and wild strawberries. we slept under tarp. lucky it didn't rain too much ;)

we had a "hobo" dinner (which those who were politically correct called a "homeless" dinner...) which consisted of finely chopped tomatoes, onion, potato, carrot, meat and cheese mixed up and wrapped in alfoil. it was surprisingly delicious cooked on hot coals.

preparing dins... Jodie, Julie, Bryttany, Me, Katie

camp...

 

Nate calling on the fire spirits...

It was also Caitlin's birthday yesterday but she had to leave to go on some training trip which was annoying for us planning birthday stuff (and her i'm sure too haha). We got someone to drive her over to our camp though and we had a surprise birthday cake and everything which was all good. :)

also had my first s'mores (if that's how it's spelled?) which was awesome. Jodie (the s'mores pro) showed me how to make it - 2 roasted marshmallows sandwiched between a square of hersheys chocolate and 2 graham crackers. yummmmmmm.


Now... i'm basically waiting on an extremely late hoodie which was supposed to arrive about a week ago from Camp America cos i have very little clothing, let alone anything warm. i thought i overpacked but it seems i majorly underpacked...
We have tonight off which is awesome cos we'll go out to dinner. Pizza or something i think.

Happy days!

weeeeek two

getting my laundry done for the first time in 11 days! (phew, my jersey was smelling of camp smoke + rain + 10 days constant use = urgh....) But i did "Aussie Battler" it on for a while there.

i did my first session of instructing today! i was instructing complete "beginners" (i.e. the other counsellors etc. acting) which was hilarious but very good practise. i feel a lot more prepared for when kids arrive.

the walls surrounding my bed are covered in photos of the horses, cats, riding, my family and all the ones i brought with me. it's looking good!

sundayyyy

am now certified in Wilderness First Aid!

having an awesome typically-american-movie-style time here. driving around in expensive american cars listening to loud music and singing while squished up in the car together. had the night off and we went to Fuji Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. american japanese = nothing, compared to being in japan or even australia :P but still awesome.

it is Emma's (UK) birthday tomorrow so we had cake tonight which was yummm.

saturday 12th june

howdy!

I have officially been here just over a week. settling in nicely ;)

Had a most awesome day the other day. We got the day off from 12pm, so me, Katie (from Philidelphia), Caitlin (from Maryland) and Emma (UK) went to Avon to have lunch (yum) and then do some shopping. Caitlin got her hair cut which looks awesome, and we got me some new jeans (my old pair split when i lunged out!) and shorts. Just generally mucked around and sung to loud music in the car.

We had dinner at Allison's house (horse riding program counsellor) where i tried my first gulash! was good! Also! New experience- we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back. It's basically like a Cold Rock in Australia, but - get this - the smallest ice cream size you can get is BIGGER than the largest you can get at Cold Rock. So, 'cos i couldn't work out all the combinations (basically an infinity of them) i got Katie to order for me i got a "small" chocolate icecream oreos and brownie blizzard. Very delicious :D

The "precious" photo of me and Katie with Dairy Queen.

Seriously though we have the best group ever at ranch. It's really awesome. There's about 10 of us and it's cool cos we all work really well with each other and just bounce off each other. The Americans here have been so awesome and welcoming :) i love it.


Oh, and quickly, some other things to add to my list of funny drivethru things (i think we've had pharmacies so far): drive-thru bank, and drive-thru convenience store...


Yesterday i rode a 3yr old morgan X clydey (?) named Rodney who reminded me a bit of Jairrah. He was very sweet although completely green, really, and in love with this sweet little black horse called Mooney. Mooney is some sort of gaited horse breed - like a hackney or walking horse or something - so her paces are beautiful! I got to ride her cos Rodney got too handy (pulling on my hands) but Mooney was so gorgeous! First time riding a gaited horse.

We also practised vaulting on Speedy, a vaulting barrel, but i kind of collapsed onto and off it because i no way have the wrist strength to hold my body yet! (on the plus side, i am building up muscles excellently! it's really good work for the hands for the most part)

and lastly we visited the camp fire circle for some secret Ranch stuff i can't quite tell you about. Think of it as initiation *wink*

Anyway, i send my love to all and a special message to my Aunt who's birthday party is this weekend. I hope you have an absolutely wonderful time! Love elise

One week!

Wooo it's been one week since i left! Amazing.

We had the fortune of mucking out the top pastures yesterday for 3.5hrs! hahaha it may sound bad, but it's actually quite good work. I was in a team with Jodi (Coordinator), Allison (program councellor), and half of the other councellors - Katie, Aaron, Julie and Emma. We managed to completely clear about 7ish acres of manure - of which there was LOTS cos of 30 horses and no one had mucked since spring started.

I'm going to be taught how to drive the ATV too! woo :)

Past two days has been freeeeezing and it's currently 6am-ish and very foggy - i can't even see the lake. It's not too bad though i am managing with a skimpy hoodie and my school jersey until my Camp America hoodie turns up. Hopefully today too *crosses fingers*.

Just some general information about the area - Connecticut seems to be a state where many rich New Yorkers have a holiday home, so houses are massive white wood, so neat, beautiful gardens and clipped lawns. On the corner of the Camp Jewell property is a house that is on the national heritage list - and it's owned by the Bacardi family (as in, the founders of Bacardi Rum)!! Also, Meryl streep lives "somewhere" close by to camp too. How cool. Imagine if i saw her down in little Winsted or something hahaha!

So today because it's due to be rainy again, etc. we have been given from 12pm off today. That's exciting cos i think we're planning on going out to some city/town thing in Massachusets for dinner which will be fun.

We also have an overnight horse riding camp planned for some time next week which i am looking forward to. Apparently we cook our dins in the fire, then have lots of marshmallows, hersheys and graham crackers to make S'mores after. Our coordinator, Jodi, is luckily IN LOVE with candy and chocolate so we are well catered for. She is also super nice!

Anyway you'lll here more about that later. I'm off! MUCH love to all back home, and my dear little kit-kats.

E

another day

howdy howdy howdy.

yesterday morning when i came in to the dining hall to use the internet and blog/skype home, i noticed that the bins were tipped over and scattered everywhere. It didn't really register, and i heard thumping around in the seating/kitchen area and naturally assumed it was a cleaner or cook. turns out, five minutes after i left some other councellors came down, went into the seating area, and there stood a bear...

Lucky not to disturb a bear or unlucky not to realise he was even there? pretty crazy either way!

Also ranch camp is So Much Work! we are virtually working from 7am to 9pm each night, only stopping to eat. (i should totally be getting paid more!) and it's really tiring. and that will just about double once kids arrive.

Thank god we were given last night the evening off from 7pm, so we went to walmart (i don't know how wise this was... we just bought lots of chocolate, etc.)

I quite like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups though. quite delicious if as long as you don't eat too much.

Yesterday we also two riding sessions, 3 hours long each, and ONLY WALKING so my nerves in my legs were ACHING (thanks to my wonky hips) and so were my hands/elbows. I had to sit out the afternoon session of riding and i think i'll have to do that each day 'cos otherwise i won't be able to walk or use hands!!

Keep commenting and sending messages! It helps! Love e

Day four, five and six

I have now been ranch training since sunday. The horses are lovely, as are the councellors. Since moving in to Camp Hide-away i have been living in luxury (yay!) as it is all newly done, centrally heated (it's been quite cold recently) and has several common rooms between cabins.


Food has improved immensely, and is super delicious which makes me have to watch i don't eat too much! haha, no it's okay we do so much exercise in a day - getting very fit. I have recently discovered the joys of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches too. Never sounded awfully appealling to my back home, but is actually very delicious. Also a common is potato bread instead of white... never tried it.


We have beavers, bears, and wild turkeys here too! The turkeys were quite sweet to see wandering around, but i haven't seen bears or beavers yet.

I rode a chestnut quarter horse (like Kacey! - not as pretty though) yesterday named Josie. She was very sweet. We are just working on learning how to feed, muck out stables, and ride the American Camp way.

I climbed Death Mountain (actually, it's been renamed "Sunrise Mountain") yesterday - very pretty from the top, where there is a treehouse amongst the maple trees, which are everywhere. I also saw these wierd little gecko-like things that were brilliant fluro orange, with red spots, and walked as if they were severely mutated. Interesting.

I have now been drug tested too and was taken to town yesterday to look around.

I'll try keep you updated - love elise!

day four

Day three

Afternoon all,

Today was my second day at camp, with noticeable imrpovements. Firstly, breakfast was massive with waffles, fruit, yoghurt, sausages, cereal, porridge, donuts, danishes, muffins and hot tea and coffees. Possibly not the best menu for those who are unrestricted with how much they eat... but fruit and yoghurt and waffles were fine for me!

One of the other counsellors drove a small group of us to Torrington (near Burrville hahaha) to get drug tested and get our social security numbers. Torrington is a very sweet town and the houses here are just amazing - so neat with beautiful gardens and neat lawns and tall maple trees. Passed several Dairy Queen's, Wendy's, Burger King's, and a Friendly's, which is apparently a type of restaurant specializing in ice creams.

Also had my first visit to a Walmart. Um, well, what can i say? It is massive. And it is big on, well, being BIG and being cheap - I'm not just talking about the stock too, about 95% of the people are wider than their trolleys, which are stacked full of 3kg packs of plastic-wrapped sausage sticks, 5-for the price of -one Mac & Cheese's, and jumbo packets of chips which are literally twice the size of our largest packet, and only something ridiculous like $0.87.

Another thing are the radio stations... For those of you who have ever played Grand Theft Auto, then this was Exactly like that (i.e., completely ridiculous, a spamming of funny-sounding websites (babiesovernight.com) and funny ads going: *sweet-sounding lady* "Do you feel hungry?" *grumbling man voice* "Mmm" *lady voice* "Well, why don't you come on down to Friendly's..." or something like that. (you have to imagine them saying it in the American accent to get the full affect)

I also took a hike (only 10mins) over to Camp Hide-away, which is where the Ranch Camp is situated. I am lucky to be working there - it's stunning! It has several cabins and a dining hall which overlooks the lake, as well as a wooden stage area down by the water (which i found out is Lake Triangle).

Ranch camp training starts tomorrow - wish me luck - and particularly once i start working with the summer kids i won't have much time to blog, so i'll try fit what i can into now! Photos are mainly up on facebook, by the way, as it takes a while to upload photos here.

day two - arrive at camp

Hi All!

I have now arrived at Camp Jewell YMCA. Connecticut is absolutely gorgeous. Lush green pastures with purple wildflowers, tall, so so pretty forests of pine - my god it is nothing like Australia, it is just like in the movies, so beautiful.
There are also these sweet little white wood houses everywhere - again, just like you see in the movies - and red wooden barns on the side of the road tucked into small lush clearings between the forest. The roads are gentle and wind through tiny townships nestled on the banks of shallow rivers, which in turn are flanked by more wooded forests. It. Is. Just. Devine.

I was picked up at the Hartford airport by one of the Ranch camp coordinators and it was an easy hour drive to the camp. Situated on the side of a lake (of which i am yet to find out the name of) are little nestled clumps of wood cabins, a large stretch of cleared grass, basketball courts to the side, pockets of pines here and there, and on the lake itself, a 20ish meter prettily arched bridge across to Chapel Island - a tiny island that is lightly wooded and has an arc of benches (forgive me a moment i have forgotten the term for the long seats in churches) where i am presuming they may hold a chapel service.

Lunch was the epitome of healthy catering - hotdogs, chips, coleslaw, gherkins, baked beans and ketchup. My fingers are crossed about dinner - i have heard whisperings of spag bol.

Mainly though, what has put me in a better state, have been the other counsellors. I was really quite nervous, but they are all very friendly and apparently us 7 Ranch counsellors will become very close (also apparently Ranch Camp, situated on the other side of the lake, is called Ranch Hotel because compared to where we are staying at the moment, it is luxury- Nice!).

Most of them live around the area and most have been either coming to camp or working as a counsellor for 10 years! There are only a couple of us who are newbies, but thats okay, i am already feeling a lot better for being round them!



At the moment i am staying in a cabin called Argos just for the next couple of days before all us ranchers trot on over to our side of the lake for training. Praise be to whoever out there cares - i have wireless in the cabin, which means i can THANKFULLY keep in touch with my missing counterparts back in Aus.

Anyway, lack of sleep calls me forth to my pillow. I have the rest of today and tomorrow to do whatever i like, whenever i like (i can turn up for meals if i want or sleep the whole time or go where ever i want on camp) and so after a snooze i plan on going for a walk in the woods around the west side of the lake this afternoon before tea.

Much love, Elise

day two

04/06/2010
3.30am
Our western culture is so fixated on the fact that you must extricate yourself from your family.

• Moving out of home as soon as you start uni (isn’t this really a time when we want support from our family?).

• Being separate from them as soon as you finish high school. In fact, if you are not separate from them, then you are an oddity and people say, “well, she...is a bit of a recluse, has no friends, spends all her time with her family” as if it were the worst thing you could do or be.

• And travelling away from them, without them, and on your own.

I’m not saying it’s a particularly bad thing, it’s just something i observed. I mean, if you asked most people i think that you would find that family is the most important thing in their lives. So why do we go to such an extent to remove them from our lives, to be so far separate from them?
I say this particularly as though i think travelling alone is certainly “character building”, isn’t the real object of life to be happy? Because if i were truly honest, my happiness would obviously derive from my closeness to my family, my interactions with, and travelling alone – well it just plain makes me unhappy!
What i am saying is, i don’t think it’s a bad thing to travel with your family and the people you know. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to spend a lot of time with them. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to want to spend the rest of your life as close to them as possible – yet it seems that this is almost somewhat frowned on?
Who was that wise guy that once said “Happiness is only real when shared”?

Anyway, why am i up again only 4 hours since i last talked to you? ‘Cos i only got about 2 interrupted hours of sleep. I feel about 30 years older than i am. I have dark baggy eyes for the first time in my life. I am still running on empty, with a tumultuous gurgling tummy  to evidence my extended fast.
It’s quite funny actually, on noticing when i used the bathroom earlier that all the water in the sinks, basins and shower gently spinning down the plugs in the opposite way to what i am used to. Of course, i do know about this northern/southern hemisphere thing, but it just feels so profoundly... wrong to me. Of all the things, i think this is what has most concreted the fact that i am 17 hours away from home, over the other side of the world, in the USA , and nowhere near anywhere or anyone i  know. Funny, huh?

Later... On the plane to Hartford...
My first “American” meal with which i broke my fast this morning was a bagel and cream cheese. Pretty typically American I think. It was quite nice, however all the food i have seen, and, somewhat more importantly, smelled, has all been exactly the same. It’s like – no matter whether it’s a hot dog, chips, a hamburger, a salad or a “sandwich” (in quotation marks because they are actually more like twice the size of a sandwich) they all smell the same –  this kind of appealing-but-not-so-appealing, MSG-laden, fast food-type smell.

Makes one a bit cautious, i have to say.

flights

For the past 39 hours i have not slept. For about 23 of these hours i have been on planes. And for the past 11 hours i have not eaten, save for my dinner of earl grey tea, brewed at a coffee-temperature of 92 degrees, with 5 mini cartons of milk and 2 sugars.

It has, quite frankly, been a complete roller coaster of emotions, too. For a start, i get homesickness – bad. An hour into my first flight, to Sydney, I already found myself a teary mess cursing even the thought of leaving my beloved family. It basically follows a pattern – during the day, the sun is bright, people are awake and ‘living’, and i think “bring it on! I can’t wait to do this – why was i such a mess last night?”. But then comes night and in the dark quiet i have serious doubts and can’t understand just why i would ever want to come here, and even more importantly, why the heck did i leave in the first place?

Basically my flight out of Brisbane went fine (after they cancelled my original one and moved me to a later flight). And even though i felt slightly harried, getting through Sydney and onto my flight to San Francisco was fine too. San Fransisco though... I basically had 50 minutes to get off the plane (thankfully i was at the front), get through customs (i forgot to fill in the blasted white form, holding me up another 15mins or so), get my luggage off the baggage collection wheel, take my bag through customs, re-check-in my baggage, and then struggle along to the fabled Gate 85.

And then the flight was full (i only found out later that in fact i could  have made it on, they just mispronounced my name as “Steven”) and so, much to my distress, i was shuffled to the next flight. I managed to get on this one right at the very last minute. The lady escorted me up with about 30secs to finishing boarding and held me there while they checked if a Mrs P Smith was in seat 39H. Thank god she wasn’t, and i took my seat next to an old Hispanic man who snorted and grumbled the whole flight, and made horrible slurping sounds whilst drinking his several cans of coke (a cola).

So, because i had to catch a later plane, i touched down in Chicago literally 2 minutes before my next plane for Hartford left. Obviously I had to rule out catching it, but i wasn’t worried and was finally feeling a little more ‘on top of it’. I surmised that it would take 20 minutes to get off the plane, by which time i could ask the service counter when the next flight to Hartford was (assuming it would be an hour away). It turned out that that had been the last flight to Hartford and there wouldn’t be another until 8am the next morning.

Now, i can tell you, i was pretty hysterical. Not in the mad raving lunatic way, but in the child-like “burst into tears so fitful that you’re gasping for breath and shuddering slightly”. I thought it especially touching that not one person looked my way (the place was virtually crowded). And so the long conversations with my Australian counterparts began, as we worked out what to do.
Presently, i am sitting in a very soft, warm, king-size bed in a Hilton Embassy Suite with two TVs (yet unused) and 5 pillows, among other things. Sounds cozy, huh? Yes, well, it only took me 3 hours to get here, from when i arrived in Chicago at 7.30pm. Honestly i am lucky i did get here. There were long yellow taxis, metallic limos, and hulking F250-truck shuttle buses everywhere. Lucky i didn’t get run over. And no-one follows traffic lights (heaven forbid!). I was just lucky i met an Indian man who was sure i was from Sydney and just wouldn’t hear it when i said i was from Brisbane. “You my Sydney girl, huh?” The important thing was that he actually gave me clear instructions on how to get to my hotel shuttle bus and was very nice.

So. Seeing as it’s almost midnight and i intend to get up in 5-or-so hours, and i havn’t slept in almost 40 hours, i’ll say Ni Night now. Despite my fairly upsetting breakdowns earlier, rest assured i am feeling quite calm and good now.

Much love for all at home,
Elise

last day before

To quote a great poet, Francois Rabelais, and to pay homage to my favourite Author, John Green -

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps."

two days before

had to say goodbye to my sister today. I can tell you, i normally don't get teary at farewells, but this was pretty hard. leaving's the hardest part though, right? even if it is just for a few months.

But not to leave on a sad note, i am joining a long-time friend's family tonight (14 years, can you believe?) for dinner :) I'll see you anon!