Travel plans

When I finish camp I will be spending 4 weeks travelling America and making the most of my time there.
I finish camp on the 14th August when I will start making my way down to New York via Niagra falls. After a few days in the big apple, on the 20th August, I am going on the 'Bourbon and Beaches' Camp America Trek.

This trek takes me from New York to Miami over 2 weeks with a small group of people stopping at towns and cities along the way including Washington DC, New Orleans and Orlando including a day at Disneyworld!

The treks journey itinerary.

I finish the trek on the 2nd September and think I will spend another day or two in Miami as there is so much to do there, including an aquarium where I want to go swimming with dolphins! I then plan to get a coach back up to Orlando to go to Harry Potter World before getting a flight back up to New York to catch my flight home on the 10th September.

Of course all these travel plans are preliminary as I might change my mind but I am determined to make the most of my time in the states and see and do as much as I can. I already have a healthy sized list of things I want to do in different places along my travels and I'm sure that will grow once I'm there and discovering more things.

Only 15 more days!!

Camp Aloha

So I've only got a month to go before I'm flying out and starting work at a summer camp in America.

I've been hired at Camp Aloha which is a girl's camp for ages 12-17 in Vermont. Camp Aloha is a camp based on community and tradition, encouraging campers to spend their time at camp "living simply in nature" and learn new skills away from technology.

"Becoming your best self - in the world and for the world - that's the essence of a Vermont aloha summer"

Aloha campers wear green and white uniforms with the aim to remove any superficial preconceptions about each other and allow campers to be free to get messy and be defined by who they are rather, then their appearance.

"See who I am, not what I'm wearing"

Campers stay in tents on wooden platforms or rustic cabins with 3-5 campers and 1 or 2 counsellors to make up a tent or cabin "family". It is the counsellors job to take care of the campers within their family, making sure they're on time and having fun throughout their time at camp. I am excited to meet my "tent family" and be such a big part of making these girls summer the best it can be.

As well as being in charge of you tent family counsellors work within departments to provide a wide range of activities for campers to choose from each day.

My finished chair

I've been hired to teach woodworking and crafts. I won't lie I am quite nervous about this as I haven't used my woodworking skills since my A level in product design 2 years ago! But back then I designed and built an armchair, so I'm hoping all the skills are still there and will come flooding back when I start. Like riding a bike.... Right?

The beggining

OK, perhaps not exactly the beginning, that was probably about 8 months ago when I started filling out a Camp America application, maybe even arguably 2 and a half years ago when I first heard about Camp America and instantly knew it was something I wanted to do. But alas being an august baby I was not old enough to do it that summer so had to wait, then life got in the way but now it's really happening! In 38 days to be precise! 38 days and I will be boarding a plane to fly across the ocean to the land of the free, the land of dreams, the land of Ben and Jerry's and Harry Potter world!

It was back in January I was placed at a camp. I went to the London recruitment fair having filled in my online application and had my interview, armed with research and a list of my personal favourite camps (A must to insure you don't go crazy bouncing around the hundreds of stalls like a pinball machine). My first stop was unsuccessful after they told me they were only interested in hiring guys for the woodworking counsellor (my underlying feminist kicked in, so I left in search of my next choice, an all girls camp). Camp Aloha is a girls camp in Vermont, after a talk with a man who turned out to be the head of the woodworking department, I sat down with the camp director and I got HIRED ON THE SPOT.

Proof.

Since then I've paid the rest of my fees, got my visa sorted, signed up for a camp america trek, been scared about teaching woodworking and being responsible for children, as well as getting very excited and doing oodles of research about what to do when travelling. 

All I've got to do now is pack up, move back to Bournemouth for the next month, say goodbye to the family and then I'll be making my way to America!!