The Start of The Amazing Race!

So far, the week has gotten off to a great start! To get started, the unit I'm staying in at the camp is pretty creepy at night, I'll be honest. It's made up of 9 platform tents all organized kind of in a circle with a unit house in front. Surprisingly, even though it's summer in Florida, the tents somehow stay cool! My co-counselors and I woke up cold this morning! The best part about the unit I'm in is that there's a completely separate staff bathroom about ten feet behind our platform tent. At night, I always make sure I go to the showers and the bathroom with another one of the counselors (there are three of us in the unit) because this unit passively reminds me of Camp Crystal Lake from Friday the 13th...yikes! One last thing about these bathrooms is that the showers seriously look like they belong in a spaceship. They're really weird, but thankfully there's plenty of hot water, so no complaints!

We only have nine girls total, so it's a really relaxed environment, they're all really good kids and get along really well, especially for all being middle schoolers! In the group, there are TWO sets of identical twins. What are the odds?? Sunday was a really relaxed day; all the girls got the unit after checking in at about 4. From there, we taught them a song to perform at opening campfire and we played a name game to introduce ourselves and learn everyone else's names. We went to dinner after that, then had the opening campfire, which is a major misnomer because there was no fire involved. It was just everyone going to the amphitheater by the dining hall, singing, and staff introductions. After that we went back to our unit, made unit rules, got our activity schedule and went to bed. The girls were in bed at 10:30 and staff was awake until about 12.

Yesterday after breakfast, the girls got swim tested, then they went to kayaking and did archery (I had my two hour time off during this and did homeworker....the wifi went off sixties in a little less than 2 hours, so that was cool.) Afterward, we went to lunch then back to our unit to see horses that were brought over from the stable. The girls had "me time", then made journals to write about the trip in.

After dinner, we had an all camp activity involving teams of about ten, eight water game stations and hundreds of gallons of water--it was insane! One station played hot potato with a HUGE soaking wet sponge, another did a relay race where the girl's were in two lines and had to put a soaking wet (soaked as in dunked in a wheelbarrow of water immediately before) shirt on then run to some cones and back. The girls alternated stations every 5-10 minutes or so and everyone was drenched afterward...fortunately we knew to put them in swimwear! I stayed completely dry, thank goodness! After that, we went to our unit and had the girls pack for the start of The Amazing Race!

We left on our trip this morning right after breakfast. The girls first clue told them the name of the property we're staying at. After we got there, we unloaded the van and the girls made paper bead necklaces and bracelets. After that, their next clue sent us to an art museum in Jacksonville. We spent a couple of hours trying to find six specific pieces of art. The girls found two of them, and gawked over another one of the sculptures without paying enough attention to realize that it was one of the pieces they were looking for! While at the museum, a woman saw our camp shirts and told us that he daughter is a camper, which an employee overheard and told us that she used to camp there when she was a little girl. It was a very cool experience! After we got done there, my mom met up in the parking lot to give me something; it was really nice to see her and my sister, even though it was really brief.

When we finished that, we came back to our campsite (air conditioned, hallelujah!!!), cooked dinner and dessert (a banana boat!), and relaxed and goofed off some. Today's been a really fun and exciting yet relaxing day. Tomorrow should be just as fun...minus the fact that we have to pitch tents...it's easy, but I'd much rather be in a real, air conditioned building!

That's about all for now, if I forgot anything it'll have to wait because I just typed this entire thing on my phone. Oh, reliable wifi, how I miss you.