Froot Loops In Cauldrons - Weekly Roundup 3

Second session started last Sunday; this time I'm working with Squirrel, Kiwi, J Crew, Nemo, Brownie and Rica! We had 31 girls in our unit, spread across three programs - Wranglers, Saddle Up, and Dolphins. I'm back in Tovariche, which is the unit I was staying in for pre-camp, and I love it there. Us staff are having to sleep in the unit shelter, which is the cabin in the background of this photo:

The reason we are staying in there is because we have so many girls, so we don't fit into the tents! However, the unit shelter is cool because it has lights and plug sockets, which are like rare luxuries now. The highlights:

• At dinner on the first night, the rice was served in really small bowls; Piranha and I immediately thought this was hilarious, and convinced the girls sitting at our table that we were only allowed a grain of rice. We passed the bowl around and everyone put one grain on their plate and it just looked so funny; I ate my piece of rice and said "I'm so full now, guys." which made my girls laugh.
• In camp rules, reasons to wake up counsellors are blood, bones, barf, and fire. We call them the 'three Bs' and 'the F'. We asked our kids what F stood for and one of them shouted out "Farting??" - it was absolutely hilarious, and all of the staff immediately launched into saying that if we were woken up because someone had farted in the night, we would not be happy.
• Kiwi's irrational fear of the bullfrogs - at night in Tovariche, all you can hear are the bullfrogs croaking away. I got used to them in Ojakle during first session, but Kiwi was not comfortable with the noise, and was deathly afraid of one getting in to our cabin.
• On the first full day, Nemo and I enlisted our Saddle Up girls to help us in a daring mission (stealing s'mores supplies). We posted our girls around the Ev and the dining hall as lookouts, and dashed into the annex to grab what we needed. The girls took their roles very seriously and the mission was a success!
• For her staff skit, Remy walked on and poured a whole container of water on herself. She then got two bottles of tie dye paint and tipped them all over herself. She did the whole thing without saying a word and everyone was hysterical by the end of it. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen; I couldn't look at Remy without laughing for the rest of the skits because she was just standing there, soaked, with red and yellow dye all over her t-shirt.
• The mouse at 5am - I woke up to the sound of rustling packaging. Thinking that another staff member was having a cheeky snack, I sat up, only to see a little mouse jump out of the box we were keeping our s'more ingredients in and run away across the floor. I admired his daring, the little rascal.
• Several times this week, I got to sit in a rocking chair on the front porch and just chill in the quiet - it was so peaceful to sit in the shade and look out at the flagpole field.
• "I'm going back to bed." - This has become my new mantra. I say it if the girls ask me lots of silly questions, or if I'm getting fed up with repeating myself. I said it several times throughout the week, and joked with the girls about keeping a tally of 'times Pepper wants to go to bed'.
• During our cookout, we were trying to encourage the girls to get wood for the campfire - Rica did this by yelling out of our cabin window: "What does the fox say? COLLECT MORE WOOD, COLLECT MORE WOOD." We also re-wrote 'Gas Pedal' to be 'Marshmallow'. And our cookout took four and a half hours to finish because there were so many of us to feed. The staff didn't get tonnes of food, so Kiwi and I became daring kitchen raiders, with Piranha's help.

• During barn time one day, one of our horses (Mulligan) was upset because he has a boo-boo on his back and had to stay in his stall. He got so upset that he was kicking his stall and we decided to bring him outside. Because I've been taught to lead horses by the barn staff, I held onto his lead rope while he pottered around, eating loads of grass. He was swishing his tail as he was doing this and - when Indi came over to look at his bandage - he accidentally hit her in the face with his tail, and I laughed at her for fifteen minutes.
• One morning, we let the girls have a sleep-in breakfast, which is when we get food to bring back to our units and eat there instead of going to breakfast earlier. Rica and I couldn't find bowls or spoons, so we ate loads of Froot Loops out of cauldrons, using ladles. Our girls couldn't stop laughing at us.

• I had a night off on Thursday and Kiwi, Bing and I had an adventure to West Lebanon. We had dinner at Ninety-Nine, which was lovely, and we had a laughing fit there over Bing watching the golf playing on TV and bemoaning the fact that the TVs weren't HD, and a strange sound that a bloke in the restaurant made, which Bing then mimicked really badly. We then went around a really cool comic shop, and popped into Walmart for supplies (I had lists from two different people). It was really good to get away for a few hours, and I had such a laugh with Kiwi and Bing.

• My kids absolutely loved my impression of an American accent - even other counsellors are impressed by it! I felt pretty cool when about 11 of my girls demanded that I do the accent for them; I did, and then spent about ten minutes just talking about things in England and how miserable it is, and they didn't stop laughing. They said I was the funniest person in the world, and I remembered why I decided to do this job in the first place ♥
• I have been given lots of friendship bracelets - in the picture below, from the rainbow one on the left, the bracelets were made by: me, London, Nemo, my secret buddy, Ducky, Phelps and one of my girls from session one. I feel so loved!

• At closing campfire, Tink and I lost our minds and had a laughing fit because we didn't know any of the songs and kept trying (and failing) to get the hang of the tunes. It was also funny when she handed me a fun-size Twix and I stuffed the whole thing into my mouth, then spent the next five minutes trying (and failing) to eat it subtly.
• My secret buddy this session has been fab so far - as well as giving me a friendship bracelet, she also left a pack of Sour Patch watermelon sweets in my mailbox. Written on the box was 'check the freezer'; I did and found a tub of Ben & Jerry's! It was the Milk & Cookies flavour, which I love. I want to find out who she is so I can give her the biggest hug and thank her.

Next week, Kiwi and I are running the 'Chocolate Chef' program. This is exactly how it sounds - we just get to make chocolate themed goodies with our girls, and eat said goodies afterwards! Kiwi and I are so excited for this because we love food, and this program gives us a ready made excuse to eat loads.

I am still exhausted and trying to govern 31 girls hasn't exactly been a walk in the park, but I'm still happy and I'm still enjoying myself! I hope to get a chance to ride one of the horses next week, that'll be cool; luckily J Crew is one of the barn staff, so I can speak to her before bed time and hopefully work something out! It is 30 days until I go to New York, and I cannot believe how time has flown.