A Trip To Boston, Ben & Jerry's Part 3 & Leaving Camp

On Sunday, we (Cookie, Pugs, Tink, London, Osprey, Smiley, Starry, J Crew, Piranha, Nibbles, and myself) took a trip down to Boston; the primary reason was that we were dropping off J Crew, Piranha, and Nibbles at the airport *sob sob* We got the whole afternoon before they left though, and it was really nice. We wandered around and Cookie was telling us all sorts of things about the city (she's from there) and it was all so interesting. The weather was gorgeous and everyone was in a nice mood.

When we went to eat, Cookie took us to a place called Faneuil Hall, and I'm not kidding when I say it's a half-mile of different food stands. You could literally buy anything there; as well as the vast array of different cultural cuisines there were also loads of sweet stalls where you could buy gorgeous cakes and pastries and ice cream and candy. I had a home made lasagne from an Italian-American stall and a strawberry and cream cake from one of the sweet stands; I spent the rest of the day in a satisfied food coma.

Saying goodbye to J Crew, Piranha and Nibbles was awful :( But they've gone off to Miami so they're going to have a really good time!

On Monday, I had my third outing to the Ben & Jerry's factory. I am so spoiled! It was really fun this time, though, because I wasn't working; before, I had a group of girls that I was responsible for. The tour was still good (made even better by some hilarious French guys who - when the tour girl talked about how we can't get all of their flavours in Europe - shouted "Discrimination!" in their really French accents, cracking all of us up), and this time the sample was Strawberry Cheesecake. I got a leaf-shaped bottle of maple syrup to take home for my family to taste, and a Ben & Jerry's t-shirt. What really stood out about this visit, though, was the Vermonster. "What's a Vermonster?" I hear you all ask (probably). Well.. This is a Vermonster:

I'll break it down - that bucket is filled with 20 scoops of Ben & Jerry's (you can pick a few flavours - we had Vanilla Caramel Fudge, Cookie Dough, Milk & Cookies and Strawberry Cheesecake), walnuts, M&Ms, hot fudge, cookies, a huge brownie, sprinkles and a massive mound of whipped cream on top. Between the seven of us, we managed to eat the whole lot and it was bloody glorious. I mean, we all immediately got diabetes afterwards, but it was still amazing. We also looked at the flavour graveyard and I laughed for about 10 minutes over the fact that Ben & Jerry's used to have a flavour called 'Vermonty Python'. No, seriously.

Tuesday was the day we (Tink, London, Osprey and I) left camp; technically our contract didn't end until Wednesday, but because we had to leave Boston in the morning, we went to stay at Cookie's house (she lives about an hour out of the city). She has the cutest house ever, and it was really nice to be in a Real Building. We played Uno and nearly died laughing, it was a lot of fun. We got up at 5am, which was gross, but we had to because Tink's flight was at 10am, and London and I wanted to be there to say goodbye.

It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone at camp - before we left on Tuesday we said goodbye to Alex & Ben (our barn director, Reins, brought them with her for the summer and they are the nicest, cutest, most well-behaved boys ever), Smiley and Starry (who I will be seeing at the end of my New York trip - we all fly home on the same day but at different times, so we're just going to get a cab to JFK together), and Pugs. Pugs was a really difficult one, because she was basically everyone's mum at camp, and she took care of me so much over the summer, as well as always cheering me up with her hilarity. She cried a bit, and Osprey, Tink and London were crying - I felt bad that I didn't. I only usually cry if I'm angry or stressed, not from sadness. I'm not a hollow shell I promise. It was crap saying goodbye, but I've made everyone promise to stay in touch.

And thus, my camp contract ended, and I was unleashed upon the real world.

Post Camp

It is 8 days until I go to New York, and it's so surreal that it's come around so fast. This is my first solitary holiday, my first time in NYC, and it's all really exciting. I can't wait to explore!

Here at camp, we're cleaning, taking inventory, and doing general upkeep. There's not much to be done now, as we got the kids to clean on the last day of Week 6, and we did a lot of cleaning on Sunday. Yesterday, I finally got to ride Jet, my favourite of all our horses! He was great, and Judge was leading so that was great too. I had so much fun, here's a couple of photos:

I'm nice and chilled out now (even though I think I'm coming down with some kind of lurgy), and I cannot wait for next Wednesday!

Singin' In The Rain (In The Lake) - Weekly Roundup 6

The final week of resident camp arrived. I was still living with Nemo and Phelps in Tall Timbers, except this week our program was Saddle, Paddle & Arrows, which is exactly as it sounds. I also had my lowest number of girls ever - 12. It made a nice change. I was a bit of a slacker when it came to keeping a record of the highlights - week 6 was when everyone was tired and just getting through the last days, so I found myself being quite lazy with this. Regardless, here are the highlights I do have:

• My kids were having their swimming time in the lake when it started to rain. Instead of getting grumpy or squealing and getting out of the lake (as I thought they would), they immediately and simultaneously started singing/shouting Singin' In The Rain.
• The girls were obsessed with my accent, which I'm kind of used to now. What I wasn't expecting was for one of my girls to turn around and say, "Tell me stories so I can listen to your accent". They also started using British words for things, in extremely over-the-top accents.
• I learned to make 'chevron' style friendship bracelets and felt very accomplished.
• The kids were a lot more cheerful this week (as well as being super sassy, which was 50% frustrating and 50% hilarious).
• I was writing a Bill of Rights with the girls when Judge walked over and told us to tell her some jokes. My girls immediately stepped up and told some, including gems like: Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill? To get to the bottom. They continued on this vein until Judge was sufficiently amused and left as randomly as she came.
• The National Guard brought their climbing wall over for us to use, and Pugs had a go at climbing it. As usual, hilarity ensued when she said, "The headlines will be: Old Woman Kills Herself On Portable Climbing Wall."
• Our staff skit was cool as it was completely improvised but people still loved it! We got loads of laughs and I heard one kid say that ours had been 'the best one yet'. A lot of staff also said they loved it, and seemed impressed when we told them it was improvised. We were very pleased with ourselves!
• Phelps and I were walking up to Tall Timbers and she was telling me about a big rustling sound she'd heard while walking up there at night; she attempted to demonstrate the noise by crashing into the ferns but immediately fell over. It was hilarious and I laughed until I couldn't breathe. Here is a picture of the squashed ferns at the site of Phelps' crash landing:

• I was sitting in the barn while my kids were having a riding lesson - Judge pointed a flashing light thing at me and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" at me. I immediately threw my phone.
• One of my kids, CJ, was trying to bring her paddleboard back after boating. It was not cooperating, and kept floating away from her and towards the centre of the lake. CJ immediately lunged after it, shouting, "NO. BAD PADDLEBOARD." and it inexplicably cracked me up.
• Judge was chasing Rica with a jug of ice. Rica retaliated by brandishing a broom.
• I had another successful overnight (what is happening to the world?). We went to the old yurt site, where I thought the ancient portaloo was a fridge. I was soon corrected and warned never to open it. I didn't need to be told twice. We made another dessert pizza (which was a hit, of course) but had a small catastrophe when Phelps managed to drop her flashlight into it. That night, I also had to say to one of my girls, "Don't poke me with a hard taco shell." and that's not even the weirdest command I've given this summer.
• The camp's 106th birthday was on the Wednesday of Week 6. Every month of the year got a birthday cake, and the April one was magnificent, thanks. We also sang Happy Birthday to all the months of the year, so we all got a bit of a birthday celebration!
• I was in the Anakoosh (health centre cabin, where nurse Hiccup lives), and I opened up the freezer to grab an ice pack for Nemo's bad ankle. Inside, among the ice packs and Ben & Jerry's, was a rubber chicken. I'm not kidding. I asked Hiccup about it and she couldn't provide an answer.
• I remembered something hilarious from session 2 - one of the girls was sick, so I took her and a buddy over to Hiccup. Only halfway there did I notice that Catie (the buddy) had one sneaker on and one riding boot on. I asked her about it through my tears of mirth, and she said, "Well, I couldn't find my other sneaker!" I refrained from asking why she didn't just put both of her riding boots on.
• I also remembered from session 1, when Omega drove us to the beach; my kids were asking how long it would take to get there literally every five minutes, so Omega threatened to deliberately take a wrong turn for every time they asked that question.
• Phelps had her birthday the day after camp birthday, so the girls and I decided to throw a little party for her with streamers and snacklets. I told the girls to go and distract her for five minutes so we could finish setting up; they promptly took Phelps to Hiccup, where she was forced to ice a minor bruise for five minutes. I laughed so hard when I found out. They also adorned her with many bead necklaces and like three crowns. Anton (our chef, who is Russian) also let me have a Boston cream pie to use as a birthday cake. Here's Phelps cutting her cake (my girls look so miserable in this photo):

• One of my kids threw bright pink paint on me. Enough said.
• A random girl (I think she was in London's unit) sat with me at dinner one evening and ate five corn on the cobs. I was amazed. Later, I tried to get her attention to make her clean up her plate, and said, "Excuse me? Excuse me? ... OY, SWEETCORN." and she actually responded. 
• On Saturday, we had our staff party after all the kids had gone. The food was Mediterranean themed (and delicious!), and everyone dolled up. It was nice - we were all in a good mood and got to chat about everything without the fear of campers overhearing. It was a lovely evening, and the staff closing campfire was nice too; we all shared memories from our summers and thanked each other for support and friendship.

We're now in the post-camp part of the summer, and I'm really looking forward to my New York trip! I'm staying in the cutest hotel in Manhattan, and my rooms and flights are all ready and sorted - I am so excited to explore the city, and to remember what civilisation is.

Road Trips & Astronaut Food - Weekly Roundup 5

Week 5 marked the beginning of the third, and final, session of summer camp; I was moved out to Tall Timbers, a set of adorable blue cabins just off of main camp.

I am working with Nemo and Phelps, both of whom I've already been in a unit with. We were joined by Trout, who is a live-in; I'm really happy with the staff I've been put with!

The reason that there are only three unit staff is because we had one program and sixteen girls. Compared to the horrors of Week 3 (31 girls, 3 programs, 4 staff, 2 interns and a live-in, and a partridge in a pear tree), these numbers were a piece of cake! I was also happy because my Week 5 program was Road Trip, which I did in Week 1 and really enjoyed.

I also like Tall Timbers because I'm getting really good at walking around camp at night without a flashlight, and there's a dark path through the woods to the unit which is good practice for my new night vision skills. As for the highlights of Week 5:

• My second trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory! It was a hit, obviously, and we got plenty of ice cream. As well as a sample (sweet cream and cookies), I had a Milk & Cookies shake, and bought myself a tub of ice cream and a pin that says 'Body by Ben & Jerry's'. We had a lot of fun and an especially funny moment was when Phelps' ice cream scoops fell off of her cone and she epically caught it in her hand.

• My kids made me laugh on a couple of occasions. At lunch one day, one of them asked me if I was a vegetarian after watching me eat a slice of pepperoni pizza. Another day I had just woken up from a nap and I heard one of the girls say, "We should wake Pepper up, it's nearly lunchtime." then another girl hurriedly said, "No no, that's not a good idea. Let her sleep!"
• Our second trip was the Montshire Museum of Science (YEAH, SCIENCE!). It was such a cool place, it even had a T-Rex skeleton. There was also a scale model of a human skeleton and a moose. It was a really interactive museum with lots of stuff to do - I think we counsellors had even more fun than the kids. I especially enjoyed the fog room, the bubble place, and the area dedicated to weather systems in space! I was in my element at the museum, and bought some penguin stickers and a pack of astronaut food (freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream).

•  A short stop at Hanover, which is a college town not too far from camp. I accidentally bought three books at Barnes & Noble - a book of Grimm's fairy tales, Dante's Inferno, and a cute book called The Book of Myself, which has prompts for parts of life spanning from early, middle and later years - it's like a DIY autobiography!

• Rivir's coffee disaster - she went to pour a little sugar into her coffee and the top of the container fell off, spilling loads of sugar into her cup. Nemo and I couldn't stop laughing, but Rivir got a laugh herself when she told me to take a sip of the resulting beverage. I sipped, sat there in shock, and then informed Rivir that I now had diabetes.
• Splash Week occurred during this week (and as of the end of Week 5, there are still some survivors, so it will continue into Week 6). Basically, a bunch of counsellors signed up to be part of it and each of them were given the name of one of the other participants to be their victim. They have to splash their victims with a cup of water, and the splashee's victim becomes the splasher's new target. This continues until the last counsellor standing. Victims can protect themselves by having their campers in a circle around them, and splashes can't occur indoors or at program areas like the waterfront or barn. It was funny to watch the dwindling number of counsellors get more jumpy and paranoid as the week went on. The funniest thing was Trout managing to splash Tim Tam four seconds after Splash Week officially began. Trout is now out of the running, but Phelps is still standing, so we're supporting her - it was funny to see her with a constant orbit of kids whenever we went anywhere.
• Luna has a couple of hermit crabs and Phelps and I were playing with one while our kids were doing Ecology. She was so cute and kept retreating back into her shell if we moved too suddenly ♥

• Our last trip was to Quechee Gorge. On the drive there, Pugs produced a huuuuuge bag of Starburst for me and the girls to snack on, which was a promising start. She lobbed a handful over her shoulder for the girls when they weren't expecting it, and they were baffled by the sudden Starburst missiles flying through the van. They went to the climbing centre, and had a lot of fun there - there was also a cute dog belonging to the owner that we all fawned over.
  After climbing, we went to the Gorge itself - it was a lovely walk down, and the view at the bottom was beautiful. The weather was really bright and warm, and we basked for a while before the long climb back up (that was knackering).
  We also popped to the village, where there was a Cabot store selling all sorts of Vermont-made goodness; I sampled a lot of cheese and some lovely fudge - I ended up buying some fudge (raspberry and chocolate swirl), real maple syrup, a postcard with a photo of Quechee Gorge on it, some jellybeans, Pepsi, and a glass bottle of grape soda. Nemo and I also took a turn around an adjacent antique store and cried over all the beautiful old things.
  Pugs made me laugh yet again when three of my girls were sitting on those rides where you put a quarter in and they move. They thought, because they were antique, the rides wouldn't work. Pugs came along and stuck a quarter in all three of them, and they did work, which scared my girls to death. It was hilarious!

• We got tired of our girls asking constant questions about what we were doing next during the day, so I began to reply with "Stuff and things." - Phelps and Nemo quickly caught on to this habit and we are now stuck saying this whenever questions occur.
• I tried my first sample of genuine Vermont-made maple syrup. Nemo had been nagging me for two weeks to try it, and all of my girls had egged me on, and I can say I'm glad I tried it. It is heaven.
• I finally had a successful overnight! We cooked dinner at Tall Timbers, and our dessert was a s'mores pizza after how well it was received the previous week. It was ridiculously melty and sugary and delicious, and the kids loved it. We then went over to the Lakeside site and put up tents in the dark, which was a palava. But it didn't rain, and we managed to stay out there all night! I was very pleased, even though I ached all over from lying on the rather rocky ground all night. I was also pleased with my campfire that I made back at Tall Timbers:

• I finally made a successful tie-dyed shirt. It's pink and purple, in a spiral pattern, and I haven't yet managed to take a photo of it. But it's amazing, and I'm rather proud of myself.
• At the weekend, we popped to Applebee's for dinner, and to Walmart to forage for snacks, and London and Tink were really impressed on the way back to camp, when I rapped the entirety of Party Up by DMX (a very un-camperrific song indeed).

A Cookie Dough Party & Squirrel's Checkered Feet - Weekly Roundup 4

This one's coming a bit late because I simply haven't had time to make a blog so far this week! I was still in Tovariche last week, and we still had Wranglers and Saddle Up, but this time we also had Chocolate Chef! I've been very busy indeed, but I'm finally here with all the highlights of Week 4 of camp.

• We took the girls who were still at camp over the weekend to a park down the road from camp, and sprawled on the grass while they played. It was really relaxing and I got to catch up with Tink and London, which is nice as I barely see them at work, we're all so busy! We also demonstrated to all the arriving parents that we are very responsible counsellors by walking along the side of the main road as there was no pavement. SuPeR sTaFf.

• One of my kids asked me: "Are England years the same as ours?" - I was baffled and told her to go read up on basic astronomy.
• The kids loved the way that I speak, and I got called an awesome counsellor all week. It was great! My kids always wanted to sit with me at meals, and Coral said I was her favourite counsellor ever. I felt good about myself and my job.
• Luna set up a crime scene and did experiments with the girls to find out who had stolen all the hula hoops from the sports shed - the girls had so much fun working with the clues and doing different tests to find the culprit. My favourite part was when the girls realised that the perpetrator had tried to frame us for the crime and Olivia said, "THEY FRAMED US THE big weenies.." and it was so funny.
• Squirrel's feet tanned through the holes in her sandals; when she took her shoes off, her feet were checkered and all of us laughed for ages because of it.
• Late one evening, Piranha was stalling about going to bed because she was afraid to walk up to Sky Meadow in the dark. She was holding her flashlight under her chin and pulling a stupid face, saying, "Tell me I'm beautiful." over and over. It was, I have to say, incredibly funny.
• I wore my Markiplier shirt one day, and loads of the girls around camp high fived, hugged, and called to me because they like him too! It was very cool, even if he's not the most 'camperific' of people.
• One of our kids, Sam, accidentally broke her glasses and was horrified at what her mum might say - she promptly wrote her mum a letter saying "I'm really sorry" but with 30 'really's. Nemo fixed the glasses with pirate duct tape.
• Our cookout was amazing - we had it in the dining hall because there was a thunderstorm (surprise, surprise - a thunderstorm on the night I planned an overnight camp out!), and we ate tacos. Then for dessert, Kiwi came up with the idea to make a s'mores pizza! We took some dough, and put pieces of chocolate and marshmallows onto it, then cooked it so it all melted together, and sprinkled some broken graham crackers on the top. It was absolutely gorgeous and we all went into collective sugar comas when we were done eating it. 
• One of our units this week was Chocolate Chef, which Kiwi and I were leading. We made so many sweet treats that we were all stuffed by the end of the week. We made ice cream from scratch, cookies and chocolate brownies!
• At the end of the week, about half of my girls wanted me to sign their t-shirts. I felt really cool for a minute! I also got told I'm the best counsellor, and that I'm amazing. It's times like these that I feel most satisfied with my job.
• My kids decided that when I'm grumpy I am a ghost pepper because "they're the really spicy, evil ones!" - so if I was threatening to be mad at them, they would say, "No guys, be good! We want Dr Pepper, not Ghost Pepper!"
• As well as the two(!!) mice that lived in our staff cabin, occasionally some chipmunks would run in and attempt to steal chocolate or a potato chip. We soon saw them off, but they were kind of cute - if I'd have had my way I would've left them to it.
• Nemo got hired for third session! I was so pleased because I recommended her repeatedly to admin staff, saying that she was fab (she really is). In celebration, Squirrel nicked some cookie dough from the kitchen and we had a cookie dough party in her honour. Needless to say, we all felt a bit sick by the end of it.
• On Saturday Tink, London, Starry, Kiwi and I went to Burlington, which is the most populated city in Vermont. It's the most adorable, quaint place, and we spent all day wandering around and having a laugh amongst ourselves. There was a Ben & Jerry's shop (in fact, it's the first shop Ben and Jerry ever set up when they were starting out!) that we took full advantage of. We also tried out all the perfumes in Victoria's Secret, and had lunch at an Italian-American pub.
• London, Tink and Kiwi got crepes from a guy who London dubbed 'Pancake Man' and insisted on having a selfie with him - Tink then also had a selfie with him, and decided his name was 'Crepe Guy'. He was hilarious and just went along with how silly we were being, and we laughed for ages about it.
• We accidentally crashed a wedding. Tink, London and I were in an art gallery in Burlington and decided to go up to the second floor; two hot guys got into the elevator and were making loads of jokes (that we laughed very heartily at). Then one of them turned around to us and said, "So, are you going to the wedding?" and we giggled away, thinking it was another silly joke. Then we walked out of the elevator and... Well, it was a wedding. 

Week 4 was a blast, and now Week 5 is in full swing and we're having a lot of fun! Hopefully my update will be more on time next time.

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.

Minion Band Aids, Kitchen Raids & Six Flags - Weekly Roundup 2

It's been another hectic week that has flown by. I've been here for around three weeks now, and I simultaneously feel like I've been here forever and for no time at all. I feel like I'm getting the hang of the job a little bit more, though I'm still not used to having basically no time off ever. It is, however, only 38 days until I finish here and go to New York City for a week! Here's some highlights from this week (our programs were Saddle Up and Just Coastin':

• We had another amazing staff skit, thanks to Sunny. This week she re-wrote 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman' from Frozen to be about our unit and camp, and it was even better than last week, as we also had Ducky accompanying us on her ukulele.
• Our overnight was rained out AgAiN - honestly, it's getting silly now. However, we were outside for longer than the previous times, so I consider it a partial success. We put the tents up while it was still dry, and had an outdoor fire on which we cooked some delicious tacos and doughboys. The kids were all happy and enjoying themselves, even if they did get a bit nervous about sleeping in the middle of the woods. Us staff had just started to settle down, when the sky opened up and it was suddenly torrential out of nowhere. Thus followed a panicked gathering of our girls and our stuff, and a mad dash in the pouring rain, across the docks on the lake, and into a van Squeaky drove some of the way. We'd only just gotten everyone back and in their tents when the thunder and lightning started - it was so mad, but so much fun. Maybe one day I will actually complete an overnight.
• I managed to convince some of my girls (and Burnzy) that I had Prince Harry's phone number and that we were good mates. I kept up this charade for a good ten minutes before I let them know it was a complete lie.
• We have a secret buddy system where you give your buddy gifts and notes during the session, and my buddy cheered me up so much! I first got a nice written note from her, with smiley face confetti that fell out when I unfolded it. Then I found some Despicable Me minions band aids in my mailbox, and was given a pair of purple floral sunglasses on behalf of my buddy later the same day. I found out today that Rivir was my secret buddy, when she walked up to me and handed me a pack of colourful scrunchies, and I gave her the biggest hug because she made life a little brighter this week.
• On Wednesday, Static, Lux, Burnzy and I took the Just Coastin' girls to Six Flags New England! That was a hilarious day; the staff got to ride coasters, we all ate loads of junk, I convinced one of my girls to face her fears of rollercoasters and go on the Batman ride (she loved it!), and I got photobombed by Scrappy Doo.

• London, Ducky and I spent our kids' swim time with our feet dipped in the lake - because the day was so boiling hot, the cold water was heavenly. We spent the whole time sitting that way and just talking and looking out at the lake.
• On Thursday night, we organised a spa night/kitchen raid with our kids. We had stuff for them to do their nails, bath salt making, face masks, and hair braiding. Then, having convinced our kids that no one knew we were in there and that we would be in Big Trouble if we were caught, we did our kitchen raid - we took ice lollies, orange juice, pink lemonade, chocolate chips, Fritos and marshmallows and had a mini feast. We then decided to leave a message from the pirates who had been spotted on the lake that morning, effectively blaming them for our kitchen raid. It was so hilarious because our kids actually thought that we were tricking everyone.
• A huge group hug from 17 of my girls at a time when a hug was most welcome.
• It was sad to say goodbye to our kids again because they were really great this week, and made me laugh a lot. It was a bit of a relief to not have any kids on camp for a minute, but strange after all the non-stop activity of the week.

Here's a photo of the lovely ladies of Ojakle:

Back (L-R): Burnzy, Sunny, Phelps, me
Front (L-R): Zenny, Ducky, Luna

This evening we found out our new units (I'm moving back to the unit I was in during pre-camp), and London, Tink, Smiley, Starry, Dré, Bing, and I went out for a meal to celebrate surviving the first session of camp.

Speaking of which, there are only 38 days left of camp, and I cannot believe it. I'm almost halfway done already, it's absolute madness. At the moment, I'm happy to be having this experience and to have met such wonderful people here.

Paid To Sit On The Beach - Weekly Roundup 1

This was the first week of 'actual' camp, when I got my first group of girls. We had moved up to Ojakle, another unit on camp property:

The programs we were in charge of were Saddle Up, which is a horse-riding program, and Road Trip, which is exactly as it sounds. We had 18 girls overall and, as well as me, the unit staff was Sunny, Phelps, Zenny, Ducky, Burnzy and Luna, a truly great bunch ♥ The highlights from this week included:

• On the first morning, Sunny had to wake up one of our campers, who was a heavy sleeper. She did so by going into her tent and singing opera.
• One of my campers handed me some cute purple flowers that she'd found. I wore them in my buttonhole all day. Three of them always wanted to sit with me at meals, and one liked to hold my hand as we walked to different activities.
• Staff skits - This was a lot of fun; the staff all had to come up with something to introduce our units to the kids. The waterfront staff ran through the audience with squeeze bottles and soaked all of us. My unit re-wrote Justin Bieber's 'Baby' (Sunny's idea) to be about the programs we were running. At the end of it, all the staff sang the staff song (the Friends theme); the whole thing was so much fun.
• Ducky and I were 'on taps' on Tuesday, which means that we're responsible if the kids need us between 9pm and midnight. We were sitting in the pitch dark unit shelter with an eerie red glow coming from the lantern we had under a towel. We ended up scaring ourselves talking about the 'Lady with the Lamp', camp's resident ghost. The night before I had seen something weird in the Sky Meadow, so we were both so jumpy!
• On Wednesday, I was paid to go to Hampton Beach with my road trip girls. Omega drove us as she's a lifeguard; she and I sat on the beach and watched the girls play in the sea for ages. It was so warm and relaxing, even if there was a thunderstorm on the way back. Also I got Dunkin' Donuts, wahoooo!

• The Ben & Jerry's factory - I couldn't be in Vermont without visiting the birthplace of my favourite ice cream. The tour was interesting, and made even better at the end when we got to sample a prototype flavour. We also visited the 'Flavor Graveyard' and mourned the discontinued flavours.

• Our overnight being a washout again. I'm convinced some higher power doesn't want me to have a successful campout. We cooked dinner in the fireplace in one of the cabins, I saw a cute mouse scurrying around, and we had to be rescued again by Cookie as there was a big thunderstorm. We spent the night in the Ev - Sunny sang and played guitar for us and we were all bundled up in our sleeping bags. It was like a huge slumber party.
• July 4th was a bit rubbish for me because I was unwell in the morning - Cookie (my boss) maintained that I was bitter over America gaining independence. I told her that the English are still cross about them throwing all our teabags into the ocean. The day picked up in the afternoon when we had an indoor footie game between the USA and international staff - it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen because everyone was scooting around on their hands and feet, the audience got really into it, and Jen scored the most epic goal for the Internationals without even looking.
• Helping Luna and Judge weed one of the campfire sites for our closing campfire - this involved us just uprooting weeds and lobbing them into the nearby bushes. Luna made me take a bite of a plant, which turned out to be lemongrass - it was actually really nice!
• Saying goodnight to my kids for the last time; I was actually pretty sad about it! I didn't think I'd miss any kids this summer but you do end up becoming fond of them.

That's it for the weekly roundup. I hope that I will get to write another one next weekend, when I should be getting a 24-hour break - in this job, 24 hours feels like a huge break because this is literally a 24/7 job. There's basically no such thing as being 'off the clock' here, which might explain why the days went so quickly.

Pre-Camp

I arrived safely in Vermont after 15 hours of travel - a car ride to London Heathrow, an Airbus to Frankfurt, a Boeing to Boston, and a four hour van ride through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont to camp. It was an incredibly long journey, but it was made easier by the two girls I met, Rianne (camp name: London) and Kirsty (camp name: Tink) - we quickly became friends and helped each other through the journey and the subsequent crushing despair on our first night. I also met two other English girls a couple of days later, Smiley and Starry, who are also good friends of mine here. My camp name is Pepper. I have since met loads of really nice, friendly people.

The weather here is ridiculously sunny and warm, but it's very humid and prone to storms. Predictably, I'm sunburnt already. As well as the beautiful weather, the food here is amazing - because we're not allowed artificial flavours or colours in England, all the synthetic goodness in America has been great!

Some highlights from pre-camp include:

• Random people in Walmart loving our accents
• Indi teaching us how to make ice cream from scratch
• Swimming in the lake
• Learning how to make friendship bracelets, and loads of camp songs
• Getting good at swiping spiders out of tents
• The staff overnight - we put up tents in a rainstorm, but made an excellent campfire under the unit shelter and cooked a really nice dinner on it. Sunny radioed the office saying, "A tree has fallen down, there's a fire in the unit shelter, and we've lost our Socks." ('socks' has grammatical status as she is in fact one of the other counsellors here). Later, when the rain was worse, Dappy used my phone torch, which has an SOS feature, to flash over to the unit shelter for the rest of the staff to save us. We soon splashed through the swamp that the campsite had become and curled up next to the fire for a while. Unfortunately Sunny got really sick, and we had to be rescued by Cookie in a pick-up truck. That was bizarre - sitting in the back of a pick-up truck in the middle of the night as the rain hammered down, driving up a huge hill with hairpin bends.
• Funfest - We had a few groups of Girl Scouts at camp for the night, and Tink, London and I organised a drama game activity for some of them to sign up to. We got a full class, and the kids were really into it and seemed to really enjoy themselves. We were so pleased with ourselves! Also, I got two gifts from two of the campers and that was a lovely ego boost.
• The staff having a movie night in the Ev (main building at camp). We watched Pitch Perfect and it was fun because we were all sprawled out with snacks and sleeping bags:

• Getting qualified in First Aid and CPR with the American Red Cross. I was so pleased with myself.
• I also became a member of the American Girl Scouts, which is bizarre.

For the next fortnight, I'm going to have a horse-riding program, and two travel programs. I'm pretty excited for it, but nervous. I am going to attempt to do weekly round ups of highlights, but I'm not making any promises as I am a shoddy, shoddy blogger. I'm also documenting funny quotes from people, and I might put them up at some point, if I can make a substantial post out of them. For now though, I'm going to go and be jittery about the girls arriving TOMORROW. Eeeeek!

London-Frankfurt-Boston-Vermont

I finally got my placement yesterday! I was contacted by Camp Farnsworth in Vermont, asking if I was available for a Skype interview, and they accepted me shortly after, asking if I was able to come to them on Thursday. I will be a 'unit leader' - looking after the girls at the camp and getting to experience all of the activities, instead of just specialising in one.

Since having my placement confirmed, I've just been in a mad dash trying to sort everything out, and I think I've done pretty well so far. I've sorted my flights - I fly from Heathrow at 8:30am on Thursday, which is gross, but I touch down for an hour and a half in Frankfurt before carrying on to Boston. YIS GERMANY. From the airport at Boston, I will be picked up by camp staff, as camp is about a three hour drive away. I've had a little look at where it is and it's literally in the middle of nowhere; it looks gorgeous and I'm so excited to get there and get stuck in!

I'm slowly but surely sorting everything out, but it still feels like I have a million other things that need to be done. I guess I'm just stressing because I've never travelled out of country on my own before. And it’s not like I'm just skipping across the English Channel to France - I'm going halfway around the world to work in the United States.

I am at camp in Vermont until August 20th, then I'm going on an adventure to New York until August 27th. I've already had a look at hotels and travel from Boston, and I'm compiling a list of things I want to pack into the six full days I'll be spending in NYC. Obviously nothing is set in stone until I know what my finances are like after camp. On August 27th, I fly back to Heathrow (hopefully from JFK airport!), again with a short stop in Frankfurt.

I am so ridiculously excited and nervous, and feeling ill over the fact I will have minimal/no internet for the next couple of months, but looking forward to all the fun and new experiences I will have. I can't believe I'm actually going to America in less than 48 hours, it's all happened so fast!

An Adventure to the US Embassy

Getting up was a trial today. I actually woke up in the morning, which always puts a huge strain on me. I had to be ready, out of the door, and in central London by 9:30am - even looking at that sentence now is making me ill. I also vastly misjudged the weather, putting on a hoodie as well as a leather jacket because in Hatfield it was grey and raining. However, London was bright and warm all day. It was really quite pleasant.

I got to Limkokwing University in the nick of time; it's a nice little uni on Piccadilly looking over Green Park. In there, I had my documents checked for the first of m-a-n-y times, and was handed the rest of the paperwork I needed to take to the embassy.

Then followed a walk over to Grosvenor Square; it was really nice, there were no crowds in the little back streets I took, and the sun was shining. About halfway to the square, I peeled off my jackets. I knew when I'd gotten there because, well, it isn't difficult to miss the gigantic eagle on top of the building.

Outside was a queue stretching all the way down one side of the square, mostly people my age getting their visas for camp. Here our paperwork and IDs were checked over by a whopping three different people, and there were guards with guns. Massive guns. Have you noticed, whenever there are armed guards, or a police car cruises past, you always get this really inexplicable feeling of guilt? Even if you have literally nothing to feel guilty about. This always perplexes me, and I spent my time in the queue worried that I would suddenly be shot because of an insane crime I'd forgotten about committing.

The queue led to a small building where we had to put our things through an X-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. Here I was ridiculously pleased and surprised because I didn't set off the metal detector - it's become a bit of a running joke in my family that my bones must be made of metal because every time I go through security at airports I manage to set the metal detector off for no discernible reason.

Inside, we each got given ticket numbers and sat in a big room with counters down one side. I felt like I was waiting to pick up an item in Argos. The wait wasn't ridiculously long though, even considering the fact that there were about 70 people to process before my ticket number. I don't think I was even there for 20 minutes, it was very efficient, and the staff there were really quick and competent.

When my number was called I went to the counter and the woman checked my paperwork, asked a couple of questions, and then scanned my fingerprints, which I found incredibly cool. It's like a little green screen and you press your fingers on it and it beeps! I internally pretended that I was a spy getting into a top secret location because I am sad. There was another desk I had to go to after I was done at the counter, where my fingerprints were taken again (only my left hand this time), and the woman was actually American. She approved my visa in about 30 seconds flat, and then I was out. The whole process took about an hour and a half, if that - amazing!

I sat in Grosvenor Square opposite a statue of Franklin D Roosevelt for a bit and called Mutti to let her know how it went - the sun was still shining, so I took the time to sit for a while and photosynthesise. I felt a lot better having finally sorted out the embassy thing; it's so daunting thinking about it, but while you're there, it's really not difficult or as terrifying as you build it up to be. As usual, I kick myself for making a mountain out of a molehill.

I then went over to Trafalgar Square to go to the Wetherspoons there. In Oxford Street, I had a terrifying moment with my rogue knee. A bit of backstory: Last time I got drunk, my knee - out of nowhere - buckled under me and spilled me onto the floor. It's been painful ever since and had been slowly getting better. I was briskly walking towards Oxford Circus tube station and my knee did a threatening quiver like it was about to give up the ghost again. And because I denied it the satisfaction of planting me on my face in the middle of London, it is now in agony again. Thanks.

In Wetherspoons, I had a cheeseburger and some chips with a glass of cold Pepsi with a lime in it - it made quite a tasty little victory lunch. I love eating on my own sometimes - I was tucked away on a little table with my food and drink, texting Caz, looking out of the window at the sun, and it was wonderfully peaceful. I often find it's better to eat alone because a) the sound of people eating is not something I love and b) I like to focus on my food.

After lunch, I had a gentle meander back over to Kings Cross. The tube wasn't much of a nightmare today; it was only really packed this morning on my way to Piccadilly. However, I think - having cancelled the planned strike (which was a relief, I must say) - the tube drivers of London are now protesting by operating the trains as anarchically as they possibly can! It was very funny to watch people flying around like loose cargo as the trains careered arounds corners and bumped about on the tracks. Once I'd piled onto the train heading back to Hatfield, I had to change to a different carriage because an old couple had cracked open a bottle of wine and were pouring it into plastic champagne flutes. It was too much for my sun-drunk brain; I couldn't stop laughing at them, so I moved to a different carriage in order to openly snigger about it.

So yes, my embassy interview was successful, and I will be getting my passport back with my shiny new visa in it in the next week or so. I'm happy, even if it was really breezy today and - as a result - my hair now looks like Einstein's. Watch out America, I'm coming to get ya!

8 Days Till Final Exam

Here I am, back at uni again - I've been back for just under a fortnight now. I ended up locking myself in my room for days to get my assignments done, but they're finally finished and that's all that matters. They're out of my hands now. I've already received marks back for two of the three pieces I had to finish - 2:2 for both, not bad considering I did them in a matter of days.. Kids, never grow up to be like me. DO UR WERK.

Anyway, the night I was finally free of my work, which was Friday 25th, I decided to get absolutely blotto to celebrate. I haven't been properly drunk for a very long time, probably not since the ending-up-in-Manchester fiasco, and it was a very amusing night. It started with Jas, Sophie and I popping over to Club de Hav to have a few jars while they played a few rounds of pool and were crap at it. It was nice to sit in the bar and put my feet up though, without the thought of all the work I had to do weighing on my mind. I was quite content with my pint of dark cider and glass of whiskey and coke (yes I had two drinks at once), watching Sophie and Jas.

We returned to the flat, where we were joined by James, Anand and Jake. I got my water speakers and laptop, and the whole night consisted of Spotify playlists and random requests from all of us. I can't remember much of the night, but I think it can be summed up in its entirety by the most beautiful photo I have ever taken:

For my America trip, I have everything sorted apart from my visa - this will be sorted very soon though, as my appointment at the US Embassy is on Tuesday! I'm still waiting to be placed, but there's still plenty of time for that. I'm getting a bit antsy, just because I want to know where I'm going! I'm so excited and scared. It's gonna be such a big adventure, I can't wait!

As for Spain, I just need to tweak the Powerpoint I was required to make, then I can send that off and that's it - it's entirely up to them after that. I hope I get the internship, it'll be so awesome! One of my bucket list items is to teach English in a foreign country, and Spain is such a beautiful place. I am also incredibly excited that I will be learning a new language when I go over there, and experiencing a different culture for around 8 months. Plus Spain will be warmer over the winter than horrible England, which is always a bonus.

Also in September, between coming back from America and (hopefully) heading off to Spain, I have two exciting things. The first is going to London with Caz to see Kate Bush! I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm amazed that Caz managed to get tickets. The other exciting event, which is coming up a mere four days after the Kate Bush gig, is Arron and Kim's wedding. It's gonna be lovely, I adore weddings! So, by the look of things, the rest of this year is going to be a busy one, considering I also have my graduation ceremony in November (more on that later).

As the title suggests, I only have a Clinical Linguistics exam on the 12th, and then I am completely done with university. All the blood, sweat and tears (not to mention the mountain of cash) that I've put into this will have finally paid off, and my police certificate will no longer be the most expensive piece of paper that I own. I can't believe uni is pretty much over already; at times it felt like it was dragging out forever, but now... I feel like I've only been here for five minutes. Funny how time goes. I have to spend this next week revising my backside off for the exam, but that's no real hardship because Clinical Linguistics really interests me and I had the best lecturer ever for it as well.

I was looking up my graduation the other day, eeeek! I know a bit more about it now - it's going to be on November 20th. I will be there in a gown and one of those stupid hats, and it's going to be brill. The students at my uni get to graduate from this absolutely beautiful place (St. Alban's Cathedral):

I am so excited to graduate. That'll be the final closure of my university career; it'll also mark the last bit of education ever ever (unless I decide to do post-grad someday).

If I get the Spain job, my German friend Sou and I have hatched a diabolical plan to visit the Berlinale Film Festival in February. We're going to go there to try to catch a glimpse of August Diehl, and I am also excited to go because a) Berlin is a city I've wanted to visit forever and b) finally meeting Sou in 'real life'! I hope this all works out. We also have a not-quite-normal plan to scale the Brandenburg Tor, something Sou claims she's always wished she could do. Either way, it'll be hilarious and I'll get to spend time in a beautiful city, with a fantastic person (and hopefully see August Diehl too lol).

Today, it's Caz's birthday. Being the best friend that anyone could hope for in the whole bloody world, I sent her a card with dead flowers on it, and told her to die :)

Final Sprint

I'm so close to finishing university forever. Good lawd. It's been simultaneously the most fun and most stressful experience of my life. I've met many people, had many experiences, and grown so much as a person. I'm incredibly glad I took the plunge and came to uni; it was a massively scary decision, but it was necessary. Without university, I wouldn't have become an adult. I wouldn't know how to pay bills and support myself, how to get through the day with a raging hangover, how to take a deep breath and dive head-first into anything that takes my fancy, and believing in myself enough to know that I can go places and do things. In extension to that last point, I wouldn't be going to work in America this summer or potentially teaching in Spain in October for a year, if it wasn't for getting through assignment deadlines and the university environment itself without giving up, despite wanting to a few times. I did this with the added burden of my continuously fluctuating mental health, and it hasn't been easy. So I'm allowing myself to feel a bit of pride that I've come this far and gotten to the other side - scratched, scared and £20,000+ in debt, but still standing and ready to get out there and see the world.

This month and a bit is the last push. I have around 40 hours of lectures, 5 assignments and an exam left, and that's it. It's terrifying and exhilarating and unbelievably surreal.

I'm currently looking forward to going home for the Easter holidays, though! I have a multitude of to do lists, right up until April 2nd (I go home on April 3rd), in order to keep myself as busy as possible and to get as much work as I can out of the way so I can recuperate and enjoy the break. This week involves making my video and submitting my Wordpress design for Online Journalism; 4 remaining hours of lectures; sending Mothers Day cards for Mutti and Kath; starting on my History of English and Communication & Cultures assignments; getting my prescription; sending off the forms for my police certificate for the States; and going swimming for the last time this term. Next week will be a little less hectic, with only 10 hours of lectures and hopefully I will have finished all the pre-Easter assignments I have due by then.

I'm giving blood again too! I was feeling crap because I haven't done it since my first time in July, so I was browsing to see if there would be any sessions at home while I was there. No go, but I stumbled on a session at a hotel five minutes away from me here in Hatfield on Monday, so I'm going to go to that one. It'll be good to give blood again, as I felt so pleased with myself last time, and it really is such a great way to be charitable if you're a pauper like me!

Oh, and it is 13 days until I turn 22. I cannot believe how fast that's come around. My flatmates won't stop laughing at me because I'm 'so old'. Well, except for James - he turns 22 in May so he feels all my pain!

Bonus photo of Lana and I:

She came over on March 14th, for the weekend. On the Friday night, we went on a dinner date to Frankie & Benny's as we'd never gone out for proper dinner before, and on the Saturday, we went to Camden and spent hours exploring the Stables Market. It was an all-round great weekend (obviously interspersed with boozing with the flatmates), and definitely stopped me going round the twist from being cooped up on my own, beating myself up over my lack of productivity.

Misogyny at the Pool

I was at the pool today, and I'd stopped swimming to have a breather, when I overheard a guy and a girl near me. This guy was telling the girl that she had 'put on a bunch of weight' this year, and how she needed to stop treating herself and exercise more. Bear in mind, this was in the pool where she'd been swimming for longer than I'd been in there. There was literally nothing wrong with this girl's figure - she looked perfectly healthy! Further to this, the guy berating her was legitimately very overweight, and a lot of what he told her about protein and carbs was completely wrong (I may not know tonnes, but I actually read up on things before I started trying to be healthy).

It's just pure misogyny. He had absolutely no right to make her feel like shit for putting on a couple of pounds when he clearly wasn't athletic himself. It came across like it was totally ok for him to be overweight, but if a woman dares to put on weight, it's the end of the world. It just really riled me because it was completely unfair, and I imagine it was pretty humiliating for the girl. Even if she was overweight, it doesn't matter! She's obviously trying to stay fit and healthy by going swimming, which is the most important thing.

Aside from actual, medical opinions on people whose weight (overweight or underweight) is significantly affecting their health, or a personal trainer who knows what they're talking about and has been employed by somebody to tell them what they need to work on, nobody has the right to dictate to other people what they 'should' be doing with their bodies.

Why do people still think it's ok to act like this? I bet if she'd said something about his weight, he would have been pissed off. It's completely ridiculous. And for the record, I'm not a """Feminazi""" (I hate that expression - fighting for equal rights is actually the complete opposite of the Nazi system, please go to a history lesson) - even if it was two girls, or two guys, or whatever, I would have still been pretty disgusted just because of the sheer hypocrisy of it.

Sorry about this rant, just needed to get this out because seeing people treat their so-called friends like shit makes me cross.

A New Semester

I said I wanted to blog more here. It is now the early hours of January 22nd - so much for that resolution! I have accumulated several things to talk about, so here goes...

I have started the utterly terrifying process of looking for and applying for jobs, internships, etc. I've found several media companies that sound promising, and I'm going to see one of the Careers Advisers at uni to talk about whether there's more I can do to find graduate positions. One internship I'm especially excited about is a travel writing one! Obviously, that's the area I want to work in, so that's a good start, but it's also good because it's online/home-based so I can start immediately and fit it around my university work. I applied last week, and received an email yesterday saying that somebody would be in touch with me. So, fingers crossed that that works out! In the meantime though, I'm going to continue poking around and seeing what I can find in the way of other opportunities.

I've also started the ball rolling on going over to the USA in the summer to be a camp counsellor! I had my first interview via phone yesterday, and I've been filling out the application today. It's quite daunting, there are a lot of things I need to think about (renewing my passport, going to the US Embassy to apply for my visa, medical and police checks, etc), plus it's quite a bit of money that I'll have to part with to make it happen, but I am determined! The camps run for around 9 weeks, so I'll spend that time helping the kids with activities and games etc. Then afterwards, I'll have a chance to travel to some places in the States with my little wage packet that I'll earn at camp - I haven't decided exactly where I'm going to go yet, but my top 5 currently stands at: New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, maybe venturing to Canada or Mexico. So, watch out America (more like, watch out Kayleigh you are a pasty English girl and you will melt in the unforgiving sun)!

Second semester started this week. I had two classes on Monday - History of the English Language and Online Journalism. History of English was so interesting, and I'm really excited about the module, plus the lecturer is really nice. It'll be good to know more about where my language originated and what changes it's gone through.

Online Journalism is also a great module that I'm really excited about. Basically, we all have to set up a site about a topic that will be relevant to the sort of career we want. Of course, I immediately decided that mine should be about travelling! I'm going to review places I go to (places of historical interest/natural beauty, museums, landmarks, etc), and talk about lesser-known destinations in order to clue people in to places that are a little different to the usual holiday locations. I'm really excited to start working on it - I already have a page set up, but I'm looking forward to actually writing on it.

I am starting to swim in earnest now, as part of my 'get fit or die tryin' lifestyle kick. Yesterday I did 30 laps of the pool and felt great when I was done. I'm really enjoying the swimming now I've realised I'm not as unfit as I feared. I'm going again tomorrow, and then next week I'm going to up the ante and go swimming three times a week, like I originally wanted to.

Therapy is also going well; my counsellor is a really nice guy, and we get along well, so I find it quite easy to speak to him about any difficulties I have. I'm going to be seeing him more or less once a week right up until I finish uni, in the hopes of giving me a bit more peace of mind. I must say, having a neutral space to fight out all of the conflicting thoughts and negative feelings is a good thing. When I saw Richard on Monday, I came out of the session feeling incredibly light and less downtrodden than I had before I'd gone in.

 I'm excited today because Lana is coming over on Friday for the weekend! I'm really looking forward to seeing her as it's been a good long while since the last time, and Friday is the day after her birthday! So this weekend will be a kind of birthday celebration too; I have posh scotch for the special occasion. On Saturday, we're going to go to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum in London - I've never been before, so it's going to be a lot of fun and really interesting. Plus I'm going with one of my favourite people in the whole world, which makes it a thousand times cooler. A feature/review on the Grand Museum Outing will quite possibly be my first post on the aforementioned travel site for Online Journalism.

I also get to show Lana The Counterfeiters, a new favourite film of mine (and not just because it contains my favourite German actor - and possibly favourite man - August Diehl); I'm looking forward to that because I know she enjoys World War 2 stories. The Counterfeiters is based on a true story from the war, and it's an absolutely great film. Also, August Diehl.

I will attempt to blog more. Note that I say attempt. I'm hoping there will be enough going on in the coming weeks to be able to have plenty to talk about, but I can't make any promises.

NYE - A Look Back At 2013 & Onward To 2014

Highlights of 2013

• The introduction of my new furry friend, Jackson! After the immense sadness at the beginning of the year when my dearest Scrabble died, having another little hamster to dote on eased the pain a bit. Jackson is no longer little now, but big and fat and playful, and he's been a great addition to the family.
• On March 17th, Norman Reedus (e.g. Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead and all round sweetheart and sex god) followed me on twitter, and still follows me to this day!
• I turned 21, a milestone age!
• This year in May was the first time I attended Comic Con at London; it was blogged about extensively on here, and was so much fun! I definitely want to go again some time soon!
• I also gave blood for the first time, and still get a little rush of pride when I think about it.
• Ashleigh's hen party - also blogged about here, the whole night was so much fun and cemented my belief that my brother chose the right lady to marry.
• I sold my soul to Apple and got an iPhone, and it may as well be surgically attached to my hand now.
• My darling brother Liam got married to Ashleigh, on the 15th August. I wrote about it here, and it's one of my fondest memories - not just of this year, but of my life. It was the most beautiful, happy day, and I got to be a bridesmaid for the third time in my whole life, but the first time as an adult!
• I began my final year of university; I will soon be spat out of academia and into the world of being a real adult! In addition to this, an honorary mention of my flat this year has to be made. I'm so happy with the people I live with, they're brilliant! I'm glad this wasn't a repeat of where I lived in my first year. My flatmates have made uni fun again for me, and I thank them so much for that!
• I visited Caz in Manchester for the first time, and that was a lot of fun - even though I was sickened at how inexpensive some absolutely beautiful flats are there!
• Getting Lana drunk for the first time was a highlight; I was very proud of how well she holds her drink! I'm glad I could get her out and having a laugh with me and my wonderful flatmates, and I'm happy that she enjoyed herself so much!
• My health kick and general life upheaval beginning to take form (more on this when I talk about my goals for 2014).
• The Flat 1 London outing and Christmas party - two very enjoyable days with my flatmates before leaving for the Christmas holidays! We ate and drank and shopped and had lots of fun; it was great as a last hurrah!
• I wrote a dissertation for the first time ever. I have written about language and communication difficulties faced by people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and I am so proud of how it's come out, and the fact that I've actually finished it! I enjoyed myself writing it, but it was easily the hardest piece of academic work I've ever done.
• The Christmas holiday has been one of my best yet. Seeing all of my family and being back at home is wonderful, I've been able to annoy the hamster every day and eaten far more than I should have. Christmas Day was spent at my Mutti's with her, Martin, Ryan, Nan and Dave. Later, we were joined by Liam & Ashleigh; Arron, Kim & Harvey; Paula, Steven & Ellie; and David! So I got to see all the siblings on Mutti and Martin's side. Boxing Day Liam, Ashleigh and I went over to Vati's, where we and Kath were joined by Nan, Uncle Paul and great Uncle George. More food and presents occurred! And yesterday, I went for dinner with Mutti, Ryan, Liam, Ashleigh, Gramps and Maggie, as well as my Uncle Adrian who has come over from Australia, and his girlfriend Jacqui! It was bloody delicious, and I think I have put on about a tonne of weight, but it's been such a happy time!

Photo Collages

I made some collages of a few of my favourite photos from this year! It was hard to narrow them down, because I take so many photos and there were so many great ones, but here's the collages I ended up with:

Goals for 2014

• Finish my degree and graduate from university.
• Continuation of the aforementioned health/life kick: Swim lots more and get fitter, watch my eating habits and be more healthy, keep up with counselling and my journal.
• Get a job - the thing I'm most interested in at the moment is teaching English in Germany. Liam's friend Colin is doing a similar thing in China, and he doesn't have to know Mandarin because the kids are only allowed to speak English in his class; I want to see if there is something similar in Germany as I would like that experience, and also to work on my German so I can speak it better! That's only one possible avenue though, of course.
• Save up some money and get an apartment (either somewhere in England or in Berlin)
• Have a holiday - I'm hoping Rome will be a possibility!
• Do all of the London museums that I haven't seen - Natural History, Imperial War, Science and the Tower of London.
• Blog more here, and blog properly!

This evening, Caz and I are going to have a feast of mainly tequila and whiskey and it's going to be a bloodbath. Happy New Year to you all, and I hope 2014 is everything you hope for!