Best birthday present ever!

[Anemone]

So a few days ago I would have said that my favorite present on my birthday was Journey to Chandara, but I just got one that's even better! (Something better than JtC? How is it possible?)

I just got accepted into the CIT program at the YMCA Camp Coniston, where I've gone for the past six years! I'm so excited! Everyone--and I mean everyone--applies, and out of those 200 or so people, only about half get in. It's the first step to actually working there, and I'm so happy! That camp means the world to me, and although I've never gotten homesick, I've definitely gotten camp-sick! It's my dream to work there and give other kids the amazing experiences that I've had there.

Anyway, just thought I'd announce that. My dismal month has brightened suddenly!

[Kor]

Congratulation's on the good news and such. You'll likely have as much fun as the kids do there as you help them.

[Vorchia]

I appreciate your enthusiasm but... Okay... I think I heard of 'YMCA', mainly through the fact that the song somehow got famous over here though of course YMCA isn't that big in the Neterlands, we have our own camp organisations. I think YMCA is a Christian organisation that organises camps for youth and children? Would this mysterious 'CIT programme' of yours mean you're going to be attempting to tame a bunch of camp going kids? Heh. Good. Luck. I've done colunteers work at our local 'children's activities week' and oh YES you will be exhausted and they will NOT listen and you WILL be hauled through dirt, get to fight for your life against a mob of hyperactive kids and 'may even get 'made pretty' to the point of looking like an Orc... All in excellent fun of course. LOL

BDSP Vorchia

[Wolf]

My guess is that CIT stands for "Counselor In Training".

Congratulations. I am glad that you will get the chance to do what you dream of.

[Anemone]

Oh yeah, heh. Sorry guys! I sort of took for granted that everyone would know what CIT meant.

Yep, it's Counselor-In-Training--a leadership training program. I'm going to be working with kids at the camp I've gone to for the past six years as well as Camp Marston in San Diego. We'll be leading program areas, working with a mentor in one of the cabins, and doing a whole lot of hiking. I'm going to hike the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park!

But I love working with kids, so it's all good. Plus, I'm going to learn a good deal about camp counseling.

And the YMCA originated as a purely Christian organization, but I wouldn't call Coniston a Christian camp at all. It's made up of all kinds of religions, ethnicities, etc. and focuses on providing an enriching and (of course) fun environment for the kids. YMCA is also a sports club, but there are a ton of YMCA camps around.

[Kyalnick]

Congradulations!! I hope you have fun!

Kyalnick

[jewelspike]

Congratulations!

[Vorchia]

Well I suppose that with how American the whole YMCA is and how the camp culture is in the USA, every US citizen probably knows the 'CIT' abbreviation but not all Europeans do. Camps like those of the YMCA are rather typically American. Like, I don't know about any Ducth campgrounds that stay year round (I was astonished to realise you guys have campgrounds with buildings and everything that just only get used for CAMPS?? I just found out last summer. Then again the 'camp candy' cartoon from when I was little should have been a clue, stupid Vorchia.) But we do have small scale camps that last one to three weeks and use existing facilities of nature organisations, scouting, farms etc. I have been to those and that was fun, especially because its small scale. (I'd get so lost and confused chunked into a camp with 10.000 kids...) Also I never hear anyone over here refer to the leaders with the specific word 'cousellor', which in Dutch translates like someone who would offer advice or support to either an individual or an organisation in a more formal/businesslike way...
Hmmm I see YMCA does have a Dutch branch... Its just not as famous here as it is in the U.S.A. Well okay, its famous because of THAT SONG but you (I at least) never find out what it IS until you start browsing summer acitivities for youth folders to look for something fun to do over summer.
Is 'your' camp specialised in anything? (Horses? Water activities? Sports? Culturally oriented? Science/biology/environment education?) Or is it just one ginormous camp which offers it all or what is the general idea? Over here you can book camps with various specialisations (though all separate locations of course, with small groups, I guess thats just us Dutch being Dutch .) Hiking in the Grand Canyon sounds like a good idea, I still have to go see that one day!!
Anyhow, when does training commence??
*Sneaks Anemone's gang of kids some Pixie stix*

[thundertail]

Reminds me of that Boy Scout retreat we had in the Mountains of New Hampshire...

Our camp was about twenty miles away from where 'the old Man of the Mountains' once was. There were dormatory cabins in the woods with administration cabins and cafeteria sheds all about (All spread out through the woods for miles, and they made us hike from one place to the other!). They focused mainly on tracking and surveying, with a bit of geology and botany along the way. I was good at using a surveyor's compass, and was usually the leader on the hikes (Treasure hunts, because they'd leave you little clues to follow along the way.), and my first time through, I was only off by 30 feet!

We hiked all through the mountains, and tried our hand at rock climbing. This time one of the instructors went along, and he fell; breaking an ankle, he said. We wrapped him up, made a travois and dragged him back to the infirmary; but we later found out he wasn't as injured as he said - a slightly turned ankle!

Oh, we had other fun too (Here I am at Camp Granada... as the song goes!LOL!). The geology part was fun, since I found this twenty pound chunk of fool's gold, a small vein of Garnet and a baseball sized geode. Sure there were campfires and ghost stories and legends of Indian lore. Plenty of food, archery, swimming and lots more outdoorsy things! I had fun, really...

Since it was a Boy Scout camp, we all got several of the badges we needed, and most of us got rank increases besides. I went there a scrawny little dweeb, and came back stronger and wiser... And we all lived happily ever after! (LOL!)

[Kor]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun. The troop I was in wasn't very fun at all, except for the first few months before that scout master got transfered, he was in the air force. Everything changed and was not really boy scouts anymore. Glad you had a lot of fun though.

[Anemone]

Heheh. Sounds like fun thundertail! My dad had a similar camp experience to the Camp Granada song when he was in sixth grade, apparently, and he went to--of all things--the same camp that my CIT group is working at in San Diego for part of the time!

But, yeah. Coniston is a very varied camp. There are activities ranging everywhere from canoeing and ropes to horseback riding, ecology, and Ultimate Frisbee. We've even got an amazing drama program that puts together an awesome show every session. Last year we did "The Princess Bride", and I was the Booing Woman. Good times... There's also an "Adventure Camp" that is through Coniston where a group of kids do some intense hiking in some remote location for a week. I've never done that, but I'll get plenty of hiking this summer when we go to the Grand Canyon.

It all starts July 6, so I have plenty of time to break in my new hiking boots!

And Vorchia, the idea of little campers with sticks of pure sugar is absolutely terrifying. It's interesting to hear what camps are like over in the Netherlands.

[Vorchia]

vagwen said:

Last year we did "The Princess Bride", and I was the Booing Woman. Good times... There's also an "Adventure Camp" that is through Coniston where a group of kids do some intense hiking in some remote location for a week.

Ohhh now THAT I would have loved to see!!!!!!!



I was a member of local scouting when I was little but it was hell. I can't recommend the Dutch scouting to anyone. I hear that in the USA they have some 'rules' like 'play nice' and 'be social' and such, well the one I was a member of had no such rules, at all, chaos reigned supreme as did the jungle law.

Don't forget to keep us up to date on it all. I'll be looking forwards to accounts of unusual insanity.

[Buttercup]

Vorchia, you only want to hear about other people being tortured by insanity because you do it on a daily basis!!

Graet job on obtaining the chance as a CIT! I would love to be able to do somehing like that...*slips the kids hershey bars*)

What, it wasn't me, *points at Vorchia* SHE did it!

[Anemone]

Pixiestix and Hershey bars? In the hands of my group of kids? *runs and hides*

I'm sad to say that you'll all have to wait until August to hear about my escapades and moments of insanity (which will certainly occur), as it's a sleepaway camp and I won't have access to a computer out in the wilderness of the West. But stories will come, worry not.

For example, at one point we do six hour solos in the Channel Islands. That ought to be veeeeeeeery amusing.