American Adventure

So yesterday was my day off and we all went into yosemite again. We had lunch in the valley, under el capitain, next to the river on a beach. It was literaly perfect, the water was drinkable. The national parks people were doing a controled burn of the forest shrub stuff to keep it all down so there was this incredible cloud of smoke rising through the valley and turning everything into a lord of the rings scene. was amazing. So after that we drove back down the valley to this hotel called tanaya lodge. We snook in through the back and spent the afternoon relaxing in the jacuzzi, sauna, steam room etc. It was just what we all needed to relax properly! Had a really great day! Today started at quater to six cos i had to row accross the lake for my campers doing the qualifying swim for the length of the lake. it was really nice cos the sun just rose over the top of all the hills. Getting exited about my birthday now, aparantly some ppl have got somthing in mind but im just looking forward to being here! ha. Hope alls well at home, sorry to hear ur stuck with a luton mum, could be worse i suppose!! Thanks for ur bday message pops, brought a tear to my eye!! Got your card today nan and grandad, havent opened it yet but thankyou very much! Its session break tomorow so alot of the kids are going home, but mine are 4 weekers so we are just passing the halfway point!! Hope all is great!! could somebody give me a list of important dates please?!? mum ur graduation etc!! okidokey, love to u all!! xxxxxxxxx

Just checking in after getting back from the chinese! Was nice, and also v cheap!! Stuffed now tho. Got some cough n cold medicine for free from a girl whos mum works for a medicine company cos ive got a really bad cough and cold, which is ironic!! Nevermind! Got pushed in the lake today, fully clothed trainers and all! Very annoying.. nevermind, its skylake!! Sorry to hear works draining u mum, but not suprised that ur the only pro!! lol no card or owt from dad just yet bt im sure ill get one... HINT HINT!! haha. Any postcards from me yet?! i sent them this week so hopefully!! Oh ive just remembered i did get a card from dad n magali and rosie!! ha it was a while ago so i forgot!! SOrry!!!! only opend rosies cos i ddnt realise it was a bday card.. very sweet, brought a tear!! not much to report, me n aussie are goin to LA next weekend on the bus to pick the kids up. We get a free night in a hotel room and some time in LA so tht should be awesome!! gona go relax now i think. Lots and lots of love to you all.... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thankyou thankyou thankyou for a fantastic pakage mum!!! was so so sweet, and a lovely message from natty!! MADE MY DAY!! Night off tonight so i think we are going for a chinese or something! Gona keep it sweet cos its nearly siesta time! Love to u all!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So.... I get back to my cabin last night to fnd sam, one of my noiser, happier campers crying his eyes out and obviously in alot of pain. When i asked him what was wrong he says "my snake bites started to really hurt" at first i laughed cos i thort it must just be a modern version of a chinese burn, but it soon dorned on me that this kid was in an awful lot of pain. So i rushed him down to the infirmary, when on the way he explained that him and his cousin had seen a snake in the bushes and chased it and cought it. (first BIG mistake) The snake obv wasnt too happy about that and had lashed out and bitten both of them. at this point im started to get a little freaked as snakes arent my fave things as it is.... We get to the infirmary and sam starts comlplainig of tingling lips, and dizzyness, blurry vision etc. To cut a vv long story short, i ended up in hospital with sam until 330am yesterday. Hes fine now as we established (thanks to my photo of a dead snake id seen) That it was non venomous. But i still got a ride, at breakneck speed, in an american ambulance, and got to experince a ER room in american kids hospital, which also wasnt v pretty. So that was more than eneough drama for me!! It was all completely crazy, and alot of panic etc was involved as fire engines and ambulance and another paramedic!! Anyway, today was fairly tiring considering i had 3 hours sleep!! Missing you al lots today, had lots of little quiet time where i could think about you all... and yess that does include u dad!!!! haha.. oh and dad... "What.................................HOME AND GARDEN!!!" Got a birthday card from gilly and roger today which was incredibly sweet. Thank them lots for me please!!! gona dash now, getin tired!! Love to u allllll xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Looks like the pics did work! ill explain who is in them later. Also, thanku so much for your pakage and postcard mum and molly. It really did make my day. Thankyou so much. It was a massive suprise! i was happier than the kids to get a pakage!! Love to u all! xxxxxxx

http://www.blog.co.uk/index.php/reasy3088 For pics! Sorry... couldnt get them on the main page!! love to u all!! xxxxxxxx

Ok.. So its sunday! Which is awesome! Basicaly sundays are big free for alls for the kids, and for the counslors!! Which is great cos we all just get to sit back and relax, which we all definately welcome! So today has consisted of hanging out, deciding on camper of the week, who by the way is in my cabin!! Yessssss and having "skytime" where we all go down to this little wood clearing and talk honestly to eachother about skylake etc. I nearly cried, lots of v sweet and honest things coming from lil kids who didnt realise how profound what they just said was! Anyway! Mum, sounds like u had a lovely day! Hope that blister gets better! How ironic that you should get a blister on ur hand and not your feet! Dad, great to know tht u are still gettin the info bout me regardless of ur tecnilogical probs! So its back to normal days tomorow so im doin more photography, which is gettin slightly annoying but nevermind! I still enjoy it, its just a little tedious with kids. Loving it here more and more every single day. Ive definately been touched by the skylake magic. Jadey, sounds like your having an awesome time, like i knew you would. How strange would it be if ur californian friends knew my californian frinds. After the neil from gargrave encounter it wouldnt suprise me! righteo! Ill chat later.. Oh and theres a pic or two to follow i think! Love to you all! XXXXXXXXXX

Hi all! So today is goldrush day! Basicaly the kids run a muck all day gathering paintedrocks and exchanging them for "skylake money" abit like the pea fair with woodcraft mum, but all day, and with soda all day! Its been intense to say the least. but great fun. Its the kids dance tonight so that should be fun, its goin to be abit like going back in time to the middle school discos i rekon so im looking forward to seeing the sea of hair gek and the wall of cheap deodorant! Should be fun. Sorry to hear about your weather there mum, im sure it will pick up! Id send you some of mine if i could! Its amazing here again. Already planning how i can get back next year. My happiness is no worry mum, im loving every single second of this. I take it youve had colour in your hair mum?! im sure it looks lovley. Im gona dash off to the local burger place for a milkshake now before it all kicks off again. Lots of love to everybody. Good luck joe joe. chin up mother!! Hello carloooos, alright natty. Thats home covered. xxxxxxxxxxxx

Hey everybody! So sorry its been so long! Its been incredibly busy here. Still having a fantastic time here. Great to here from you all. Been out again tonight, went to a japanese restaurant and played bowling. Was a really good laugh. Kids are all doing fantastic, really well behaved etc etc! Photos going good, getting a bit tedious now tho but im sure ill get over it! Its a thing called goldrus day tomorow which is going to be cracking, we all dress up etc and pretend to be dif people. Im sure ill get lotsa pix! Not a huge amount to report cos days are pretty samey at the mo cos of having a routine etc. But im still having a fantastic time and loving every min! Anyway, gona head off to bed now. Love to you all!! xxxxx

Hello all! So the kids have arrived! They are all awesome to be fair, but very very hard work! My cabins great, iv got 8 little stars. Im already feeling a team bond which is great! There are defo some gobby moments, but im guessing thats just a exited kids awasy from home thing! Still having a fantastic time, just a different kind of fantastic!! I feel that having the kids all here is definatley making all our counselors relationships so much stronger. Got a hour off now so we are off for a milkshake! Gona dash! Lots of love to u all, hope ur doin good jadey! Thinkin bout u!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dont panic everybody! Jeff actualy came up to me later and said how very sorry he was and how it was completley out of order. Then the assisitant director came up to me and apologised again so its all good!! So me jorge kim lizzy and brendan went to do laundry in fresno yesterday. It was easily the hottest weather I have ever felt. The carpark was unbearable. Had a great day though, a good laugh etc. Then we had a staff dance when we got back. That was realy good fun, everybody was just getting there groove on!! Kids arrive tomorow and its really gettin so so xiting! We have all painted welcome signs for our cabin. Im an asigned cabin counselor for bobcats, which means that they are 10-11 year olds. Its far too hot again today, but im slowly getting used to it and startin to enjoy it! Its going to be a very short one today im afraid folks cos theres lots to do. Im gona try n ring home tomorow at some point so if you can, try to be by the phone!! Love to you all!!!!!! XxXxXxX

Wow thanks so much for that pops! It was just what i needed to jog my memory and up my confidence!! Mum, u made me cry by saying i made u cry!! lol we are softies!! So... last night everybody decided we were all gona have a huge end of staff training party. Theres a tradition of goin to this place in yosemite for it called moon rock, basicly its this huge rock that evryone just crashes on. So we set off, in convoy, 15 cars! It was such good fun, all with music blaring n windows open n stuff, if u imagine the scene, it was just like that! Then we got deep in yosemite and the lead car went up the trach which he thought led to the rock. So we all followed. I was in jorges car which is a honda accura, quite a low sporty type thingy. There was a few 4x4s in the convoy but mainly vws hondas etc. So we set off up this trail n v soon it turns into this serious off road track. Im talking pot holes, huge rocks, bushes that scrape your car down both sides etc. But with 15 cars in a line all u can do is keep going! So we drove up this lane for about 20 mins, scraping the botoms of all the cars, causing 1000s of dollars paintwork damage to get to the top to be met by the lead car saying weve gone the wrong way. By this time it was getting dark, we are deep in bear and rattlesnake terrotory, with 15 cars, all to turn around on a road narrower than the high road, made of dirt and sand! So eventualy we all got turned round and me some ppl ran back down the trail behind the cars to take the weight out of them and try to reduce them scraping. We got to the end of the trail and we sent a 4x4 off with a walkie talkie to find this flamin rock. No luck! so we all have a huge discusion as to what to do and come to the conclusion that we should all just go down to the place where we all usualy go, which is 3 mins away from camp, after we drove an hour to get to the elusive rock! So there was some v unhappy car owners!! So we set off down, n half way down the hill this one girls brakes start smoking, lots. Cos she was a fool n just sat on the all the way down. She starts crying cos she thought her car was blowing up!! It was complete and utter chaos, but also a fantastic adventure!! So we got back to "pine point" had our lil party and we all slept on our around the docks. The party was what the americans call a graffiti party. basicly before hand we all bought white tshirts and marker pens and we spent all night signing eachothers shirts n stuff. It was fantastic. got lots of lovely messags n stuff. its a really great memory/suveneer!! (spelling so wrong!) So i got back up to camp this morning and put a banana skin in the bin only to see my shorts and tshirt IN the bin, when they should have been drying on the infirmary porch. I then realise my towel has gone too and brendan said he saw jeff, the camp owner take it. So i go ask him if i can have it back and he points at this huge wheely bin and says, "its at the bottom of that" I was livid. So i asked why and he was like " you moved out of the infirmary 3 day ago ur stuff should be gone" I couldnt belive wha was happnn so i was just like "ok, im not arguing with you, but i think thats really wrong, I had no warning, nothing was said" He just said, "i cant have 60 people doing what they want around camp" Unbelivable, just throwing peoples stuff away cos it in the wrong place. So he is now an enemy!!! ha. Anyway gota dash, jorges just got up and we are going into fresno i think. Love to u all! c u soon. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

MUM!!!! WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO SO SO SO SO SO SO PROUD OF U MUM! Ur my superstar!! Been star watching tonight and i dedicated a shooting star to ur uni success.. hope u like it!! Another fairly standard day today, altho did archery first thing as part of staff training which was great fun but a whole lot harder than it looks!! Was incredibly hot today, we put the thermometer in te sun and it went off the top and it stops at 120 so it was a scorcher!!! that doesnt properly represent tho cos it was in the sun!! went into town again tonight and had food at a seafood place, was great, mussels n clams n stuff, then caught a movie. Oceans 13 too jadey, what u rekon, i liked it! then came home and did some star gazing and had a quick old bonfire before coming back here n learning russian from the kitchen staff and writing this blog! everyone is in bed now apart from me so im gona keep it fairly short. the guy from gargrave was best mats with harry coates in primary school.. it keep gettin stranger!! Ill tell u all bout my mates in a later blog mum cos its gettin late but i defo will!! well dun with ur tickets h! U shud defo take em mum n carl!! oh and put the money on that horse carlos, its a dead cert!! aniways, gona dash! bought a torch and some sandles too.. and im addicted to sunflower seed!! aniways!! lots of love to u all!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi everyone!! very quick post today cos weve all bin v busy preparing everything!! Bin in the darkroom quite abit today just tidyin up and cleaning etc. Its really shabby but fits in quite nicely with the whole "skylake" thang!!! Staff bonding is going great, lots of friendships startin left right and centre! and even a few antifriendships, which keps things interesting!! Weather is really hot today, but a lovely breeze is keepin it feelin cold!! not a whole lot to report, started gettin up at 715 now to "replicate real camp" seems a bit daft to me but nevermind!!! ended up not sleepin on the courts last night cos evrione dcdd to dedicte a whole evening to it rather than just a night thing! dad, if you could run through the whole film developing process from taking it out of the camera to getting a print in a reali quick summary tht would be awesome, just so ive got it writen down so i feel 100% confident!! thanks matey!! sorry theres not many exiting stories to tell, im sure it will pick up once staff training is over! had a sherif from the lake come talk to us today, he spoke of 2 deaths on the lake... so that freaked us all out a little!! hope alls well!! lotsa love all!! xxxxxxx

hey all. Had a fairly standard day yesterday, went out for a mexican again for tea cos everybody else was. it was really delish!! Other than that just stayed around camp cos there was lots of new ppl arriving so just hanging around meeting ppl etc. Had our first day of staff training today so that was great. Pretty boring talks first thing but its quite nice to have something set to do. Had a hair cut tonight cos it was gettin a bit long and its really hot so itl be more comfy! its really not too short so dont panic mum!! thanks for getting in contact pops, lovely to hear from and about u all! Popped out with jorge (horhay) earlier to get some washin detergent cos ive run out of clean tshirts! so me n brendan spent a couple of hours washin stuff in a dustbin in th toilet! to quote jorge, "it was the most ghetto thing he has ever seen" so hopefully they will be dry and clean...er in the morn!! Just had some new people arrive, and i was completley gobsmackd to find that one lad was from gargrave. YES GARGRAVE!! the world is far too small!! i dont know him from home but im sure ill get to know him here. i think we are all camping out under the stars on the tennis courts tonght as its probly one of the last times we can b4 the kids get here!! anyway, better dash! hope all is well! CONGRATS on the job mum!!! enjoy it, youl be great, as always!! all my love to u all!! xxxxxxxx

so we managed to get to yosemite yesterday, we just took 2 cars instead of the bus. Was the most beutiful place i have ever seen. ever. Went in a girls car called erin, its her first car and its a VW passat with full leather interior!!! crazy yank. So yeah.. yosemite was stunning, went on a big long drive right into the middle of it. took some fantastic photos of the scenery, and the gang on the road, really great to look at and smile!! Ill defo post some of them up here at some time but its crowded at the mo and my lead is in my cabin. Bin out on the ski boat this morn and freek the driver, (yes thats his real name!!) got it stuck on some shallow sand so somebody had to get out and push it clear. was very funny. also saw some big big trees in yosemite, im pretty sure its the ones that nan n grandad have seen?!?! Just been told that we arent gettin tea given tonight so i think we are all goin on an exodus to oakhurst for a japanese tonight which will be cool. lots of new people arriving all the time which is great, meetin new people, expanding my "places to stay wen camps over" list!!! sorry if these blogs are really stream of conciouness styly, but thats about all i can manage when theres loads of people round!! still having the best time. loving every second, my tan is coming on a treat!! does dad still read this?? hope so! id like to hear from u pops! duno if my text got thru in response to urs a few days ago? anyway!! Lots of love to all of u!! Its 80f today, nice and warm!!! love you all!! xxxxx

Hello all! 11.18 saturday! Went out of the camp for the first time properly last night to the nearest local town, saw a movie called knocked up, was ok, not too funny. The cencorship was definately different in the US though. It had a birth scene in it which was like something out of sex ed, defo wouldnt happen in england, pretty ruff! Another day off today and i think we are goin to try and borrow a camp mini bus and go into yosemite, which will be fantastic! so fingers crossed on that one. Had dinner at a mexican restaurant last night, was really nice, very very filling. And embarasin that the only person who hadnt heard of guacamole and thought it was disgusting was an english lad.. representing our cultured country very well! nevermind. Bought some moisturiser cos my skin is dry, and im borrowing some sunglases from my aussie mate rocky cos they are better than mine!! All the returning camp counselors are arriving tomorow so our numbers are goin to double from 30 to 60 which will be a big shock i think, but still lots of fun! Its family camp tis weekend so there is lots of kids and parents wanderng around OUR camp! which feels very strange as its been our teritory for a while but its getting us used to it being busy i guess!! Goin to dash now as there seems to be movement outside. Taken lots of pics of the amazing cars that all these posh gits drive in the family camp, im looking out of the window now and i can see a baby hummer, and escalade, a navigator, a bmw m3 and a huge dodge pick up, and thats just one line, its kinda sickening but also very nice to look at! I think i may have discovered the source of global warming tho... its america!! lots of love! speak soon!

So... im here on thursday afternoon.. 37 degrees, FULLY qualfied as a PROFESIONAL lifeguard, cpr and first aider!! Very proud of myself, tugging people around a lake isnt that easy!! Glad to see you are all checking this regularly!! lovely to read all your comments and chats etc! im off now until monday so im thinking i may try and get a ride with somebody into yosemite cos theres quite a few ppl going tomorow i think. Had the crazy lifeguard test etc today so now we are all completley exhausted and ready for a good weekend of bonfires!! Had to have a fight with our instructer whilst treading water yesterday to simulate a panicing drowning person.. they really went for it and they had to save 3 ppl cos they couldnt breathe!! this girl kicked one of them in the nuts tho, he nearly drowned! was quite funny cos he was being a bit too rough in my opinion!! Anyway, theres talk of going down to the lake for a bonfire again tonight, so im going to dash off!! good luck with your interview mum!! youll be fine up them steps, you deserve to go up them!!!!lots of love to you all!! xxx

Hey all!! thanku all for lovely comments! only got a few mos on the internet but ive just finished my last day of lifeguard training which has been so so so hard but still fun, got an exam and test tomorow but should be fun! having a fantastic time, got this weekend off but staying in camp and just going into the local town in the days. Made some great friends and already got some places to stay after camp, which will be great! aniways! got to dash! lots of love to everbody! xxxxx