We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday

When university determining A-level results came out in the UK, I was still at camp (in the last week when it was just the internationals) feeling pretty nervous. I had no certainty of where I would end up, I was in a different timezone to all of my friends back home who were getting results and no-one around me was in the same position which (understandably, I hope!) led me to feel super crazy on the evening before results day. I think I had done pretty well not worrying about it too much during the summer; the pace of camp and the kids and just being in the US were a great distraction, but suddenly it was the night before and all the nervousness I hadn't felt during the summer just came to land in my stomach. 

This in itself drove me insane because I didn't want to be thinking about results, I wanted to be fully enjoying our road trip to Montauk, which is the end part of Long Island (can you tell I'm a geographer, what a great description that was). Looking back, this was one of my only regrets of the summer- not allowing myself to properly enjoy our trip, particularly the dmc's in the van ride home, because I was too focused on what the next day would bring. Montauk is really great, a real surfer town full of small individual places to shop and eat and also many souvenir stores! We took a walk around the lighthouse which was lovely, and for a while we just sat and stared, watching the sun and the sea. It was really calming and a beautiful place to just be with friends.  

So the next morning arrived and my mum had said she would text me my results so they'd be on my phone when I woke up (it would have been about 5:30am NY time when she texted). However, there was no signal in the cabin so when I woke up I needed to creep out to the office without waking everyone- a challenge I thought I completed but in reality probably didn't due to my intense shuffling about and the creaking of the cabin door! 

It was just before 7am when I ran back to the cabin, after finding that I got what I needed to go to Manchester (Amen!!) and spending some time on facebook seeing how my friends had got on (they're pretty much all geniuses), debating whether to wake people up in my excitement or go back to bed for 15 minutes. When I peeked my head around the door to check out the situation, Rachael opened her eyes and I whispered that I got into Manchester and then I hear a chorus of " yaay!! well done!!!!" and  Katie, Hannah and Rach jumped out of their beds (Jess was the sleeper of the group, bless) to give me a hug which was sooo great and made me intensely happy. And then at lunch I got presented with a congratulations card from everyone! Best people ever!

Bethan

(we didn't actually take on diesel in Montauk but whatever, still relevant)

The Beginning of the End

After the five weeks of summer camp were over, us international staff stayed on an extra week (I don't exactly know why to be honest but I'm really glad we did) to clear up and do service projects around camp. This meant we had evenings off and were all in one cabin together again! As much as I was looking forward to this week, it meant that we'd be saying goodbye to the American staff which I was not looking forward to one bit.

After we said goodbye to our last group of campers, we did our usual round of cleaning the camp, then a bit of this:

and then had our last staff meeting together. During our final week, Megan had asked us to all anonymously give her a song that we related to this summer which she then compiled into a Camp DeWolfe Staff CD. Because it was all done anonymously, on the way to our staff meal together (Applebee's!) we had a good time listening to the CD and guessing which song belonged to who. Not going to lie, there are three songs on there I repeatedly skip over *cough* Elton John *cough*, but every time I press the skip button I think of the person whose song it is and it makes me smile. 

The next morning Katelyn and Tyrell left really early to drive to catch their flights, and this goodbye was awful and I was really trying not to cry but ended up doing so anyway and we were all in our pajamas at 7am teary-eyed which basically made me feel like a giant ball of sad. After they had left we went back to bed so when I woke up again it felt strange like it almost didn't happen. But it had. Anyway, later that day those of us who hadn't left went to Kevin Hill's house (going to expose him now as the guy who chose Elton's 'Written in the Stars' for the CD, what a guy) for a pool party! Aside from accidentally letting his dog loose around the neighborhood the moment I arrived, it was a pretty good time. That evening we headed to Port Jefferson, which is a cool town to visit and watched the sunset at the harbor, putting off saying more goodbyes. We hugged multiple times before it was time to separate ways; Zorn to catch his train, Hill back to his home, us internationals and Karen back to camp, Yorel and Corey to NYC and Dan stayed in Port Jeff cos it's his hometown. If ever there was a time to seriously use the phrase 'peak times', this is it. /\

 

I'm not sure if it would have been better for me to say goodbye to everyone at once to get it over with or if it was good saying goodbye to people at different stages the way I did. Right up until I watched Hannah leave Penn Station there had always been other people staying with me and sharing in the goodbye which I think made it easier for me along the way. 

To be honest, the more experience I have with goodbyes, the more I dislike them. But I'm pretty sure I'll see these guys again sometime. 

Bethan

NYC

This is probably going to be a simple, descriptive and picture heavy post because we did SO MUCH in one day and it was INSANE. I'd heard a lot about the ~*~bright lights~*~ and huge-ness of New York City and seen images on tv and in films but it's completely not the same as actually being there.

So. On our first weekend off, Hannah, Rachael and I went to stay with Steph and her Mom (that felt weird just typing that) (her mum/mom was super nice and hospitable!) in Bellmore which is still on Long Island but closer to nyc than camp is. That Friday evening we chilled out, ate food and watched a bit of Friends which was cool - watching Friends whilst in New York! All part of the American experience. Early the next morning we got on the LIRR to Penn Station. The only thing that disappointed me about the LIRR is that I couldn't keep my ticket as a souvenir because the conductor came to check we had a ticket and then took it away. But the journey was nice, we spent time planning where we were going to go that day and talking about what camp with kids would be like.

I should probably mention now that it was super hot that day. I couldn't tell you the exact degrees because America doesn't do Celsius but it was HOT. And in the city it was worse because concrete and people. At that point I was worried more about how I would cope for the whole summer in the heat than about how I would get on with the kids! Throughout the whole day Steph was the most perfect tour guide we could have had, she must have been to the places we went to so many times and was probably sick of the tourists but she didn't show it at all and was happy to take us wherever we wanted to and wherever she thought would be good for us to see. It made the day so much nicer, following someone who knew the city well, meaning we didn't have to get overwhelmed by navigating the streets and subway system!

First of all we went to Times Square, where everything is crazy and the shops are huge and the advertisements are bright. 

We then went on the ferry to Staten Island (which is kind of a joke in New York, bless) and back. It's a free service and goes past the Statue of Liberty, who is a fine lady and really very cool. We didn't walk around Staten Island at all, we just walked to the other side of the ferry port to get the ferry straight back. However Staten Island was the only place I could say I'd been when asking campers where they were from, so that was nice!

Then it was on to Seaport, which is a lovely area with cute shops and market stalls and it didn't feel like we were in the city at all! From there we had a great view of the Brooklyn bridge and Manhattan bridge.

Then it was time to meet up with the others who had been staying with Yorel in Queens and go to Central Park! We walked around the park, recognising places from films such as Maid in Manhattan, and then sat in the park for a bit playing a game on Yorel's ipad which involved acting and guessing and laughs. It was something which me and my friends back home would probably have done, and it made me happy to think that I'd be spending the rest of the summer with these guys. 

Probably my favourite tourist-y thing I did was go up the Rockefeller Centre with Rachael (Hannah and Steph had done it before). It's cheaper than going up the Empire State building and you actually get to see it properly! From the top you could see pretty much everything, it was so cool. Central Park is just some crazy random green space in the middle of a city, amazing. 

Finally, to round off the day we all went to Dallas BBQ, as recommended by Matt and Emma, it was so good! Definitely worth the wait we had because we were such a large group. They served huge portions and my expanding stomach was very happy. After the meal we went to Times Square in the evening which was awesome. 

Then it was a tired and content train journey back to Steph's for some much needed sleep after what had been one of the best and most exhausting days of my life.

Bethan

Churchin' USA

In the US we visited two very different churches during staff training. The first Saturday evening I was on Long Island we went to St James', which is part of the Episcopal church (similar to the Church of England back home), for a 'surf n chirp' night after a small service. It was the smallest, cutest church building I have ever been in and the congregation was also small and a real community. It did strike me as odd that we didn't sing at all, but that may have been because it was a short Saturday service. The pastor there had the biggest smile ever and really welcomed us all and the cookout afterwards was deeeelish! So much chicken, man it was great.

 The church we went to the next morning was True North, in a town called Bohemia which is the greatest name for a town ever. In some ways it was similar to my church at home except it was a lot larger in most respects, and they also serve bagels before the service (we really need to adopt this practice in England). I really enjoyed the worship here, one of the reasons being it was loud so I could sing as loud as I liked without feeling self conscious.

As we were walking out, I was looking at the sound desk, which was huuuuge, and told Karen I sometimes operate the sound desk back home and she laughed and said "of course you do Bethan" and I don't know why but I liked that it made sense that I did the sound. It was really interesting going to two very different churches in a short space of time and we had some good discussions about it in our staff devos; having been to two different denominations growing up, I've learnt that it is important to remember that it's the same God in both of those places, no matter how the service is carried out.

After camp was over, we went back to True North on an evening this time and afterwards headed on out to an american diner!! Which was hilarious because we all got our picture taken in front of it whilst the Americans laughed and thought we were ridiculous (as portrayed by Karen) because it was 'only a small town diner'. That night was one of my favourites because church was really great, we all got super excited over our spontaneous decision to go to a diner, we asked our waiter, Mike, to be in a photo with us and I had a gigantic lemon meringue pie.

True North was also the place us internationals said goodbye to Megan, Mike, Matt, Emma and Madison because we left on a Sunday morning and decided to go to church one last time before heading to Ronkonkoma train station. We had to leave during the worship at the end of the service and we didn't think we'd get to say goodbye properly since we were sitting in different places in the church but they all came running out to say goodbye and I gave Megan the first proper hug I'd given her all summer (she's not one for physical contact) and it was good and sad. 

In all of the services I went to, and at camp one time, I was introduced to the Doxology which is a really beautiful short hymn and it sounds really lovely all sung together. So a quick shout out to the doxology, yo.

Bethan