If/Then

Whilst in NYC, I really wanted to see a show on Broadway as I love going to the theatre at home in London and didn't get to go the previous summer I was there. Looking at what was possible to see, we decided to go with If/Then because I wanted to see something not on in London and Karen hadn't seen it before. And there may have been that small tipping factor of the fact that Idina Menzel was the lead, I had no idea she was back on Broadway! My 14 year old wicked obsessed past me was very very excited.

Pre-show we had dinner with the Tees family (who run Camp DeWolfe and are one of the loveliest families there is) at Juniors. The food was great and they specialise in the most incredible sounding cheesecakes so we took out a carrot cake cheesecake in a box with us to eat after If/Then (later discovered to be the greatest decision ever made).

I went into this show knowing very little about the story line which was was good yet unusual for me and we waited in our seats with anticipation. As the show is about a woman whose life could have taken two different paths from one moment in time, it does take a bit of concentration to follow, but I managed and the story line is quite emotional, particularly in the second act which I enjoyed way more than the first. I loved that the show was set in nyc because I had been in and out of  the city all summer and from staying there for a bit I understood all the nyc related quips about the subway, amongst other things. I naturally assumed there would be a loud belting wondrous Idina solo, which did eventually appear in all its glory at the end of the musical ('Always Starting Over') and it was excellent. That woman can SING.

Having read some mixed reviews of If/Then, I can see where critics are coming from when they say it is clichéd in its presentation of ideas about chance and 'what ifs'. But from my point of view (which may not mean much in the grand scheme of things as I tend to love everything I see on a stage) it was so great to see a smaller, less well known production that was well put together, sung and acted brilliantly. It was just what I wanted from my experience of a Broadway show and I left with such a feel-good feeling. 

Literally carrot cake cheesecake. My two favourite cakes! best EVER.

Love,

Bethan

2014

Things I learnt and took away from this past year.

Don't be afraid of the wrestle - January
At the beginning of my second semester at university, Ruth spoke in church about HOPE and how it is something you have to want to do. God isn't afraid of the wrestle, why should I be?

Be kind not crazy - February
Whilst looking at Ephesians 4 in my lifegroup, Jon said that all too often we can respond to people with an off-handed craziness rather than with simple kindness. "You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together both outwardly and inwardly."

Carry each others burdens - March
Life does sometimes get tricky. I thought about where I got my emotional support from and the importance of having people to talk to when you just aren't sure about things.

Embrace the spirit of an adventurer - April
This one stems from my spontaneous trip to Paris with Becki, Natascha, Ellie and Kathryn. I was given a prophetic word that I have the spirit of an adventurer and I have kept this word with me ever since. I love it!

You are worth the Son of God - May
This had me thinking for days. HOW?!?! This is my value. This is our value. The Son of God. How my head will ever wrap itself around that I do not know. Incredible.

People and stories have transformative power - June
I read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne for our staff training at camp and this was one of the things that stood out to me.

Community. Family. - July
Finding another home on the north shore of Long Island is one of the best things that has happened in my life. Spending all of July and August there we became a family. Such a joy.

Even if - August
I heard about the story in Daniel 3 - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's statue and were thrown into a furnace. "If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us. But EVEN IF he doesn't, it wouldn't make a difference, we still wouldn't serve your gods or worship your statue." Even if. Because it's not about what Jesus will do but what he has done.

Encouragement reinforces community - September
That it does! I am so blessed to have community in many places - Manchester, Croydon, Camp DeWolfe.

Sacrifice always releases power - October
This term, my church  has been focusing on being lavished by the father heart of God. Mark said this when talking one Sunday and it stuck with me. I am not sure what it completely means yet.

Carry this heart - November
This got me thinking about the kind of heart I want to have and carry. I heard this in the context of calling other people home; carry this heart.

Embrace the freedom he has given you - December
"God wants to give you a greater source of freedom in all areas of your life. He wants you to be free to love and worship him in everything that you do. He has so many adventures in store for you and you'll realise this more as you embrace the freedom he has given you." This is what I'm taking forward into 2015.

Happy New Year,

Love Bethan

I'm Glad That I'm a Counselor

As it is coming up to the end of the year (2014), I have been reflecting on the past 12 months and then I remembered that I had yet to post some of my highlights from the summer. On the theme of reflecting and looking back, here are some things I love (and miss) about camp:

• The Long Island Sound and all the beautiful sunsets that came with it: I loved being by the ocean and it being warm enough to swim and snorkel in as well as sail, kayak and canoe on.

• My camp family (obvs): I was so blessed to be surrounded by people who knew me well and who I was totally comfortable around, and who were all pretty hilarious too. I've formed some strong friendships with these guys and they really just made my summers the best.

• Feeling useful: anything from braiding hair to putting on band-aids to belaying kids up the rock wall (especially great when a camper was nervous). I fully knew I had a purpose this summer and that is a great feeling.

• Being able to be silly and ridiculous: see picture below - representing the combined emotion of complete tiredness and excitement of SUPERHERO DAY! Skits were also performed which were properly ridiculous, one of which you can see here. 

• Being outdoors so much: I miss being so active all the time. Swimming in an outdoor pool, running around in animal hunt and capture the flag, campfires, swimming and snorkeling on mornings off. I really like being outside. 

• How there was always a quiet place to go if you needed to: See bullet point one.

• Feeling like everyday was productive: We accomplished something everyday, whether that was seeing a changed attitude in a camper, sailing for the first time or trying new american food (corndogs: no, carrotcakecheesecake: yes). 

Our sand sculpture of the camp featuring a rock wall made out of actual rocks (lol)
Productivity level: high.

• Being able to really value time off and down-time: It's important to take time out for yourself and I really learnt the value of that this summer! Again, refer to bullet points one and six.

See you sporadically in 2015!
Bethan

Returning to Camp

It's been a while since I've blogged! I've been meaning to write a few posts about this past summer as I did last year, but have only just got round to it (I've also been scrap-booking, which has been fun!).

To start us off, here is what I wrote for the camp website right at the end of the summer (I think it sounds pretty high school assignment-y, but worth posting here nonetheless).

Deciding to return to Camp DeWolfe this summer was not a hard decision; the experience I had during summer 2013 was completely amazing and I was at a good position in my life to be able to spend another fulfilling summer as a camp counselor. I was unsure of what it would be like, returning and experiencing camp again with new people, but I was excited to be back; camp in general has always been the place I have felt closest to God in my life, ever since I first went to camp in England when I was fourteen. 

I saw God in all aspects of camp this summer – campers being open to new experiences and emotions, overcoming fears at the challenge course, and everyone at camp becoming a family. I also experienced God in our chapel time, one evening especially, when we brought chapel down to the Long Island Sound. The setting was beautiful, just before sunset, and after worship around the campfire (in a circle big and round) we thought about and wrote on a rock something that needed healing, which we then threw into the sea, releasing our burdens to God. It felt very freeing. 

This was one of the highlights of my summer and many of my other highs were also spent by the Long Island Sound; I had so much fun going sailing for the first time with two of my campers (even though we capsized and turtled the sailboat!) and spending cabin night doing a beach scavenger hunt with two of the girls cabins was great too. We really are so blessed to have such an incredible setting here at camp and it’s one of the things I will miss most when I am back in the UK. 

I believe that coming back to Camp DeWolfe was a choice given to me by God, and I am really glad I decided to return this summer. I learned so much from working with the people I met last year, which I think helped me become a better counselor and leader this year. The people I have met have impacted me in many ways and I know I have a family here at camp which will last a lifetime.

Famous in France

On our final day in Paris we headed to the metro station and passed a camera crew on our route. Kathryn made a joke saying that we should totally be filmed and that she wanted to be the star; we laughed and headed down the steps underground. 

After our day of macaron filled fun, we were walking across République where we had seen the camera crew earlier, and a man comes up to us speaking in French. Realising we were from the UK, he switched to English and asked us to "come and we film you for an advert! It will take two minutes!". Having been approached and asked to buy things all day, I was all for saying no and moving on. But Kathryn (and then the others) decided it would be a fun thing to do! So we said okay and were briefed on what was wanted of us. 

We were placed in front of a giant billboard with a flowing white skirt, resembling Marilyn Monroe's famous pose and told to look interested and when the wind machine blew we were to act surprised. I was so skeptical at this point and thought it was all going to turn out to be a massive practical joke or something! We did three takes of looking interested then acting surprised. Looking interested then acting surprised. Looking interested then acting surprised. Between takes we were all finding this hilarious and so surreal, like what are we doing right now, we don't even know what this is for and we have no idea what we're doing! After our success on the third take we asked what the advert was for and were told it was for a train company (upon researching after, I think it's one of those inter-railing train packages things). They had been filming members of the public all day, so we were pretty sure we probably would never make it into the ad.

As we were leaving, two of the crew members ran up to us and said we needed to sign a contract. Except this contract was in French so we had no idea what it said, but we signed it anyway! Probably not the best idea, but it seemed legit. 

A month or two later, this advert pops up on youtube and we are actually in it!! Well, three and a half out of five of us are in it (the half being Ellie's mouth. Some of my friends are tall). The saddest thing is that Kathryn got cut out of the frame and never got to be in it, and she was the one who was pioneering our being-filmed-adventure! 

So, that's going on my CV (for your viewing pleasure, click here). And the video has over 1 million views! 1 million people have seen my eyebrow raising acting skillz! 

Bethan

a.k.a french advert star.

PARIS

Paris a.k.a the most spontaneous trip I've ever been on. (The excessive use of brackets will be making an appearance once again. You have been warned.)

One evening myself and two friends were moaning about uni work, complaining about Manchester's weather and craving some adventure when we decided we'd just go somewhere in the Easter break! (I feel like we were baking and eating chocolate and tabasco sauce cupcakes at the time too, which just exemplifies our adventurousness really.) Kathryn knew a person who knew some people who knew a guy who knew someone (it was really just one super cool guy called Simon) who worked in some connection with Eurostar so we were able to get free train tickets to Paris!! Such a blessing to our trip. We roped in two more of our friends from church and our mini break (a mini break means true love) to Paris was all systems go. Vive la vie bohème! (This is the only French I know. I love RENT.)

We stayed in a hostel in an area of Paris called Rebublique which was by a canal and as we walked from the station to the hostel there were loads of people sitting, drinking and eating by the canal which was pretty cool. On our first day we pretty much did a whirlwind tour of Paris by foot. It was pretty tiring but so much fun! Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower (classic tourist) which we climbed, admired the views and took photos of  for quite some time.

As we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, we passed the Paris marathon upon which Becki decided it was her life goal to run that race. I'm totally behind her on that one. Unfortunately the Arc do Triomphe was having some works done so we didn't see it in it's full glory, but after walking around the roundabout for flipping ages we finally figured out how to get over to the Arc up close and it was great. 

We took a walk down Champs Élysées, stopped for food (I had brioche) and headed to the Louvre which was a really nice walk. Despite our main reasoning for visiting the Louvre being for use of the toilets, we stopped off to see the Mona Lisa and to take in some more arty-type-culture before deciding that yes we did have enough energy to walk to the Notre Dame. Which is a beautiful cathedral, although I am still unsure of what I think about paying to light a candle to say a prayer/making religion so touristy. But like I said it was very beautiful, inside and out. 

When our feet had pretty much walked off our bodies we headed back to the hostel for a nap, waited for it to get dark before we took the metro to see the Eiffel Tower at night (classic tourist). This was probably my favourite part of the trip, it was SO COOL. I had a macaron for the first time (best thing ever). And at 11pm the tower started sparkling. 

My macaron adventures did not stop there though (those things are excellent!). I'll let these pictures take you on a journey of wishing you had a macaron as good as this.

Excellent. Much more fun was had on this trip and I honestly had such a good time; I am très thankful to have these guys in my life! #selfies #wheninparis #wehavethoseinengland #cosimhappy

Oh, and we also got filmed for a French advert but more on that later (I'm famous in France!! Basically.).

Bethan xxx

Fading West

Fading West is the film documentary made by Switchfoot and can pretty much be summed up in three words; music, surf and travel. It's about the band (my favourite band at that) travelling around the world, touring, surfing and writing a record simultaneously. Having never seen a surf or a band related film, I wasn't sure what to expect. All I knew as I sat down to watch it on my train from Manchester to London was that I was really excited (and had been since news of the documentary was released) to see what these guys had come out with this time.

One part of Fading West that stood out for me, aside from Drew's Joker impression (never again please), was the part about heavy metal festivals and 'uncomfortable' places where their music wouldn't necessarily fit in and people have no idea who the band is. Jon described it as "bringing songs we believe in to uncomfortable places because we feel like that's where they need to be heard" which struck me, and is just one of the many reasons I appreciate this band. Music can reach out to people a lot quicker and can hold more meaning than say a sermon can. It is those songs which stick in our heads, that get sung throughout the week and which are memorable.

I really liked and appreciated the family aspect to this film, between the guys as well as with each of their families being involved. There were some heartbreaking moments in Fading West which were sad to watch but these were outnumbered by the joyful family moments; of family in rehearsals, their children in the recording studio and father-son surfing times. It made me realise how much family time the band miss out on when touring, but as is mentioned time and time over, they do it because they believe in what they are singing and what they do, which I admire very much.

Fading West has opened my eyes to a whole world of surfing and I have subsequently found that watching videos of people surfing is quite therapeutic. Though I can’t imagine what it feels like to be on the waves, it looks incredible. The score to Fading West is also incredible and it’s such a great preview to the album which is released later this month. Some deep-life-questions were posed in the documentary, especially the matter of faith in tough times and these were accompanied with music that I am so looking forward to hearing the full song of. Finally, the whole documentary was epically shot and the cinematographers did an amazing job. Also a quick shout out to Chad chasing animals. And him being the producer! Awesome. Thoroughly recommend Fading West, the documentary and am looking forward to Fading West, the album insane amounts!

Christmas dinners and university

I've just come to the end of my first semester at university and where did all that time go!? I've been in Manchester for 13 weeks now (which is longer than most of my friends at other universities) and it's just gone so fast, I started the semester off with a Geography field trip to Keswick and now I'm in my room deciding what to pack for christmas at home (I'm also wondering how I managed to pack for 2 months in the US yet I can't fit what I want to take home for christmas into my suitcase..).

So, a few things about my first semester (as told through the multiple christmas dinners I have had this week):

Course-wise I am genuinely really enjoying studying geography. I've managed to attend all my lectures (I only live a 5 minute walk away from campus so there's no excuse really) and the lecture content is interesting; my favourite module is one called 'Understanding Human Geography' in which we've covered topics such as multiculturalism, national and local identities and mobilities. I've also successfully completed four essays this semester! Essay writing was something I was worried about before starting uni because I had taken maths and chemistry which didn't involve essays alongside geography, and the essays in geography were never my strong point! However it turns out I didn't really need to worry as I've improved my essay writing with the help of my academic advisor over the four essays I've been set already, so I'm happy!  My academic advisor is so nice, chilled out and generally helpful with university life so that's great too! Finally, my coursemates are wonderful and I've made some good friends who like things that I like (particularly david tennant and daniel radcliffe, ha.). Christmas dinner number 1 was held in honour of Frankie's and Nicola's birthdays and it was amazing, particularly the warm chocolate-fudge-with-an-actual-layer-of-fudge-cake for desert!

One of the first pieces of advice I got about going to uni was to "find a church as soon as you can and get involved". The church I go to is called vinelife and meets in a building called 'the powerhouse' which is a community centre and library. Having visited a few churches this summer and in the first few weeks in Manchester, I really felt it was important to settle in one rather than visit more. There are so many churches in Manchester and all of the ones I visited only had good things to say about the others, which is so wonderful, but made it harder to decide where I should be! Vinelife own a coffee house at the top of the curry mile and everyone who works in there is a volunteer aka a cafe missionary so I've started doing that on a Monday morning! It's really exciting and there is so much to learn, especially because I don't drink coffee so have no idea what all the varieties are! I've also joined a lifegroup where we meet weekly and do bible study/outreach/socials together. There are 12 people in my lifegroup and every single one of them is incredible. This was Christmas dinner number 2, where we went round and each said one thing we were thankful for this year (so american) (but such a good idea) and one dream for 2014. There were some big dreams shared that evening, I'm so excited to see where God will take them. 

As I mentioned before, I live super close to campus which is so good for sleeping in and nipping back for lunch between lectures! My flatmates are really great and next year I'll be living with three of them in an actual house!! We're really excited, mainly for the sofa and how clean the kitchen will be! I really enjoy coming in from uni and cooking/chatting with them in the kitchen, and making and eating Christmas dinner number 3 was so much fun (even though I definitely did more eating and less cooking)! 

There were some not so good times too but at the moment I'm really happy and overall I've had a sound first semester at uni!

Bethan 

(Also, skype is so much better in the same time zone! At the beginning of term I'd get an email from my parents asking to skype at a certain time and my mind would automatically calculate what time that was in New York, even though I didn't need to. Small blessings.)

So long, farewell

..auf weidersehen, goodbye! (titled so because Hannah and I watched The Sound of Music in our time off at camp)

So, leaving was one of my least favourite parts of the summer. I was torn between really wanting to see my family and friends back home but also really not wanting the summer to be over and having to say goodbye to everyone who I'd become close to. During the week before leaving, we talked about going back home and not being part of camp; some things I was really going to miss like the community, the laughs, the silly greetings (#awkwardsalmon), the sunsets, the adventure course, being in a routine and being around kids all the time but there were some things I was not going to miss as much like the time difference between New York and London, showering with flipflops on because of gross-ness, cleaning the girls bathroom, the heatwaves, dealing with ticks and, being around kids all the time. I knew it would be strange leaving everyone I'd met that summer and coming home to a place where if I shouted "Hey [insert name here]!" I wouldn't get a shout back of "HEY WHAT" and then a continuation into some crazy camp song. 

I wrote here about saying goodbye at True North to Megan, Mike, Matt, Emma and Madison (so many M's) and after that we got into the international van for the last time and Karen drove us to the train station. Saying goodbye at the station was so strange because our train was waiting at the platform so we said goodbye then got on the train but it wasn't scheduled to leave for like 2 minutes so there was a period of waiting (us on the train, Karen on the platform)  in which, whilst almost all of us were crying/tearing up, Jess gave Karen her dancing chicken. True story. When the train left we did the classic waving for as long as possible out the window and then sat down for the journey into the city. It felt like a genuinely sad train journey but we looked through each others cameras at pictures of the past 7 weeks which was nice. Then Rachael, Katie, Jess and Pete had to get off at the station before Hannah and I so urgent hugs and goodbyes were had as they all needed to get off the train with their luggage to travel on to their next adventure. So it was just me and Hannah left on the train which pulled into Penn Station and we then lugged our suitcases up some stairs and navigated ourselves to the nearest bagel place, naturally. 

Then it was time for my final goodbye to Hannah, this one thankfully was less emotional than all the previous ones as I just sort of knew I'd see her again in the not too distant future so that was really great. We realised the other day that Hannah was the one person I spent every singe day with during my 8 weeks in the US which was really annoying pretty cool! I then headed to my hotel to get ready for my 4am flight the next day. 'Getting ready' involved spending all my change in the vending machine, dancing to the radio and rolling around on the massive bed all mixed in with bursts of loneliness - it was so strange to go from being constantly surrounded by friends to suddenly being alone in a hotel room!

So that's that. Summer: Complete!

And so that concludes my posts on my summer as a camp counselor. I could write about heaps more things, but will leave just a few more good memories here:

• The evening that began as talent show (in which us G3 girls performed the most Godly of raps) turned into a dance party involving Irish dancing with Rachael and a fab rendition of 'Kung-fu Fighting' with Hannah.
• When I dressed up as a caterpillar and escaped from the zoo (funniest thing ever).
• Getting sick from eating too many mangoes and the only way to recovery was having my kids dance like monkeys and sing songs from The Lion King.
• The absolutely insane cabin time where our girls turned off all the lights, had their torches on and did a fashion show.
• Eating ice-cream wherever possible.

Bethan 

This is the Sound

Most of my favourite moments of the summer were spent on, by or looking over the Long Island Sound.

On the day we arrived, one of the first things I remember doing was walking down to the Sound with Katie, Pete, Jess, Hannah and Rachel and walking along the beach for a bit, taking in our new surroundings which involved a beautiful clear sky, sandy beach and the sea! I remember having no idea what the summer would turn out to be like yet feeling like I was meant to be there and excited for what was to come.

Whilst we were in our last week of staff training, the 4th July rolled around! That evening was spent kayaking until sunset, playing american football on the beach, eating s'mores around a campfire, watching fireworks and stargazing. It was one of those nights that was quite honestly perfect.

Because I was a climbing instructor and not needed on the beach, I usually had time off when the morning activities down at the Sound were going on. This was good for me as the morning was a reasonable time to skype my family back home and also because one day it meant I got to ride in the motorboat! It was such a cool experience, made even more awesome by the nice weather and conversation with Kevin, head motorboator (legit term).

Aside from accompanying campers up and down the stairs to the beach, I think the only times I was properly down there with them was for the hardcore sandcastle competitions (oh, and beach clean up)! With our second group of kids, Jess and I created the lost city of Atlantis and with the third, a (real life) hermit crab which involved Jess folding herself up in a trash can, what a legend.

And finally, there were some absolutely amazing sunsets that I experienced throughout the summer, a real testament to God's beauty and power in creation. On my midweek days off I went down in the evening with a book, my ipod and journal and it was beautiful. 

Manchester's grey skies can't compare really!
Bethan
p.s. if you get the title reference, you win.

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