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.)