turkey, tuna, ham.

mountains in the sunset.

those are the lunch options (with peanut butter and jelly everyday) on tuesday, wednesday and thursday of camp, respectively. one of the days this week, there was quite the banter going on in radio land about these options. probably one of those "you had to be there" times, but it was quite funny and my students found it pretty funny, too.

this week was great! i had a very relaxed field group of 12 students. we did climbing and archery on the first day instead of the typical team discovery hike. the kids loved getting do to those classes on the first day!

i'm working on being more firm with the students about my expectations. the students are typically very curious about what time it is, what we're doing right at that minute (and the next few minutes), and when they get to eat lunch, so i've started to tell them at the beginning of the day what is going to happen. if they ask me later, i tell them to ask someone else who was paying attention. if they ask me what time it is, i tell them it's either lesson time or lunch time. it seemed to work well!

i've also been giving out three simple rules.

1) when i'm talking, you're not.
2) no interacting with logs, sticks or rocks unless i tell you (safety first!)
3) have fun!

that is also working well. students this week were actually asking if they could pick up sticks and rocks. my typical response: nope! i'm all for hands-on, but usually when a student picks up a stick or a rock, it ends up being thrown back on the ground. sometimes hitting someone else. not okay.

in the not-so-great news, 1 students broke his glasses and three of my students had multiple nosebleeds during the week. yikes!

my friend elysa from SCA massachusetts stopped by for a brief visit. it was incredibly refreshing to have her here! i worked a lot of the time and was exhausted the other part, but we managed to spend some good quality time catching up on gossip and taking a sunset drive around the mountains.

speaking of...here are some pictures that elysa took:

big bear lake at sunset.

my cabin in the woods.

elysa and i (on the left) with the sunset.

i feel so popular.

especially when working with 6th graders. they always want to know more about you (are you married? why is your nose pierced? where are you from? how long have you worked here? where do you live?). students outside of my field or trail groups know my name. they pretty much think that the staff are the coolest people in the world (who would argue with that?).

i enjoyed a delightful week with my cabin group. they were a group of very energetic girls who were curious and enthusiastic about being at camp. we kept our cabin clean, no one got overly homesick and they even taught me a few dance moves while we were waiting for people to finish up at shower time (the shuffle and the spongebob).

a few of the administrative staff watched one of my night classes for an evaluation, and the feedback was really helpful. they basically said i'm doing really well and definitely have potential to be a great instructor. i also found out i passed my climbing certification, so i can teach climbing classes all by myself now. hooray!

the most exciting part of the week, though, might have been auditioning to be a line dancing instructor. i led one dance during a line dancing session, and on friday i found out that i was chosen to be one of the instructors! yay! this means i have the opportunity to make some extra money and wear crazy outfits for teaching.

it's been a relaxing weekend up in the mountains. there was a rather lively social gathering at the square house (our main gathering place) on friday night. on saturday, i went into town with a bunch of the gals to run errands. while thrifting, i found a flag patterned blouse, flag patterned visor and red-white-blue moon boots. i think i'm going to go as an american gladiator for halloween. should be epic!

in other news, i'm considering buying a rail pass for my winter break and taking the train around to visit friends and family. right now i'm thinking of training it from LA to chicago to see my brother and his family. then up to grand rapids (maybe a trip to ypsi if i can snag a ride...). then back across the country, possibly stopping in montana, idaho, seattle and then down to san fran and eventually back to the mountains. we'll see...

grad school (and other future life adventure) musings.

i've only been at high trails for a month, but i'm trying to sort out my next life adventures. i know that i want to go to grad school eventually, and it's been on my mind more lately. here's what i'm thinking right now...

i like new england. i like michigan. i'm learning to like the west coast. i like mountains. i like the ocean. when i continue my education, i want to study something having to do with water management and/or sustainability. it'd be great to travel abroad.

i could stay at high trails for a while. i could apply to graduate school. i could apply to the peace corps. i could get another job somewhere doing something awesome.

schools i'm looking at:
university of vermont: m.s. in natural resources with a focus on aquatic ecology and watershed science
university of michigan: m.s. in natural resources in tandem with a peace corps assignment
university of oregon: m.s. in environment studies (very interdisciplinary program in a cool place)

ah! it's a good thing i don't have to make a decision anytime soon.

ps. i found a place that PAYS you for cardboard and metal. exciting!

18 students, 5 inhalers, 2 EpiPens and a lunchtime medication.

that's what i had to radio in every morning when i received my field group this week. i felt like a walking medicine cabinet with lots and lots of children tailing behind me. also, i decided to fill in for someone and took on a cabin group the first night of camp.

needless to say, i'm a bit exhausted right now. all in all, the week went really well. my field group, although they were a bit on the rowdy side, definitely came together and showed me that they were learning and paying attention. it was great to have another taste cabin life in my night at the cabins.

i can tell i'm getting more confident in my responsibilities with this job and am feeling much better about all of the lesson plans. it's nice to start developing a routine to my life again.

in other life news (because my life doesn't always revolve around work), my camera is fixed and waiting to be picked up from best buy so i'll soon be able to post pictures from my beautiful new home! i did some trail work last weekend and LOVED it. i also really enjoy the folks i live with : ) they pretty much rock.

i am missing home...feel free to call me or write letters!

my address:
po box 1147
angelus oaks, ca 92305

: )

my week as a cabin instructor.

i spent this week working as a cabin instructor. my duties were similar to being a summer camp counselor. i met my group of 9 girls on monday evening, helped them move their luggage to our cozy cabin on the far side of the camp, got through dinner and then spent the evening getting settled in.

throughout the week, i taught evening classes in nocturnal animals, astronomy and a multi-part community building class called tribes. the classes went pretty well. there were some issues at first with tribes because some of the girls were friends from school and some weren't. i had to stress quite a bit that it didn't matter whether the girls are friends, we were all in a cabin together this week and we would make the most of it.

all in all, the week was great. there's a plague (nasty cold) going around the staff, so i wasn't feeling the greatest...however, i made it through! the shift schedule was a little funny. i worked evenings leading classes and spending the night in the cabin with the girls (no major issues!). i then got them through breakfast and showers and preparing to be out in the field all day. i had the afternoons off, but most of those i spent observing other staff members' classes for improving both my teaching and theirs (we constantly do evaluations of each other here. it's kind of great).

i enjoyed the change of pace, but it'll be fun to be in the field again this week. so, some may know of my clumsiness, but i'm keeping tabs of my small injuries so far...

• slicing my finger when constructing my bow drill (i'm just not going to have feeling in that little sliced area now)
• losing a chunk of my big toenail while walking to the bathroom at 5am (it's fine)
• getting my hand stuck between a vacuum cleaner handle and bunk bed (just a bruise)
• scraping off the top of my other big toe on the refrigerator (flesh wound, no big deal)

oh sixth graders.

i am relaxing on the weekend after a slightly stressful first week with a rowdy group of 6th graders at high trails. we had monday off, so i spent that day finishing up my materials, working on my bow drill and hanging out with people.

tuesday morning found me preparing to take on a group of 14 students for the week. after morning chores to get our site ready, i waited at the bus turn around (also called the "helipad" since a helicopter could land on it) with the rest of the field instructors. there were lots of rules explained and even more names called for on attendance lists. at that point, i'm pretty sure i was more nervous than any of the campers about being at camp.

but, i welcomed my dancing dodos (that was their team name. later in the week i accidently started calling them dingos. remnant of a game from my last job) to a fun trail group. we went to lunch and then had an enjoyable team discovery hike to introduce them to some of the concepts we would be discussing throughout their time at camp. it was good! i managed to get through everything in the lesson plan, so i was happy. i fumbled my way through sitting at a "happy table" (i get to make polite conversation and make sure that only one student is up from the table at a time, yay!) at dinner and then cozied up in my cute cabin for the evening.

on wednesday, my group was doing a long hike around camp while learning about decomposers, plants, and outdoor survival. the morning was pretty chaotic with having to make around 200 sandwiches for our picnic lunches AND make sure we had everything set for all of our classes. the day did not go perfect. one student twisted his ankle during a tag game in the first lesson forcing us to remain in the same location for about an hour (not fun for active kids). there were a good share of behavioral issues...and then a bunch of bumps and scrapes during our shelter building activity. but, i'm learning a lot about how to handle a difficult group of kids, so i'm thankful for the challenging experiences and the chance to use my first aid training.

thursday gave me the opportunity to delve into what happens when southern california gets rain. the kids are definitely not used to that sort of weather and the minute it started raining they were all complaining of being cold and begging to go inside. i had a flashback to when i pulled a 13 hour day in a torrential downpour doing trail work and just wanted to tell the kids to toughen up, but we did end up going inside. we made it through our adventure course alright and managed to get through archery without anyone getting hurt, so that was great. by then, the sun came out and it was beautiful again! we had a long lunch including a game of camouflage (hide and seek). our next stop was the climbing wall, something i wasn't excited about, but my kids were. all of the new instructors are being observed during our first archery and climbing classes to become certified. i passed my archery certification, but i didn't make my climbing certification. i felt good on the content, but my delivery of the lesson and management of the kids was definitely sub par. they all had a lot of fun and no one got hurt, so it was great, but i was definitely anxious the whole time. it'll be good to try for my certification again.

we finished the day with a short environmental awareness class. i was looking forward to this class the whole week, but because the climbing wall was delayed, i had to scrunch an hour and a half lesson into less than an hour. not ideal. but...we made it! i was very happy to hand my kids off at the end of the day...

on thursday nights, the kids have a cookout instead of dinner inside so they cook their own hot dogs and make s'mores. it was pretty great to end the day with marshmallow gunk all over my gloves. kind of nice.

friday was our last day with the kids. i helped out with breakfast, did some work in the teacher housing (my "project area" that i am in charge of with 3 other staff), acted out the part of the hummingfish in our rendition of the lorax, had my final 10 minute lesson with the dancing dingos and then waved their buses off as they left to go home. we spent the afternoon in a downpour. i ended up being stuck in the laundry room much of the time because the rain was so bad. there were intermittent bouts of hail, lots of lightning and thunder, and stormwater runoff like i've never seen before. within about 5 minutes of the first downpour there were rivers of water streaming through the parking lot. it was incredible!

what wasn't incredible was having some of the buildings start to flood and to come home and find that my own cabin had flooded. luckily nothing of mine was damaged and within 24 hours the weather has returned to its warm and sunny self.