New York and DeeDee's Dream World

Good afternoon! There is so much more to say than I could say in the time that is left before dinner, but I will try to cram some of it in. This weekend was long break. Normal breaks are from closing day lunch time to the following day's 8pm. Long break was from closing day lunch time to 3 days later's 8pm. So 10 of us - Shaina, Emma, Zoe, Pip, Nat, Kadimo, Josh, Janine, Carly and myself - packed our bags, got on a chicken bus (from Chinatown, Boston to Chinatown, New York for $15. Bargain) and headed to New York with Marcus and Louise who stayed with Marcus' folks. We stayed in Manhattan Citadel Salvation Army Corps for free, which was an amazing gift from God. We split into groups alot of the time but even still it was tough to keep everyone pleased with what we did. Regardless, we went up the Empire State building, saw the Chrysler(sp) building, ground zero, the statue of liberty (from afar), wall street, macy's, bloomingdales, madisson avenue, united nations building... and many more. My favorite was Times Square and Broadway. It was AMAZING!! Unfortunately I didn't get to see a broadway show (Brad, play and musical freak, was actually sadder for me than I was for myself...) but I enjoyed it all immensely. Highlights were sleeping 10 people in the flat, which was roomy enough for at least double that amount of people on the floor, eating at Hard Rock Cafe on Times Sq with Emma and Shaina, and trying to fight wind and rain in wall street. This break was much needed especially after a 9 day session instead of the normal 6 days, and the last 2 days were pretty intense. We had 3 caper searches - 2 in the water the day before last, when the campers had been miscounted and we thought one must be under the water. The call "All counsellors in the water" brings shivers to my spine, and on the last day we had a camper search that lasted around 3 hours, 45 minutes of which I spent walking around the woods with the rest of the program staff searching for this kid, after the call was made "All campers and staff to the shell to sing camp songs" Turns out we called the police and they found the camper about a mile down the road. He'd left camp. Needless to say he was sent home that night. Scary biscuits. Right after we were called back from the search, one of the staff fained and was unresponsive so taken to the hospital. This was just before dinner, and right after dinner another member of staff was sent to the hospital because she was hyperventilating and shaking for a rather long time and couldn't calm down. So yeah. Break was needed. Tonight's evening program I am involved in is called DeeDee's dream world. DeeDee loves chocolate... it all involves chocolate. Amazing. This program has been pushed back each week because of various things such as rain and camper issues. Brad (YBU leader) is actually ill today so I'm helping out more than I would normally, but we're going ahead with it. I'm assigned to YBU devotions in the mornings this week too so Shaggy and I lead songs to give Brad a rest before telling the story. Anyway, tonight will involve things like putting whipped cream on counsellors faces and campers having to stick as many marshmallows as possible on their faces, candy bar tag races, canteen breaks... how much fun will this be? And I'm not a counsellor so I won't get too messy. I'm 3/4 of the way through Harry Potter. I'm trying to finish it fast because Brad wants to discuss the inner workings of each situation in the book with me but can't yet. He's doing pretty well at not saying anything though. I have my hair in braids - Rachel needs practice and has decided my head of hair is a good one to use. Glad to be of assistance! Plans for after camp are slowly developping, thinking Tennessee to see Janelle and then over to California, wouhou! This coming break is one I have nothing planned for, I may just stay on camp and chill, cause the following one, most of the staff are heading up to a camp in Maine for the day for relaxation and ball games. I'm really looking forward to that. I was also offered (pretty much) a part time job working in a montessouri nursery in Morningside a few days ago. So that's a fantastic answer to prayer. For now I'm looking at working there mornings and at Little Foxes afternoons to give me a wage I could live off. This would start in October. So excited!