Post camp part I

Camp Dartmouth Hitchcock was amazing. I spent the majority of my time at the ropes course, working for DH, family camp, National Guard camp, and Polaris, a freshman orientatation programme for Pennsylvania college. It was great to see the kids who really struggle with their joints get to the top of the climb tower, or take a length around the rope course and come down the zipline =)



I lived in a cabin for the week, with a few great girls, Emily, Miriam, Faryn and Laura. All staff members, no campers - they were looked after by the volunteers, so I had a lot of free time! It was a very social week, with a lot of hanging out round a fire or on the docks at night. And nights UTH; Up The Hill. Every night there is a big fire UTH at Lanakila where councilors from all camps can go and hang out and have a few drinks and socialise. The best night I've had so far is ever more to be known as The-Night-That-Was-Meant-To-Be-Up-The-Hill-But-Ended-Up-In-The-Castle-Instead. I drove the huge truck up the ridiculously steep dirt track with 2 big containers of water for putting the fire out. And could not find the spot. Normally the fire is lit and the you can see it through the trees, but we could not see or hear anything. So we drove down again - which was lucky because we found the water coolers on the track; the truck no longer has a tail gate! Refilled them and filled the truck bed with 6 people and headed up once more to discover there was just nobody around, so we turned around (again) and headed to the castle and sat in there for most of the night instead.

It was sad to say good bye to Lake Fairlee and Aloha. And so much harder to say goodbye to all of the people. It's been an incredible summer, and I've made the most amazing memories . It's strange thinking back to the me who stepped onto a plane just a few months ago. I feel like my confidence has grown, my independence,  my creativity, my ability to Fake It Til You Make It, to make the best of things - Take 24 kids instead of 12 with 1 less member of staff? Sure. Jump out of bed at 7 after a 5 hour meeting that ended at 11:30? No problem. Homesickness kicking in at 3 in the morning, every morning? Piece of cake. Be in 2 places at once? I got pretty good at it.

I left camp exhausted, with clothes that smelled of sweat and camp fire. I had too much stuff to fit in my pack and shoes that were worn through. I had laughter, tears, memories and friendships that are going to last the ages, no matter how far away we are.

But on to the next part of the adventure.

I drove to Massachusettes with the hilarious Molly, and that journey taught me one vert important thing; don't leave Molly alone to lock up the car! We spent an extra while sat on the curb waiting for the AAA to come and retrieve the keys from the cup holder (sorry Molly, i refuse to let you live it down). We stayed with another camp friend Matt (and by that i mean a friend from camp, not that he is camp!) and his family who were incredibly lovely and welcoming. We spent the next day exploring Boston before continuing our long drive down south to Molly's home in Bethesda, Maryland. The next day was Baltimore which is a really cool city. We went to the National Aquarium where we saw a lot of cool stuff including a beautiful giant sea turtle with only 3 legs, sharks, lots of jellyfish and a dolphin show.

And then to Washington DC. I met up with some girls from camp amd we spent the day exploring the city. Its very beautiful, lush and spacious the roads are very wide and the traffic is a bit crazy, but every one seems pretty chilled out which I was not expecting. All the museums are free so we spent a long time cruising around them taking in cool exhibitions amd learning lots. The best was the Museum of American Buildings that had an exhibition called The Beach. It was a giant ball pool where  we spent a good couple of hours pretending to be kids again.


I met up with my wonderful family in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, and have been here for the last few days. It's complete madness around here, with the 4 Virdee sisters and their families all squished into one (very large) house. There's Dan and Jag (sister #3) and their daughters Alex and Simran; we're at their house. Then Rupi (sister #2) and Gurch (#4), Deepie (#1) and her kids Anoop and Ajooni, and her neice Mia and mother in law Momaji. And then there's Mommy and Daddy bear. And me. That makes 14, and thats a lot of people to co-ordinate. We spent today at the beach. Its a private one for all the people who live in this neighbourhood. It's crazily hot too, hotter than it was in Vermont. It's currently 69°f and its 10pm, earlier it was 82°. Would have liked to have spent more time in the water, but there's a lot of jellyfish around. Not a problem, however, when you are on a jetski.