New York New York

A few years ago I was in New York at a house party talking to a guy about laughing yoga. In later conversation this person also mentioned that he lived in Harlem.

“Isn’t that a really dangerous area to live”? I instantly asked, especially because this guy was white, small and took part in weird things like laughing yoga. If anyone was going to be a target of street crime it would be this crazy Caucasian hippy from Harlem.  

But I was wrong; the guy explained that Harlem is perfectly safe because of something called porch culture. “Even if I go home at 1am you can guarantee there are a dozen people sitting on the steps or porch outside their apartment chatting and socializing”. His basic theory was that the quiet neighborhoods are dangerous; Harlem is busy and therefore safe.

Fast forward to the present day and I am back in New York and walking up a street in Brooklyn. On the corner a man is wearing giant gold chains, a top-hat and big baggy jeans almost hanging round his knees. A car pulls up beside him, a conversation takes place, money is exchanged and then the drug dealer fumbles, drops all his money and four packets of white powder fall on the street. There is a gust of wind and the money is scattered, the dealer’s jeans have slipped round his ankles and he begins running into the street to chase his money. My grandmother would be a better drug dealer than this guy.

I am living in Brooklyn for the week because it is the home of Trish and Tara, friends from Hong Kong. My instant reaction to the neighborhood was that it is unsafe; there are gangs of guys outside buildings and the occasional drug dealer on the corner. But there are also people everywhere, families sit on their porches, local restaurants are packed and children are playing in the nearby church. There are too many people for the area to be classed as anything other than colorful.

Trish and Tara are both studying, Tara is working on a five year programme to gain a PHD and Trish is completing a MA in educational science. When I arrived Tara was staying at her family house so Trish and I had the apartment to ourselves. On the first full day we had a BBQ, sunbathed and drank a few beers, then did similar on the second day but included a trip to the local Laundromat. In the evening we went to Manhattan to have some drinks and basically just relaxed.

There is nothing in particular that I wanted to do in downtown New York, but on day three the weather was unusually clear so I went up the Empire State building and then sunbathed in central park with some counselors from camp. On day four I went to the natural history museum and looked around the shops on Fifth Avenue, the only thing I purchased was a Starbucks mug to add to my collection, everything else was too expensive!

So now it is my final day in NYC and I am packing my bags to go home. I have loved getting to know a different district like Brooklyn and it has been great to see so many friends again. I realized yesterday that this time last year I had just started my attempt to get from Southeast Asia to England by land and sea, I have been very lucky to have experienced such an amazing year and can only hope that my time at university will prove to be as interesting.  

Yellow cabs as seen from the Empire State building

View loooking south with Central Park in the distance

 bx  

Chicago

Horns blaring, people bustling, signs flashing and heat radiating from every surface. There is no refreshing lake to instantly jump in or a walk in freezer to sit*, I am now in Chicago.
I am sitting underneath the John Hancock center waiting for the counselors to return from viewing the city skyline. I nearly decided to join them, but then realized that this would be my fifth visit up there and I already have too many photos.

The journey here was easier than I thought, leaving camp a little bit harder. The final day is always awful, everything has to be taken apart, the dock needs to be rolled in and boats have to be stored in the gym. It’s like destroying summer piece by piece, staff get stressed, older students get tired and the nine year olds get in the way. Thankfully I escaped this process because I got to take kids who won competitions to Hayward to go to the cinema, go-carting and McDonalds. I returned to camp feeling refreshed, relaxed and happy. I was greeted with resentment, frustration and envy.

The final morning arrived and I went for my last 6.45am swim with Sophie. We got to the reeds on the other side and returned in time for breakfast, the kids were excited to go home, the counselors were excited to go traveling. I still had not packed my bags or organized the infirmary, so I was just stressed.
Eventually the bus arrived; I said my goodbyes to Bob, Tony and Sophie, took one last look at the lake and then climbed in the van. I decided not to be too upset; I keep thinking it’s my last time at camp and I keep returning.

I have not created my final video yet because Tony has made one which I have stolen instead. The video is great, but I am having issues uploading it to YouTube, which is why this post is so delayed.

Bx

*There is a nearby lake to jump into, Chicago sits on Lake Michigan, it's just not quite as convenient. And the chef never did catch me cooling off in the freezer, which I did almost daily.

One Week Till Chicago

Tony and Sophie have a much deserved day off today so I am looking after camp. The last time this happened I had two students square off to start a fight, a kid experience an extreme emotional outburst and the bell that keeps the camp on schedule broke and rolled down the hill.

Thankfully today has gone smoothly. I had to rescue a sailboat that was drifting into weeds, but this is normal when you combine strong winds with small kids. Sailboats were crashing into the dock, eight year olds were capsizing and laughing so much they could not get back in the boat and the sailing instructor was staring at me with malice. I see high winds and sailing as the opportunity for fun, the sailing instructors never fully agree.

There is just over a week of camp left and I don’t want it to be over yet. Sophie, Tony and I have been part of a fantastic programme but we don’t have enough time to get everything done, maybe I should go work at an all year round summer camp? The students have also been brilliant. One camper from the sailing class asked me to give her a riddle to solve. I thought about it and said “What’s black and white and read all over”? The answer is a newspaper, but Nia thought about it and replied “a mixed race person bleedin”.

On August 6^th I leave Winter and its local charm to journey south to the big city of Chicago. I am planning on going to New York and maybe Washington DC at some point too. My final thoughts on camp are going to be on a video that will hopefully be uploaded on August 7^th. Between that time I am still having fun and laughing at hilarious kids. 

Kids waiting for the staff parade to begin, candy buckets currently empty

Me as Mr. England, singing the national anthem and being met by booing crowds of kids

 

Bob with Tom on the back of the 4 Wheeler. Tom had poker chips plastered all over his body and the song in the background was Poker Face. Clever.

The dogs dressed up yet again, not happy, slightly humiliated.

Me as Pots and Pans Man. Basically I dressed myself in stuff I could find in the dining room

The Greek Gods

The best Bloody Mary I have ever had, on the Flowage, basically a giant lake where we went tubing and water skiing on our week off. There are bars all round the edge of the lake.

The whole gang during a break from the water

bx

1st Session Video 2010

The students have gone and the mid-session break has started. Keeping the blog updated is really difficult because the camp is fairly remote and the internet is lacking. I have made another video because I can put it together quicker than I can write a blog post, plus it's more fun than always reading text.

On the downside however, I am starting to realise that I am a geek.

Click here to watch the video



bx

Pictures from first session

The week before

On June 21^st at 4.25pm I walked onto the dock and shouted “if I get hit by lightning and die, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of eternity”. Sophie looked up at the black clouds, “its fine, we can swim partway then come back, and it’s only thunder, no lightning”. I joined Sophie at the end of the dock and we both looked down into the dark brown water, I jumped in, Sophie then followed. Team Swim was ready to go.

Then there was a clap of thunder and a camera flash of lightning. The flash could well have been god taking a picture of two stupid people in a lake during a thunderstorm. We looked at each other, turned and ran for dry land.

And it was lucky that we returned, because the students arrived at 4.35pm, earlier than we expected. By this time the storm was overhead and the sky was pure black liquid. One by one students exited the bus and ran for the dining room; the first session had officially started.

A week earlier the weather was slightly more pleasant, camp began to fill up and my isolation with the caretaker ended as quickly as it began. Sophie, Tony and I sat round a dining table with eight new sleepy members of staff. The first thing I talked about was how a large duck was seen to be pulled underwater and killed by a giant fish the previous day. I then told them that a bear had recently been spotted near camp. I was not intentionally trying to scare them but in retrospect I should have kept my mouth shut.

The following day staff training began. The students who attend camp often come from disadvantaged or difficult backgrounds, so specific training is required so staff can teach students good social skills and behaviors. The training and the approach we take is interesting, but not worth recalling on a blog, so I will move on to the visitation of the Alumni.

THE VISITATION OF THE ALUMNI

Imagine a school reunion crossed with a mental asylum and you have experienced an Alumni weekend. Alumni are previous students of the school that our camp is connected to. These old boys kindly organize themselves into a small pack and descend upon camp to tell endless stories about how things were better in their day. They also prepare the camp for operation, and this is a big help, but a few of them need to relearn good behaviors.

The best way to survive an alumni weekend is to keep your head down and try not to laugh. It is a given that some old men will flirt with the young female staff, some will have an ego the size of the entire camp and most will tell ridiculous tales. One story was about how a group took canoes across the lake to a local bar, came face to face with a bear and then journeyed back to camp in darkness.

THE BEAR, THE CANOE AND THE DARKNESS

In England we have a comedy television show called ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. The theme of the episodes usually revolves around a couple of women who drink too much and get themselves into ridiculous situations. I thought of this show as I watched Amy and Jess in a canoe. When they wanted to go forwards, they ended up backwards, sideways or diagonal to the way they wanted to go. It was incredibly funny to watch because they were trying so desperately to communicate and work together, even though they were both a canoeing calamity. I was crying with laughter as we all paddled across the lake towards the bar, and when we finally made it to shore it was decided that the Ab Fab girls should separate for the journey back.

When we arrived at shore we had to walk ten minutes up a gravel road. On the way I heard gunshots up ahead, coming from the bar we were walking towards. The bar currently has a competition where you can win a hunting rifle, perhaps someone had won it.

Finally we reached the bar and the place was buzzing with reports of a bear that had just wandered onto the property. Apparently it was only a baby, and it had been chased away by fireworks, which I had earlier mistaken for gunshots. Sadly we were told that we had missed seeing the bear by only a few minutes, we ordered our drinks and watched a team playing horseshoes in the garden. However, within half an hour though the baby bear was back!!! And with alcohol in our systems it seemed an ideal opportunity to go outside and see how close we could get to it. In real life the little creature was quite cute, and with no scary mother around I got within 30ft of the brown ball of fluff. Sadly it got chased away by fireworks within about half an hour; It was still amazing to be so close to such a wild animal.

After more than a few drinks we made the long journey home. We walked to the canoes in total darkness then floated back to camp. The stars were bright, the mood was good, and the weather was perfect. If the camp operated a risk assessment policy our nighttime activity would have shot through the roof, but we all made it back alive and were soon tucked up in beds ready for another day of training. None of us knew at that time that we were about to experience the floods and storms that marked the arrival of the students.

The Week Past

Updating the blog has been difficult this past week because the new staff have arrived at camp. There has been an intensive period of training and a great deal of entertaining.

The students arrive at camp later today and I am currently in a bar using the internet. I am not sure when my next day off will be because the camp session lasts for 3 weeks, but I will try to update sometime soon.

Some of my highlights this week have been.

• standing 30ft away from a baby brown bear (outside a pub)
• going on a canoe trip accross the lake in darkenss (on the way back from the pub)
• seeing a bald eagle up close (on my way to a pub)
• going on a four hour canoe trip trhough the national forest (on the way to a pub)

There is other news to write about, and I have pictures to upload too, but all this will be documented and posted sometime next week because all these trips to the pub have been keeping me busy. 

bx

PS: Hi to Tyler, my new Italy based reader! :)