Hooray, finally back from camp!

It was such a blast, I was definitely bummed I was only a counselor for one camp. I almost stayed for another, I offered to, but they had more than enough counselors at check-in, so I had to lumber onto the bus with everyone else. But these past few days were certainly full of adventure.

Sunday, went and saw Pacific Rim with Gabi and Tristan. Holy cow, afterwards I was just so pumped. We should have gone laser tagging, or started a bar fight or something. I need to go see at least ten more times. Then we went grocery shopping, yay, food. I bought some general groceries I'd need, plus a little splurge on strawberries (hey they were on sale), and they gathered the materials needed for me to make them lembas bread. You know, the thing from Lord of the Rings that the elves make, one small bite can fill the stomach of a grown man yadda yadda yadda? Tristan found a recipe, so we all gathered in my tiny little kitchen and made some.

It was really freaking good. I mean, obviously, since I made it, but hot damn I wanted to make a dozen more trays of the stuff. It was especially good with honey drizzled over it, and with strawberries. I knew they'd come in handy. But we chatted, pulled a Minnesota good-bye as they straggled in the doorway while we talked for another twenty minutes. Eventually, I was left all alone, and started to pack for my next adventure.

Monday morning dawned, and I still needed to pack stuff. I had figured I could go to bed early and pack in the morning since all I really needed was a towel and some pants. They give the counselors all kinds of clothing, it's great. So I hoisted up the sleeping bag, grabbed a lembas square from the kitchen, and I ran out to the bus stop.

I was a good half hour early, since I didn't know how long the bus takes to do it's tour. I thought I would have plenty of time to get to check-in. I'd be there to help and have time to change into the counselor shirt we were given and required to wear.

Nope.

The bus didn't show up for so longggg. I must have just missed the previous one or something. But that took a while. No problem, once I got on we were cruising right along. Then we get to the transportation hub. The smaller shuttles, the city buses, the light rail, all of them stop right here. It's crazy. But we loitered. I assumed we just had to wait a set amount of time for passengers. Everyone else had gotten off. No one had told me that the bus was in fact turning around, and I should have gotten off to join the bus that had been in front of us.

Well, great. But I still have time. So I ride it around, the bus driver said he stops at the cross street I need. I have to push a destination button so he knows who wants to stop there, which is pretty clever. So I press it and sit down, all alone on the bus and hoping I can make it. We're driving, and I can see the building, looming over all the small shops and boutiques that line the street. It's on our left, so I knew I'd have to cross the street. But he keeps driving. He goes around a corner. 'Must be a bus stop there,' I figure. But the building stays on our left, and then it slowly slides backwards away from us. He keeps driving.

I was so close.

Now I'm back almost all the way to my apartment after riding the bus loop. I get off and catch the next one going the right way, maybe this time it will go right. I get off at the transport hub to get on the proper bus, check. I tell the driver I want this station, and I press the button, check. I pull the cord to indicate I want to get off and the driver miraculously stops, check. Finally out on the streets again, I have to make my way to the building. I may have gotten off a little prematurely, but I'd rather walk an extra block than have to ride the bus around the loop again.

Check-in went great, the bus ride up was long but fantastic. 4 hours later, we're all piling off the bus and the coordinator catches me unloading the bags.

"Yellow 1, right?" I nod. "Yeah, I had to reassign you, you're now Yellow 3." She hands me a slip of paper with my camper's names. Ethan. Perry. Max. I see a pattern here that I wasn't expecting to see. I've been reassigned to a guy cabin, because 5 counselors didn't show up, and there is always more girl counselors than there are girl cabins. I inwardly groan, because who knew what they could be like. But I take the paper and go find my cabin assignment, standing with the three other counselors who will be lodging in that cabin.

We hike down to it, do our ice breaker introduction, they all seem pretty laid back, and then we're off to lunch. First activity after that was boat building. There had been a general consensus at lunch among my boys that they were all pretty lazy, and so they had agreed to not care what they won or lost. I shake my head, but lead them to the boats.

About ten minutes into building it, they suddenly become very invested as to whether or not their boat will in fact work. Then another ten minutes, and they're doing everything they can to make sure it works. This enthusiasm just continually built over the next few days, and by the time we got to the final activity on the last day, they were the most gung-ho team there.

We may not have won any points at Jeopardy (though the final Jeopardy question was the one piece of trivia I knew and had kept telling them. The second it was asked I think Ethan jumped four feet in the air and sprinted to turn in our answer), and our boat may have slightly sunk in the second round (we won our first round, yay!) but they were always ready to go. I was so proud of my cabin. I almost don't want another camp, with another cabin. I just want them to come back every year and hang out. I honestly think guy cabins are better than girl cabins. They just seemed way more into it than any of the girl cabins, especially the one I was roomed with. None of the girls talked when it was time for bed. My camp last year, we stayed up forever talking about stuff. These girls just seemed a little apathetic when it came to the camp.

But I gave all the guys my email, told them to contact me if they had questions or just didn't know what to do. I hope they keep in contact, because honestly, they were super. We have a good freshman class coming in, most of the campers were awesome. But alas, we finally had to get on the buses, had one final goodbye, and then the long journey home began. I think I fell asleep off and on, but suddenly we were right outside the building again. After making sure the campers all got picked up, I headed for the bus, which went a lot smoother this time. As in, I didn't have to ride three different buses to get home. Checked my email, I've been selected for an interview for the job.

I talked a little, and scheduled it for Thursday, because honestly as soon as I got home I was suddenly tired. I probably could have pulled off another camp, but I'd be dead by the end of it.

Thursday. Get up, get ready, bike over to the interview. Show up an hour early. Whoops. Oh well, I get to look at the exhibits and cool off before I have to go chat with the professor. He was really nice, and after a bit of chatting, he mentioned how they had received almost 80 applications for the position, but they had culled it down with resumes to about a dozen. I was in that dozen. I could have run cheering up and down the halls, but that would have been unprofessional, so I just nodded and smiled enthusiastically. My interview may have gotten a little off course when I mentioned space exploration and he started talking about his research and I mentioned a news article and whoops there went the time. Now it all just comes down to whether my schedule fits what they need. I should hear back from them by Monday.

It's going to be a long weekend.

And that brings me to today. Meredith is finally moved in, we had some experimenting in the kitchen (garlic powder and soy sauce tastes like mana from heaven) and then just some general busy work before school starts, her practicing some calc that she forgot, me making flashcards for Chinese that I forgot. I should have studied more over summer, but too late. Oh, and I've been asked to go talk at the engineering freshman welcome about our Chinese program, since I'm the only engineering major in it. I think there's one more guy, but if I remember right he's currently in China, so that leaves only me. Goodness, look at me being so busy. I hope there are enough hours in the day.

By this time next week, classes will have started and hopefully my life will be a little more stable as to what is actually going on. I'll have a job, either as the space building tour guide or as a Teaching Assistant. I'll have homework on a regular basis to keep me busy. I'll have laundry and grocery shopping to do. No more adventures, sadly, to spice everything up. But I think this year will be just as exciting. I'm certainly excited for it.

Oh, and the meteor shower looked fantastic. Everyone assumed I was the expert once I mentioned it, because literally no one else knew it was happening. This led to me constantly being asked questions like "How many will I see?" How ever many your eyes can catch. "Has it started yet, can we go to the field?" Seeing as it isn't exactly dark yet, I would hazard a guess as to no, it hasn't started yet. "Where should we be looking to see them?" Try up, that usually works for me. And of course I'm the one in charge of the field and making sure the campers don't die in the dark by tripping over stuff, because I was the one leading the star gazing impromptu activity. Oh well, it was enjoyable at least. I'm glad the campers liked it. Probably one of the highlights of my year.

Can't wait for next year.