June 13, 2008

So the motel shuttle stopped running at 9 a.m. but I wasn’t set to get picked up until 10 a.m. this morning. I figured I would take advantage of the free shuttle and got to the airport a little after 8 this morning. I intended on getting some breakfast (since the last time I ate was during my layover in Chicago around 3 p.m. yesterday). However, for some odd reason LAX doesn’t have any places to eat outside of security.
Needless to say I was starving at that point. It was a bit of a process getting picked up because we were taken by a 15 passenger van so we had to wait on others to arrive. We finally got on the road a little after noon. Of course, to my stomach’s dissatisfaction we ran into the LA mid-day/all day heavy traffic. We got to the camp between 2 and 3 and after checking in at the “Well Shell” (this camp’s name is The Painted Turtle) I was able to find some cereal which I devoured a few bowls in a matter of seconds.
My first impression of this camp was it had a rustic/desert kind of feel to it. I guess this made sense seeing as it was tucked between two mountains and was in somewhat of a desert. Of course we started with volunteer orientation (which I’m confident I can facilitate by now) and played some get to know you games as well as a mini scavenger hunt around the camp to get acquainted with our surroundings.
This is kind of random but this camp has some really awesome sinks in the gym and dining hall bathrooms. The counselor side of the cabins are also very nice and the bed is extremely comfortable (it’s a Serta!) so I’m looking forward to some good sleep this week. The remainder of the evening consisted of more volunteer orientation meetings and various other meetings.
POP QUIZ: Instead of the group of similar color cabins being called a “unit” at the Painted Turtle it is called this word which represents a group of turtles. What is this word? Many kudos if anyone knows the right answer (let me know your answer/guess).