July 30, 2008

I didn’t get much sleep in the airport last night but I did at least doze off for about an hour or two. My back thanked me for it when I got up from the makeshift bed (shown above). My flight wasn’t until 11 a.m. London time so I had about 6 more hours to kill in the airport. The exchange rate was horrible in the airport so I decided to use my remaining pounds to get a full English muffin and iced latte and other treats. The 8 hour flight was nice but long. I was able to watch three movies and again Virgin Atlantic provided lots of surprisingly good food. My flight from Chicago to Ohio was of course delayed as I have learned this summer every flight into or out of Chicago tends to be. To top it off they lost my luggage in route (which happened at this conference last summer to me). We ate at a yummy Thai place for dinner and made our way to the dorm at Xavier where I crashed for the night after getting everything unloaded from the van.

July 29, 2008

I ice skated around in my Crocs again today. I had to have Baguette Express for lunch today since my time here is winding down. I had a yummy chicken and sweet corn baguette with some soup. I hung out at the hostel until I walked to the train station. I took a train from Edinburgh to the Euston station in London. I didn’t know which terminal Virgin Atlantic was in which caused some issues. I was on the last train into the airport and picked the wrong stop to get off at and with it being about midnight had very few options. I was told the terminal I needed was about 4 miles away and no transportation was running until the morning. I talked my way onto the airport staff bus whose driver looked identical to George Bush. We had a pretty long conversation during the hour I rode around with him before getting dropped off.

July 28, 2008

I woke up at 5 this morning and went walking around. I decided to treat myself to a Mcdonald’s big breakfast and coffee. Having learned from the last tour in Ireland, I knew I should get a big breakfast to last me through the tour today. The Haggis Scotland Tour took us by the Stirling castle and the Duane Castle. Our first stop was to see the big “Hammish.” I sat next to a fun lady who grew up in Edinburgh and has lived all over the world. We saw beautiful mountains and a few of the 33,000 lochs (lakes) in Scotland. We stopped for a Lochness boat tour which was really nice just to be out on the water.

July 27, 2008

After breakfast I found a computer to work on reading through information for the conference I’m going to next week, booked a train back to London for my flight back to the states, and worked on emails. I took a tour of the Castle of Edinburgh today. One really awesome quote inscribed on a wall today says “Love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice.” I returned to the hostel and researched tours for tomorrow.

July 26, 2008

We took a train from Birmingham to Scotland early this morning. After the 5 hour train ride we made our way to the hostel where we will be staying in a 38 bed mixed room. I had a yummy lunch at Baguette Express and walked the Royal Mile. We climbed a mountain for an amazing view overlooking all of Edinburgh. I started to climb up the rocks for a photo opportunity which was cut short by the Scotland Historic Rangers. They came and told me I had been caught on camera and they received calls from the motorist driving far below. I was told the land was owned by the queen and I needed to have a permit to be there. I fortunately was able to talk my way out of it despite being told “you are supposed to be arrested and at least fined.”

July 25, 2008

We had to be out of our rooms by 8 a.m. this morning due to the temporary location. After camper departure we did a “Roses and Thorns” of the week for the volunteers. Nearly everyone mentioned food as the thorn including the camp administrators. It’s crazy to think that camp is over for me. We chilled at the hostel this afternoon then went to the “Bullring” which was a large shopping center nearby. After a free BBQ dinner at the hostel we hung out for the rest of the evening.

July 24, 2008

Another unique activity area at this camp was build a bridge which was funny watching some of the other volunteers fall in the mud. At sports and games I facilitated more activities then we all went out in a huge field and had a water fight. The afternoon rotation included drama in which I facilitated two more games followed by a talent show rehearsal. At the talent show this evening I was involved in two of the camper skits. The first was an acting scene in which I was shot by the camper and the other was to help a camper spin plates. The talent show was followed by awards and a closing ceremony.

July 23, 2008

We were challenged at dinner last night to wear our underwear over our shorts to breakfast so of course our group couldn’t back down from a challenge. Our first rotation was circus skills this morning. The campers were able to learn and practice juggling, using a Diablo, and a spinning plate. An activity area unique to this camp was Falconry which we went to next. We watched a short documentary and campers had the chance to hold owls and falcons. We had a baguette with cheese for lunch followed by rest time. After rest time our group went to the obstacle course which had lots of fun obstacles. I had some nice bonding with a few of the campers during this rotation. There was lots of dancing at the disco after dinner this evening and even some camper romance which is normally discouraged but was actually encouraged at this camp.

July 22, 2008

A neat addition to breakfast was spaghetti O’s this morning, I can tell the food is going to be interesting at this camp. There was no activity staff for Arts and Crafts so there wasn’t much structure and the campers just made multiple projects which they enjoyed. After high ropes and lunch our group went to Archery which was in a neat in door facility. I volunteered to facilitate our group’s time in drama and so decided to do group bonding games. Dinner consisted of sausage and mashed potatoes followed by a camp fire. After the cabin chat and debrief this evening I attempted to make some phone calls to reserve a hostel for the night following camp. I ended up getting locked out of the building which took a good half hour to finally find somebody that could let me back in.

July 21, 2008

After breakfast and spending some time reading we walked to get picked up by a coach from the children’s hospital. It was nice to arrive at camp and get a free lunch. We briefly did some get to know you games followed by a very brief and unorganized orientation. This camp doesn’t have a permanent location and thus no full time summer staff. We hadn’t even met with our group or knew our room assignments before the campers started arriving. There were no set positions for camper arrivals so it was fairly chaotic. Once all the campers arrived in our group we went to play some soccer. Dinner consisted of fish and chips followed by cabin rules and a night forest walk.