Training has begun

I left my hostel at 2.30am and headed to JFK International to catch my flight to North Carolina where camp orientation and lifeguard training would begin! It was a two part flight: first to Charlotte NC, then to Asheville NC where camp would pick me up and drive me through to the grounds. Well that didn't happen.

The first half of my journey went perfectly as I slept the entire flight. I disembarked the aircraft and entered the buzzing departures hall in Charlotte. My heart dropped as I saw that my flight to Asheville had been canceled! I made my way to customer services and they informed me that the next flight they could get me to Asheville on was at 10.30 pm, it was 9 am. I was starting to panic. The lady asked me if there was any way I could fly to a different airport and if there was someone I could call. My phone does not work here so she ended up calling my camp director and changing all my plans for me! I don't know if it was the kindness in her great or the tears in my eyes that got her, but thank goodness this lady was willing to help me. I ended up flying to South Carolina where two awesome girls named Erin and Shelby came to fetch me and drove me back over state lines to camp. It was quite a stressful day but as soon as I arrived at camp I could feel myself relax. Boy, I had done a lot of crying so far... Luckily that was over!!

I was welcomed by some happy faces and was given the grand tour of all the grounds. Camp is beautiful.  A magnificent lake is the epicenter of the grounds, surrounded by cabins, trees and the dining hall. The lake has diving boards, slides and docks all around and this incredible looking giant inflatable floating sack of air which catapults kids into the sky when another camper jumps onto the other side! I am so excited to try that! There are rec halls, waterfalls and stables along with a shop and a few camper and counselor lounges scattered around.

More and more people began to arrive and we all became fast friends! The girls here are all so much fun and we are all so similar that friendship just seems to come naturally. We all moved into our temporary cabins and talked into the night.

The next day we all got up and headed to breakfast. Training week had begun. After breakfast, the 20 or so of us split into our different training groups and began basic training. Us lifeguards headed out to the rec hall while the barn staff made their way to the stables. We met up with our trainer who showed us hundreds of videos and taught lots of theory. We had a lot to learn before our lifeguard exams in about a weeks time, but until then we bonded in the boredom and realized that we were going to be one killer team! Not a particularly sought after quality in a lifeguard team but hey...

After dinner, we all decided that we needed to do a Walmart run and so we pilled into two cars and headed into the city. It was so much fun and for no real reason at all but we filled our shopping carts up with things we didn't need and headed to the tills, or the "check out" as it was referred to here. man, I'm going to have to learn the lingo here stat! After our shop, we went to Sonic which is a drive in type of restaurant, where you sit and eat outside. The waiters are all on roller-skates, and wheel your food right to your table or to your car. now that's fast food! The food was bad but the company was great and we all came back to camp much closer than when we left.

So far, camp life is going great and the people are amazing, intelligent, and so funny! This summer is going to be great.