so camp ... i guess thats all i can think of. i miss it so much and i wish could explain to my friends and those who dont go to camp why i love it so much. bit i guess the stuff that i like so much about it cant be put into words. its more of how i feel while im at camp.

so when i first got to camp i met up with all my friends and took the swim test ... i got the highest swim level (aww yeah go me). then we had a cabin time thing where we met out cabin mates and learned about them. then our counselor katie (aka travers) decided to dub us the kimber (our cabin name)frogs. then she proceded to paint our faces green with tempra paint mixed with soap ... quite a smelly concoction if ya ask me. so any ways we walked around camp all day with green faces and ribbiting. it was so much fun. the great part about our cabin was that we really fought the bad name senior 2 (my camp age group also the highest camper age group) girls have previously earned. they are known to be lazy, made up, and boy crazy. we were none of the above. barely anyone in our cabin wore makeup. when we went ot our activities we were all out. i loved playing dodgeball vs. the boys! and there were really no "oh hes so dreamy/ oh shes hott" things going on between us and evening star (oldest boys cabin). it was great. and we were also really close. we were always hanginf out within the cabin ... and there were no cliques. everyone liked everyone else. god i loved that cabin. and it helped to have an abbot and costello team of counselors. we had travers the dopey and crazy counselor who was paired up with carrie the new younger and just a bit quieter one. she also let travers get away with everything. like when travers decided to show carrie how impulsive she was by painting a purple mustache on poor carrie who was held down by another counselor. needless to say we were well aquainted to the facepaint by the end of the day.

the campfires are the first andlast night of every week. lucky me got to see 4 of them cuz i was there 2 weeks. each campfire is based on the theme of the week. (each week has a different theme)the first weeks therem was hollywood. the 2nd weeks theme was the olympics. so the counselors do skits, sing songs, and throw eachother in the lake rather randomly throughout the gathering. the best part about the campfires is watching the sunset on the lake. its absolutly beautiful. its amazing the huge array of rich color painting the sky. i LOVE it!

and since the camp is a christian camp we have mass 3 times a week. it sounds like a bit of god overkill but its really not so bad. mass is actually really fun at camp. we sing songs like father abraham. and yell the customary responses. for example: when the priest says "peace of the lord be always with you". and we would respond by yelling as loud as we could "AND ALSO WITH YOU!" its exciting. its so casual its enjoyable. if church was like that normally i would have no problem with it.

cabin time is always the 2nd night and its just 2 hours the cabins have to them selves to do basically anything we want. for instance: my forst cabin time we painted our entire bodies green and jumped in the lake off the dive tower. i must say our cabin time was extremely creative. the second week was kind of devastating. we had to have a new counselor come to our cabin along with a fresh batch of new campers.( a majority of campers come only 1 week). it was hard to say good bye to travers and the 15 frogs. but the second week was not so bad cuz 1: carrie was still one of our counselors, and 2: we got brenna who happend to be the most leniant counselor ive ever met. she let us break almost every rule established. one big rule is that you are not allowed to climb on the rafters of the cabins (wow i wonder what happened to enforce that rule). well she descretely told us that as long as her back was turned we could climb our little hearts out. and im telling you ... we did. when your up in the rafters its a whole different perspective. the cabi nlooked so different. me and katie spent many a rest hour up in those rafters talking and scaring the crap out of unexpecting cabin mates.

i have mastered the camp stella maris ropes course. yay me. the first day was the zipline. easy enough. climb up a 100ft tree on a tiny little 8" rung rope ladder and jump off holding on to a rope and zipping down a line reaching a top speed of 25mph. then when you reach the bottom you are stopped by slamming into a row of tires. of course the whole time your harnesses in .. but still. whew day one complete. on to day 2. the dreaded pamper pole. picture this. a 30' telophine pole on top of a hill surrounded by trees. it begins at a diameter of 1' and thins as it gets to the top. the top diameter is about 7". you climb up this pole of sorts and stand up on the top. now do remember that there is nothing to hold onto when you get to the top so you have to sortof balance and stand up on one foot 30' in the air. the cool part is that its the highest point on camp so you can see the whole place. so when you get to the top you look around and jump to a trapese. yeah yeah your harnessed in but i think that its name is appropriately named after a popular diaper brand. believe me people have actually peed their pants on this thing. ok so day 3 i did the actual high ropes course. you are up about 30' in the air and you climb through a series of wires and rope obsticles. that one was cool.

cheerdance is ... well ... interesting. i dont want to get into detail. maybe im a little embarassed i shook my butt infront of the whole camp ... and well i believe thats enough said...

open waterfront was really fun this year. it was nice to go chill in the diver section and bother dan ( a counselor who had dock gaurd duty) and just hang with friends on the beach.

the second week was even better cuz i went sailing almost everyday. that was an adventure all in itself. the best day was when we went out on the lake and just layed out on the tiny sunfish's sides in the warm sun and playing the question game. hehe im not gonna tell you what the question game is. hehehehe youll jus thave to sit there and ...

o fine

its when we ask a personal question and all have to answer it truthfully. its actually entertaining.

one night this counselor ben lucas (hott!) who didnt work at camp this year, came with a few friends and played a little concert for the camp. it was really fun. they played alot of great covers and then a few of theyre own songs too. the 2nd week they had a band from livona (the neighboring town) play for us. that was awesome too. this guy sounded just like dave matthews.

i got really close to alot of really great people. most of which i never expected to like. thats the best part about camp. i made friends with alot of counselors too. and email one on a regular basis. thats really important to me. now that im older some counselors treat me differently. and i love it.they treat me like a human being on the same intellectual level instead of just a camper. thats amazing about these people ... and camp. everyone is equal. and there are really no conflicts. you feel safe all the time and your always happy. well at least thats how it is for me.

i also took alot of time to just take in camp itself. like how good it felt after we were cold from the cold water used in the mudslide and we lied down on the warm basketball court. and how the leaves looked in the sun when the wind blew them. its like they changed colors. and when we were on the lake i saw how the sun reflected off the lake and it looked like glitter. thats the stuff im glad i didnt take for granted while i was there. it made it all so much better.

ugh i think i should stop writing. .. i dont really expect anyone to actually read all i wrote. (except maybe pat)but it made me feel alot better to write it all down.

i really miss everything about camp and when i left it felt like my whole world was crumbling. but now i have next year to think about and i have those memories to hold on to. and that makes me happy.

so i guess i updated.

~chels