17 More Days!!!

I can't believe the summer is slowly coming to an end, it's crazy to believe I've actually survived. I was thinking about school and it made me stressed a little and I have to admit that I have completely forgotten what stress feels like. I guess I've never really been stressed so far this summer...just had my patience tested. New campers arrived yesterday and I am in a new bunk once again. This time I am in a bunk with 6 girls-all autistic and all nonverbal. They are 14-17 and really hilarious. They communicate fairly well despite not talking, we use sign language and electronic talking devices for the kids. They are all pretty low-functioning so we basically do everything for them. I was really worried about how I would work with them and build relationships with the kids but it's been pretty great for the 2 days. I will be taking a ton of videos of them. The bunk that is connected to mine has a girl who has to be held by her hands all day because she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and eats it and there is also a girl who has childhood schizophrenia and is on suicide watch (seriously). It's going to be a very memorable 3 weeks I think.

I went to NYC this past weekend and literally did nothing which was nice. I even had an agenda made. My friend has an aunt and uncle who live in New Jersey so we stayed there. Their house is right across the river from the city so we were able to see it all. They have a roof where you can sit and hang out while watching to Manhattan skyline. We grilled steak and chicken and ate on the roof and relaxed..it was great! At like 11:30 that night we went to Times Square because it is so cool at night and we grabbed some delicious NY famous cheesecake. It was a fairly late night so I slept in until about 9. I left at 11 and went to the TKTS line at the Marriott and bought tickets to the Broadway Legally Blonde, which was very good. I also hung out in Sephora for awhile and then bought a train ticket at Grand Central Station and headed back to camp. I seriously love NYC and also really enjoyed Weehawken, NJ.

Here is the view from their house on the roof...they are as close to the river as you can get!

Times Square at night!!

Right before Legally Blonde began!

Hope everyone has a great day and I miss everyone SOOOOOO much :)

Craziness!

The kids are asleep, but it took lots of work to get them to fall asleep. The bunk next me was having some problems with one of their girls so they called me into help (she sometimes listens to me). Didn't work, she punched her counselor so we had to put her in a hold where she ended up hitting me pretty hard and biting another counselor...this girl is VIOLENT...she also punched me this morning at breakfast because I was somehow in the way. Not that big of a deal though. Today my group went to cooking and we made cheesecake and it was delicious. Cheesecake has the capabilities of turning any bad day to good. There's less than a week left in this session and it makes all the campers really bad-with that said, there might not be a lot of posting going on. Tomorrow I get to visit the horses and attend chess lessons with the kids- I am excited! It's been pretty hot here lately but it finally rained tonight so hopefully it brings some coolness. I have also started to take video clips of the kids because I am sure it's hard to believe some of the stories I tell so the videos should help. I also wanted to share my schedule from today just to show what a day is really like here...it changes slightly everyday but the structure is the same. Structure is a key term here and I am ready for a break from it :)

8:00 kids wake up
8:30 breakfast
9:15 clean up bunks
10:00 freeplay
11:15 reading or discovery center
12:15 bikes
1:15 lunch
2:00 cooking
3:00 ceramics
4:00 pool swim
5:00 rest hour
6:00 dinner
6:45 evening activity
7:45 showers
8:30 transition to bedtime

Yes, every minute of the day is scheduled, Monday- Sunday nonstop. Just thought this would help show a little better what I do all day. I am pretty upset because I somehow missed my night off 2 days ago and I can't get it back. We only get 2 nights off for the 3 weeks and I missed out on one. Next session I will pay more attention!

I am getting tired, just wanted to say hi and check in. Hope everyone has an enjoyable monday!

Hi!

I wish I could post more often. There is so much I wish I could write but that would take forever! Here recently, I have been attending chess lessons with the kids and I am starting to like it. I played someone yesterday and WON...when I get home Dad and am going to play you and win so start practicing now :) I have also been taken over by hummus; the chef here makes his own and we have it like once a week and it is GREAT! I wish I could ship it home because I know some people who would like it! I've also been making daily visits to our 2 horses here and I think I want one when I get home. I get to go to NYC next Saturday and I couldn't be more excited. I got hit really hard today and the girl scratched me and I bled...that hasn't happened in a few days. I will be coming home with some pretty interesting scars. There is sooooo much more to say, but there isn't enough time. So here is my quick hello, hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

A wonderful day, finally!

I must say that today has been one of the best days of my summer. This morning at breakfast we had trix, and somehow that started the day off positively. Then we had a good cleanup time. After that was lunch and we were having meatball subs (YUCK) but luckilly I sit with girls who are from Israel and eat only kosher food because they chef made them falafel and they gave me one. It was SOOOOOOOO good. I love that type of food so it made me feel like I was home for a minute. Later in the day we had pool swim, as we do everyday, but today it was longer and it was beautiful out so that was great. Once we finished that we threw our girls a nail polish party and we had tons of fun and there was lots of laughter. Also, all our girls were happy all day :)

So I went to NYC again 2 weekends ago and I never got to talk about it. I will now!

I rode the bus into the city with the kids (free transportation!) with several other friends. We arrived at George Washington terminal in what I would call the ghetto, not sure if it really was but it seemed that way. Then we hopped on the Subway and rode it to Times Square which I am very familiar with now. We walked all around and....sorry I have to cut it short but there is a line behind me and I need to let them on. I WILL post more tomorrow, hopefully with some pictures :)

Miss everyone and thanks sooooo much grandma and grandpa for the 2 letter. Yall are the best and it really cheered me up!

New Session!

We got a batch of new campers yesterday and they are something else. They are the cutest little girls I have ever met. They all have really tan skin, big brown and eyes, and all have beautiful long hair. I will share some stories about the day and half I have been with the girls.

I was assigned to a girl during free play today who was autism and is nonverbal. She knows a lot of signs, and I am slowly trying to learn ASAP. Well we were at the playground, which is in the close to the pool, and she apparently wanted to swim. She took her shoes and socks off which I thought was okay but next came the shorts, pull-up, and shirt. There she was butt naked in the middle of everyone and refusing to move. I pretty muched freaked. She gets VERY, VERY violent when she's angry. She scratched me during this and I had blood coming from it. She is also a spitter and a biter. One of my supervisors ran and got a towel and we literally dragged her away. She then ran into the bath house and threw a massive tantrum. We got our lady who works with these types of kids to help, but she was very aggressive. I mostly observed during this because only supervisors are really allowed to hold down kids. After that incident she was fine and happy for the most part. I got to swim with her later in the day and she absolutely loved it. She may be a little angry at times, but she is a genuinely sweet and kind girl who loves to give hugs!
Another girl who is hilarious refused to move for 30 minutes during one of our hikes in the woods. She has downs syndrone and I have learned that kids with that love to say no and refuse to hear no. Because of that, we have a pretty interesting time with her. Luckily she keeps us lacking.
One sweet little girl was holding my hand to dinner and she called me mom. I told her I wasn't her mom and she explained that I was like her mom since she's going to be away from her for 3 weeks. She said I would be a fun and nice mom since I was willing to sing Hannah Montana with her. A couple of the girls keep telling me how they love having me as a counselor. It's these moments that get me through my day.

Oh, I went to NYC again last weekend, I will talk about it later...hopefully tomorrow. I love Manhattan and will one day live there, even if it's just for a few months...preferably around Central Park of SoHo.

Thanks for my mail and earrings Jessica, I LOVED it!

I miss everyone :) Have a great day!

AHHH!!!

It's been a little while since I last updated this, sorry. The kids leave tomorrow and I get to go to NYC again!! So cool! I got to go to the city by myself Tuesday. I took a train out of Rhinecliff at 10:50 am and arrived at Penn Station at 12:30. I entered culture shock once I got off the train, to be honest, I can't even remember getting off. What I do remember is entering a massive crowd of people. I finally left the train station and was on 32nd street. I started walking having no clue where I was going or what I wanted to do...I was told it was easy to navigate around NYC so I assumed it was. I took a left turn down some street and ended up on BROADWAY!!! I started getting hungry and went to a little cafe and got a turkey sandwich, took it outside to some sort of sitting area and ate with a lot of people who I assumed were local. I felt like a real New Yorker, I hadn't even whipped out my camera yet. After lunch, I kept walking and found myself wandering around Times Square and started taking a million pictures. I kept walking and I was was wondering where Central Park was and at that moment I somehow stumbled into the park. I bought a bottle of water and some icecream and explored the park. It was very peaceful in there. Then my parents told me their plane landed and that they were headed to the hotel so I got my own taxi ride. It was only $10, I thought that was pretty good. I met my parents and we did some more walking and ate at the Brooklyn Diner, which was very nice. We sat at a table that Jerry Seinfeld has sat at so that was pretty neat. Then we walked to Grand Central Station and then went to the top of the Empire State Building. We got to see all of the city lit up since it was night time and it was a great view. I took the train back to Rhinecliff and took a cab ride for about 5 minutes to the camp and they charged me $33 dollars! I must say that wandering alone in a massive city is really neat and everyone should try it! Well my hour off is almost over so I need to go. Enjoy the 4th!

-Mom and Dad, I am SOOOOOOO glad I got to see yall and am very jealous yall saw Derek Jeter up close and personal. Please tell me there are pictures and tell me if the stadium tour is worth it and the price because I am thinking about doing it. :)