Where am I?

Flit mentioned in a comment in my last article that I hadn't really covered exactly where I was going this summer, so I'm here to cover a little bit of this now. I linked to an old blog that told a bit about it (I know most of you don't click the links, so it's better to just repeat it here) and I think I'll paste some of that below so you can get a feel of where I am and what I'm doing.

The place I work is a children's camp up in the mountains in Connecticut. The camp itself is for 8-14 year olds, but I work with the staff kids or "Peanuts" who aren't old enough to be in the main camp, but come there with their parents. We do basically all the same things, but we're more flexible because of the age group (we take 6 months to 6/7 years, but this year the youngest is almost 3). Here's some of the things the camp includes:

• 18 tennis courts
  
• 8 indoor and outdoor basketball courts
• 3 hockey rinks
  
• 4 baseball fields
• a huge gymnasium
• a gymnastics pavilion
• beach volleyball courts
• ropes adventure course with climbing wall and zip line
• skatepark
• archery range
• fully equipped theater and creative arts centers
• radio broadcasting station
• complete state of the art water sports facilities
• a PGA sanctioned 9-hole golf course
• brand new go-cart race track
  
• 200 acres of gorgeous land, up in the hills, set on an amazing waterfront
• some amazing food with full set of trained cooking staff, salad bar and soup bar at every meal, and plenty of options (including vegetarian and kosher choices) at every sitting
• lots of great people who make the place more than just camp....they make it home for each 4 week session, with some kids coming back for all 7 years and crying more at the end of their last year than you'd expect at a high school graduation
• awesome activities, including stuff for Fourth of July and a huge competition the last week of camp, with openers like Harley riders and a real knight standoff/fight on horses

If you're familiar with the tri-state area up here, it wouldn't be hard to figure out the camp I'm at, but I don't want to list the name and have it pop up in search results of the camp. I can't really use names either, so in future articles, it'll be really generic (like "the two year old" or I'll give a fake name). There won't be any pictures of people, but I'll hopefully get some pictures of the camp for you guys. It's absolutely gorgeous and everyone has tons of fun, so I can't really capture that for you here.

So anywho we go to activities daily and have special events that come up weekly. I'm here for 9 weeks (2-4 week sessions with a little over a week split between orientation in the beginning and a couple days in between sessions). My kids sleep with their parents at night, so I don't bunk with them in the main camp.....I have a long walk back to get to a tiny cabin that I share with my other Peanut counselors and half of the kitchen staff (2 working showers for 15 girls, lol). I'm certainly not living the life (but at least I'm not living in a tent for 2 months, right?) and I get paid very little (less than what many of you make in a single week), but I do enjoy my kids and the experience is irreplaceable. I've been to places I wouldn't have otherwise, met tons of great people, and had fun that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

That's how I keep convincing myself that I should be here this year, lol. I wasn't planning on coming back because last year was insanely rough, but things worked out to where it fulfilled a requirement elsewhere, so here I am.

Back again for another year of camp. I'm crossing my fingers for a good year, but it's already had some speed bumps. Wish me luck. And feel free to ask any questions that I didn't really cover. I don't know what you guys want to know and don't want to bore you with the informational details.