When I went to camp? It was such a great week, and I was really excited to tell you guys all about it, but then I didn’t have time to write very much in my blog. So I was all like, k guys, I’ll post some extra stuff in the Etc. section- be watching out for that!
And then I didn’t.
I kept meaning to, but unlike weekly blogging, the Etc. section has no set deadline, so I kept thinking, Oh, I’m busy right now, I’ll just do it tomorrow. It’ll be fine. And so here we are, two months of tomorrows later. But I’m finally going to tell you some camp stories! Not that you’re interested anymore. But hey, this is just an extra. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
So, one thing I really wanted to tell you all about was my group’s cheer. All the campers were divided into teams based on their grades, and these were the people they went to Recreation and Bible Study with. At first we thought that all the chaperones were just going to be on one big team, but it turned out that there were enough college students for us to have our own team- Sonic Boom. Our team was pretty great :) Most of the staffers are either college students or recent graduates, so our team leader was about the same age as most of us. So Bible Study and the other activities we did were pretty informal and open. We also had more time for just open discussion, since we didn’t have to do a lot of the same silly little activities as the actual campers. So, one thing that all the teams did was come up with a cheer to show everyone during Rec Rally. As the college team, we weren’t really required to make a cheer, but of course we wanted to anyway- who wouldn’t? We spent about half the week bouncing ideas around and trying to figure out what would be the most epic thing to do. Since our team was called Sonic Boom (by the time you hear us, we’re already gone), one person had the idea that we just walk in front of everyone, stand there quietly for a minute, then walk off and shout, “Boom!” But we figured that, seeing as our primary audience would be middle and high schoolers, most of them wouldn’t really get it.
Instead, we finally decided to do our cheer based on that car commercial where this family’s sitting in the car, all doing the different parts of Crazy Train (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZkoJxQrlm0). It was pretty awesome. We went out all serious and got lined up in rows like in choir, and our team leader stood in front of us like he was going to conduct us. He even gave us a starting note, and then we started on our Sonic Boom rendition of Crazy Train, and it was so much fun! And of course we won the spirit monkey. Campers were coming up to me all day saying how cool our cheer was. It was pretty great :)
Another cool thing we did at camp was trust falls. Before I went to Fuge, I thought a trust fall was just where you fall back and someone standing behind you catches you. But no. Apparently there’s a whole trust sequence of exercises that gradually get scarier and, therefore, more epic. Like, my idea of a trust fall was the first thing we did, but there
was also this trust circle type thing, where one person stands in the center of a circle of people. Then they fall over into one of the people in the circle and the group just kind of passes the center person around and around the circle. It was pretty interesting. Another thing we did was have everyone get in two lines facing each other and hold their arms out in front of them, alternating arms between the lines. I don’t know if I described that very well, but basically
it’s like a giant zipper. A person runs, full speed, toward the middle of these rows, and everyone has to move their arms out of the way and then put them back, so the person runs through without running into anyone. Then, of course, came THE trust fall. Each of us got to take a turn standing on this 3 or 4 foot tall plank of wood, while the rest of the group lined up behind the person in that zipper-type formation, except that everyone’s arms were to stay put this time. When the person was ready, they fell backwards off the plank, and landed safely on everyone’s arms. It was scary just having to trust that everyone would catch you and not let you fall to the ground and have to go to the hospital. It was also kind of scary knowing that that person’s safety was literally in our hands. I was one of the last people to take my turn, but even though I’d seen most of the rest of my team fall safely into our arms, I was still nervous about it. I remember falling backwards and (internally) freaking out for that split second between falling and being caught, but then I was safe and fine, and everyone lowered me gently to the ground. It was a really cool experience, and I’m so glad I didn’t chicken out.
So, obviously a lot of other things happened at camp, but those were the two big things I wanted to talk about. If you stuck around to read this extremely belated update, then thanks! I hope I didn’t bore you too much :) And that’s… it. I’m actually planning to post another extra in the Etc. section, hopefully sometime today, so if you happen to read this before that’s up, then be sure to check back! Talk to you guys later!
Love,
Sara
And then I didn’t.
I kept meaning to, but unlike weekly blogging, the Etc. section has no set deadline, so I kept thinking, Oh, I’m busy right now, I’ll just do it tomorrow. It’ll be fine. And so here we are, two months of tomorrows later. But I’m finally going to tell you some camp stories! Not that you’re interested anymore. But hey, this is just an extra. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
So, one thing I really wanted to tell you all about was my group’s cheer. All the campers were divided into teams based on their grades, and these were the people they went to Recreation and Bible Study with. At first we thought that all the chaperones were just going to be on one big team, but it turned out that there were enough college students for us to have our own team- Sonic Boom. Our team was pretty great :) Most of the staffers are either college students or recent graduates, so our team leader was about the same age as most of us. So Bible Study and the other activities we did were pretty informal and open. We also had more time for just open discussion, since we didn’t have to do a lot of the same silly little activities as the actual campers. So, one thing that all the teams did was come up with a cheer to show everyone during Rec Rally. As the college team, we weren’t really required to make a cheer, but of course we wanted to anyway- who wouldn’t? We spent about half the week bouncing ideas around and trying to figure out what would be the most epic thing to do. Since our team was called Sonic Boom (by the time you hear us, we’re already gone), one person had the idea that we just walk in front of everyone, stand there quietly for a minute, then walk off and shout, “Boom!” But we figured that, seeing as our primary audience would be middle and high schoolers, most of them wouldn’t really get it.
Instead, we finally decided to do our cheer based on that car commercial where this family’s sitting in the car, all doing the different parts of Crazy Train (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZkoJxQrlm0). It was pretty awesome. We went out all serious and got lined up in rows like in choir, and our team leader stood in front of us like he was going to conduct us. He even gave us a starting note, and then we started on our Sonic Boom rendition of Crazy Train, and it was so much fun! And of course we won the spirit monkey. Campers were coming up to me all day saying how cool our cheer was. It was pretty great :)
Another cool thing we did at camp was trust falls. Before I went to Fuge, I thought a trust fall was just where you fall back and someone standing behind you catches you. But no. Apparently there’s a whole trust sequence of exercises that gradually get scarier and, therefore, more epic. Like, my idea of a trust fall was the first thing we did, but there
was also this trust circle type thing, where one person stands in the center of a circle of people. Then they fall over into one of the people in the circle and the group just kind of passes the center person around and around the circle. It was pretty interesting. Another thing we did was have everyone get in two lines facing each other and hold their arms out in front of them, alternating arms between the lines. I don’t know if I described that very well, but basically
it’s like a giant zipper. A person runs, full speed, toward the middle of these rows, and everyone has to move their arms out of the way and then put them back, so the person runs through without running into anyone. Then, of course, came THE trust fall. Each of us got to take a turn standing on this 3 or 4 foot tall plank of wood, while the rest of the group lined up behind the person in that zipper-type formation, except that everyone’s arms were to stay put this time. When the person was ready, they fell backwards off the plank, and landed safely on everyone’s arms. It was scary just having to trust that everyone would catch you and not let you fall to the ground and have to go to the hospital. It was also kind of scary knowing that that person’s safety was literally in our hands. I was one of the last people to take my turn, but even though I’d seen most of the rest of my team fall safely into our arms, I was still nervous about it. I remember falling backwards and (internally) freaking out for that split second between falling and being caught, but then I was safe and fine, and everyone lowered me gently to the ground. It was a really cool experience, and I’m so glad I didn’t chicken out.
So, obviously a lot of other things happened at camp, but those were the two big things I wanted to talk about. If you stuck around to read this extremely belated update, then thanks! I hope I didn’t bore you too much :) And that’s… it. I’m actually planning to post another extra in the Etc. section, hopefully sometime today, so if you happen to read this before that’s up, then be sure to check back! Talk to you guys later!
Love,
Sara
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