Socks.

(I own 20 pairs of knee socks)

"I don't want someone to love me like Snape loves Lily,

 or Ron loves Hermione.

 I want someone to love me like Dobby loves socks."

~Unknown. 


Though the other kind of love would be nice as well. :)

Snow

This is our backyard in January 2005.

"The smell of snow...

It was ridiculous to talk about the smell of snow. It was just pure frozen water. But Tiffany always knew, when she woke up, if it had snowed in the night. Snow had the smell like the taste of tin. Tin did have a taste, although admittedly it tasted like the smell of snow."

The Wee Free Men.

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 7.

YOUTUBE!

Hello! I am terribly sorry that I have been so lazy about writing. I have been....well lazy about writing. ;) And it doesn't help that FaceBook, and YouTube are SO distracting.

This is Day 7 (the last day) of Not Back To School Camp. :)

I woke up and sat in the sun while listening to Matt and Robert  talk about chess.  Jake and Galen came over and our conversation quickly changed into a conversation about food. Again. I think we were talking about a turducken at some point. And then we were talking about all the great food we have eaten while at camp. And then we talked about some of the best food we have ever eaten. Food is a very popular subject for teenagers.

The breakfast bell rang and all the talk about food had made us all very hungry. We had pancakes, sausage, oatmeal, fruit, cereal, eggs. They made Gluten-free blueberry pancakes and they were really good. I sat with Jules, Tilke, Danielle, and some other people (Sorry! I can't remember). Jules was VERY tired. Like a sleepy zombie tired. It was rather funny watching him try to keep his eyes open. At some point Tilke bumped the table and it moved a bit. Jules was very upset (not really) that Tilke had moved his elbows without his consent and grumbled about it for the rest of the morning. It was hilarious!

Singing.
by Dandy

We all went over to Uncle Dell's for a big group meeting and talked for a bit and hung out. Once we were done talking we walked over to the big fallen tree and took a huge group picture. It was lots of fun to get everyone set up. we took one of just the staff and they made loads of silly faces. Afterward we had a little bit of free time before Advisee meeting to pack. The day was warming up and I was still bundled up from the cold morning, so I walked back to my cabin and changed clothes (I changed back into the clothes that I was wearing when I got to camp.) and packed a bit.  Then we went to the last Advisee meeting. I braided my hair with my feather necklace

We did this thing, where you write your name on a piece of paper and pass it to the next person and then you get a piece of paper from the person next to you. And then you spend a few minutes writing what you like about that person and then pass it to the next person. and by the end everyone has a piece of paper with such nice lovely notes on it that you get to take home a read whenever you want. I just re-read mine and it made me feel so happy *big smile* Reading it instanly brings back all the love you feel while you camp!  I can't wait to see those people again next year!

Right as we were about to finish, Evan's group ran up and asked us if we wanted to help them capture Blake with a parachute. So we all tip-toed/ran to the back of the cabin where Blake's group was, and burst through the door and grabbed Blake and wrapped him up in the parachute. We were all laughing so hard, it was awesome. :)
After meeting I went down to the swings and talked with Matt and Galen for a bit, until I went to finish packing. It was fun to pack with all the other girls in my cabin. I didn't have TOO much to do, cause I tried to keep most of my stuff in my suitcase (though it all needed re-folding ;) ) When the bell rang, I went to Abbi's Yoga workshop and did a lot of stretching! I was still slightly sore from dancing like crazy for several hours at prom (and I was VERY sore the next day). I really like doing Yoga with Abbi. She's fun!

Everyone grouped together in front of the Lodge and we split up into groups to go clean out different parts of camp. The cabins, Uncle Dell's, bathrooms, and other buildings.  My group went to clean out the arts and crafts building which was full of GLITTER! We swept out the cabin and then, awkwardly, moved a table out of the cabin.

the Waterfall.
by Dandy

 We had Pizza that night and it was REALLY good.  I had a hilarious conversation with Ian, and Matthew.
Jake, Galen, Danielle, and I went to walk the Labyrinth after dinner, and for some reason, we all started talking with a British accent. It was so much fun, and it was amazing walking the Labyrinth. Almost magical, if you will. We walked over and listened to the river.(if I had known how loud the river was there, I would have gone over there more often during the week).

We went over to Uncle Dell's and I sat next the Ian, Jake and Danielle, and we talked and danced a little to the music that was playing while we waited for the night meeting to start.

We circled up and did a Spiral dance into Uncle Dell's and we all thanked everyone who helped make camp work this year. The Staff, Greg and Eva for the wonderful food, and everyone for adding a little something to the week. Then a few of the graduating campers gave a speech. Then we lined up with everyone facing someone and went around so that everyone got to hug everyone else. I couldn't actually hug anyone because I was sick, but I just crossed my arms and smiled at people as we went by.  Then we hung out for a bit, and a few people came over and gave me a hug anyway, which was so nice.

Jamming.
By Ellie

Right before we were about to leave, Matthew stood up and asked if his Fairy God Parent would tell them who they were so he could thank them. I jumped up with him and asked who mine was as well. Then I hoped down and Danielle stood up and said that as one last gift to her Fairy god child if everyone would speak with a funny accent to her (me!). I was very surprised and gave her a HUGE hug, and then I spent pretty much the rest of the night talking with my attempted British accent. At one point I had been talking with my fake accent for so long it was hard to stop. I freaked out for a second that I couldn't go back to normal.

I stayed up till 2:00am that night. I spent a long time talking with Matt, and Danielle. I sat by the camp fire for a bit, and played a few board games, before I was so tired Iwas almost falling asleep at the table. I lost my PJs in my suitcase and I was too tired to find them in the dark so I went to sleep in my clothes and I was asleep in less than 30 seconds.
I woke up pretty early the next morning and was one of the few people who looked somewhat rested. First thing I did after checking in on everyone else who stayed up was go to the swings and swing for a bit. Then I went and brought my suitcase and bags out, and ran back over to the swings. Talked and played until I saw Dad walking up and then I ran over and gave him a huge hug. I showed him where my suitcase was, and then we all met up in the Lodge for the goodbye meeting. It was a little sad to be leaving, but I was happy to be going home to see Mom. I gave SO many people huge hugs, and drove off with Dad waving, and yelling Goodbye!

And THAT is (finally)  one of the BEST weeks EVER! I can hardly wait for next year! I hoped you enjoyed my (very late) posts. :) I enjoyed writing them!



~Rhanna

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 6.

Hello! I'm back to write about day 6. The 2nd to last day of camp

hanging out at the Swings.
By Dandy.

I got up that morning to find Matt, Robert, Ian, Arden, Jake, and Galen at the swings talking about near-death experiences (such a cheery topic). So I sat in one of the chairs there and listened to them talk while I woke up a bit more. I don't really have any near-death experiences, thank goodness. I've been in one car crash, so I told them about that. I felt like a concerned mother listening to these boys talk about how many times they almost died. Lol! Though I do think we ended up talking about food again in the end...hahaha!

Jules on the Silks.
By Ellie.

Abbi came over and did some yoga then she was playing on her aerial silks and she let me, Matt, and Jules try them. I couldn't pull myself up very high but it was still fun. Jules was awesome! He got up so high and did a few tricks.  The breakfast bell rang so we all went for breakfast. I was babysitting Yared again while I ate breakfast. He was very excited to see me that morning because "we had so much fun last night." So we ate breakfast together, then walked down to Uncle Dell's for morning meeting. I don't have very many notes about this morning so I can't give too much detail. Sorry!

Went to Advisee group and after that we all met up in Uncle Dell's for the trust circle debriefing. We split up into groups, then we talked about Trust Circle a bit more. Why we made the statements that we did, or what we thought about it all and what we were feeling. It was nice I think. We all had lunch and during Siesta and I called Mom and talked to her for a bit and told her about Trust circle and what had happened since I last called her.

Picking the music for Prom.
By Ellie.

 Abbi was selling perfume that she makes. I smelled lots of them and then I bought one! I bought her Floral mix which smells lovely and I was very happy that the first perfume that I bought was from Not-Back-To-School-Camp! I was short two dollars so when I saw dad next I asked for a bit more money. And I saw that Dandy was selling his patches and he had a cool patch that said "I 'heart' 'bicycle'", but I was out of money so I traded him one of my needle-felted pumpkins for a patch, which is really cool!

Then we had workshops. I went to Abbi's aerial silks workshop and tried the silks again. Didn't get too far but it was still lots of fun.  Abbi and I walked over to Uncle Dell's for the women's meeting and I let her try one of my PB cookies, which she loved.
During women's meeting we talked about body image and why we wear make-up and how it makes us feel and stuff like that. It was very interesting, but I had to leave about halfway through to go finish up my work-trade. The day before the other work-traders had taken apart an old shed and now we just had to move the wood and stuff from the wheelbarrows into a trailer. It wasn't too hard besides watching out for nails and splinters (nobody got any splinters don't worry). It took three of us to lift up this old water pump. It was  incredibly heavy but we did it! And then there was just one thing left at the bottom of the wheelbarrow: Fiberglass. So we got a big black garbage bag and put it on the front of the wheelbarrow and dumped it all into the bag, while breathing into our arms. I like to call fiberglass the "wool of doom"

Retta painting my face.
By Elena. 

Anyway after we finished doing that I walked back over to Uncle Dell's and Danielle was having Serena paint her face, so I sat down and was waiting for her to be done so she could do mine, when Retta offered to do mine. So we sat there and had our faces painted. It was amazing sitting there with a bunch of other girls painting our faces. I swear, I could do that every single day. It was amazingly fun!

We had Pizza for dinner that night, and they made a very good GF-DF pizza. It kinda tasted like polenta with pizza topping. Interesting, but still good. I sat with Jake and Danielle and we had a lovely talk (about what though I cannot remember. Probably about prom and we might have talked about Dumbledore at some point...)

Playing Tether-ball.
By Cierra.

There was a short break after dinner but before nighttime meeting so we where hanging out at the swings, while Alex and Arden played a HILARIOUS game of tether ball. Alex and Arden were smack talking while they played and there was a good sized crowd watching them and laughing. They played for a bit more then left and the rest of the crowd was just hanging out and we were talking and laughing, when all the sudden Ben comes racing down the hill in this crazy outfit. he runs, then dives into the hammock and pulls it tight around him and Cierra and I, have our mouths hanging open going "what just happened" so we run over and try to pull the hammock off but Ben won't let us, so we let him go and he races off again. It's was strangely hilarious.

We all left to go to nighttime meeting and the last talent show. Somehow we ended up singing Frosty the Snowman, which not many people knew the words too. So it started out and everyone was singing loud and happy and then we got to the part after "Frosty the Snowman" and it trailed off and failed. It was rather funny, but fun. We had a quick break before the Talent show. Alex and Matt (I think) were playing more Tether ball. As I was walking back I heard Ellie trying to remember all the lyrics to Frosty and I sang along with her and helped her (I hope I helped her) remember. Then we had the Talent show:

Emily was MC and she did a lovely job and she had a little information about each act that was coming up which made the whole thing sound very fancy, I think.

The Magic Show

Robby had a magic show! He needed three people from the audience to help whim with his trick. He also needed blindfolds, which he forgot to bring so some people threw their sweatshirts at him. So Robby, Blake, Matt, and Emily all had sweatshirts on their heads. And of course Robby couldn't see because he had a sweatshirt tied to his head, had to have Matt S. help him turn to the audience or to the table where he was doing his card trick. And the whole time Blake, Matt, and Emily are doing goofy things and everyone in the room was laughing so hard they had tears coming down their faces, I'm sure. Robby's card trick did work, and it was amazing! He had Blake, Matt, and Emily each pick a card (with shuffling in between each time they picked one) and he had them write down what card they got. And in the end they all had the same card (I think it was a 9 of Spades). I call it the BEST magic show ever!

Elena, Joel, and Josh.

Josh, Joel, and Elena played two amazing songs on guitar, Elena's chello and they sung. It was fantastic! Then Ellie sang Frosty the Snowman, the right way. and Retta did a beautiful dance.

Body Painting.
By Elena.

Then we had 45 minutes to get dressed and ready for prom.  I thought that was a lot of time, and I thought it would take me 5 minutes to get ready. It didn't. It took me more like 30 minutes to get ready. I ran up and put my dress and cloak (I think I scared a few people with my big cloak. I mean a dark figure swooping around and running towards you in the dark. a little scary if you didn't know it was me.) and then I was talking with all the other girls while they got ready. I was going to walk down to Uncle Dell's by myself, while they went to the bathroom to do make-up, but I stepped outside and I couldn't see anything. So I walked with them to the bathroom, borrowed someone's hair brush and gave my hair a quick brush, then walked over to Uncle Dell's where a few people were already hanging out waiting for the Prom committee to open the doors. Blake (who was being D.J.) turned on some music and everybody on the porch cheered and we started dancing, though it was hard because the porch was rather crowded now. I started speaking with a British accent to Jake, Galen and Ian (and they adopted accents too) because I was so excited. Lol!

Homemade Disco lights.

I ran over to the Lodge and a few other people were still getting their faces painted and getting ready. Matt had the idea to put different colors of paint in the water pitchers and then he put them on a table in Uncle Dell's and flashed a flashlight through them so they kind of looked like diso lights. It was a cool idea.

Mr. DJ Blake

 We waited in front of Uncle Dell's for a while until they turned all the lights off and opened the doors. The committee people had little flashlights and they guided us to one side of the room, then turned off the lights and it was totally dark. The excitement was building! Then they turned on the Christmas lights on the floor which they had shaped to look like a runway and everyone, one by one walked down the runway showing off their outfits, while a few people stood in front and took everyone's picture. Then we all were on the other side of the room, taking pictures until everyone had shown off their outfit. The Mr. D.J. Blake turned the music on. It was so loud and you could FEEL the music! It was incredible! Everyone cheered and we all started dancing and laughing and smiling and a few people who knew the lyrics to the songs were singing along.

Dancing!

I have never danced so carefree in a room with so many other people before. It was awesome. Jumping, twisting, hands up in the air, it was so much fun. I quickly took my cloak off. It got pretty warm in there. They played 4 or 5 fast dance songs then a slower song that was good for dancing with someone. I partner danced with a few people. Danielle, Panda, Sage, Matt, Arden, Ellie Tilke, and Blake. We danced fast and hard for like an hour and half I think.

Lots of people know the lyrics to almost all the songs, but there was only one song that I knew all the lyrics to: Love Shack by the B 52s. That was one of the songs that I brought. When that came on I was so excited and I tried to sing a long with it even though I had lost my voice. Jake knew the lyrics too so we danced and sang Love Shack together. Pure awesomeness. It was so much fun!

At some point Matt fell asleep. I don't know how he could sleep, it was all so exciting. He reminded me of Thane. He used to fall asleep in the funnest places. I put my cloak on top of him then went back to dancing. At around 1:00am Blake said we could dance for half an hour longer then prom would be over. So he played some slower songs since everyone was getting really tired. By that time there weren't hardly as many people in there as there were when we started. I was almost falling asleep. I wrapped myself up in my cloak and was sitting in a chair listening to music and watching a few other people dance. Then at 1:30am when it was over, I went to bed a crashed.

And That was day 6 and the BEST prom/dance EVER! :D

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 5.

Day 5 of Not Back To School Camp

I woke up that morning...wait a minute. I've used the "I woke up" beginning for these last few posts, way too often...I'll try a new opening this time. Alright let me think. Something more creative...

I arose that morning (haha!) feeling rather tired and achy with a sore throat. I was greatly in need of a shower that day, so I jumped in the freezing shower right as the breakfast bell rang. I took a very fast shower then ran to breakfast while brushing the tangles out of my hair. I didn't eat much breakfast that morning since I wasn't feeling too well, then went over to the art cabin and made a fancy-sparkly-happy poster for my Fairy God Child and had Ian take it to his cabin.

We had Check-in and morning meeting (Check-In, by the way, happens in the morning and at night. They check in all the campers to make sure everyone is still here and safe and not being attacked by lions or something like that. ;-) ) Then we had Advisee meeting and we played this game. I can't remember what it's called, but it's like a mix of Pictionary and Telephone.  One person writes a short sentence and then they pass it to the person next to them and that person draws a picture of what the sentence says. Then they fold over what the first person wrote and pass it to the next person who looks at the picture and writes a sentence about what they think the picture is, and it goes on. So when we played I wrote "A fish in a cup with a spoon" and by the end it was "an alien escaping in a watering can". Hahaha but it was really funny but lots of fun.

Then I ran around camp and I got ready to go on Blake's hike. He had found a new trail that morning that lead to a cool place in the forest where you could see very far and he was taking some people out there to have lunch. I started to go, but I didn't realize how steep and long the hike was going to be so I turned around and went back to camp. I figured that I got poison oak on the bottom of my jeans since there was so much of it when I was walking around that when I got back a carefully changed clothes and put my jeans into a bag. I didn't get poison oak though, don't worry.

The Pool

I went over to the pool where everyone else was, and they were playing pool volleyball. It was lots of fun to watch them. I sat on the side and watched for a while, but it looked like so much fun that I ran and put my swimsuit on and joined them. It was SO much fun, and it turns out I'm not too bad at serving. At some point I made at least 5 points in a row with my serves. It was so much fun. I was on the underdog team, if you will. We had three players on the deeper end, and the other side had five players on the shallow end. So it would seem that the team with more players would easily be winning. Right? Nope.  We were winning for more than half the game. It's all thanks to Abbi. She was on the other side, but she kept talking and forgetting that we were playing so we kept getting loads of points because she kept missing. It was really really funny. We were all laughing so hard, even Abbi. I'd call it one of the best games of Volleyball ever.

After getting changed into my pink dress, there was a workshop slot so I went to Danielle's French workshop and learned a bit of French. It was very interesting and she did a great job teaching us. From then on whenever I say Emily (who was at the workshop too) I'd greet her in French. I'd yell "Salut!(hello) Cava?(how's it going)" to her across the room and she would yell back "Salut! Oui(yes)! Et vous(and you)?" and I'd yell "Oui" then "Revoir(goodbye)" and leave the room. Or when I started getting my cold, when she asked me how I was doing I'd say "comme ci, comme ça(eh so so). It was so much fun! 

We went down and ate lunch, then we were hanging out at the swings for a bit and I talked with Matt about books for a while. Then I saw Danielle and ran up to her and we talked for a bit. I told her about the silk flowers that I had brought so I ran up to my cabin to go get one, and when I came back Serena was talking with Danielle and she had a gift from my Fairy-God Parent. It was a feather necklace and I had Serena braid it into my hair. It looked lovely :) Matt also had Panda dye his hair blue, which looked more purple than blue.

You can't see the feather, but this
is how I braided my hair. :)

Then we had our first Women's Meeting, which was very interesting. Then we had dinner and I had my first night of babysitting Yared. He's so cute! We had enchiladas for dinner. Jake, Sage, Garret, Panda, and Arden had dinner with me and Yared and we had a lovely talk about weird laws while we ate. After we finished eating he got to eat his cough drop. Apparently, Yared loves cough drops. He took me to his cabin and got his "hippie bus" then we went and played the piano for a bit until it was time for Nighttime meeting. So Yared and I walked over to Uncle Dell's and sat down in the back until Grace came and took over watching him.

Next was Trust Circle. It was intense. So what happens is everyone gets three beads and stands in a circle. Then one person walks into the center of the room puts their bead into a basket and makes a statement. Then anyone else who agrees with that statement can step forward. So I could say "I'm Rhanna, and I like cookies" and everyone else who likes cookies steps forward. Except it was much darker and sadder than just liking cookies. At then end I think most people were crying (including myself). After a bit of crying and hugging,  most of us went over to the Lodge to have tea and brownies, and of course chocolate brownies helps everyone feel better. I got "Bedtime tea" in my clothes-pin mail that day so I drank that while I had my brownie.

The couches in the Lodge
that are very comfy!

 Then I went over to sit on the couch where Josh and Joel were playing music and I wrote about the day. Matt and Jake sat down next to me, and we drank our tea, talked and listened to music. It was fantastic and so relaxing, I could do it every night. I stayed up talking and listening to music till about 12:20 then I got ready for bed, and went to sleep.

and THAT was day 5.
~Rhanna xx

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 4.

Back to write about day four:

I woke up a bit later than the last few days because I stayed up late the night before. I woke up around 8:20am, made some tea and went to go read for a bit. I read a bit of Tamora Pierce's "Tortall and other Lands."  Quite a good book so far.

  Ben and Robert came and said hello then went over and joined Abbi who was doing early morning yoga. More people woke up and we all went and had breakfast. French toast, sausage, fruit, oatmeal, and cereal.  I had the GF french toast and sausage.

We went over to hang out in front of Uncle Dell's and Matt and I tried to play Ping pong but I was terrible so Jake went after me and I watched. I ran up to my cabin real quick and got some of my cold medicine because my throat was starting to hurt. Then we went in for morning meeting and I sat in one of the stacked chairs and I had a GREAT view of the room. Had a regular morning meeting and it was announced that Assassin and Fairy God Parent/Child were starting today. I went and took my cold stuff then went and picked my Fairy God Child. I decided not to play Assassin this time.

Assassin, for those of you who don't know, is a game. Everyone who wants to play Assassin puts their name into a bowl and the next day everyone picks a name. So let's say that I'm playing Assassin. I'll pick a name and I have to go up to that person and tell them "you're dead" but I can't whisper it and no one else can hear me say it. If I successfully do that, then I get that person's piece of paper with the name of the person that they were trying to get and I take the paper and try to go get that next person and the game continues until there are only two players left who have each other's name. So then it's only them trying to get each other and who ever "kills" the other person first wins the game.

Fairy God Parent/Child is another, much nicer, less deadly game. It starts out the same as Assassin. Everyone who wants to play puts their name into a bowl and the next day everyone picks a name. So, again I'll use myself as an example. After choosing a name, I secretly do nice things to my "fairy god child" like make a poster saying "have a nice day" and have someone go put it up in their cabin or another place where that person will see it. Or send them gifts through other people, or give them nice letters in their mail, or just send people to go hug them. And you usually keep everything a secret from that person. 

So after morning meeting I went with Jules and Arden and finished moving the wood chips into place and then we went to Advisee group where I taught them to sing the song 'Robin Redbreast' by Music Together and we sang a few other songs and did check in.

I had my workshop that day. I was teaching how to make Needle-felt Pumpkins. While I walked up to my cabin to get my stuff Matt followed me so that no one could get him at Assassin. He followed me around or had me stick close to him pretty much all day, which was really funny.

At one point, one of the campers Ben all of the sudden started running down the hill with his hands over his ears, yelling and screaming and all of us were like "what just happened." Turns out he was running away from the person who was trying to kill him in Assassin. Then once we got why he was running and yelling we all started laughing. It was hilarious! It also seemed like a lot of the people playing Assassin had bodyguards, and I was used to protect a few people. one camper would run up to me and throw her arm around my shoulders and have me walk her to where she was going so nobody could get her.  It almost felt like I was playing the game. hahaha!

While I was up at my cabin I grabbed the bottle of bubbles that I brought and I grabbed my bag of supplies for my workshop. I gave the bubbles to Yared (Grace's son. he's 3 and super cute) and then I went into the Library where I was holding my workshop. Danielle, Matt, and Kione came to my workshop, and I think it went very well! I told a little history about Needle-felting and how it works. Matt decided to make a planet with his wool, but Danielle and Kione made cute pumpkins. It was lots of fun!

After I finished I ran up and put my stuff away, and went and helped a tiny bit with some work-trade until lunch. We had chili for lunch and it was VERY good and had a lovely conversation with the people at my table. Then I hung out on the really comfy sofa in the Lodge, talking and stuff like that until Siesta and then I called Mom. I was really missing her that day. 

I was supposed to  have my first day of Babysitting Yared, but he slept through the whole time that I was supposed to watch him. Dad came by and we took a hike up to the Watering hole, which was really nice, and I told him all about camp and everything that had happened. When we got back they had started the Teen-to-Adult panel that I voted for us to have earlier that morning, and Dad and I listened to it. They were talking about what it's like moving out and living with other people and stuff like that. 

Dad left and I had a lovely dinner of Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Soy-free Lasagna and garlic bread with GF carrot cake for dessert. and I had a lovely conversation during dinner though what it was about I can't remember. 

We went to nighttime meeting, and while we were waiting for Grace and the rest of the Staff to come a few girls started doing this hilarious dance and when the Look-out ran in saying Grace was coming, we all broke out into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Then we were all laughing really hard.

 After meeting we had some more workshops. I went to Retta's Israeli dance workshop and it was awesome! I left half-way through because I was feeling very tired that night, but I went back and they had just finished learning this really cool dance, so I jumped in and learned the next one which was amazingly fun. I call it the Kiss Kiss dance. We did that until it was time for the 2nd Talent Show which was being held in the Lodge with Sage as MC (Mistress of Ceremonies).

Robert played his wonderful Native American flute, Roxy showed us her fashion design drawings which were great, Serena sang a song and played guitar, Matt S. and Abbi told hilarious stories for Moth Radio, and Ben did an amazing improv dance to a song. At the end of his dance everyone was standing up and clapping and cheering. Then we walked down to the fire-pit and watched Daniel do Poi. That's the fire spinning. It was incredible. 

After the Talent show I went to Uncle Dell's to write a bit, but it was too crowded in there for me the really think so I walked back over the Lodge and it was much more quiet there so I sat down and wrote about the day. Danielle came and we wrote and talked a bit before I went to bed. I said goodnight to everyone, and told Matt to go to bed (he said he had been feeling like he was catching a cold earlier that day) and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was so tired and I was really missing Mom that night so I was very happy to go to sleep.

and THAT is day four. Day 5 will be coming shortly :)

~Rhanna xxx

(P.S. sorry there are no captions for the pictures. Blogger wouldn't let me put any without messing up the rest of what I had already written. So I'll put them here. The first picture is the cover of the book I was reading, Then 2nd is me in front of my cabin, and the last one is a view that I took from the hike up to the watering hole. So lush! and the fourth one is Daniel doing poi.)

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 3

Day 3 of Not Back To School Camp:

I woke up early again because I was starving. Got dressed, very quietly, and went down to the Lodge and made a cuppa tea. Matt S. was up listening to the recordings he took last night during the jam. I sat next to him and listened for a bit, then took my tea and went and sat outside and wrote about last night.

The Lodge where we eat Breakfast, Lunch,
and Dinner. 

Then went and took a very fast shower. I walked back up to my cabin and grabbed my cloak because I was freezing after getting out of the shower. I did a bit more of drawing and I was joined by Serena and we talked a bit before breakfast. It was kind of fun watching everyone slowly wake up and tiredly walk over to the Lodge and get ready for breakfast. Blake came over and joined us and he and Serena talked about back-packing. I learned that Blake LOVES mac-and-cheese while he's hiking. lol!

We circled up before breakfast, and quite a few people liked my cloak. I ate breakfast with Matt, Sage, Danielle, and Panda and we had a lovely time talking over breakfast though I can't remember what we talked about.

The bell. They rang this
when it was time for any
sort of meeting.

After breakfast we went over and hung out at the swings for a bit until Advisee group.We each had three minutes to do what ever we wanted. I asked if we could play Ye-Haw again. And, I think it was Sydney, who had us sit in silence listening to the forest, which was really relaxing. I almost fell asleep.

When advisee meeting was over I went to do work-trade with Arden, Jules, and Macy. We were moving wood chips under a play area so it would be more safe.   I saw Dad's car parked and I knew that he must be somewhere, but we were further out and I knew he'd never find us. So I stared doing our family whistle. It's a special whistle that whenever one of us hears it we know another person in our family is calling us. So I'm whistling like mad. Cupping my hands around my mouth as I whistle, and Arden is like "what are you doing?" So I told him I was trying to call my Dad and he tried whistling along with me. Then Jules was whistling too. So all three of us were whistling, and STILL Dad didn't hear us. So I ran over and found him talking to Matt who was learning how to walk on the Slack line. I gave Dad a big hug and we walked over to where we were working and I showed him what we were doing, then he left and we finished our work.

I went to Abbi's Bookworms Unite! workshop, which was great! We all got to give a little reviews about books that we liked. It was so much fun, and we all agreed that we could have done it for hours.

We went and had lunch and then we finished work-trade. I called Mom during Siesta and then went to hang out at the swings with Matt and Sage. Matt was playing on the Slack line and I met Jake who was watching. I tried the Slack line with help, which was lots of fun. Sage, Matt, Jake and I all went swimming in the pool for a while. Sage didn't want to jump in at first, but when Garret started walking towards her, she jumped in. I grabbed a bunch of  noodles and floated around. It was so relaxing. Then the lifeguard on duty blew his whistle (very loudly) and we left and got dressed.

Then Matt, Sage, Jake, Galen, and I all hung out at the swings for a while, while most people went to a panel/talk with the staff that we weren't interested in. I don't know how it happened but everything that we talked about ended up being about food. Everything! We'd be talking about anything. At one point Galen said sticks. Sticks lead to fire, which leads to cooking, which leads to a conversation about steak. It was hilarious. After the meeting a few other people came out and joined us and we all hung out and talked until dinner.

The clothes pin mail. Everyone
has a clothes pin with their
name on it and you
can give that person
mail.

After dinner we went to Uncle Dell's for the nighttime meeting and the first talent show. There were some great acts! Jules did a trick with his Japanese Yo-yo, and Josh sang a song that he wrote. It was amazing! Then we all went to the Lodge and watched Galen do an awesome dance. We hung out at the Lodge and Matt and I gave lots of people mail on their clothes-lines.

Then is was time for Bonding night. Bonding night is AMAZING!
We started by circling up in front of Uncle Dell's and held hands and sang this song "Under the full moonlight we dance. Spirits dance, we dance. Joining hands we dance. Joining souls rejoice" and we did a Spiral dance into the room. It was amazing. Then we split up into groups of 5 people and did Appreciation circle. That's where 5 people sit down and they take a minute to tell one person what they like about them. It felt really nice having people say such wonderful things to me, and I liked telling other people what I liked about them.

Next was Eye Contact. We all stood up and closed our eyes and we were paired up with another person and we had to hold eye contact with them for a whole minute then we answered a question at the end of the minute. That one was some what tricky.

Then the last thing we did was Unconditional Love. That's where we are split up into two groups. One group stands with their eyes closed, and the other half walks around giving everyone a hug. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Standing there with your eyes closed and having someone walk up, tap you on the shoulder, and give you a long tight hug. It fills your heart right up! After the first hug, I think I smiled through the whole thing. It just felt amazing. Then we switched around, and it was still so much fun giving everyone else hugs. You could see the smiles on their faces. After every hug I gave everyone's hand a quick squeeze. I think I hugged everyone at least twice.

I loved Bonding Night. If you ever go to Not Back To School Camp I highly recommend that you go to Bonding Night.

We then hung out in Uncle Dell's for a while. We did the laying-on-someone-else-while-having-someone-lay-on-you thing, and did another massage train, then I sat down to write about the day. While I was writing I saw a few people dancing, so I jumped up and learned how to dance with a partner. Arden taught me how, then I tried to teach Matt. It was loads of fun! I learned how to spin, and I tried to do a dip. But It was lots of fun dancing.
I stayed up until midnight I think, then I went to bed and slept like a rock. Again, another AMAZING day!

To be continued.... (sorry! couldn't resist saying that. lol)
~Rhanna xx

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 2

Hello! Back again, with more stories about Not Back To School Camp:

My Bed for the week.

I woke up early the next morning. Like really early. Like 6:30 in the morning (that's really early for me ;) ). I laid in bed until 7:00 but I had to get up because I was really hungry, so I quietly got dressed and tried to leave the cabin as quiet as I could. I kinda failed. I had my arms full with my backpack and jacket that the door slipped and before I could catch it the door banged closed. Opps!

It was so quiet in the forest it felt like no one else was around.  And It was beautiful with the sunlight coming in through the trees.  I sat down in one of the many circles of chairs (there were chairs all over camp) and had a little snack. I didn't have much appetite because I was really missing Mom and Dad. The first night and morning were the times that I missed them the most.
I started to do a bit of drawing since there wasn't anything else to do. A little while later Ben came whistling over and he joined me. We said good morning and talked a bit ("Good morning" "Good morning" "How'd you sleep" "Pretty good. you?" "Pretty good, thanks" "What do you think of camp so far?" "It's great! I love it" "Good. Me too"). Arden came over and he joined us. Then Ben asked if he could borrow my pencil because he had some writing he had to do. Danielle came over and we checked in with each other ((read above)).

Then I went and took a freeeeezing shower. The water was warm but it was very cold when I got out into the cold morning air with wet hair. Brrr!

We then circled up and had breakfast outside the lodge and did the Yum prayer. It goes "Yummmmmmmmmmm". Then we all go inside and get breakfast (they had it set up like a Buffet, with Gluten-free and Vegan foods on the counter.)
 All of us new campers and sat outside and the older campers talked about Camp and what happens and stuff like that. It was nice to hear and talk to the other campers.
 I didn't have much appetite that morning, because I missed Mom and Dad so much. I had grabbed two hard boiled eggs because I thought I'd eat lots, but I stopped after eating half of one and then I placed my plate on the ground and three yellow jackets started eating it. I let them have it.

Then after the meeting I saw Dad walking around looking for me, so I jumped up, ran over and gave him a huge hug. I was so happy to see him that I teared up. Dad brought me some cookies that I had baked before the trip to have a snacks and after seeing him I regained some of my appetite so I ate a few. Grace came over and she gave me a hug.

We had a little time to before Advisee meeting so I  hung out at the swings fora bit then headed over to where my Advisee group meets. I got there ahead of everyone else so I put sunblock on, and did a bit of writing before we started. Everyone slowly came over and when Jasmine came we started. We had Highs and Lows, and we talked more and got to know each other a bit better. We played a few games. One we played that I like is called YE-HAW!

This is where our Advisee group met up

In the game you pass the sound "ye-haw" with a arm movement...this may be VERY hard to explain and there is a very good chance that what I say will make NO sense whatsoever, but I shall try. Okay, so you pass the sound "Ye-haw" to the person sitting next to you and then they pass it to the person sitting next to them. Then if you want the sound to jump/skip a person you shout "Pitchfork" and make a movement like you're throwing hay with a pitchfork. And if you yell "Hay-barn" and put your hands up over your head like a roof, then the sound turns around and starts going the other way. If you do "Get Down Little Doggy" you try to give the sound to someone sitting across from you. If that person doesn't want it they say "ping" and do a silly movement, and it comes back to you or they can accept the sound and they start is going again. Then there is "Four Shifter Gear Box! 1 2 3 4!" and the person who last accepted the sound when we did "Get Down Little Doggy" starts the "yehaw" again. and if you mess up you can start shouting random things trying to mess the other players up. "Pitchfork!" "Hay barn!" "1 2 3 4!"  It's lots of  fun to play.

The little sweat-lodge. There are about 17
people inside there

Then we also played "Hot seat". One person sits in the middle and everyone asks them questions. That was fun too. We asked questions like "Can you speak another language?" and "If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live" and stuff like that. I enjoyed it. After Advisee meeting we went and had a very yummy lunch of tacos. I wolfed down a taco rather quickly. I hadn't eaten much since I got there (because of the excitement and nerves).
Then I talked with Matt S. and the other work-traders and together we worked out a schedule for when we'd do our work-trade. Who wanted to do what workshop when and when we could all be free to work.

Then we all went on Tilke's Magic Trail Tour, and she showed us around all of camp. She showed us the beginnings of trails, A lovely river, the sweat-lodge (which we fit 17 people inside all at once. It was hilarious!) Then we crossed this huge tree that had fallen. It was so cool, and really wobbly. Someone started making it swing which was really freaky! I jumped off (and when I jumped off the tree, by backpack swung and landed on my back rather hard. ouch!) we walked a bit more, and we saw the Labyrinth. It was so cool! It's lots of stones stacked to make a Labyrinth and as soon as we saw it a lot of us started to walk around.
We all walked back and I was super hot from the walk (Still being in my morning cloths. T-shirt, Jeans, and sweatshirt) so I ran up to my cabin and changed into something cooler. (tank top, skirt, knees socks, Ugg boots, backpack...I wore that backpack everywhere, but for the last two days I started to just leave it in the Lodge and go get it when I needed it. Too heavy!).

Crossing the fallen tree

After I got changed  I ran into Panda (Very lovely girl! ;) ) asked me if I wanted to try to play Tether Ball with her. We were terrible but it was so much fun and we laughed lots. Matthew came by and said that he and a few other campers were going up to the watering hole, and asked if we wanted to come - I said yes. As I was walking up I ran into Sage and we talked for a bit. Sage is lots of fun to hang out with!   She wasn't going on the hike. She was in the middle of this book and she really wanted to finish it (which I can understand). So we talked, while Matthew went and got changed, then when he came back we left with Margie and Garret.

The waterfall/water slide
at the watering hole.

 It's an amazing hike up to the watering hole. I'd say it's about a mile long hike, but it's so lush and green there and we could hear the river from far away. For a while we thought we had taken the wrong trail. We were joking around about how we would get lost and all the bad things that could happen. There was this HUGE tree(with a smaller tree next to it) that had fallen down across the road. It looked like it would keep sliding down the hill at any moment. We all quietly tip-toed under it, and kept walking.
It got more more lush.
 We got there and some other campers and staff were already there. I climbed over on the rocks and watched as Garret, then Matthew, then Margie all jumped in. And I watched them all come up out of the water with shocked faces because the water was freezing. It was so funny. I didn't go swimming that day, but I did put my feet in and I agree it was very cold water. We stayed there for less than 10 minutes and then hiked all the way back. Matthew didn't put his shoes on the whole hike back because he didn't want to make us wait, so he kept saying "Ow" the whole walk back. Once we got back into camp we ran and told Sage all about it.

Me up at the watering hole

We went to Uncle Dell's for a meeting and everyone who was holding a workshop did a quick demo. I did one for Needle-felted Pumpkins. And everyone else did theirs. It was great and I went to a few workshops later in the week.
I went and had a nice dinner and then went to the swings and hung out there for a bit. When the bell rang we all went Uncle Dell's for the nighttime meeting and Staff Talent Show. I then remember that I hadn't called Mom or Dad yet, so I ran and called them both. Then I ran back to Uncle Dell's for the end of the Talent show. It was great.

Then we all headed over to the Lodge, and out in front they were having a music jam! It. Was. AMAZING! They played amazing music, and Matthew, Danielle, Adli, and I were all dancing around together. It was so much fun. I was writing down notes about the day during the slow songs, and dancing with the fast ones.

The swings in the daytime.
They were a great place
to hang out.

Danielle went to bed (i gave her a big hug) and when the music ended  Matthew and I went out to the swings and were swinging in the dark which was super cool. The stars were amazingly bright and it was so quiet. Then we went and sat by the tepee in the moonlight with Dandy (Dandy is the "night owl" he stays up late and makes sure everyone is safely in bed). It was so peaceful and relaxing. Then I went to my cabin and went to sleep.


And THAT ends day 2 of Not Back To School Camp!

Not Back To School Camp 2011.

Hello Everyone!

A cool wood arch that you
see as soon as you walk into
camp, with a nice sign.

I just got back from my first session of Not Back To School Camp, at Camp Latgawa in Oregon. . It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life. I had SO much fun, and I met so many interesting people (I have now added pretty much all of them on Facebook ). I came back feeling so inspired. Seeing so many other awesome unschoolers/homeschoolers doing such amazing things has made me want to start doing more, interesting things with my life.
I was taking notes the whole time so I could write about it when I got back home and tell all my friends who couldn't come about it. And since SO much happened, I think I'll split up all the days into different posts. Each and everyday was packed full of excitement. I was smiling pretty much the whole time and I laughed so hard all week. So I'll start when Dad and I left...

I woke up at 7 in the morning, feeling very excited and nervous. We gave my Mom and and my siblings a teary good-bye and Dad and I left. Now I won't bore you with the very boring details of the car ride. Because trust me nothing much happened, though I was texting Mom the whole time.

The concrete bridge
that we had to cross
to get into camp

We got to Sacramento, got some coffee and met Danielle who was driving up with us. I was so excited to meet her, and we talked pretty much the rest of the way there. About the Harry Potter movie, Nancy Drew games,  traveling and lots more. We stopped twice. Both times it was because we needed more gas for the car. At the first stop a fly got into the car and we couldn't shoo him out so we named Zamora the Fly him after the exit (I think he made it all the way to Oregon too.). I also pulled out my 'surprise' there. Before we left Dad bought a box of See's lollipops, so I had a few of those in my bag, and I offered them to Danielle and Dad. It was nice to have a sweet treat on such a long drive. Our other stop was at another gas station, and there we picked up BBQ chips, nuts, and some drinks and kept going. For the last little big of the drive Danielle and I read for a bit and when we got to the dirt road that leads to camp we got very excited! We opened up the windows and it smelled so nice. The fresh forest air! I lost my reception as soon as we hit the dirt road, so I couldn't text mom anymore. We had been driving for a while when we thought "Oh great! We missed it! We're lost" So we decided to turn around, read the directions and start again. So we drove back to the beginning and started again.  We kept going and went past where we turned around the first time and found "concrete bridge" and then we found camp! It was beautiful. The sun was streaming in through the trees and it was so quiet. I was super excited!

View of the Cabins

We got out and started walking around and we didn't see ANYONE. After walking around for a bit we found Roxy watching Yared (Yared is Grace's son) and she lead us to the Staff's cabin (good place to look right? ;) ) where we found all the staff hanging out and waiting for the campers to arrive. They were a little surprised, I think, to see us arrive so early. They showed us our cabins, which were super cute. They each had four bunk-beds. I choose the top bunk in the back corner and then we went and looked at Danielle's cabin. After she put her stuff down we went and took a little tour of the place. We looked at the names on all the cabins. They all had Greek names, I think. One was called "Athens" and one was called "Corinth"  and there were lots more fancy names. So after we walked down the hill away from the cabins we saw: The swing set (which I spent most of my week on), the tether ball, the pool (it was 2 feet to 9 feet deep.), the Lodge, Uncle Dell's, the ping pong table, lots of chairs (there were chair circles set up everywhere), the art cabin (called Jerusalem), then we walked down a bit to the Teepee, and fire pit area (They had archery targets set up which I was really excited about, but we couldn't do any archery while we were there.) We saw this tiny little sweat-lodge. It was made of mud and sticks (it looked like) and you'd put hot stones in the middle and pour water over them. So it's like a mini sauna. It was really cool! We went behind the mini sauna and found a little creek. It looked so magical, like the only thing missing was fairies sitting there drinking tea. Really.

The Swings of AWESOMENESS!

We walked back over to the lodge and all the sudden kids with lots of luggage started streaming in. It was a little weird at first. Danielle and I watched, and waved to the campers as they walked up. It kind of felt a little awkward at first since there were a lot of new campers who didn't know each other. Some of the older campers were VERY excited to see their old friends (and I'm sure next year I'll be that way). There were some introductions, then Tilke led us on a tour of the camp, and showed us some places that Danielle, Dad, and I hadn't seen. Once all the campers had arrived we all walked down to the Teepee area and we made a big circle. Grace walked into the middle holding Yared and introduced  herself and the staff and talked a bit about camp. Then Tilke told us how to play an introduction game. So I turned to the person standing next to me (Sage) Tilke asked the whole group a questions. Then I told Sage my name and what my answer was to Tilke's question and she did the same. Then we walked over to another pair and did the same thing (Tilke had a new question) and we kept doing that until we were two big groups, then one big group. It was pretty cool. We played ultimate Ro-sham-bo.

 Then we met our Advisee Groups. That's a group of about 7 campers, and an Adviser and we meet up everyday to do check in and play games and talk. Jasmine was our adviser. We met at a quiet little place with LOTS of mosquitoes. I got eaten alive by the bugs at our first meeting but besides that it was a good first meeting. We only had a little time before dinner so we went to the lodge to have dinner. Greg and Eva who run Camp Latgawa, did an amazing job with the food. They had Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free,and Soy-free food all week. I didn't get sick once. Thank you so much Greg and Eva!!!!

The Lodge where we eat, and
sometimes meet up.

All of the Advisee groups sat together during dinner. Afterwards we walked over to Uncle Dell's and had our first meeting.
 We met most of the staff, and  they talked a bit about camp and the schedule and  Evan read a quote.  Then they taught us a song (I can't remember what song we sang). I was a little nervous at first to sing, but it got more and more fun.

Then we headed back to the Lodge to hang out for a bit and Matt S. told us Work-traders what kind of things we'd do in the week.
 I used the phone and called Mom and Dad. I cried a bit during both phone calls, because I missed them. A lot. After I called them I walked out of the kitchen (where the phone was) and saw that most everyone else were playing games. I watched them play for a while, and met Panda who was too shy to join in, then joined in myself. We played a game called Bird on a Perch. That's where you partner up with someone and  you walk around like a bird making goofy sounds until one of the staff yells "birdie on a perch" and you have to find you partner and one person has to hold the other person so they aren't touching the ground. It's pretty fun and everyone was laughing. And then they played what I like to call the Yahoo! game (I'll explain later).

While I was walking out of the Lodge I said something about being Gluten-free to someone, and that is how I met Matthew. He's gluten-free too! We walked back down to Uncle Dell's together where Brenna was holding a relaxing-quiet time-massage thing.

The doors that lead into Uncle Joe's
(I call it Uncle Dell's though)

We did a massage train (which felt reeeeally good. I should have had more people rub me while I was there.).
Then we did this thing where one person lays down and then another person lays with their head on the first person's belly, then another person lays on that person. It's like a people chain. We did that and  I don't know how it started but we couldn't stop laughing. And when we'd finally stop laughing someone would make a funny sound and we'd started laughing all over again. I was laying on Matthew's stomach, and Blake (one of the advisers) was laying on mine. We laid there for about 20 minutes I think. We were laughing so hard. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so much. And every time I laughed, it made Blake's head bounce which when that happened his just got this annoyed look like I was disturbing him. Then he's grin and laugh a little too. It was H I L A R I O U S.

Afterward we did something which I heard someone call Whale Watch. It's where one person lays down and 4 or 5 other people rub them for a few minutes. We did that and it was really funny too because as soon as we finished rubbing someone then the next person would leap into the middle.
Then I went and got my note book and jotted down a few notes about the day and talked a bit longer. I was really tired so I said good night to everyone else in Uncle Dell's and went back to my cabin.

 I went into my cabin and turned the light on and started finding my P.J.s when I realized that people were sleeping, so I quickly tip-toed over and turned the light off and finished getting ready for bed. Whoops! I felt like I had a hard time sleeping. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and it felt like I'd been awake the whole time even though I knew that I had been sleeping. It was kinda weird.

And that was Day 1 of NBTSC. Amazing and the start of an amazing week! Hoped you enjoyed! :)
~Rhanna xx