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