By now, many of you have probably assumed the worst and are picturing me either bound and gagged by a horrendus horde of fifth grade campers and left in a musty basement to rot, or as a grotesque life size ice sculpture on the harsh Michigan terrain, the victim of a hike gone wrong. I apologize for allowing such ample opportunity for your imaginations to get carried away, but fear no more- all is well. In fact, it's actually pretty great. Before you get too excited about my rapid cure from my lifelong phobia of children, I should probably mention that the kids don't actually come until February. This week we spent learning all about Sherman Lake YMCA Outdoor Camp (where we are working and living) and about camp counsling in general. This included everything from instructional videos to hours of learning silly songs and time-filler games. I've never really been a fan of silly songs, but i am certain they will seem quite valuable all too soon. The facility is absolutly fantastic. The main building has the offices, a conference room, some classrooms and the dining area (a large room with huge windows on three of the walls and a charming fireplace).
Right next door is the YMCA rec center. It holds the pool, weight room, classrooms, and gym with a huge climbing wall and a high ropes course up top. The whole place is really nice and new looking. The cabins are actually really nice too. They have a bathroom, a room with about 12 bunks, and a fully equipt kitchen/living room. Nice and cozy- and the floors are heated thus eliminating one of my least favorite aspects of winter.
The food here is great! There is always plenty, its always tasty, and we don't have to prepare it or clean up after it. the full access to the rec center is also an incredible perk. Monday several of us came out for open swim time, tuesday i went to a yoga class, wednesday the majority of the girls went to a zumba class, thursday we went to water arobics, and tomorrow morning i'm heading back for more yoga. Next week, I plan to attempt spinning class. So yeah, i'd say we're making pretty good use of it. We'll see if it lasts. I am also highly impressed with the camp staff. It is clear that they know what they are doing, love what they are doing, and love sharing what they know. Throughout the week we've been doing various team building activities, and today we got to try out the ropes couse. I love rock climbing, but truth be told i am terrified of hights. Its hard for me to be up high while climbing or to back over that edge when rapelling, but i've learned to trust the rope, focus on the task, and have a great time. I assumed this would be the same. Nope, not at all. I stayed pretty freaked out the whole time. About half way thru i realized i was so scared that it wasn't really even fun and decided that just wasn't acceptable. I had just finished a balance beam sort of element and my goal had been to walk across it without having to touch the rope. I failed. I made it across, but sidestepped and clung to the rope the whole way. I was pretty disappointed and fed up with myself. So, i edged back onto the beam, fell intentially to remind myself the worse case senario wasn't so bad, and went back and tried again. I made it across no hands, and that small success helped tremendously. Though my palms were absurdly sweaty and my heart was pounding at about twice its normal rate, the rest of the course was much more fun and i left feeling quite proud of myself and very glad to have had the experience. Well, I guess that hits most of the highlights. Nothing big planned for the weekend- just relax, recoop, and spend a couple of days not thinking about kids and fighting off panic attacks. Should be nice. Oh, and its supposed to be close to 40 degrees tomorrow so there will definitely be some time spent in the great outdoors soaking up that much needed vitamin D. I can hardly wait.
Right next door is the YMCA rec center. It holds the pool, weight room, classrooms, and gym with a huge climbing wall and a high ropes course up top. The whole place is really nice and new looking. The cabins are actually really nice too. They have a bathroom, a room with about 12 bunks, and a fully equipt kitchen/living room. Nice and cozy- and the floors are heated thus eliminating one of my least favorite aspects of winter. 
The food here is great! There is always plenty, its always tasty, and we don't have to prepare it or clean up after it. the full access to the rec center is also an incredible perk. Monday several of us came out for open swim time, tuesday i went to a yoga class, wednesday the majority of the girls went to a zumba class, thursday we went to water arobics, and tomorrow morning i'm heading back for more yoga. Next week, I plan to attempt spinning class. So yeah, i'd say we're making pretty good use of it. We'll see if it lasts. I am also highly impressed with the camp staff. It is clear that they know what they are doing, love what they are doing, and love sharing what they know. Throughout the week we've been doing various team building activities, and today we got to try out the ropes couse. I love rock climbing, but truth be told i am terrified of hights. Its hard for me to be up high while climbing or to back over that edge when rapelling, but i've learned to trust the rope, focus on the task, and have a great time. I assumed this would be the same. Nope, not at all. I stayed pretty freaked out the whole time. About half way thru i realized i was so scared that it wasn't really even fun and decided that just wasn't acceptable. I had just finished a balance beam sort of element and my goal had been to walk across it without having to touch the rope. I failed. I made it across, but sidestepped and clung to the rope the whole way. I was pretty disappointed and fed up with myself. So, i edged back onto the beam, fell intentially to remind myself the worse case senario wasn't so bad, and went back and tried again. I made it across no hands, and that small success helped tremendously. Though my palms were absurdly sweaty and my heart was pounding at about twice its normal rate, the rest of the course was much more fun and i left feeling quite proud of myself and very glad to have had the experience. Well, I guess that hits most of the highlights. Nothing big planned for the weekend- just relax, recoop, and spend a couple of days not thinking about kids and fighting off panic attacks. Should be nice. Oh, and its supposed to be close to 40 degrees tomorrow so there will definitely be some time spent in the great outdoors soaking up that much needed vitamin D. I can hardly wait.
Sounds great...Thanks for the laughs!
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