Yesterday we celebrated the Summer Solstice in grand style! Our festivities centered around the theme of Apollo bringing the sun to the earth. Each of the cabins dressed as characters from Greek and Roman mythology and presented gifts of song and story to Apollo. After a procession led by the Jammin' class, we all watched the Mountain Girls perform the May Pole dance. Later in the evening, three of our Junior Counselors performed original songs that they had written in song writing class. The Black Box Theater class ended the performance part of the evening with another original performance. We capped off the evening with a bon fire on Nature Hill.
Today is another big day at camp. The PA X-craft class is going to be camping out tonight. Several cabins (Cabins Library, 1, 6, 2, 8 and 3) will also be camping out. The forecast is calling for clear skies, so hopefully all of the campers will get to do a little star gazing while they are out.
Today marks the end of the first week of Session I, and it's been a wonderful one. I can hardly believe that we've already been here for 7 days. The time has flown by, but has also been packed with activity. Yesterday we had our first cookout of the season. Since a big thunderstorm rolled in just as it was about to get going, we ended up having it as a "cook-in" instead. The Junior Counselors did a fantastic job of making it just as fun by decorating the dining hall with colored lights. Following the "cook-in" we all went over to the New Lodge for a square dance with our local band Blue Kudzu and longtime Eagle's Nest caller Beth. The square dance was a HUGE success! I think that all of the campers danced at least one dance, and most of them seemed to dance all of them. Today has been a beautiful day - no rain and not a cloud in the sky! Of course everyone was really pleased that the rain clouds stayed away so that we could play capture the flag (which ended in a draw). Tonight we'll have Indian Village. The Indian Lore players will be putting on a play about the origins of the lightening bug. I'm sure that it will be wonderful!
After a wonderful opening day, Session I is up and running! Yesterday the campers arrived, began meeting their cabin mates, and got into the swing of things very quickly. Right after lunch they started activity rotations during which they were able to take a dip in the lake (while having their swimming skills assessed), take part in some initiatives and group bonding games, create a cabin flag and begin getting to know their cabin mates. Yesterday evening they laughed as counselors presented activity skits that not only entertained, but also explained the activities that the campers would be able to sign up for. After skits we had a nice opening ceremony during which campers were able to make a wish for something that they wanted to happen for themselves during the session. We finished with our first Goodnight Circle (check out the videos from summer '08 to see an example) and then the campers went off to bed! They were all pretty worn out from a big first day at camp, so the lights went out quickly.
This morning all of the campers signed up for their activities. They also got to finish their art project, have free swim, and practice their air guitar performances (they'll be showcasing those later this week). After lunch we started classes. I had so much fun walking around camp this afternoon and watching the campers talking about what they wanted to do in their classes, etc. They all looked very happy to be in activities.
We have a scavenger hunt planned for tonight. It should be a fun time for the campers to explore campus and get to know each other better. I'm sure that it'll be lots of fun.
The weather is amazing right now - cool and beautiful! We're really enjoying the start of the session with lots of really enthusiastic campers.
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