rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with summer camp

Well, today was the day that I'd been both dreading and looking forward to. After a delicious breakfast of hot chocolate-chip scones in the dining hall this morning (I will miss having all of my meals prepared for me!), I finished packing, checked Muse Watson's tires, and went on my way. The trip back home was smooth, and I only had to make one stop outside Baton Rouge to eat, use a restroom, and buy gas. Muse Watson made good time, and I'm so proud of that cranky old car; I don't think either of us really believed he would make it safely there and back!

I am definitely happy to be home -- I missed Sara, Tovah, my hair straightener, my room, etc. -- but I was also sad to leave such a beautiful summer camp, even though my time there had some rough spots. I posted in my entry on the first day about how hard it was being there by myself, but really, it was hard the whole week through. I've always sucked at meeting people, and my week there was no exception. Still, there was a wonderful, welcoming, relaxed, safe atmosphere at camp that I can't really explain. I will miss the cool weather, the slow-paced summer days under the pine trees. I will miss the sense of a shared Jewish identity, which is something else I can't explain (and unless you're a minority, I don't think you can really understand). I'd never been in such a huge group of people who all knew how to sing the HaMotzi or the Birkat Hamazon. It blew my mind the first time everyone in the dining hall started singing it, and I hope I never forget that.

But what blows my mind more than anything else is knowing that at this time in 2010, just two years ago, I'd never even set foot in a Jewish house of worship. Seriously, never. I was still researching and learning about Judaism on my own, biking past the temple frequently, and trying to get up the nerve to walk through those doors. If you had told me then that in a year, I would officially convert, and within two years, I'd spend a week working at a Jewish summer camp -- would I have believed you? Probably not. Already, Judaism has become a bigger part of my life and my identity than I ever could've imagined. I hope I can remember to never totally lose faith in what might seem unlikely or even impossible.

I'll find my way home on the western wind
To a place that was once my world
Back from where I've been
And in the morning light, I'll remember
As the sun will rise
We are all the glowing embers of a distant fire

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Trip the Light, Alicia Lemke

I'm definitely feeling that this is my last full day here at camp. My hair was pretty ugh-inducing when I woke up this morning. I didn't pack my straightener, and I packed shampoo, but I haven't washed my hair since I've been here! Gross, I know, but I'm just so tired at the end of each day that I barely manage to put on my PJs and fall into bed. I think everyone gets a little grungy and sweaty-looking looking at camp, so hopefully no one notices me. But just to make things worse, I seem to have lost my ponytail elastic and I can't find another, so I'm stuck wearing my nasty hair down! Ugh!

The camp schedule is different on Shabbat, and it kept throwing me off all day. Breakfast was at 9, instead of 8, and it was just cold cereal with a side of cartoons (yes, I've enjoyed delicious hot breakfasts every day here, even if they are obscenely early, it's worth it for pancakes, sausages, French toast, etc. - Rebecca is getting spoiled!). Lunch was at 12, instead of 1, and I would've missed it completely if a counselor hadn't told me just in time!

In celebration of Shabbat, they opened the blob and the waterslides on the lake!
Needless to say, the kids were pretty thrilled. :)

In addition to celebrating Shabbat, two campers are celebrating their bar and bat mitzvahs today. During lunch, the mitzvah boy and girl were treated to a traditional Jewish hora. Some strong male counselors lifted them up on chairs, and everyone else danced around in a circle, clapping their hands. I'd seen horas on TV before but never in real life, so I really enjoyed it! For some reason, the theme for dinner was "Western Night." A lot of people wore cowboy gear, we all ate very messy ribs, and country music played. I admit, I got pretty tired of Western Night when the campers started screaming college cheers (LSU and Bama passions were running high) and singing along with "Cotton-Eyed Joe," which made me flash right back to high school. Ugh. Fortunately, after dinner, we had havdalah services sitting in a big circle on the lawn beside the lake, and the music there was much better.

Shavuah tov, may you have a good week
May you find the happiness you seek
Shavuah tov, a week of peace
May gladness reign and joy increase

One of the staff told me that they love hosting bar and bat mitzvahs here because it's an excuse to throw a party. And what a party they threw! After havdalah services, the counselors set up a little carnival on the lawn and under the breezeway. There were all sorts of different games, face-painting, palm-reading, a bounce house for the smaller kids, and a concession stand giving away popcorn and sno-cones. Somehow, Rebecca ended up ~~helping~~ trying to help work the sno-cone machine for part of the evening. I didn't mind... until I realized that everyone else at the sno-cone stand was Israeli! They kept giving each other directions on how to work the machine in Hebrew (speaking French has never felt so useless!) and Rebecca was totally lost until one of them dumped some crushed ice in the machine, turned to me, and said, "This is what snow looks like! In Israel!" Haha. But I got free of that soon, and then I just wandered around enjoying the carnival and stuffing my face. I ate 2 sno-cones and 4 bags of popcorn! By then, it was really too dark for photos, but I had to take one of this ride/game thing that I thought was SO bizarre:

The kids (here, the bar mitzvah boy) put on a velcro suit, fling themselves at this bouncy velcro wall, and try to stick themselves to it. How weird is that? They didn't have these things when I was a kid!

It was a great, fun way to end my last full day at camp -- and once again, I'm totally exhausted!

Current Mood: yawning
Current Music: the carnival still going on outside

I've been looking forward to Friday all week, because I've heard that the Shabbat evening services here are really special. And guess what? Today was the only day -- out of my entire week at this camp -- when it RAINED! Ugh! It started raining during lunch and continued on and off for most of the afternoon, but during a dry spell, I went for a walk on one of the hiking trails in the woods around camp. The trail ended at the edge of the woods overlooking a little overgrown valley. There was no sign of human life anywhere, just fields and forest, and everything was so still and shushed that it was almost scary. It was raining again, but just barely, and it was so quiet that I could hear the rain falling on the grass and leaves.

For Shabbat services, everyone in camp wears a white shirt and a pair of khakis (or a white dress, if you want to). I was very aware of how horrible my super-wrinkled khakis looked, but I tried not to let that bother me. I arrived at services a bit early, so I got to watch the counselors and campers arrive. As if on some invisible cue, they left their cabins, all dressed in white, and began walking to the dining hall from both sides of the lake, while singing Shabbat Shalom. Services began in the breezeway outside the dining hall; normally, it would've been in the outdoor temple, but it was too wet. We all sang Shabbat Shalom and a few other songs, including this beautiful one that the counselors sang to the campers.

May the Lord protect and defend you.
May He always shield from you from shame.
May you grow to be in Israel a shining name.
May you be like Reuven and Esther. May you be deserving of praise.
Strengthen them, O Lord, and keep them from the stranger's ways.
{I found out later it's from "Fiddler on the Roof."}

A neat idea while singing "His Banner of Love Is Over Me," from the Song of Solomon.

Then we sang HaMotzi and went inside to eat. The kitchen staff had the plain old dining hall amazingly decked out for Shabbat. All the tables were covered with white tablecloths and had a big beautiful loaf of challah on a silver platter in the center. The Shabbat dinner is "family-style," meaning that campers can site with their families instead of their cabins like usual, because apparently some parents come to visit on Friday nights. So rather than sit the other staff members like usual, I somehow ended up the single non-relative at a big table full of family members. I felt like I may as well have a billboard over my head reading "Look, she's here by herself! What a loner freak!" Sigh...

The campers holding their mini paper cups of wine grape juice high during the Kiddush.

But it did help a bit that sitting right next to me was a Sassy Jewish Grandmother with a very thick accent who turned to me and said, "Just call me Bubbie! Everyone does!" Haha. She was a pretty funny and sweet old lady, and the food was good.

Make no mistake, the Shabbat services at this camp are beautiful, but they're LONG. After the lengthy, multi-course dinner and song session that never seemed to end, we went outside to the temple for still more praying. The Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics was held today, and I think it was being broadcast during services. So obviously, I didn't get to see it, but one of the rabbis did talk about it in her sermon. She said like Shabbat, the Olympics are a time of celebration and coming together. But just as we pause during services for the Kiddush, we should also pause from the Olympics to remember the Israeli athletes and coaches who were murdered forty years ago, during the 1972 Munich Olympics. She read their names before we said the Kiddush, which I thought was really appropriate. The Olympics committee has never had a moment of silence or anything to remember the victims of Munich. There has been talk about this at the staff tables all week, and everyone disapproves. There's a good article about it here. I'm kinda bummed that I missed the Opening Ceremony and the Parade of Nations, which I watch every Olympics. But maybe I can catch it later.

But probably the most memorable part of services was when it got dark and they turned on the lights in the outdoor temple. The temple is right on the lakeshore, so the lights created this glare on the water that looked like some sort of strange mist. It reminded me so much of the verse at the beginning of Genesis: The earth was formless and empty, with darkness over the surface of the deep, and the breath of God hovering over the waters. It was almost spooky.

Whew, what a long, exhausting post for a long, exhausting service! Shabbat shalom from camp!

*falls into bed*

Current Mood: amazed services actually ended
Current Music: rain falling on the pine trees

This is my fifth night at camp, and I only just noticed how many stars you can see here! I just walked back from the performing arts center, and I was looking up at the night sky the whole time. It's amazing how many more stars you can see in the sky out here in the woods. I could always see more in Villers-Cotterêts, too. It reminded me of one cold, late, Northern European winter night when Marlene, Sara, and I were walking back to the Lycée Européen from somewhere, and they were also impressed by how many more stars they could see in Villers-Cotterêts than in Hamburg and Beijing.

Anyway, back to summer camp. Tonight was the talent show. The campers all sang, danced, played musical instruments, did magic tricks, etc. Some were just goofy and funny, but some were genuinely good. But it got way too loud for me at the end. One of the girls did a dance to "Call Me Maybe" and all the other kids decided to get on their feet and sing along! Ugh. Rebecca is too old for this.

At the end of the talent show, I hoped for an announcement that breakfast tomorrow morning would be a half-hour later again, but alas, no such luck. Have I mentioned that breakfast here is at 8 am every morning? Ugh! I don't understand how the people here do it, and I'm not sure I want to. I've heard this exchange between more than one groups of counselors. Counselor 1: "I had my day off yesterday, and guess what I did? I slept!" Counselor 2: "Really? You slept?" The counselors here really work so hard. They're with the kids all day. I could never do it!

Current Mood: can't keep my eyes open...
Current Music: "Call Me Maybe" stuck in my head - ugh!

Today was Israel Day -- or as it's better known, Yom Yisrael (its Hebrew name). All of the multicolored decorations for the Maccabiah Games were taken down and replaced with blue and white ones (the colors of the Israeli flag). Israeli music played all day on the camp's speaker system, and miniature Israeli flags were hung from anything that stood still!

( Photos under here! )

During lunch, the campers sang HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem, and this song:

Am Yisrael chai! Od Avinu chai!
(The people of Israel live! Our God lives!)

For dinner, we had pita bread, felafel, and hummus. I ate most of it. While in France, I got very good at forcing myself to eat foods I don't like. (Normally, though, it's not a habit I practice.) That brings me to the one complaint I have about this camp -- the food here is too darn healthy! Their idea of dessert is a piece of honey cake, which is what we had tonight. Ugh! You can imagine what a shock this is to my sugar-loving system. I love being here, but I am looking forward to some fast food and soda when I get home.

After dinner, I tagged along with a group of campers to visit the camp's chicken coops. There were several hyperactive squealing girls and one lone boy. The counselors let a few of them in the coop at a time to pet and hold the chickens. The kids enjoyed it, but I don't think the chickens did. I heard one girl yelling, "Please don't peck me, Mr. Chicken! Or Mrs. Chicken!"

You can't really see it, but the two little girls in the back are holding a chicken between them. (This is a good photo for me.) I kept wanting to say, "Good morning, Mrs. Hen," a la Return to Oz.

After that, we had evening prayer services on the grass beside the lake. After that, the staff set up a store of Israeli/Jewish merchandise in the breezeway outside the dining hall. There was stuff like miniature flags, postcards, stickers, removable tattoos, decals, etc. that you could "buy" with photocopies of Israeli money. I bought a new bumper sticker for Muse Watson; it says something like "Go Green!" on it in Hebrew, according to the 12-ish-year-old camper who translated for me. There are actually several staff members and even a few campers here from Israel. I've heard a lot of Hebrew this week, but I don't think I'm learning any! I also got a little bag of potato chips that I'm munching on right now. Long live junk food!

Once again, I'm sweaty, grimy, and exhausted at the end of a long camp day. It's time to shower, do some reading, practice the Birkat Hamazon, and go to bed. Today I finally found the camp library, where I checked out Silver Days. It's not great, but I forgot to bring a book along and I have trouble falling asleep without reading something first.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: campers heading back to their cabins

I can't believe it's the end of only my second full day at camp. The day here is long, busy, and active, so this morning's breakfast already feels like days ago! The Maccabiah Games wound down today. Team Yarok won, which surprised me because Team Adom won most of the contests that I was a judge for. I stayed busy doing administrative work for the office, mostly sorting mail, but I did have some free time. After dinner, Alan Goodis, a touring Jewish musician, gave a great outdoor concert that I just got back from. He sang "One Day," a song that a few different Jewish singers have covered (I have the Maccabeats' cover of it on my iPod) and I was amazed when everyone in the audience seemed to know it. Seriously, they sang along for every word!

Beautiful crepe myrtles are in bloom all over camp, including these right outside my room.

In fact, I've been amazed by many of the things I've seen here. Like at evening services, when the campers bow during the Baruchu, cover their faces during the Shema, and whisper the second line of it. Maybe it's because I wasn't raised Jewish, or maybe it's because I attend a temple where we don't usually do any of those things, but it blows my mind that kids as young as these campers do that when they pray. They also sing the Birkat Hamazon, the full version, after every meal here! I felt pretty stupid after my first meal in the dining hall, when everyone was singing it except me. I'm trying to learn it, but the Birkat Hamazon is a very long prayer and I'm not familiar with the melody.

This young woman leads the campers in all their songs/chants after every meal. She is so talented and looks and sings just like the camp's own personal Taylor Swift.

In short, I realize that I've been living in a very narrow Jewish world. I think this is understandable, since I only officially converted less than a year ago. And I've learned a lot during my first year as an official Jew, but here at camp, I see that there are still so many different ways of being Jewish and practicing Judaism for me to discover. I am so grateful to be here.

A portion of the mural on the wall of the dining hall. This photo does it no justice! The words at the top say, "If you will it, it is no dream. To be a free people in our land of Zion and Jerusalem..."

At his concert, Alan Goodis sang several Jewish songs (like a great catchy version of "Al Sh'losha D'varim") and a few secular ones -- a few by James Taylor and two by Warren Zevon. One was "Keep Me in Your Heart," which made me a little emotional because it was the song we played at Dad's funeral. The other one was "Don't Let Us Get Sick," and this verse especially struck me because it so perfectly fits this camp, the atmosphere here, and the lake at night. It almost made me wonder if Warren Zevon had ever been to this camp.

The moon has a face, and it smiles on the lake
And causes the ripples in time
I'm lucky to be here with someone like you
Who maketh my spirit to shine
Don't let us get sick, don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right
Just make us be brave and make us play nice
And let us be together tonight

Ken y'hi ratzon -- may this always be God's will.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: "Don't Let Us Get Sick" stuck in my head

My first full day at camp was very long and busy, but it went well. I met and had conversations with a few of the other adult staff members (thank you, Lord!) and I learned how to get into the dining hall a few minutes early to get a seat at the grown-up table. In the morning I sorted the camp's incoming mail, and in the afternoon I drove around in the golf cart picking up and sorting the outgoing mail from each cabin. I love cruising around in that golf cart! It's the perfect way to see all the sights of camp without getting sweaty and exhausted!

All of the buildings have beautiful stained-glass signs in front of them, with both their Hebrew and English names.

This morning started the Maccabiah Games, a camp contest where the kids are divided into four different color-coded teams, Kachol, Adom, Tsahov, Yarok. It is a big, noisy deal. (One of the other staff members told me that the adults hate it, but the kids love it.) After dinner, we all packed into the camp's performing arts center, where each team competed in stuff like original song and interpretive dance. I know it sounds corny, but it was fun. Since I'm on the staff, I got to be one of the judges. It lasted a long time -- I only just got back to my room -- so breakfast will be a half-hour later tomorrow morning! Yay!

Every meal here is followed by a session of songs/chants. Here's Team Adom standing on their chairs, singing "Hebrew Warriors" with hand motions.

This evening, we also took a break for prayer services in the camp's amazing outdoor temple. It's right on the shore of the lake, under the pine trees. Services were held just as the sun was setting, and it was so beautiful and peaceful. Three camp counselors served as the lay leaders, and they did a great job. They led us in a beautiful version of "Hinei Mah Tov" mixed with "All You Need Is Love." I was sitting next to a visiting rabbi from Metairie, who teared up. I think Shabbat services will be held there on Friday evening, and I will try to take more pictures then.

Singing together at evening prayer services.

Another new song I've heard here that I love is this one that the campers sang during dinner:

Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher
See the champions take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud
All around our hands are lifting as we lose our inhibitions
Celebration, it surrounds us, every nation, all around us
Singin' forever young, singin' songs beneath the sun
Let's rejoice in the beautiful game, and at the end of the day we say
When I get older, I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom, just like a wavin' flag

I love it. I can still hear the campers outside singing it right now, as they head back to their cabins. What a great place.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: They'll call me freedom, just like a wavin' flag...

Well, for all the worrying I did, the trip up here was perfectly smooth and quiet -- thank you, Lord! We didn't even have any rain. (Which surprised me because we had a long, loud thunderstorm most of yesterday evening that even made the lights at work flicker!) The only scary moment came when I stopped for gas in a tiny map-dot called Magnolia, Mississippi, and noticed that one of Muse Watson's tires had gotten alarmingly low. But I re-inflated it, and everything was just fine. I also stopped at a welcome center close to the Louisiana-Mississippi border, and I bumped into a lady from my congregation, who was on her way to Jackson. What are the odds?

Beautiful flowers outside the Mississippi welcome center.

Still, it was a loooong, exhausting trip. I arrived here in the afternoon, and I just had to time to unpack, see a little bit of the camp, pick the mail up from the cabins and sort it (which will be one of my duties here) before dinner, which was yummy. The menu for the rest of the week looks mostly good, too.

This caution sign greets everyone at the camp entrance.

This camp is so big and beautiful and well-maintained! (A huge step up from the little local camp that I sporadically attended as a kid.) It's in the woods in rural Mississippi, built around a big lake, surrounded by gentle hills and tall pine trees. There are lots of kids here, and the camp has so many fun activities for them to do. I have my own little private bedroom and bath. It's a lot like a hotel room, small but very clean and nice.

The main avenue of camp. The lake is just behind the row of cabins on the right.

I'm not gonna lie -- my first day here was rough. It's so hard to be the new person in a new place where you've never been before and don't know anybody, but everybody else already knows each other. I ate dinner by myself. I kept hoping somebody would invite me to eat with them, but it never happened. That was hard.

So, I'm going to bed now and say a prayer that tomorrow will be better and that this experience will help me to grow in a faith that is still relatively new to me.

SHEHEKIANU! My old Muse Waston (in the lower left corner) arriving at the camp gates. I got out and took this on my phone while waiting for the Israeli security guard to come open the gate for me. I had no idea there were Israelis at this camp until he biked up to the gate and said, in the thickest accent ever, "You follow me, I show you way to the office."

Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: crickets and cicadas chirping away in the woods

This is a short entry because work lasted forever tonight, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm waking up bright and early tomorrow morning to leave for summer camp! I'm not sure how often I'll have Internet access there, so posts may be sporadic for a while. My back-up plan is to keep a paper journal of my experiences, take lots of pictures, and put them all on LiveJournal later.

I'm going to a summer camp run by the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism). I'll be there for a week. I'm so nervous about it because even though I've heard great things about this camp, I've never been before and I don't know anyone there! But I keep telling myself that if I can fly to France alone and live there for nine months, then surely I can survive at a summer camp in Mississippi for a week. Right?

Besides the normal clothes and toiletries you put in a suitcase, can you guess what else Rebecca has packed?

Detailed, turn-by-turn directions the camp.
A Louisiana state map.
A flat-tire emergency repair kit (that's in addition to the spare tire in Muse Watson's trunk).
A tire inflation pump and gauge.
A spare gas tank full of gas.
Enough snack food to last for several days.

Tomorrow morning, it's Mississippi, or bust! But I probably shouldn't say that -- Muse Watson might choose "bust"! For tonight, I'll leave you with this beautiful, moving video about travel, discovered recently via littlesammy:

If all the days that come to pass are behind these walls,
I'll be left at the end of things in a world kept small.
I'll travel far from what I know, and I'll be swept away.
I need to know I can be lost and not afraid.

Current Mood: too nervous to sleep!
Current Music: Trip the Light, Alicia Lemke

I've felt so busy lately. I'm working a lot this week -- almost 40 hours! -- and in my spare time, I've been getting ready for my vacation to summer camp next week. I needed to refill my asthma medication, order more contacts, inflate Muse Watson's tires, get a pair of khakis (the camp doesn't have a dress code, but they do ask that everyone wear a white shirt and khakis on Shabbat) buy some things in travel size before I left, and predictably, I left it all to the last minute! Ugh. Today I bought an emergency flat-tire repair kit, because I'm paranoid that Muse Watson will give me some sort of problem on the way. This will be the longest trip I've ever taken in him.

Today was my day off, but I woke up early to run some errands this morning. This afternoon, I took Briana to the roller rink. Things are still kinda bumpy and awkward between us, but I'm hoping it'll smooth out after we've known each other longer. Roller-skating was fun. I hadn't been to that rink in about 5 years, but I used to go all the time when I was kid, and a lot like Blue Bayou, it was just almost just like I remembered. Oh, the fun skinny 9-year-old Rebecca had flying around on her pink-and-green skates. Out-of-shape adult Rebecca was wheezing, panting, sweaty, and red-faced in no time, but I still enjoyed it.

67 DAYS LEFT UNTIL SEASON 10 OF NCIS!

Current Mood: so tired
Current Music: Sara watching Real Housewives

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rebecca_in_blue

March 2013

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Page Summary

A Week at Camp: Departure Day.
A Week at Camp: Rebecca's Last Full Day.
A Week at Camp: Shabbat Services.
A Week at Camp: Talent Show Night.
A Week at Camp: Israel Day!
A Week at Camp: Maccabiah Day 2.
A Week at Camp: Maccabiah Day 1.
A Week at Camp: Arrival Day.
Rebecca and Muse Watson are hitting the road...
Rebecca won't sleep in for another 10 days, at least!

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on your journey, i will bless you...

...and you will be a blessing

Entries tagged with summer camp

A Week at Camp: Departure Day.

A Week at Camp: Rebecca's Last Full Day.

A Week at Camp: Shabbat Services.

A Week at Camp: Talent Show Night.

A Week at Camp: Israel Day!

A Week at Camp: Maccabiah Day 2.

A Week at Camp: Maccabiah Day 1.

A Week at Camp: Arrival Day.

Rebecca and Muse Watson are hitting the road...

Rebecca won't sleep in for another 10 days, at least!