This blog is well overdue and I apologise for letting a whole week go by before getting my blogging butt in gear. It’s been a busy seven days at Appel Farm and while there’s been plenty to write about, I haven’t actually had any time to write it.
And as I’m still pretty pushed for time, I’m going to kill seven-birds with one aim of my slingshot and give a review of the week that was.
TUESDAY 6 JULY marked the hottest summer day ever recorded in New Jersey and for a few hours, I could have sworn I was at home in Australia. While most of the teaching spaces at Appel Farm are air-conditioned, our bunk is not and consequently, turned into a sauna by 9:00am. The air was practically prickling with heat. And if there’s anything worse than being in 105 degree heat, its being in 105 degree heat with 200-odd children between the ages of seven and 17 – talk about a non-stop whinge-fest. But thankfully, Appel Farm was prepared. At 1:00pm, we scooped up all 200 sweaty bodies, stuck ‘em on a bus and drove them to the beach.
Avalon Beach, New Jersey has coined the term ‘cooler by a mile’ as it is one of the most easterly points on the coast by, you guessed it, one mile. And with the wind chill coming off the water, stepping off the bus onto the boardwalk was like walking into natural air-conditioning. It came as no surprise that the campers and the counselors alike made a bee-line for the water.
As we were on the east coast of America, this trip marked my second swimming session in the Atlantic Ocean, which looks more like a wave-less bay full of dirty dishwater. I can see now why foreigners love Australian beaches, as the golden shores and bright blue sea is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. The sand is littered with the type of thick seashells you buy for a 10c at the local junk store and the lifeguards won’t let you go in further than your waist.
But it’s not the water the campers enjoy most about Avalon, it’s the fact that for the first time since having their ‘candy contraband’ taken from them at camp, they can finally get their hands on some sugar. The most popular thing to do as an Appel Farm camper in Avalon is to go to ‘The Buccaneer’, an icecream store in town which serves a disgusting dish called ‘The Shipwreck’ – 12 scoops of icecream complete with every topping available in store. The kids chow this down in about five minutes, followed by as much candy they can purchase before boarding the bus back to camp.
As they aren’t allowed to bring any candy back onto camp grounds, the campers spend the hour and a half trip home eating as much candy as possible. Needless to say, they arrive back at Appel Farm sporting a sugar high that could rival that of hard-core substance abuse. They bounce around the walls for a few hours until the sugar wears off and then crash so suddenly they fail to make it through evening activities.
And our trip to Avalon was no different. With eyes bigger than their stomachs, the campers hit up the candy as quickly as possible. They came home high as kites, plummeted at about 8:00pm and fell asleep beneath the heat of their little sunburnt bodies.
WEDNESDAY 7 JULY was my day off and after having endured Beach Day in the company of 200 sugar-coated children, the opportunity to relax could not have come sooner. Staff B returned to the beach, this time driving to Ocean City, New Jersey where we tried in vain to catch the struggling rays of sunshine from a cloudy sky (love that non-UV infested sunshine). Lunch was spent stuffing our faces with quality food and watching Spain win the semi-final of the World Cup.
THURSDAY 8 JULY, I was treated to my first all-camp ‘Let’s Sit Around The Camp Fire And Sing Camp Fire Songs While Eating Smores’ Experience. I was first introduced to the sugary deliciousness of smores while travelling through California on a media famil last December and I can see myself gaining a few new stomach roles because of them. A ‘Smore’ is a toasted marshmallow and a square of chocolate which are squished between two Graham crackers (pronounced ‘gram’ cracker) to make a gooey delicious sandwich. These are called ‘smores’ because you always want ‘some-more’ and always live to regret eating the second helping.
On FRIDAY 9 JULY we were introduced to the stylish moves of our campers at the camp’s dance. I was in heaven, not only because I got to dance but because the theme selected for this occasion was the 80s – my favourite era. Donning a very fashionable prom dress, complete with a gigantic white bow and plenty of turquoise eye shadow, I had a fantastic night pulling out my most atrocious moves on the D-Floor. This was almost as fun as ‘bump-and-grind’ watch, wherein we kept a beady eye on dancing couples and intervened with some skankin’ dance moves when we feared they were getting a little too close.
The weekend marked the end of the first 2 week session - Saturday evening was spent watching the ‘Tweekers’ (campers who are here for only two weeks) performances in music, dance and drama before leaving camp the following Sunday. ‘Visiting Day’ was also on Sunday where parents of the four week campers come to visit their children and make them homesick or even more homesick than they were before. In order to counteract this, evening activity on Sunday night was a carnival where the kids can have their face painted or their fortune told, amongst other things. I landed myself a job on the balloon-tying table and learnt how to make blow-up balloon swords.
I think I might have found myself a new trade.
Ciao for now. xo
But after surviving four weeks of teenage angst and continual supervision of their teenage ways, it was nice to see the last camper leave the site and feel like we had the place to ourselves again. We had a day and a half of intersession, which involved a staff party on the Friday night and a trip to Philadelphia the next day, amidst the stifling heat of one of the hottest days in New Jersey history. 
