New York and Camp!!!!

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Hello everyone,

Firstly it my birthday in 6 days time so I thougth I should remeind you all so that you can send me all presents .... Ha. Oh and happy birthday to Albert as well which was two days ago ... I think!

Anyway. I woke up nice and early in LA and got dropped off back at LAX airport by Bee. After waving goodbye I turned around and started looking where I was meant to go. This has to be the most confusing airport ive been in so far. My plane wasnt up onthe borad and I ended up being told to cheak into the place where it said flight to sydney was aslo for new york. How confuisng. Then when I tryed to cheak in, it turnes out another Katharine Bowman had cheaked in already! How cool is that? My name rules. Theres even a book written about a girl named katharine bowman I found out! The plane flight seemed longer than the 15 hour one to LA. It was complete turblance the whle way which is annoying when your tring to drink and eat but the jolting keeps making you miss the plate and face. I had lots ofspacethough to spread out and the guy on my row was niceto talk too, though he was a bit weird. The views were amazing. We flew over the deserts and mountins and citys in clear daylight and I couldnt belive how big America is. Is it wider than oz as oz seems bigger?
We had to quew toland as JFK is always busy then we had toquew to park the plane. Then we had to que for our bags. When I finaly managed to get to the exit, I then had to work out how to find my hostle in a massive city. I found a shuttle bus thing which I then had to wait for an hour for it to arrive and when it did, it decided to stop at every entrance and doorway in the airport to find passenges, while we weresitting in the back listing to the sweet sounds of a hundred angry people beeping there horns andwatching the police arrest random people.
I finally got to my hostle on 251 west 20th street. What a long adress. As I stumbled in at 11pm, trying to work out how a 5 hour flight from LA leaving at 8am took so long, I was pounced on by an Ezra (one of my circus people from home). This was great as he was coming to camp as well and I hadnt a clue wher the meeting point was for the next day or how the crazy tube system worked. I had an early night though as I was shatted, after discoveing that have the camps circus was staying at the hostle. We make a peculia bunch.
Trying tosleep in the sweltering heat on the third floor of a tyipical ny stly building with police and car races happeing out side the window that you cant close as you will die of the humidity and lackof air. (they really need to discover air con) isvery hard. I got up at 9 the next day and we all wondereddown to find bagles which are a realy stodgy thingto eat. I had a really yummy choc milkshake thing for break fast though. We all cheaked out and heaved our big bags onto our backs. With me being accompantyed by my packed coles bag full of random heavy junk. We stumped a few blocks down to the nearest subway and squezed our selfes though the turnstyle things. ( sweat flying off all of us ugh). two train rides later and we were climing up a long stairway to get upto the outside. Then another painful hike (I amgoignto have a very strong back when im finished) to columbia universtity. After Ezra leading us to the wrong meeting point we finally found everyone. A huge groupof crazy people, camped outon the campus ontop of there packs.
The buses arrived and somhow mangaedto fit allof us on. We watched the worst film ever called Jump on onthe way to camp. But it passed the time which was good.

Arriveing at camp, my first impressionwas the humidty. And when I got to my cabin (room G18B) The heat was immintingot of it like an oven. The cabin itselfwas FILTHY. mouse poo linned the walls bed floor draws and shelves. Bits of old hair, cottonbuds, socks, toilet roll appearedin every corner. UGH. I was not impresesed and telling my the yells, nor was anyone else.

My first drama of camp happened in the first hour. After comingout of the dust ridden bathroom, I was told by Holly, a girl in my dorm, that we must have a drama student in our room. When Iasked why she told me shewas facking to be uncontious on teh floor, but her eyes were twitching. On my futher inspection, I decided taht she was unconsious. I sent holly off while I talked to her (ashlee) and admired the way she had fallen into the recovery postion. I kept talkingto her and she suddley woke up then went bake to nowhere land again. When help arrived, I found her medical form and discoveredtaht she had an absysess on her spine.
the camp people were rubbish. they didnt take her to hospitble even though she wasin greatpain. I ended up calling her parents in oz toget them to have a go at the camp so that they would take her to hosptible. Its amazing what a call from frantic parents cando. As if by magic the head of the camp was all sweet. wegot her to hospible the next day along with another girl in my room who had shingles. In the mids of al this I had another girl break down in tears taht her luggege had gone missing. I sent her off to the headoffice where she found it.

I have not been happy with my roommates. Ispent the whole day cleaning top to toe the whole room (amazingfor me Iknow, but it was revoling). I moved all the beds on my own. And finally, At the end of the day , they strole inand be rude to me. I went a bit mental at them and shcoked them into silence.(go me). After throwing a mopat them I left them to it. All they did was throw a bit of water on the ground and say they had mopped up. I decided to sleep with my neighbours G18A who are lovely damn cool people. After lots of talks to the boss, I havefinlly moved there as me and the other girls do not geton atall. Anyway.

Circus is cool. The building is like a giant barn. I spent half the day making and replacing allthe wicks on the fire staff which messes up your fingers when your tring to get a nail though lots of wicky stuff. And changing allthe tape onthem. we then did a bit of conditioning where we all nearly died.

The next morning I wokeup and my stomach was a quivring wreak. I felt like i had pulled nearly everyone of my muscles. We have lodes of meetings and talks to go to on campy stuff which is really boring and your bum goes numb and I cant sit stillfor that long. That evernign we played Name bingo, which is where you go round and fill out a card of peoples names taht you randomly meet then they calloutrandom ones and if you win you got a night on the town. I didntwin butit was fun.

The next day we just starteedworking on the trapezes. We set up the triple trapeze two normal ones, the cordalise and one to practise ways of using partners to get up. It was fun but a bit scary as they are much highter than the ones at home. After a strecting session itwassupper. The food is very filling here and yummy so you eat a lot.

That evernign we played brain wars. You had to dress in your seasons colour. Im apperntly american spring so I had towear grean. Its like university challenge where you have five contestacts ansering questions and actingout stuff. I was in my element. I happly stoodup on the beanch and got allthe team screaming and partipateing and going crazy. We won most challeneges and I even got a brainy question right ( with a bit of cheating). I got all of my team dancing on the stage for a song off. We won obviously and my head was massive my the end of it.

The next day we did more trapeze and hoops and stuff. And that everning the boss rented out thw whole local cinema and gave us free popcorn and drinksand we all went to see either spiderman3 or pirates of the carbeien which they say funny in usa. I sawpirates. Its an awesome film but the cinemawasso cold and we were restless and its 3 hours long. but its good.well better than the second anyway. As we headed back to our lodge at 130 am I decided that it gets really cold here at night. Im sleeping with 3 thick blankets on top. Did I mentionour residant mouse Family and our mafia chipmunk family who come in at night and make lots of noise and go though our stuff looking for food? they are sweet but really anoyting.

Today is the camps day off but most of the circus people ahve stayed to train. I have started traingonthe flying trapeze. Its as high as the ones in the circus and quite daunting toget up on. I wasnt sure if I could make my self jump off thelittle platform at first, but after doing bungee jumping, anything seems possible. I was scared of my grip but after a bit of pursuation from Ezra I jumped off. Its really fun but you need a stong grip. You have to get into the right rhthem of it though. I went up a few times, but some people just fell off the second they grabbed the bar. Its awesome fun though. Ive got to go now as my break is over. Write me lodes oflettes andstuff.

Love From Katharine xxxxxxxxx

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