a typical day at Camp Kabeyun 2007

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Updated: Trips - activities 26th October.

NB: I'm probably going to update it whenever I remember things - there's so much, trying to keep it short

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Ok, so here it is - this site's server crashed early August and they lost everything I had uploaded - which i got pissed about. Recently checked and its all back so it's all good.

I was in the Owls cabin which are the eldest (15-16) - my co-counselors were Terry and Laura who were married and had an adjoining cabin. Terry has been at camp for 20 years on and off over the years. It was Laura's first time to camp so whenever we needed advice we would just ask Terry which was handy.

There is a book written about Kabeyun called Cabin Pressure by Josh Wolk. Names etc have been changed but a few of the counselors were campers at the time the book was written. Terry was the evil arch nemesis of Josh... some funny stories which I was able to ask the counselors involved.

1st half were a handful coming straight out of school, excited some not having seen each since last summer. Had Alfonso from Madrid who arrived earlier as he couldn't get a flight to arrive closer to camp.

2nd half there were 3 14yos. 2nd half was much quieter having had 4 weeks to chill out as well as being younger. Whole camp (2nd half) was on average 1 year younger.

Some kids stayed for 8 weeks... quite a few stayed for 7, the young kids in the 2nd half stayed for 3 (introductory). One kid Tom Young was only 8 and stayed for 8 weeks, he was really homesick in the last 2 weeks. Especially at meal times as it's a time where they're usually with family.

At meal times, 2 counselors at the ends of a table, 6 kids of different ages would take turns being waiter & assistant waiter. Waiter got food and cleared afterwards, assistant would get 2nds and 3rds and 4ths... I'd get 5ths.. sometimes 6ths 😊

Meals!!! Were ok, sometimes we did a run to Maccas (10 mins away). Towards the end Evan (on the next able) and I would just nod to each other once we saw the meal. They had 4 nuggets for $1 (the Dollar Menu was pretty good) so I'd get 8 or 12 nuggets for $3.24

The worst meal was breakfast one morning, an oval bowl with a bed of corn chips, poached eggs on top, cheese sprinkled with salsa... I just took the poached eggs which didn't have salsa on it and had them. Another funny breakfast was sausages and canteloupe.

A typical day Mon-Sat was: (all times notified by the bugle/trumpet)

7:30am - reveille
7:45am - 1st call
7:50am - 2nd call
7:55am - assembly - flag raising after cabins report in - all present / accounted for(if kids are on trips)
8:00am - breakfast - after breakfast 1st & 2nd period activities chosen
9:00am - inspection - kids 'clean' cabin
9:30am - 1st period - for the first 20mins I would inspect middle camp cabins to score them out of 50. Each week a cabin would receive a prize (s'mores & candy (lollies))
10:45am - 2nd period
12:00pm - playswim - free time for kids
12:30pm - recall, back to cabin
1:00pm - lunch, 3rd & 4th period activities chosen
2:00pm - rest hour - younger cabins rested and/or wrote letters home, older cabins could play games but had to be in cabins
3:00pm - 3rd period 4th period 4pm, playswim
5:00pm - playswim
5:30pm - recall, back to cabin
5:45pm - 1st call for assembly
5:50pm - 2nd call
5:55pm - assembly - cabins report in and lowering of the flag
6:00pm - dinner - Saturdays were beach supper - burgers and dogs at big cove (beached area with bbq and tables)
7:00pm - evening activities or free time - Mondays Ed & I had ballfield - 1st week cricket, most weeks after were soccer, Thursdays I had lodge/basketball - ballfield on this night was really popular so I didn't really do much, played basketball, guitar, piano or table tennis with campers.
8:30pm - recall, back to cabin
9:00pm - TAPS (lights out for campers, Owls (my cabin stayed up a little later)

SUNDAYS

8:00-10am - buffet breakfast
8-9:30am - kids showers (only compulsory shower... followed by an inspection with the nurse)
10:00am - morning activities - counselors would offer various activities
11:30am - recall
11:45am - 1st call for assembly
11:50am - 2nd call for assembly
11:55am - report in and go to Pine Point
12:00pm - Pine Point, circular area where a counselor or Owls campers would lead a discussion on a certain topic, after this campers/counselors would stand up and share stories/thoughts
1:00pm - lunch, trip announcements for the following week and then trip signups. Cabin trips also announced
2:00pm - rest hour as normal, staff meeting to discuss any issues with campers/staff
3:00pm - all camp activity (only if campers wanted to participate), capture the flag, scavenger hunt, staff hunt, etc...
5:00pm - playswim
5:30pm - recall
6:00pm - dinner (turkey & stuffing)
7:00pm - evening activities or free time
8:30pm - recall
9:00pm - TAPS

Activities and Trips

Kids could choose from - swimming was the only compulsory activity until they passed out of all levels and complete the Thunderbird swim (1 mile swim early Sunday mornings...)
- waterskiing, windsurfing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking
- arts & crafts (only lasted a few weeks), music, drama, pottery, leatherwork, woodwork,
- tennis, badminton, basketball, ropes course, fishing, croquet (when Bill French was in camp - his father was one of the original campers 84 years ago), Aikido (Mike Bell offered it towards the end - he was in charge of the interns as well)
Mike Baskin was freelance - he offered lots of different activities from card games to canoe battle royale, wind yoga, DJ'ing, dancing, etc
I ended up doing cribbage a few times in the last week after I rolled my ankle on the Mt Israel hiking trip.

Damian and I also did AFL a few times for activities, a little interest - I ended up showing a DVD of the game and then doing kick to kick which seemed to work a lot better.

TRIPS (most were day trips, hiking would do multiple days, there was one 5 day hike) trips were graded green, blue and black (like ski runs)
- rockclimbing, hiking, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, swimming did a hike and swim, cabin trips, drama, fishing - Terry took them out to catch all different types of fish with his dad as well - biggest fish caught was 30.5 inches...

We were trying to think of a tennis trip but all our ideas were probably not going to be OK'd for a trip... we did beach tennis baseball one day as it was too hot to play tennis.


Trips I went on
1st half
- cabin trip to Lower Falls, we swam and then went to a river where we put on PFD's (life jackets) and floated/swam down from rock to rock.
- photography trip to Wells, Maine - Laura got me out of camp and we went to the beach and this park thing where the kids would take photos. Was nice and relaxing - learnt a little about photography.
- July 4th half of the camp went to Mt Major - the other half stayed at camp and had a 'normal' day. We hiked up about an hour - had lunch and then down again. Jake and I ran the last mile as it was flat.

2nd half
- cabin trip to Portsmouth, NH - toured through the Albacore submarine (only 1 made) and went swimming as it was really hot, they had all these stupid rules (no wrestling/touching) you had to do a deep water swim test if you wanted to go more than chest deep (I didn't do the test as you had to wait in line).
- Mt Israel, went with Joey for a Jewish cultural fiesta - had falafels and potato lakas for lunch at the top - rolled my ankle on the way down - major bummer for the last week of camp.

Wednesday's were Wednesday night live, performances by campers/counselors - later it turned to whatever day most campers were in camp, Tuesday night live or Friday night live.
Saturdays were performance nights - staff night, cabin skits and the play on the last saturday.

My tennis game improved out of sight (playing 3-4hrs 5-6 days a week will do that) but now has probably gone back to where it was as I haven't touched a racquet since camp - I won the camper/staff doubles tournaments both times with Tom (1st half) and Max, even after I rolled my ankle and didn't run at all. If I hadn't Max and I would have destroyed everyone - we still won the final 6-0.

I bought 2 new racquets $US31 retailing for $100 (camp had pro-deal with Head).

At night, I had to be 'on cabin' 2 nights out the week where I could be out of cabin from 8-11pm but then had to go back. Other nights I'd either go out to movies/bar, hang out in the staff lounge just drink and play cards. Sometimes I'd just sleep in cabin, especially after my days off.

Days off, I'd go back to sleep after kids left for breakfast, wake up around 10am - have breakfast and then leave camp for the day. Evan one of the other tennis counselors would let me borrow his car - I'd plan with other counselors who had the same day off to do stuff, went to Boston a few times - saw my favourite band (Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers) on a small cruise boat one week. Went to the beach one week with the Russian girls, it was Anna P's first time to the beach ever.

I drove a lot, on cabin trips, days off - wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, only walked around the wrong side of the car to get in when I was reading a receipt.

1st 2 weeks off, I just went to the next town to hang out and be by myself. One trip to Boston we didn't get back until 4:45am after the sun rose, we watched Harry Potter which finished at 1am, went back to one of the counselor's houses to get some food and left at 3am... suffice to say it was a long day the next day, bleary eyed and tired.

I've uploaded a lot of photos to facebook, if you have it, add me, I'll post the links here soon otherwise.

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