Last festivals, thank you's, goodbye...big closure!

---

First of all, there has been a crash, that's why 1 blog-entry totally disappeared, and photo's got lost...sorry. So there's kind of a gap now between this and the last blog, which I am not going to fix!

End of camp:
The second session was way more relaxed than the first, because there was not as much drama. So that was kinda nice! My stitches got out my finger(still not working well though). That's also a story, after 2 weeks, a bitchy doctor told me not to remove the stitches yet, but 4 days later. When I came back 2 nurses were removing my stitches..one showing the other how she does it, both had different ways, consequence was that they were a little bit to busy with each other explaining that they pulled the stitches the wrong way(!!) So all the way through my finger it must go..nice! Anyways was great to get rid of them..
We didn't have any trips anymore after the second year trip..only in the end a surf trip with 8 kids which lasted more or less a day. Was a shame that I couldn't come along, I really want to learn how to surf!
We had a lot of visitors coming up, friends and/or old campers. This is always nice to meet up with new people, but there was a weekend I felt a little uncomfortable..too many people at once. We also had a few parties going on, birthdays, staff nights, or just because. Good memories..! But this also infected for some their way of working what bothered me. I noticed in the end, I saw and felt more negative things than before, this had a lot of reasons: getting tired, trip S-America was coming up (nervous), what Chris & I had ended...so I had definitely less fun than before. Staff knew, I think the kids didn't really noticed, so that's a good thing.
The last week everything was in the idea of, last festivals, last cook site, last banquet etc. That was kinda sad. Especially for those who are second years and never will be a camper again...
The last sharing circle was impressive. I always had a hard time speaking within the big group all around the fire..same again now. We sang together and then we had -thank you- as topic. Everyone could thank an other or a group, from thanks for helping me with wood collecting, till thank you for being of becoming my (best) friend this summer...was really emotional and overall great! The thank you's I got, I never expected and really touched me!
Few examples:
# ..thank you for being the best counselor ever...(my tentgroup)
# ..thank you for coming all the way from NL, never been in camp, and becoming such a strong counselor is such short amount of time..(Shay-staff)
# ..thank you for your honesty, listening, helping me out.. (camper)
and not to forget:
#..thank your for being the crazy Dutch..(camper)

After camp we had a party with the other side, then stayed for a few more days, cleaning, breaking down tents etc. I had a ride back on Tuesday with Chris and Derek. When we just arrived we got a phone call: Jimmy has whooping cough (kinkhoest), we knew this. But the state is on his way to camp to inspect this and everyone should come back, incl. campers and be in quarantine... This was an alarming phone call, in the end it wasn't that bad, we all could go wherever we want except for Jimmy. That night staff party (Jimmy was there too 😉), I walked into something at the rooftop there were 3 guys, I didn't see what they were doing (missed the fact their pants were down), they said there were taking pictures if I didn't mind..within it 'megina's' So ended up in their pictures pointing at their hidden penises..Also that night I had to say goodbye to some..that was sad.
I stayed over at Tracy's house in Manhatten, walked the whole goddamn city the next day. Did see a lot though, but forgot to bring my camera..and who did we ran into...yes indeed the 3 guys from the rooftop (with pants on this time) the day after I met up with Milena in Upstate New York..that's for the next blog!

kisss Nouk

---