Not having time to write about yesterday definitely indicates that we all had a busy day. We woke up way too soon, in the middle of the wildest dreams and managed to get into our bus (registration plate appropriately VIP) that took us to our destination, the monastery of Lintula. Such a beautiful place! On the way back we announced roles for the wedding that would take place that evening. Everybody got one and we had everything from Finnish trash celebrities to the leader of our eastern neighbor. The wedding itself was a lot of fun, though nobody really listened in the sense of learning since they were concentrating on each others goofy appearances. I am glad we had so much fun activities that day since I had some personal struggles. Not getting a job I really wanted and having to deal with some people who operates on the very opposite wavelength than me caused me unnecessary trouble and turned my mood down a bit. The bright side is that I pulled through everything thanks to the great support of my team and dear friends. I also learned about myself and my ability to do the appropriate thing when all I wanna do is hit someone. I barely ever have situations where I am simply so frustrated and annoyed that I can't take it anymore and now afterwards it is very interesting to wonder my own reactions. I would have wanted to sleep the little time I had left after the final night's crying and singing but well, the girls just had to try to run just when I was falling asleep. The result was only four hours of sleep, dozens of mosquito bites and an exhausted, easily irritated leader. Today has been mostly about cleaning up the camp center and trying to wrap up the camp time in a good way. I have struggled through tiredness and responsibilities and I cannot even tell how relieved I am. When the bus left, I got tears in my eyes just because it was over, I did it, we did it, I could finally let the stress go and rest.
Awesome! My feelings are up to the roof right now, the day has been probably the most successful so far. The morning started with a liturgy, after which we had our normal camp activities. What felt like really soon, the dreaded part of the day, parents' visit, began with a beautiful service. To my surprise the evening went more smoothly than ever, a huge thanks is in order to my amazing team! Parents enjoyed it and we had fun.
One of my favorite moments of a camp is always the ask the priest-lesson. We had it in the church, everyone had written down questions about anything and everything. I found out some new things that I had always wondered but never known, which was very nice. Speaking of favorite moments, the lesson was followed by the biggest and most memorable event, disco!
Our trick succeeded perfectly. We told them that we have a visitor from Kuopio to tell us about some boring stuff, and they totally bought it. When we went to the main building to hear her lecture, the lights had been switched off and the music started to play. The amazement and confusion on their faces was priceless. We partied for a while, ate, had some games and slowly danced as a big circle to Celine Dion's My heart will go on and we did it, we made them cry!!! Happy tears this time and that's what tells us we did something right.
Now I have nothing more to say, except that I am really starting to feel relief and happiness that we have managed to provide the youngsters a time of their life they will remember for a long time. All this means that I have to have succeeded as the leader at least a little! I can look back at the past week and point out things I would have done differently but I also see where I have grown from last year's camp. I am grateful that I was given this chance and I want the parish and the people who work there to know that I appreciate their trust in me.
One day and a half left, hopefully everything will keep going the way it is right now and we can have a perfect ending to an exceptionally functional camp!
That sounds bad, I know. However, it is only appropriate considering the theme of the day. Today we have dealt with the issues of death and ethics. We also had a fake funeral for my dear friend who had a pretty bad Midsummer with her husband...
I have had a lot more energy today and the difference is huge. I am my cheerful self again, I have been wandering around the camp center talking with everyone and laughed at them since I hid an immunity idol here somewhere, in the Survivor spirit, and they are having trouble finding it. I did a good job! The immunity idol does not help you stay at the camp longer, we're not kicking anyone out, it provides you with the first turn to take food at the next five meals. That's pretty valuable, if you ask me.
We also started a game called Murderer, which has once again proved not to work properly among 15-year-olds. It is just too damn hard to keep your mouth shut and not tell anyone who you're about to murder and whether you're dead or alive. Some of them are in it 100 % which makes me happy. We'll have our winner by the end of the camp!
Only three days remain and tomorrow we'll deal with our biggest challenge yet organizing-wise, since it is the day when parents come visit. My team and I will try to cope with 161 people for a few hours, after which we'll all be exhausted. But we're getting closer and closer to the moment of saying we did it! so I cannot complain.
This day has made me turn my thoughts a little bit back to myself and my own life, especially listening the ethics lesson and wondering if I want to go talk with our priest alone in Idon'tknowwhatitisinEnglish but kind of the catholic confession situation, it's just a little different in our church.
I wish it was easy to face your own realities but sometimes I have to give in and admit I'm a coward.
I had to check my previous post to remember which day it is. I don't really know what to write about this day so this was a basic camp day, nothing special, nothing bad. We did have a christening where Mickey Mouse was renamed Anna Maro, which was pretty fun. But now that I try to think back to today, I can't come up with anything extraordinary. Youngsters are having fun though, which is good.
I hope I didn't jinx myself with yesterday's text since today I had a bad evening. I was just annoyed by everything and at times I could almost see steam coming out of my ears. I had my reasons, though, so it wasn't just any random crankiness.
However, my mood turned better a little later after a few exchanges of frustration and I started to laugh and smile again. Old camp stories always help!
That's it for today I guess. Didn't have any enlightening moments of realization related to leadership or anything. I did participate in a few games, though, which was fun! I gotta balance the responsibilities somehow.
This text is boring and useless and blaah but who cares. Tomorrow we'll deal with death so hopefully I'll be more cheerful then!
There are always days at camps you just can't really remember afterwards and this has been one of them. Everything's starting to fall into place, youngsters have pretty much adapted and workers are doing their basic jobs. Nothing bad to say, nothing wonderful to say. We've managed to avoid more complications and situations to handle which lets us enjoy the normal camp life for a while.
This day has seemed to last twice as long as days in general. Several times we have wondered that yes, it still is Sunday! Three days behind, five ahead. Camp atmospheres go almost always without exceptions at a pace of rapid growth in the beginning, a steady couple of days and the final growth to the climax of the last day and a half. We're getting to the steady part, which is the time that strengthens the bonds between youngsters and workers but also makes us drop all pretenses and be genuinely ourselves. That sometimes can lead to small conflicts, tiredness, crankiness or bad days but since camps are part of life, it is normal.
If I was to point out some moments of realization and worthy of reminiscence, I'd mention our activity where groups toured from point to point to execute tasks related to the themes of altruism, co-working and difficulties of life. I got to brush up my Spanish when my colleague and I pretended to be strangers lost in a forest speaking different languages. They thought we'd gone insane but we had a blast!
This is the first time I am really exhausted, not that I have sleep deprivation or anything but I've just used all my energy. We'll see what tomorrow brings!
I'm trying hard to remember both sides of today, not only the downs. In the morning I felt like everything was perfectly balanced, the youngsters have formed tight groups surprisingly fast, which on one hand basically facilitates our job but on the other hand causes worries to those of them who don't adjust so easily which causes worries to us. Definitely the most up-part was the amazingly organized and executed Käpyjuhlat, at the end of which we had 35-ish wet and (hopefully) laughing youngsters. It was a total success that was very close to perfection. I have to give some credit (again) to my amazing team of workers who manage to cope with anything the circumstances throw at them, which was really measured this evening. The biggest challenge of leadership is making decisions when the decision isn't simple or easy. What is crucial at a moment like that is patience. I need to take my time thinking about the best possible solution before I open my mouth. When I am the leader, others look up to what I say and that's why I need to know what I am saying. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is one of the hardest things of my job description. Tiny print between the lines. Good thing I read it. Now that I think clearly after a few pauses in brain activity, I understand that all the downs of the day are not as bad as they felt like earlier. Every situation was dealt with delegating responsibilities and excellent thoughtfulness from my team. There will not be a problem we can't solve, I will keep that in mind continuing the camp. All in all, it has been a good, educating day for all of us and I honestly think a few of us just matured a little bit only due to the events of the day. My team is what keeps this camp together, and it is a carefully chosen choice of a word. Team, that's what I hoped we'd become and that's the only way to keep us from going insane. Thanks guys already!
Trying to be smart before it's too late, I will try to write a diary of the camp I am working at to be able to return to these memories and maybe learn from them. Also, this part of my life is something I think my friends haven't ever really got to know so here's a chance for them to understand better how I spend my summers.
After arriving yesterday to the beautiful camp center of Puroniemi, my mind has been playing a continuous list of things to do and instructions to give. Almost all of the practical matters are in my hands, which is a huge responsibility. I have taken it with gratitude but also trying to be merciful to myself since I know that organizing eight days full of activities for 55 people will not happen without a flaw somewhere at some point. Preparations and shared excitement were yesterday's task which lead us to today, the arrival of the youngsters and the beginning of our week-long camp.
Now that the day has come to its end, I can finally take a deep breath and congratulate myself and the others. My wonderful, innovative and energetic workers made it an excellent, successful day. What dominated this day was clearly sharing of information and getting to know each other through many different kinds of games. As a result, after only a few hours into our camp everyone was laughing, talking and participating. Better than average, I'd say! I can't believe that I remember almost all of the 37 new names already...!
What I noticed to be the key to a successful beginning was clarity. Proper preparations with time anddelegating tasks is more important than one might think at first. As a leader I tried to make sure everyone was on track with all the relevant aspects there is to work at a camp as well as what these next seven days will hold. I am organized and it was of huge advantage today and yesterday since it is basically what keeps the wheels going here.
Props to our priest who hasn't worked at a camp like this in over thirty years, he seems to understand perfectly what it takes to create a educating experience while having fun. And I actually think he let our night guard win in their arm wrestling match... I have no bad words to say about our staff, I honestly feel like I made the right calls with these people.
With great enthusiasm I approach tomorrow, which will apparently include a dance group Käpyhuulet and some black magic... Camp christening is coming! Also, tomorrow we will set the daily routine of services, meals, games and lessons. Now I will go to sleep to be able to keep this busy mind from exploding for working overtime! Hahah I am basically at work for 24 hours a day so such a term as working overtime doesn't exist here... Oh,well.
I wake up to the brightness of my room and get up before the alarm. A cup of coffee, a bowl of cereals. I put my black shoes on, the ones that leave a cross-shaped tan line. I press the elevator button and wait. I see my reflection. Sunglasses, hair tied up on the top of my head. Flowers in my shirt, appropriate to the season. I step in a tram and watch the same familiar buildings go by. I switch to another one to get to my destination.
A crowd. The market place is full of multinational people wandering between the tables. I hear words of English, Spanish, Russian, Swedish. I join the colorful mass.
Sun shines bright and I choose to walk instead of waiting seven minutes. Trees form shadows on the sidewalk and I walk slowly. A tiny boutique filled with beautiful, interesting decorating items on the left. I walk in and admire the selection. Not buying anything I continue ahead.
The center is more busy so I automatically increase my speed. Not really planning to, I walk in to a store. A tram ride back, hungry.
A tuna salad, fresh and light. I switch on the computer, take out an envelope from the drawer on my right side. Fill the papers, university attendance confirmed. My sister sends a text, she got engaged. A moment of astonishment. Words can't describe how happy I am for her. Nothing can ruin this day.
