End of 2015: Part 1

Hello everyone, Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope that you are having a lovely break and enjoying the last few days of 2015. My break has been crazy, which is fitting, as the last four months of my life have been crazy busy as well - why end my year in any other way? So, I will use the next few posts to recap the end of my semester, my break so far and look ahead to the new year.

Part 1: School

So much to my own disappointment, I have not been a very active blogger this semester, which is a shame, because this blog has become my university journal of sorts. I also don’t have my handy dandy agenda at my side right now to help me ensure I cover everything that happened. However, since I haven’t written since Thanksgiving, writing about everything might become the next not-so-great Canadian novel. So, we will stick to the highlights.

October Open House: I had originally planned to go to Queen’s Homecoming this weekend, but when those plans fell through, I stayed and volunteered at the Recruitment Fall Open House instead (coordinated by my stellar roommate Hannah). I was mainly in charge of covering social media throughout the event, but also served as a campus tour guide. While waiting to be assigned my tour group, I saw a familiar face in the crowd – it was my Camp Wenonah Period 5 co-counselor Paige (#ItsASmallWenonahWorld)! I therefore made sure that she and her mom were in my tour group, which made my tour a lot more fun. A unique feature of our open houses is that students who have applied to Bishop’s receive admission updates, and so I would like to extend a huge congratulations to Paige who was accepted to BU at the Open House!

Halloweekend: The following weekend was Halloweekend. On the Thursday, Golden Key ran a Spark a Change fundraiser at the campus Happy Hour, raising money for the local library. We had a photo booth, a candy sale, a pizza sale and a jar filled with candy that people could pay to guess how many candies were inside. Our fundraiser was a huge success, raising almost $300 for our chosen cause. For Happy Hour, my roommates and I dressed up as Bishop’s Girl Scouts, with Jen as our den mother. On the Friday, Jocelyn and I participated in the Trick or Eat campaign, in which we went around the local neighbourhood asking for canned donations for the local food bank.  On the Saturday, the actual day of Halloween, we spent the day making our costumes and went out that night as the royal family, complete with the King and Queen, Will and Kate, Pippa, Diana, and baby Charlotte.

Golden Key New Member Dinner: On Tuesday, November 10^th, we had our New Member Recognition Event for our new Golden Key members. We were fortunate to induct 86 new members to the Golden Key Society this year, with about half of them present at the dinner. We also welcomed two new honourary members, Dr. Dale Wood, the professor who founded the campus microbrewery and Dr. Heather Lawford, the psychology professor in charge of the health and well-being lab and also my favourite psych professor. We changed the venue for the dinner this year, hosting it in McGreer in the Cleghorn Room, a decision that was well-received. At the event, we organized a book drive to kick off our yearlong campaign for Better World Books, a Golden Key partner organization. The event was a huge success, though organizing it made me realize that event planning is much too stressful for me!

Maddy’s Visit to Bishop’s: For those who follow me on Instagram, you may remember a photo of my good friend and now co-worker Madision Bradshaw coming to visit me at Bishop’s. Maddy and I work at Camp Wenonah together, and have known each other since Maddy was born. You can ask any of my housemates about how excited I was for Maddy and her mom Renata to visit – I think I talked about it all week leading up to the visit! I met up with Maddy and Renata after their campus tour and we went to Dewies for lunch together, so I could answer any questions they had. We walked around campus for a bit after lunch and I showed them my office and student house. To my surprise, my mother had sent a care package along with them for me, complete with a bottle of wine, chocolate and my David’s Tea advent calendar! Renata and Maddy have always been like family to me, so it was so great to share my university with them!

Golden Key Potluck: That same weekend, we had the Golden Key potluck at Dean Murray’s house. We had 20 members attend the event, in addition to Michele and her husband, who is also a professor at BU, and their dog, Marley. Dr. Murray had just returned from a trip to China, so she shared stories of her travels with us. It was great to mingle with new and returning Golden Key members, and taste the delicious food that everyone prepared! GK members aren’t just book smart – we can cook/bake, too!

Granny’s Birthday Party: The following weekend, I traveled to Kingston to spend a night with Tyler and then attend my Granny’s birthday party at the Drake Devonshire Inn in Prince Edward County. The Drake Dev is actually where my housemate Elizabeth worked last summer, and it was absolutely breathtaking! It is beautiful country style restaurant and hotel right on the edge of Lake Ontario. Everyone on my dad’s side of the family came to the Inn for the day – my family, my dad’s two brothers, my granny and all of my cousins. We had the Pavilion Room for our party, which was equipped with a ping pong table, board games, a dining room table and seating area by a large fireplace. We all ate brunch together, took family photos on the lakeshore and finished the party with champagne and cake. Just a few short hours later, it was time to get back on the train and return to Lennoxville. Happy Birthday Granny!

End of Classes and Exams: This semester was my busiest and craziest semester so far, and I finally learned the consequences of taking on too much. At the start of my last week of classes, I did not actually think I could get all of my work done, study for my finals, run my club, do my job and sleep. It actually became a bit scary to look at my zombie-self in the mirror. I had a presentation each day, and my art portfolio due at the end of the week. However, as each day went by, I was able to check item by item off the to-do list, hand in my portfolio, study for my exam and squeeze in a bit of time for myself. I had two final exams and one term project completed in the exam period and on December 8^th I was done my last fall semester of my undergraduate degree!

Education Snowball to celebrate the end of term! 

21^st Birthday: On December 3^rd, I turned 21 and started an almost month-long celebration of my birthday. Well, actually, I started celebrating on the 2^nd when my group project group went out to celebrate handing in our last project of the semester. On my birthday, I actually did have to do some schoolwork, but came home at the end of the day to a make your own pizza bar organized by my fantastic roommates. Vicki and Gavin joined the six of us for a really fun dinner, and then Jocelyn, Hannah and Gavin blindfolded me and put me in the back of Hannah’s car. While being very secretive, they drove me to our destination and as soon as I inhaled I knew where we were! We were at Cacao 70, the Sherbrooke location of the chocolate restaurant I went to in Montreal in first year. I had being dying to go and my pleas were answered! And the restaurant did not disappoint! While we were there, Joce and Han gave me a birthday present – a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone to support my addiction of talking on the phone! Another great birthday/Hanukkah gift I received from Vicki was Olaf pyjamas! I loved them so much I wore them home from Vicki’s apartment (good thing it was dark)!

Following my birthday, one by one, my roommates started to leave. The saddest goodbye was to Sarah, who was graduating and thus will not be returning to us in January. 4 of us were left to celebrate Hannah’s birthday on the 10^th, and then I left for Ancaster on the morning of the 11^th. We did our best to clean out the fridge and kitchen before we left, so hopefully we don’t have any rodent renters over the break!

So I will end this post here and part 2 about my trip to Disney World and my holiday break will come soon!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxo 

Fourth Year Flying By!

Hi everyone and happy (almost) Canadian Thanksgiving! Or to anyone who does not celebrate Thanksgiving, happy long weekend!  It is incredible that 5 weeks of school have already gone by (well 6 for the students who arrived on time). I feel like I have just finally settled in and now it's time to pack up for the weekend and head home to see the family. However, as you might be able to infer from lack of writing, the past 5 weeks have been far from empty!

So since you heard from me last, I have started to feel as though I am an extracurricular activity pursuer first, student second. Unfortunately, my class work has constantly been finding itself pushed aside to give me more time for my new job and for the Golden Key Society. Add that in to actually trying to have some sort of social life and you can understand why I actually write "see friends" on my to-do list. Here is a nice little diagram that accurately represents my life:

Now, as busy as I am, I really am enjoying everything about fourth year so far. So I thought instead of giving a day by day recap of the past three weeks, I would write a bit about each of the different activities between which I currently divide (almost) all of my time.

Classes
I am really enjoying my 5 classes this semester, some more than others, but enjoying them nonetheless. My class focused on how to teach the creative arts is fantastic - I never thought I'd get to spend two weeks worth of classes doing a painting! And it actually turned out! I'll include some photos for you below. My professor is fabulous and really good at helping those of us who do not consider ourselves to be artistically endowed actually create different art pieces while learning how we will teach it to students. We went on a field trip to the campus art gallery on Tuesday and learned about how to facilitate a trip to an art gallery. The exhibit on display was actually made by students from the local high school under the direction of a Montreal-based artist team who received a grant to give art instruction at the school. I might have to use the technique of bringing in outside artists to help me because though I specialize in the cut and paste department, there is definitely a lot more my students will want to learn.

For my anti-discrimination class, last Friday, we had a guest lecture from Charlene Bearhead, who is the Education Lead at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. She was there to talk about an initiative she co-founded called Project of Heart, which is a program to be used in schools to help students learn about residential schools and the history of Aboriginal People in Canada. The workshop was really informative, especially helpful since I have NO education on this topic, which is a real shame. Project of Heart is definitely something I want to use in my classroom, maybe even on my practicum next semester. For any of my teacher friends who are reading, here is the link to the website: http://projectofheart.ca/

In my psychology class, we are still working with our partners from Collegium to plan our carnival open house in November. We have officially applied for a grant to fund the event taking place on Monday, November 9th. We are making real progress in our group of 5 and successfully created posters for the event in class on Monday. As well, this past Wednesday, we had a guest speaker from the Université de Sherbrooke come in and talk about growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's and his experience at school and in his community. The discrimination and disablement from society he has faced was heartbreaking, especially the treatment he received from his teachers. I think what he is doing now as an advocate for people with Asperger's Syndrome is very much needed for all students currently labelled and/or living with this diagnosis.

My other two classes are nothing to write home about, so I'll spare you the details from them.

Golden Key
Outside of classes, myself and the other members of the Golden Key Executive team have been super busy this month as we have started recruiting new members. Each year around this time, students who had an academic average in the top 15% of their program last year are invited to join Golden Key, aka the school's academic honours program. Now as exciting as this sounds, not everyone is always enthused to join right away so we do a membership drive every year to persuade students to join. In the past, we have done our recruiting at club days, but for various reasons, decided to forego that this year and hold an info session instead. So, we personally invited all current and invited members to our first information night which we held last Tuesday. Based on previous interest in Golden Key, I initially expected about 10 people to show up but...WE FILLED THE CLEGHORN ROOM! When I arrived, there was a line out the door to get in which led me to believe I was in the wrong place and/or I had made a mistake in booking the room. For the first time ever, I was wrong. I was in the right place and everyone there was interested n the chapter. The exec team gave a great presentation, we awarded our $100 chapter scholarship and did a draw for a new membership (Update: The winner has recently joined the chapter!). We had a lot of questions and talked with many students about GK so hopefully we get a lot of new members. The success of our info night led us to do open office hours this week and we had more drop by for information. And our email inbox has been a hotspot! Hopefully all this effort will pay off! I can't wait to welcome all our new members at our induction dinner in November!

Social Media Intern 
On Wednesday, September 23rd, Bishop's University launched our brand new website. If you haven't seen it yet, head over to www.ubishops.ca and have a look! One cool feature is that even before entering the website, you are asked if you are a student, faculty, parent, etc. and then your homepage is tailored to your profile. On the homepage, there is a social media mosaic, which is what I am in charge of. Every Sunday, I search on Facebook, instagram and Twitter for Bishop's related content and choose the 4 best posts to include in the mosaic. I do this by searching the Bishop's specific hashtags, which are #UBishops, #BleedPurple and #GaiterNation. So for the launch, I had to put together a high-quality mosaic and publicize the launch. As you can imagine, it was a busy time to join the school's communication team.

I also have lots to do on a daily basis. I manage the three social media channels, which includes posting about events, publicizing student information, posting photos, etc. I work with the recruitment office to reach out to prospective students and with the advancement team to connect with alumni. I retweet, regram, share, like and.respond to Facebook posts and manage comments. You'd be surprised how much time you can spend just responding to other people's content! As well, Bishop's University is often in the news, so I read articles, summarize them and send them out to our community. I've never been so up-to-date on BU affairs! Finally, I still coordinate the blog channel, which has been really popular so far this year. I am currently recruiting new writers to reach out to an even wider audience!

The last part of my job relates to the social media mosaics I mentioned earlier. I make the mosaics on a program called Storify. On this program, you can create social media stories in a similar fashion to how I create the mosaic. I make these stories after big events and get to sift through all the content that gets posted to make a recap of the event. Here is the link for the story I made about Homecoming Weekend 2015: https://storify.com/ubishops/bishop-s-university-homecoming-2015
 Check it out! I'm quite proud of it.

HOMECOMING 2015 
So in between all of this, I took part in the Homecoming Weekend celebrations last weekend. I mean, how could I make a social media story without participating, right? I needed field experience. Actually, it was great to go to Homecomong again since I had not been since first year! The weekend was fantastic, with many alumni making the trek back to Lennoxville to celebrate. One cool event that happened this year was the Top 10 After 10 alumni program, for which 10 alumni who graduated a minimum of 10 years ago are recognized for their post-Bishop's successes. This event happens every other year and includes an induction lunch for inductees and a networking event for students. I was fortunate enough to attend both last Friday. The networking event was great; we got to talk at a table in small groups with two alumni at a time and listen to their stories, hear their advice and ask them questions. We rotated to the different tables to talk with the alumni and then had a chance to mingle at the end. Hearing their advice was really valuable. It was especially comforting to hear them all say that when we start applying for jobs after graduation, employers are not looking for us to be experts already, but are looking for someone who is a worthwhile investment. As a bonus, one of the girls at my table was a Disney College Program alumni so I got to reminisce about Disney for a brief moment.

Following the networking event, I went to the induction luncheon in Dewies, my first time back there this year. YUM! As a club head, I was invited to sit at a table with an inductee and other faculty members. Sadly, Principal Goldbloom was supposed to sit at my table, but he never came and sat with us. :( Following lunch,  Principal Goldbloom personally inducted each alumni into the Top 10 After 10 and each alumni gave a speech. Even the alumna who could not be there recorded her speech on video. Each person talked about how much of their success was thanks to Bishop's. It was quite special.

That night, my roommmates and I all went to the rugby game. Hannah and Jen were selling snacks as a fundraiser for their trip to New York City in March. The game was great, and the team was victorious! In fact, the men's rugby team was the only team to win their game over Homecoming!

On Saturday, the football team played McGill for the annual homecoming rivalry. Before the game, we had a pre-game brunch at our house. Two of our friends had their parents up for the weekend, so they joined in the festivities too. With about an hour until kickoff, we went to the Coulter Field parking lot to join the tailgate and see Jen and Hannah who were running a photo booth. The local radio station was providing the music on site and held dance contests throughout the tailgate. We joined in the macarena dance-off and both Elizabeth and I won Domino's pizzas! I won a coupon but Elizabeth won a physical pizza! Thanks to 107.7 for lunch!! Once we devoured the pizza, we went into the stadium to watch the football game. We only stayed until halftime but unfortunately the Gaiters were not victorious. I'm not going to say it's because I left, but... We'll never know.

It's incredible that Homecoming was already one week ago and that I am now on my way home for Thanksgiving. I'm staying in Port Hope tonight and then heading back to Ancaster tomorrow for some quality family time. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to sleeping in a warm house as the nights at William-Paige have been chilly but we aren't quite ready to start cranking on the heat. It will also be great to see everyone, including my grandparents flying in from Winnipeg. And in 3 days time I'll be right back where I am now, just driving in the opposite direction back to my happy BU bubble.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your tummies be full of turkey and pie (and PSLs) and your hearts full of love and thanks!

All my love,

Erica
xoxoxoxoxo  


P.S. Everyone must watch this video. It's hilarious. 

Back to School 2015

Hello everyone on this rainy Monday afternoon! I have now officially been back in school for one week, but truthfully, it already feels like so much longer (not necessarily a bad thing). My day planner is filling up, with classes, meetings, assignments and extracurriculars but such is the life of a university student. I can’t wait to see and do all that fourth year has in store!

 

Back to school haircut! 

So to back up to the start of the month, I spent Labour Day weekend at my cottage where I saw all of my paternal extended family, minus my two aunts. After being back in the suburbs for a week, I was already missing camp and the outdoors a lot, so it was really nice to get a bit more time in cottage country before heading back to school. We canoed, we swam, I read 3 books and, with all credit to Jamie and Connor, we had a campfire going every day and night. We also celebrated my cousin Katherine’s birthday - she turned 13^th on September 1^st. All in all, it was a great end to a great summer.

On Sunday morning, I met my mom and her boyfriend Ron in Kingston to drive out to school. For the most part, it was an easy drive, except for some major traffic along the Autoroute 10. Luckily, I was able to keep us all entertained by reading Ellen Degeneres’ book Seriously…I’m Kidding aloud.  If you have not read it and need a good laugh, I highly recommend it. We stopped for lunch at Tim Hortons where the barista asked me if I was “excited to start university for the first time”…  Glad to know my age-reducing moisturizer is really taking effect.

We arrived in Lennoxville around 3pm and after a quick unload, did a trip to the grocery store and a tour of campus. Thank you to the Animal House boys who welcomed us back as we passed the afternoon lawn party!!  We then went out to my favourite restaurant in Sherbrooke, Fondue Folie, before my mom and Ron left to drive home.

Luckily, Monday was a holiday so I had a day to get my life in order before starting class. I used the day to catch up on what I had missed the first week, catch up with my housemates, see Vicki’s new apartment and clean my room from top to bottom (except the ceiling, which I can’t reach even with my stool). By dinnertime Monday night, the entire population of 27 William-Paige was back home, I met my new roommate/former subletter, Jen, and everything was right in the world again.

This semester, I have 5 classes, 4 of which are education classes required for my major. I have Teaching the Creative Arts, Educational Psychology, Social Justice and Anti-Discrimination Education, Classroom Management and Psychology of the Exceptional Child. So far, they are all quite interesting, especially my psych course, for which we are working with students at the Collegium Centre for Exceptional Learners to put on a carnival/open house in November. We had our first meeting with the students today and we start planning our carnival next week!

This year, I am the co-president of the Golden Key Honours Society and we had our first meeting last Tuesday. As the co-president, I get my own key to the office, so come visit me in the SUB, basement level, room 38! Our first meeting went well and I am excited to work with the executive team this year to provide some great opportunities for our chapter members! (Watch your emails for invites…who’s ready for another potluck?)

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with one of the recruiters to discuss the blog channel for this coming year. Now, I had thought I was just going to be told to start up the blog channel again, however, it turned into something much bigger. I was offered the role of Social Media Intern. For this role, the intern works with the communications director to manage the university’s social media accounts, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, in addition to the blog channel.  I happily accepted the role and have my first meeting with my new boss tomorrow. While I am incredibly nervous for the responsibility that comes with my new job, I cannot wait to get started!

On Friday, two of my friends in education held the first meeting for a new club being formed in the education department, the Education Committee. In my first year, we had a similar club but it was not taken over and thus was not active the past two years. My friend and fellow student, Kate, alongside our education senator Kirsten are working to bring this club back to life. There was a pretty good turnout at the first meeting, with about 20 people in attendance, all who seem very enthusiastic about getting the club off the ground. The club will be responsible for planning social events and fundraisers for the department and will also work with the education senator and reps to plan workshops and guest speakers. Since we are one of the bigger departments in the school, I think that this will be a valuable addition to the school of education.

Friday night, my roommates and I hiked out to one of the local churches for the first student hospitality supper of the semester. Following that, our friends Gaby, Sara, Ellen and Arianne held an outdoor movie night at their house to celebrate Sara and Arianne’s belated birthdays. It was a fantastic night! They set up a projector and screen in the backyard and had a popcorn stand and smores bar for all to enjoy. We watched Space Jam and Cabin in the Woods, neither of which I had seen before, with a break for cake in between the two viewings. We also got to meet the newest addition to their family - their kitten, Finn. The weather was great and the company was even better – I could not picture a better way to spend a Friday night!

Saturday, we invited our friends over for brunch to celebrate Elizabeth’s 21^st birthday! There were cinnamon buns, breakfast strata, cookies, fruit, French toast, lattes, and, every basic White girl’s brunch staple, mimosas! In order to get a group picture, we went over to meet our new neighbours across the street and offered them leftovers (and the chance to talk to fourth year girls) in exchange for taking our picture. They happily accepted! We had planned on going to the opening football game but brunch ran longer than planned so we spent the afternoon at home instead. Thanks to everyone who came out and brunched with us! And happy birthday Elizabeth!!

That night, Hannah, Jen, Elizabeth and I went to the XLIGHT RUN SHERBROOKE, a 5km, glow-in-the-dark run on campus. It was for both community members and students. All runners received a glowing shirt, a pair of glowstick eyeglasses and a flashing baton to carry en route. The event started  with a dance party in the sports centre parking lot, during which we all got glow in the dark face paint and temporary tattoos. The race route was so cool – it was lit with glow sticks and there were light-up decorations all the way around, with glowing cups of water and glowing seats at the halfway point. At the end, everyone received a free drink and the parking lot dance party started up again! It was a very cool race!

Sunday was a homework day and today is a rainy day, which is good in the fact that it is encouraging me to stay inside and work, or pretend to work, at least. Here’s hoping for some sunny days to come! Despite the weather, the week, and the school year, are off to a great start – in fact, I added one more thing to my schedule today when I signed up to be a mentor for a first year education student! I’ll have to brainstorm some good advice! So now I’m off to pack my dinner and head to my night classs, with a quick coffee stop along the way!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

All my love,

Erica xoxoxoxoxxo

Summertime in Muskoka

OK POLARIS IT'S TIME TO GET UP! MEET ME IN 15 MINUTES READY TO GO RUNNING/SWIMMING!!!!

Although it's already been one week without my campers, I still wake up every morning ready to rile them out of bed. It's oddly quiet here in my own room, no snoring girls or buzzing mosquitoes, and the walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night is much quicker. After spending four months at Camp Wenonah, it still has not hit me that I am home for good and not for just another day off. I've slowly been transitioning back into life in the suburbs while trying to catch up on sleep and find my voice that has been lost for the past two weeks.  It's going to be a quick turnaround though, as Thursday I head up to my family cottage for the long weekend and then Sunday, my mom and I will head out to Lennoxville for my fourth year of university. 

It's crazy to think that on exactly this day last year, I was visiting the Eiffel Tower with my mom in Paris following my summer in Disney World. I did not think that another summer at camp would be able to compare to my time in Orlando but I am happy to say that I was proven wrong. The past four months were by far the best months I have ever spent at camp over the past 14 years and I got to spend it with the greatest people imaginable. In many ways, working at camp is very similar to working in Disney, as every day, we strive to make memories and "magical moments" for our campers; however the one big difference is that at camp you are ALWAYS on stage! It's a challenging and often exhausting job, but you can go to bed every night confident that you have made a difference in a child's life. 

Through May and April, Camp Wenonah is an Outdoor Education Centre for schools. Groups of students between grades 5 and 12 come up for 2-5 day stays and we run an intro-to-camp style program with a focus on outdoor education, teamwork, initiative, leadership and of course, FUN! I worked as a Program Specialist, meaning I was in charge of teaching programming in our various camp areas. I primarily taught climbing, canoeing, kayaking, low ropes and tie dye, with the occasional fire building and fishing thrown in. Outside of program area based instruction, we also did large group activities for the school, such as Capture the Flag, Cardio-Pictionary and my personal favourite, the Survival Game. The typical spring day is longer than the summer day, as we start with pre-breakfast activities and morning dip, followed by breakfast, interest sessions for instructional programming, lunch, more interest sessions, daily options, dinner, large group activities, snack and finally evening programming, which is often a campfire, night hike or talent show. Based on the size of the group, a certain number of staff are assigned to the group the entire time they are at camp and under the direction of one group coordinator, run all the programming for that group. During the typical week, we would have groups in from Monday to Wednesday and the second round of groups would come from Wednesday to Friday, making for a very quick change-over on Wednesdays. On the weekends, we generally had small groups in camp and a reduced staff team, to give the other staff time off. In addition to running program, we also all worked support, meaning when the campers were getting ready for their activities, all the staff jumped in to clean washrooms, do the dishes and clean up camp. What's more, when we were not attached to a group, we were full time support workers, but our staff team was so small that we were rarely on support. We had a core group of 12 staff at the start of spring, but grew to a team of 15 by the end, with guest appearances from many former staff over the two months, including one of my best friends, Sara, who spent her two week break from her coop in BC working at camp. 

Right from the start, working the OEC was go-go-go all the time but it enabled me to create some great memories and really grow as a staff member. In our training week, I was certified by Challenges Unlimited to use the climbing wall and brand new Dangle-a-Maze, which was a hit all season. I got to go on two overnight trips, one with a group of exchange students from China and Japan who had never gone camping before. In June, I got to work the Camp Erin weekend, which is a grief camp for kids who have lost a close family member. This was a very moving weekend, as it really gave the kids a chance to grieve in a healthy way and make connections with others going through similar experiences but also forget about their grief for a while and enjoy the camp activities. The charity is actually based out of Hamilton, so I actually knew some of the volunteers with the camp. I also had the chance to work the Open House Weekend, where all new camp families were invited up to see the camp and try out our activities before sending their kid to camp in the summer. We had many alumni group members come up to work and ran the weekend "Family Camp" style, which was a lot of fun.  A highlight of the spring season for me was working with the Ancaster Senior Public School grade trip, the middle school I graduated from in 2008. It was even more fun for me because my brother Jamie and cousin Kristen came to camp, along with many of my former teachers! It was a very big full circle moment for me! 

Summer Pre-Camp began on Friday, June 20th, led by our brand new Summer Camp Director, Rudy. Everyone was excited to have Rudy in his new role, and I was excited to work with my little sister for the first time, who was hired as a first year resource staff. My role for the summer was POLARIS Director, which is our leadership program for 15 and 16 year olds. Transitioning from spring mode to summer mode was harder than I thought it was going to be, as we went from a staff group of 15 to a team of 70 and had more downtime once the all-hands-on-deck mode was no longer needed. However, it was great to start planning the POLARIS Leadership Program with my 5 co-directors, Dom, Hannah, Sage, Ben and Cam. In 2010, Sage, Ben, Cam and I were participants in the POLARIS program together, so we were excited to be leading the program altogether. The program runs for 4 weeks and has a "hard skills" focus: participants work towards their ORCKA provincial canoeing levels, CanSail national sailing levels, lifesaving swim levels and go on a 7 day canoe trip in Algonquin Park. At the end of the month, they also have a chance to either go on a whitewater kayaking or rock climbing trip. The program was completely revamped over the winter so we spent a lot of time during pre-camp studying the changes and preparing to run the program. We had 42 16 year olds arriving from all over the world at the end of the week and we were determined to deliver the best POLARIS program yet. 

July Camp officially began on Sunday, June 28th and it was the rainiest day of the entire summer! From the moment we woke up until we went to bed, the rain did not stop once! However, just like they say it's good luck when it rains on your wedding day, we all hoped that a rainy first day was good luck for the rest of the summer. We had an interesting mix of kids, with 5 from Spain, 3 from France, 1 from Belgium, 1 from Chile, 1 from Italy, 1 from Austria, 1 from Australia, 1 from New Zealand, and 28 from Canada. We spent the first 3 days preparing for the big canoe trip and all departed for Algonquin Park on the Thursday. Sage and I were leading a trip together and had a group of 9 girls. We started at Canoe Lake and spent the next 7 days moving towards Lake Opeongo. I could not have asked for a better trip! I was very nervous before leaving that I would not be a competent enough tripper to lead a trip and was nervous about counselling 16 year olds, as I have always been a junior counsellor, but the trip went more smoothly than I could have imagined! The weather was perfect, Sage was a great co-tripper and the girls were so much fun, and also very good trippers themselves. We stayed on some beautiful camp sights, saw amazing sunrises and sunsets, cooked great meals over the fire and pushed through some tough paddles and portages. I could not be more proud of the amazing group of girls I tripped with!

Once back at camp, we jumped right into skill development and spent our days climbing, kayaking, canoeing, swimming and sailing. On the final Sunday of the month, the POLARIS took their exams and I actually took my canoeing exam as well and earned my ORCKA 3, the second highest level offered by ORCKA. On the final Monday, we all went to Haliburton Forest to go rock climbing, as we could not offer the whitewater kayaking trip due to the Gull River being used for the Pan Am Games. Fun story - when we arrived at the rock face at Haliburton Forest, I had an extreme feeling of déjà vu and then remembered that I had been on a rock climbing trip with Wenonah there 10 years ago! 

The July POLARIS group was a lot of fun and they grew very close as a group. They started calling themselves a POLARIS family and surprise, surprise elected me as their mother. After a great four weeks together, it was very hard to say goodbye to all of our campers, but myself and the other directors were very proud of the program we had delivered and were looking forward to doing it all over again in August. 

August Camp began on Sunday, July 26th and had a much sunnier start than July. We had a less than 24 hour turn-around between the last July campers leaving and the first August campers arriving so we had to change gears very quickly. Unlike in July, I knew a lot of the campers coming into the POLARIS program for August - in fact, some of the girls had been in the cabin group I was a counsellor in training for in 2011, which was crazy to think about. We had 44 POLARIS in August, and though we had many more Canadians in the group, we welcomed 2 campers from France, 1 from Italy and 2 from Taiwan. We followed the same schedule as July, and we left for Algonquin Park for a second time on the following Thursday. This time, I was leading another group of 9 girls with an alumni staff Celia. We started at the same place, Canoe Lake, but had a different, longer route to get to Lake Opeongo, which included a 3km portage on the fifth day! Once again, I could not have asked for a better co-tripper or better group of girls! The weather was a bit iffy, with a bit of rain everyday, but we were very fortunate that the rain always started once we were on our campsites and protected under a tarp! It was still very warm though so we were able to swim almost everyday. We got to see a moose on two separate occasions which was very cool! At the end of the trip, it was very bittersweet leaving the Park, because I do not know when I will get to go back to Algonquin again, but knowing that I was on my way home to a pillow and shower made the departure quite easy! 

Shoutout to my granny for the awesome bucket hat! 

Just like in July, we spent the week back at camp working on canoeing, sailing, kayaking, climbing and swimming. I was fortunate enough to spend my day off in Peterborough with one of my best friends, Hannah, during which her family spoiled me rotten! (Big thank you to the Best family!) During the final week, I did not go on either out trip and instead stayed back to help with the swimming examinations, and was very proud when all of the swimmers passed either their Bronze Medallion or Bronze Cross. Celia was helping examine, so it was great to see her again! Jamie was also at camp for the last two weeks of the summer, and the Zuckers were reunited for a short span of time. In both July and August, the last three days of camp are the Wenonah Games, which are our "camp Olympics", for which I was a team house captain. At Wenonah, campers and staff are assigned to one of three teams and you become a member of that team for life, and we do our best to put all family members on the same team. Lauren and I ran the staff triathlon together in July and August and crossed the finish line holding hands in both months! Jamie did the triathlon in August and came fourth, an incredible accomplishment, and was also the team's star tennis player!  Jamie and I also got to paddle in the camp canoe race together and came fourth overall. And most excitingly of all, after a 9 year drought, the Aki team was victorious in winning the Challenge Cup at the end of the summer!!! It was a great, green, end to a great summer! 

After we wrapped up August camp, we had a staff dinner last Saturday, where many of my friends received their five year staff award. I guess I have to hang around for one more year to get mine, though I still have a hard time believing that I have already worked their for four years! I did love being a more senior staff member this year and getting to have my sister as a co-worker. After the dinner and award presentations, the spring and senior staff had an evening reception to celebrate a very successful camp season!

Every year after "real" camp finishes, we have a one week introductory program for younger campers. We offer Period 5, a five day intro program and WEEnonah, a two night intro program. This is often the week where our WCITs from the summer have a chance to work, but this year, due to the way the calendar falls, many summer staff were able to work it as well, including myself. The director for the week is alumni member and associate director Jason Monteith, who is also a teacher in the HWDSB Board at Highland High School in Dundas. I had never worked Period 5 before but was excited to have junior campers again and get back to my counselling roots. I was co-counseling with an August WCIT, Paige, and we were in the Birch cabin with 10 8-year old girls. The week was an absolute blast, though it reminded me just how demanding counselling can be! However, I can't complain, because I got to bring out my love for Disney and plan a Frozen-themed cabin choice and sing princess songs all week! I was the kayaking instructor for the week and spent more time in a kayak in those 5 days than I did all summer! We had all our best summer programming crammed into one week, with campfires and wide games and a talent show, at which the Birch girls did a cabin dance! It was the biggest Period 5 to date and it was great fun to be a part of it! 

It was surreal on Friday to leave camp for the final time and head back to Ancaster, where I had not been since mid-July. However, after four months of camp life, I was definitely ready for a real bed, a bigger shower and some home cooked meals. I am still very much on the camp schedule, waking up before sunrise and craving meals at 8:15, 12:30 and 5:30! I have scrubbed off the dirt from my hands, my feet and my face and have only my croc and lifejacket tans left behind. The spring and summer flew by and I could not be more grateful for the last four months I spent at Camp Wenonah. It was four months I will never forget with friends I will keep forever. I made more seed bead bracelets than can fit on my wrist, ate more breaded chicken than I can count, and got hit in the head with a paddle more times than is probably safe, but am thankful for every moment I spent between the shores of Clear and Saw Lake. Thank you Camp Wenonah for an incredible summer! 

Next up: five more days in Ancaster, a trip to my cottage and then out to Lennoxville for fourth year university! The camp suitcase is already unpacked and just a few loads of laundry and a trip to Walmart stand in my way of being ready to go back to school! I can't wait to be reunited with my housemates and school friends and see what the rest of 2015 will bring! It's going to be tough to follow the last four months, but I can already tell that it's going to be a great semester! 

I hope you enjoyed my summer update! Have a great rest of your summer and a fantastic Labour Day weekend! The next time you hear from me I will be back in my cozy room at 27 WP, probably fully decked out in purple! Until next time!

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo