A Bizarre Week

I'm so glad to be home. This week was nothing short of Bizarre. I went to Camp Sertoma in Westfield, NC. Basically in the middle of NOWHERE. It was at the base of the mountains. I had to go to satisfy summer experience requirements for NC Teaching Fellows. After signing my soul away, this was the only experience that they paid for. So I was a servant of Stokes County via the 4-H program.

I arrived to a pleasant place, tucked away in the woods with an 1800's hotel, a few new cabins and a big barn converted into a gym inside. The new cabins were nice, and the smell of fresh wood is still in all my luggage from the trip. We figured out they had air conditioning after a night of sauna-like conditions. The first day we learned everything we would be teaching from a woman whose voice grated on my last nerve and called every male at the camp an assortment of endearments. "Honey, baby, sweetheart, darling, love, get that bucket for me." Ugh. Made me sick.

We went into schools everyday and taught about soil composition, compost, environmentally friendly practices and water. We taught third and fourth graders all about these interrelated science topics. Being a Secondary Music Education major, these were 4 virtually pointless days of my life. I learned what poor planning can do, and that there are crazy people EVERYWHERE. We had to design a 4-H lesson. Naturally, what with me being a slave to Weight Watchers, I chose to do a nutrition and activity session. I drew possibly the best food pyramid ever, taking a grand total of 2 hours to complete, seeing as I am not a great visual artist.

I made a few new friends and was reunited with people from Discovery and learned a lot about the girls in my cohort at Western. If it hadn't been for Mallory, Jenny, Katrin, and Christine, I may have lost my mind. We had a nothing short of STRANGE experience with a girl from Queens University who told us her life story in 4 days, unsolicited, of 'course. We heard all sorts of racial comments and on our final night she called her hispanic husband who spoke no english and he came to the campground. It was against the rules and we were SOOOO scared, knowing nothing about him. Needless to say, the bizarre week ended and I was glad to be back in Hillsborough.

I was scared of this event mainly because I knew it would be hard to keep up with my weight loss goals when I wasn't in control of the menu. I memorized the portion control chart according to your hand, and I drank a ton of water as well as getting a great workout in everyday. And I was pleasantly surprised at the scales this week when I lost one pound, meaning I lost my first 5 lbs! I got my sticker and was absolutely thrilled. It was a great feeling. Now that I'm home and back in control of what I eat and exercise, I am relieved.

Next week, we're looking at my second interview at Croasdaile Village, and I hope I get the job and can start working! Wish me luck, in ALL these endeavors.