12/05/2011

I’m sat in my room here in Plattsburgh. Today I had my final two classes here; I have finals next week but I’ll never be going to a classroom at Plattsburgh to learn ever again, and everything is suddenly starting to feel so very final. I’m starting to see more and more people walking around with suitcases, the international student office have been in touch with me to fill out some transcript requests, and the student union-ran events are very thin in number now. It’s something that can be seen in the very decoration of my part of my room, the walls now bare and the desk cleared in place of colour and clutter. My rucksack is standing up next to the closet, still hollow apart from the foundation of a few shirts better suited to winter tightly packed together at the very bottom. It’s waiting for me to stuff it to the brim, pack my life away and make my exit. Maybe I’ll take a picture of the room the day I leave, completely devoid, I don’t know yet.

Though I’m very, very ready to leave Plattsburgh now, these last two weeks have left me full of melancholy. This is a chapter of my life now, one that is all but complete, and though I complain about being here a lot it’s had its positives, too. There are the simple things that you can do anywhere, like getting into the routine of going to the meal hall every morning after my 9am class to eat a bagel and drink coffee whilst I read a few chapters of whatever book I was working on at the time (currently les miserables), the hours I’d spend in the audio labs doing extra work on projects just because I loved doing that kind of work, or even just walking around and seeing people you know. There’s plenty of things to complain about, but then again there are always plenty of things to complain about, it’s in our nature to find things we don’t like and complain about them, as a species we’re terrible at being content with things.

One thing that’s really gotten to me over the last two weeks is the fact that it’s only just now that I’m making connections with people. Not in the business sense, just the friendship sense. The whole of this semester I’ve been too much of a loner and a recluse, partly because I just wanted to get the whole thing over and done with already, partly because my roommate is such a freak that he’s drained the life out of me. Last semester I stopped talking to a lot of the people I was friends with because of events that happened on my birthday - we were meant to go to a bunch of house parties and they ditched me before I’d even left my room, and though they said they’d just forgotten I still took it hard, especially because they never apologised; I didn’t both with them much after then and it was the first time I’d really started to think that I was done with this place. Fast forward to now, with not even seven full days left here, and I’ve finally started making new friends through being involved with a club and just being more outgoing in my hall. These are people I like, and would want to hang out with, which is a sad irony because there’s a very strong chance that I’m not going to see most of them ever again. I spend the majority of my time here playing the outsider and then once I get acceptance within a social clique I have to leave soon after. It’s my kind of luck, been that way as long as I can remember, and I can make excuses about it as long as I like but really it’s down to me, I’ve improved a lot over the last 4 years but at the end of the day I’m still awkward, I’m still shy, I’m still antisocial. There’s still a long way to go, but at least I’m going.

Plattsburgh has given me things though. It’s given me a sense of drive that I was missing in the past. I’ve developed a ‘do it now’ attitude when I get things like projects or papers to write, rather than leaving them until the last minute. I’ve started taking my readings and studying much more seriously, and the results are apparent. Just today I got an essay back with the note ‘nothing here to criticise’. I don’t necessarily like the class or the professor, but it’s a sign that the methods I’m now practicing are working. I can tell my writing’s improved; I’m planning more, I’m editing more, and I’m composing better, and it’s all paying off when combined. I daren’t even look at the work on my blog from early 2009, before I went to university, but I’ve always been like that, I hate everything I create after a while. Just like doing a ‘365 project’ really helped my compositional and creative skills with a camera, university essays (and looking into the methodology of writing such things) have unquestionably helped my penmanship.

This has been more of a rant than anything else. I felt the urge to write, so I sat down and started typing, so it’s probably not much of a read, but there you go. Also this is very close to my target post length. I decided that I want this blog to be around 1000 words per post; not too short, not too long. Sorry for wasting your time if you read all of this.

Step into my office

Ok, so in my last post I talked about my time working as a camp counsellor in Maine, or the work aspects of camp to be specific, and there is a lot of working at a camp. Campers need supervision; they're teenagers so it's not the close guidance younger children need, it's more a case of just keeping an eye on things, making sure nothing negative's going on. Though it's not always 'direct' work, you need to be on your toes pretty much all day, so your time off is very important.

The staff at camp were split equally into two shifts, with each shift taking alternative nights off, so everyone is 'on' in the daytime, then come dinner time one shift is 'off' until the next morning. Simple really. Naturally people want to wind down on their time off, and being out in the woods you can't just go to a bar, so there are a few places at the camp that are staff only. There's a staff cabin on-camp that has a TV, games consoles, internet access and a separate room with beds, but being in and around the other cabins, there's a strict no-alcohol policy in effect. All of the alcohol policy's at camp are very strict, with no exceptions, but I'll come back to that later. Along with the staff cabin, there is also a campsite-like zone just outside of the camp that's used for socialising. It's owned by the camp, and has a campfire and a yurt set up there; being away from the campers and cabins you can drink, smoke, and not worry about things like swearing or discussing personal things with staff.

Drinking's not the be-all and end-all, of course. I was 20 in my first year at camp, so I couldn't drink legally, and there was no chance that I'd try and flaunt that rule. At first it was a stretch. Being from the UK (and looking quite a lot older than I am) I was used to drinking as a solid part of socialising, and to take it away means you have to adapt. It opened my eyes to how much of a crutch alcohol can be - there are plenty of people I've considered friends who I've never spent time around without a pint in hand.
With children on site, every summer camp is ultra-strict when it comes to alcohol. If, for example, it was found out that you had been drinking on your night off, and you're underage, when you wake up the next morning you'll be escorted straight to the director's office, told that you're fired, and (once the campers had left the cabin to go for breakfast) you'll be escorted back to your cabin to pack your things, then put on a car and taken to Portland Airport. No screwing around, no goodbyes to your co-workers or the campers, no sign you were ever there. You vanish from camp, and the staff are told in a meeting, away from the kids. The same applies to taking alcohol onto the camp and smoking on camp - you'll be taken away from camp as soon as there is an oppurtunity to do so without causing a scene.

Being out in the woods does stop you from going to bars. But it can't really stop you from doing the essentials. You need your amenities; toothpaste, soap, shampoo; there's the need to do laundry every other week or so; and there's just having some basics like a 10 pack of cola in your cabin or getting a magazine. Though we're not near a town of any real size, there is a village about 5 or 6 miles away from the camp. There's a laundrette and a mini-mart there which covers all the basics, though not much more. Chances are you'll get to know those two stores really well over the course of the summer; the staff even expect international staff from the camp over the summer months. If you want a takeaway there are a few pizza places and a Chinese a few more miles away if you want something different for dinner than what's available at camp that night.
If you need more than the basics though then a trip to a supermarket's probably due. The nearest wal-mart is (as the crow flies) at least 20 miles away. It's a 40 minute drive each way, and considering your time off is pretty limited, planning who gets to go can turn into a pretty big deal. The wal-mart is situated right next to an outlet mall and cinema, so sometimes it's better to go on your day off rather than in the evenings.

On your full days off, you naturally want to do something engaging, and get away from the camp for a couple of hours too. Days out to the beach, to Portland in Maine, and into New Hampshire are the most popular choices usually, though there's the chance to do whatever you like really. Having our own staff minivans with the fuel costs covered, there's a pretty big are you can cover to go and visit, though it needs to be a group agreement - the minivan holds 12 people, so you need 12 people willing to go and do the same thing of course.
The camp also hire a bus and arrange a staff day to Boston, usually in the middle of the summer. It's a 3 and a half hour drive to get from where we are in Maine to Boston, but it's completely worthwhile to leave the woods and be in a major city for the day. I might be a little biased because Boston is arguably my favourite city (it's between Boston and Toronto anyway) but it's a distraction that's well worth the time.

So that's camp life. There's probably a lot that I've left out; it's a huge experience, but I'd like to think I've covered most of the major points of the experiences I've had. I'm not working at camp this summer, if I were then I probably wouldn't be able to write this, I'd be working round about now, and there is a lot of work involved. It's hard work, but it's appreciable work, it's work that's fulfilling and enjoyable, and finger's crossed I'll be going back in 2011

Waking to the sound of bells

As I mentioned in my first post, I've worked at a summer camp in the past. In both 2008 and 2009 I worked as a counsellor at a stay-over private camp up in Maine, set up specifically for teenagers. I have to watch how I phrase things here, because whilst I don't have a single bad thing to say about my time there I'm not so sure whether they'd appreciate me spreading their name around on the blogosphere.

Camp life in Maine is essentially a self-contained world of its own. The kids can stay at camp for 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks, and the staff were there for about 10 weeks in total. With the nearest decent-sized town with a supermarket about 20 miles away as the crow flies (it took roughly 45 minutes to get there) we are pretty much cut off from the outside world. The camp is big enough to develop a sense of community, and after a few weeks camp is its own little 'bubble', with your trips to the outside world, either with kids on day trips or on your days off, feeling a little alien. You lose track of what day it is (my camp didn't run to a Mon-Fri calendar) and your knowledge of current affairs fades the longer you're there. Not that you care; camp news takes priority over world news, and there's always some kind of story going on at camp, whether it be needless gossip, an issue with a camper, or what's for lunch.
Day-to-day events run to the bell. On top of the camp office is a large-ish bell, and it’s rung throughout the day. It rings to wake people up at 8am, again and 8:30 to tell everyone to go for breakfast, at 9:15 to start the first activity of the day, and every activity throughout the day afterwards. It also rings for lunch, dinner, and to let everyone know that the evening’s entertainment is about to start and it’s also used for fire and storm alarms, of course. In fact the only daily occurrence you won’t hear the bell ring for is to tell everyone it’s time to turn the lights out and go to sleep. Both the staff and the kids live their life at camp by the bell; you always know what you’re meant to be doing and where you’re meant to be, it’s a regimented affair but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when working with kids.
My field of expertise (or at least what I think I'm ok at) is music, and my work at camp revolved around this. I play a handful of stringed instruments, from bass guitar to banjo, and my main daytime role at camp was instrument tuition! Before I went to camp for the first time this sounded like the perfect job, teaching music all day long, passing on my knowledge and experiences to musical rookies and veterans alike. What I didn't realise is this rose-tinted view, whilst very much achievable, actually requires a good deal of prior preparation. I'd never taught properly before, and my teaching theory was going to be 'the open class'. My lessons were to be an open slate - I found out what my students wanted to learn and we worked on that, rather than me laying down the curriculum! And for a class of advanced students in a workshop scenario it would probably have worked a treat, but I wasn't teaching advanced guitarists. I was teaching intermediate guitarists and beginner bass players, kids who needed guidance before freedom, and I was completely stumped. Plan B didn't exist, I had no prior teaching experience, so it was very much a case of improvising as I went along, and doing my best to make sure my students learnt something. Teaching sounds like an enjoyable pursuit, but without any training or past experience of it, it's actually terrifying. Confidence, or at least giving the aura of confidence, is so important in teaching, and when you're bumbling through your lessons like I was you simply don't have said confidence. Come my second year it was completely different, of course. I was experienced at teaching groups of teenagers, confident in myself, and I had material to work on if my students weren't as adventurous as I'd anticipated.
My other role in the daytime was to teach bands. Teach isn’t really the right word for it, it’s more like coaching really. Campers who would like to play in a band are pooled into groups and given 3 weeks to rehearse for a live show, and as part of the music staff I’ll be given one or two of these bands to lead. I might simply be acting in the capacity of a manager, guiding them, helping organize things. Or I could be more of a tutor and coach, motivating and helping them learn their parts, gelling the group together. Sometimes you’d take on a role in the band itself; I’m a bass player first and foremost and as a rule of thumb we’re a rare breed these days, so I was often drafted in to bands who couldn’t find a camper willing to play bass. I don’t mind doing it at all, though it does feel sometimes that it’s not exactly what the kids really want.
In the evenings we would put shows on for the campers, called evening programs. With some good planning and teamwork we could put on pretty much anything, from a movie night, to a disco, to a live music night. My music roles at camp continue in these evening programs as I head one of the two teams of sound engineers, nicknamed the SWAT teams. It’s pretty simple work, just setting up a PA, monitoring it through the show, and putting it away again at the end of the night. It’s one of the few jobs in evening program that needs to be done pretty much every night, though some night’s work are bigger than others. For the SWAT team, the night on which the bands get to perform, called the live dance, is the biggest night of the summer. It’s our chance to show off, to demonstrate what we’ve been doing all summer, just how the theatre department has their stage performances; the art department has their arts show, etc. We do our best to make the show as big as possible; we bring out the biggest speaker rig, dynamic lighting gear, and large stages, so the campers have as much room to strut their stuff as possible. Weather permitting, we’ll even set the show up outside, which produces an atmosphere like no other on the night.
I’ll stop this one here before it gets a bit too long. In my next post I’ll write about the other side of summer camp – the time off.