Finally a Dancing Queen

Young and sweet only SEVENTEEN! *cue hand actions and dancing*

I woke up to find baloons and a banner attached to our tent and the other tents on our campsite this morning; Helen and Lisa had got up really early to do them. They are amazing :D

Denise had brought this massive, velvet hat, with CANDLES on the top for me to wear (supposedly all day, we all know that wasn't going to happen) and I wore it to breakfast just to please Denise and the rabble that couldn't be calmed without me stuffing it on my head. They had also collected various bits of Canada merch from people around the camp, and that was a lovely surprise! I have a gloriously large CAN-ADA hoodie now (the zip goes between :P) and it's RED!

Today, at camp, it was Eco day. We were all absolutely shattered, but we travelled down to the Island for the day anyway. I kept seeing Lisa and Rebecca throughout the day, and they gave me the most amazing birthday hugs :D

We sat as a group and listened to the woman giving a speech about how she was the "Queen of Green" and it was quite cool. After that, we sat and had a quick break and Allie and I adventured off to our first session called "Environmental Economics". I know what you're thinking... thrilling, right? It actually turned out to be fantastic, there were 3 staff members from a Canadian branch of Lush and they were so bubbly (heheh PUN) and gave two girls facials and let us smell a bunch of their lovely product(that sounds kind of dirty to me, but I can assure you, it isn't supposed to). We then toddled off to the "Reduce your ecological footprint" talk which was also pretty ace, and Alison somehow managed to find us...again.

When we were waiting for our BBQ lunch, Kyra who was stood in front of us had this little beauty resting on her bag

How lovely is that? It really brightened my day :D

We sat and baked for a while in the sun at lunch time, and Allie managed to get the cheese from her sausage in her hair, it was rather embarassing but funny to witness!

We then went back over to the stage for another talk. Unfortunately, I am unable to reveal to you here what it was about, as our group were all so shattered from our early rise and late night of giggles last night that we all just totally konked out and napped for an hour. From what I have heard, and gather, it was about a man and a woman who ran around Canada (a little bit like Eddie Izzard the English Comedian) and told little annecdotes about their times on their rather large and epic adventure.

I had another shower today, and Helen helped me to wash my hair. Denise also bought us ice-lollies and mine dripped on my leg. I now have an orange stain mid-way down my shin. Hopefully it'll come off soon, but for now, it's remaining sticky. I also found my instect-repellant wrist bands today, having not worn them the past few days, and having only been bitten twice, I decided that I might as well wear them and see if they reduce the number of annoying little fellas and gals that so love to fly around my head.

Stay adventurous and happy (for my birthday at least :D)

Haze

My shorts are wet!

As in they are seriously soggy. I'm sitting on a white, plastic patio chair in the Media trailer, and I'm terrified that when I stand up, there will be an embarassing puddle on the chair. Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with that. They're my spotty comb shorts, wait, have I explained these? I think I have.
I thought you lot might like to know that I finally had a wash. It was glorious. I then decided to go Kayaking with Charlotte because I had a free slot in my schedule. After we had done this we went and got changed into our costumes and board shorts. It started RAINING. I KNOW, REALLY LAME. We were so chilly, my knees were knocking together, but we went kayaking, it was groovy.
Having erased my lovely clean feeling by jumping in the grimy, slimy lake, and replaced it with a rather pongy and icky all over feeling, my neck is kind of sore, like from the water. It's all dry, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to bike up to camp and get some cream for it. These are the details that you really want to know, I know how your minds all work. I also really need to let my hair dry properly, it's gone all straggly and lame. Oh what I'd give to blow dry it somehow. No wait, I'd have to put my hat on it anyway. Darn.

Pretty photo alert:
As it is only 2:35 pm here, I haven't really done much, and probably won't be doing much for the rest of the afternoon. I might go and investigate the shop and buy some stuff, sweets, and visit the international tent to get my last few signatures to get my Taiga badge!

This is so buckets. Someone recognised my Charlieissocoollike 'I Look Better In Purple' t-shirt. I also saw someone on Saturday morning wearing an Alex Day "Pokemon What Happened to You?" shirt... I pointed and was like WOW YOU'RE SO COOL. I had no idea what to say, but she smiled and I felt goofy.

I'm going to go and sleep in my bunny-hug tonight.
Also, my hat is soaking. I'm not impressed.




Stay adventurous, beautiful and content,

Haze

BREAKING NEWS : THE ENGLISH WASH!

Well, I haven't yet, but some of us have. I baby-wiped my feet down, they were totally rank. I'm planning to have a solar shower this afternoon, but I have a feeling it'll be either scorching or mediocre from the heat of the day. Either way, today has been EXHAUSTING, just from the heat. It was super warm when we got up at 7:30 (late, I know!) and it was like a sweaty palm slap around the face, reminding us that it's going to be a flipping warm day on the Island.

The solar showers are really creepy, they just sit there, getting tepid in the sun, but hey! If they mean I can get a wash at some point, I'm not decrying them!

Lisa and Helen washed their hair yesterday morning, apparently it was a right sight to see, and I have no idea where I was when they did this (probably in the tent, I digress) but they inform me that the pictures are hilarious.

Instead, here are the ones I have of Charlotte. She is just amazing.

Zip-lining and gangster walk... I think that increases her awesome, don't you?

WE FOUND A FROG!

I took this

before, and just think it's super cute and a lovely picture. I don't know the girls in it, but if you're one of them, let me know XD

I'm really loving the whole vibe of this camp, everyone's together and no-one cares about trivial things. We all just want to have a fantastic time, and I don't think anyone wants it to end. I love how people come up to us and say "Oh, you're English, first time in Canada?" it's just great! I am really looking forward to just exploring some of the cities and streets of Canada, and being with our AWESOME group of people :D

Having seen that Nichola, Katie and Katharine (as well as Lisa and Helen) did their swim tests the day before yesterday, Charlotte and I and some others are pondering whether to do ours today so that we can cool down a little bit more than if we were just dipping toes and paddling in the water. We were asked whether we wanted to go canoeing/kayaking this morning and we asked if we needed a swim test and we were told we wouldn't get wet. We also said "we can swim, we have certificates at home" but then we were asked to just jump in the lake fully clothed and tread water to gain our little 'swim test' orange bead. It didn't happen guys.

Here's Helen and Monkey :D

Aaaaand Charlotte and Monkey!

I've started thinking in a Canadian accent, having been totally surrounded by them over these past few days. It's pretty neat.

I'm going to miss these little juice cups we have at every meal time :P

That's it for today now, really.

Thank you so much for reading this, I feel really priviledged to be the online reporter! You guys are awesome :D

AWESOME!

I'm sitting in a trailer. Writing the official blog for the camp. All suitable and profound blog titles have subsquently evacuated my crazy little noodle. I am so unbelievably excited. Still!





So, having been here for over 50 hours, I feel like I've been here for way longer... and such is the feeling with lots of camps. However, this one is blowing my mind; every hour brings something new!



We all trapsed to Darlington train station at 7:30 am to get the 8:00am train to Manchester Airport (Manchester...AIIII!) and managed to get there without a hitch! Here's us looking tired but seriously buzzing! Our uniforms are seriously snazzy, don't you think?

Our flight was delayed for an hour in the airport, but we managed to entertain ourselves with cards and my 'loosing' of my special prescription sunglasses... by buying some clip on bad boys...

The flight was pretty sweet, I didn't manage to nap as much as I kind of needed to, but the inflight films were pretty sweet (The Blind Side and Up In The Air- oh Clooney....nonmnomnonmonmnmmm) and there was a stream of Queen songs in the arm-rest so I was in a little bubble of my own. The plane food was actually scrummy, even the weird little yellow lemon pudding, despite my resistance to lemon 'flavoured' things! When we got to Toronto, it was about 2 am our time, and without sleep, we were all walking Zombies. I got quite excited because my passport was stamped :D We got on a little hopper type bus with big windows and AIR CONDITIONING and zoomed off to the Guelph Lake Area. As it was so cold in the bus/van THING, we all put on our Monty hoodies. When we arrived, we hit the wall of heat. That's right guys, 33 Degree heat...in hoodies and polo shirts! We looked rather English to say the least. Alongside our uniforms, our neckers also looked majorly mint, and still do! (People keep coming up to us and being like 'you're wearing a different necker...Are you English??!?!? "Sure I am!")

By the time we got to the camp it was like 4 am in the morning for us, but 10/11 in Canada, it was super freaky-out for my body clock. The people in the Ranger Village had put up some two man tents for us, and our little blue over the shoulder bags were filled with useful little things like a bad-donkey torch (or flashlight) and some squares bars and bottles to fill up with allsorts! Basically, we totally crashed out when we got into the tents, and without mats, we slept on the cobbles (rocks and ALL) and just let that be for a fair few hours.

When we woke up at like 6 am, I checked my phone and got dressed into my that'll do shorts (they never seem to get dirty or smelly, they are my saviours!) and my polo shirt from Poacher. It was rather serviceable!

Oh yeah, it rained. TORRENTIALLY. For like 3 hours, but then it stopped and it was cool in the air, and the rest of the day was totally awesome. Our schedules were not in our possession yesterday morning, so we all ventured down to the Island to be assigned some sort of activity... things didn't exactly go swimmingly (I didn't go swimming either...LOL) and we ended up on an awesome school bus to the Zip Line :D It was mint to say the least, and really exhillirating! I got some of the ropes tangled, but I didn't completely ruin anything! Honest! When we got off the awesome, big yellow school bus... I can't actually remember what we did. I think we ate and managed to get back up to our village. Grace is on the Transport section of the Core Crew, so she has a golf buggy. It can't travel faster than a butterfly. She whizzes past us when we're walking to the Island, and it's pretty sweet.

Back to what happened yesterday! I popped down to the Media station trailer for a meeting at 7, and everyone introduced themselves and swapped a few bits and bobs. I'm the only English one in the whole media team, but they're seriously awesome! I finally got to meet Rachel and she's really lovely! A big bunch of us ended up going to the 'Special Evening' event last night, and Kate almost vommed everywhere when the girl next to her did after eating like 7 packets of relish. Major EW! She has a strong stomach. They made me say 'Harry Potter' though, and it was quite funny, because really, my accent is not quintessentially British, but they all love to make me just say words. It's hilarious!

To today! We woke up pretty early, even though when I got back to our little Ranger village last night it was late, and everyone in our group was asleep (I just fell asleep in my day clothes...lazy but noone cares, right?) and finally got our Ranger hats! THEY'RE SO MINT! I love them :D They're like turquoise! I'm really sorry about the lack of supporting pictures, they're on this computer, but take an age to upload. I could wait, just to treat you guys, but I'm really hungry, so I think I'm going to escape to get some BBQ lunch from Alison and sit in the sun and gossip! I think it's our Theme Day today when we get back to the Village, so 70's gear ahoy! For me, this means Vintage 'Lindisfarne' top and my 'comb' shorts. When I bought them, Mum washed them and found they had a comb attached in the pocket. How useful!

Swapping is getting pretty crazy, lots of people keep approaching us and giving us pin badges and crests and cloth badges, and I keep giving out my little Monty badges that Dad and Liz helped me make, with Helen's awesome design, but the bag is seriously depleated!

Off to get some food, I hope to report back soon!

Stay adventurous,

Haze

Memories that will last forever

There's something about large, international camps that requires a representative amount of planning and preparation to the scale and size of the camp, yes?

For me, I spent the last full week before GMC2010 gallavanting around Paris with our school choir and orchestra. I know, really prepared here.

So, a group of really cool kids, 48 of us, including teachers, aged from year 8-year12s and 4 amazing staff (including my Father... LOL) set off from Durham train station at 7:12 am to go to Kings Cross in London. We then got on the exciting Eurostar to Paris-Nord from St.Pancr(e)as and that was FUN... with 4 'cellos and a tuba in our large group. Travelling with them was just crazy. I had to carry: a suitcase, a large backpack, a clarinet and a stand, because everyone else had already booked their small student who was both instrument and stand-less to carry their aforementioned paraphernalia , leaving me to carry all of my stuff myself. In 34 degree heat. I was melting. Goodness only knows how I am going to cope in Canada! I did manage to cope though, it didn't make me faint like some of the little ones on stage.

More on that later.

The traffic in Central Paris was unbearable. Seriously, you have to see it to believe it! It took us 4 hours to get from Central Paris to our centre one day. Anyway, we were staying in a strange little centre called Le Bois le Roix (Forest of Kings XD) and when we got there late on Monday evening, our pasta dinner had sort of...congealed. Into huge clumps of pasta and unidentifiable meat product. We ate it reluctantly and trotted off to bed.

THEN WE WOKE UP AND WENT TO DISNEYLAND! Oh no, not just to experience the soul crushing plastic exteriors and thrill-seeking rides, but to PERFORM on the Fantasyland Stage as part of their Disney Music Days thing! This is where our four young performers fainted. All things considered, it was over 30 degrees C and there were sweltering lights on the stage. They did well not to be totally konked out by the whole experience!

Then we went and did stuff like this for the rest of the day:

Wednesday consisted of a concert in a beautiful area of Paris, inside the Château Saint Germain au Laye . Here's me really getting into singing something, probably the Eva Cassidy arrangement of Over The Rainbow, which one of our teacher's, Miss Huppertz, sat and cried through. I found it really hard not to do the same.

Thursday was our final concert, in a bandstand in the Jardins du Luxembourg, which were seriously glorious. We then wandered around the Sacre Coeur for just under an hour. After an exhausting coach journey and a tremendously weird last meal, we all had an amazing time out on the field playing frisbee, catch, punch-catch, football, and the best bits were the leaps of faith. I shall not disclose pictures, because frankly, what happened in Paris, (should) stays in Paris!

We coached and Eurostar-ed it back to England on Friday, and we gained an hour, so I had a sleep in :D I had to go to band early in the morning of Saturday though, to go to a meeting about a Germany concert tour next summer! I AM ALREADY EXCITED FOR THAT!

There are a heck of a lot more pictures, but I don't want to bore you.

I packed up most of the clothes I want to take with me for Canada yesterday, and they alone take up 17kg of my 20kg weight limit for luggage. I am going to have to pack a LOT lighter.

I think I've sorted SWAPS as far as I can now... it's only a matter of 4 days now!

CRAZY!

(Sorry for not sounding quite as coherent in this post, I'm very busy and I keep getting distracted in the middle of sentences)

Stay adventurous,

Haze

12 Days!

So things are getting hectic in my little life in England.

Next week, starting on Monday, I'm going on a massive adventure to Paris with our school choir and orchestra. Just before Mosaic I hear you cry? Yes, indeed. What a buzz!

We'll be singing THIS or rather, I will be singing the Alto solo in this :o I AM REALLY RATHER NERVOUS! We're singing the whole Mass (minus the Credo LOL) and it is so beautiful, I would marry it if I could. Aside from me spending every other moment preparing for this concert tour, I am also gathering bits and bobs for SWAPS and clothes I need to pack.

Like my International Necker!

Isn't it awesome? I can't wait to wear it around Canada after Mosaic and on the plane of course!

OH! Wait, what is that I hear you say again? There's MORE awesome to come in this blog? Well my friends, YOU ASSUMED CORRECTLY!

Look at that beauty! So the Royal Mint has decided to make a Centenary Coin for GirlGuidingUK, and I personally think it's fantastic. So does my Mum... and lo and behold we bought one!

Of course it cost more than 50p, we live in a silly economic climate, duh!

I hope to post sometime next weekend with any last minute preparations, but until then...

Stay adventurous!

Haze

Genuinely so proud!

I have some big news!

The roundabout at the top of Hild and Bede bank in Durham City centre has THIS on show!

Now, how fabulous is that? It makes me beam horrendously every time we drive past it! Waving, shouting, smiling... you name it, I display it because I'm so happy that Durham is recognising and promoting our fantastic organisation that is GirlGuiding!

It was our last full group (minus Grace, sad face) meeting last night before we all set off for Canada, and we discussed a few (LOTS) of things.

I wanted to take some pictures of us having discussions and chocolate fondue... alas, we had our faces full of marshmallows and the swing of the meeting didn't really lend itself to stopping and taking pictures!

I've got some swaps sorted hopefully... but I'm still pondering what to make/do/if I should print some labels etc.

This week and the subsequent weeks are really looking busy for me, and everyone else, but now that my exams are over, I'll hopefully have some pockets of time to organise/sort more things regarding this fabulous trip! I'll also be corresponding with one of our leaders, Jenny, regarding our Cultural presentation thing-y-mah-whatsit for the 15th July, and man, we have some excellent ideas in the pipeline XD

Most of all, I'm excited to be celebrating my 17th Birthday whilst we're in Canada.

Exactly a month from today infact! ^___^

Hopefully it'll be full of awesome, although maybe not full of the blenderized cake Rachel suggested, however sweet the vlogbrothers' reference is :P

Stay adventurous,

Haze