London life in the autumn

First London blog post eeeek excitement!! So I've finally settled into this place and I absolutely love it!! Sorry family but I'm never coming home..(you'll just have to come over here and visit me-Chris that includes you).

It's the first time I've had two days off in a row for a little while now so I have made the most of it and have done some much needed exploring.

One of the many things I love about London is the underground. It's the most amazing public transport system and it is so easy to use. I can get around London, going from West right up East without bating an eyelid. The only down side is my lack of knowing where exactly I am as hinted in its name, you're traveling underground. So on my expedition over the past two days I have vowed to use the tube as little as possible. Thank god for google maps is all I can say. But it's been a great workout none the less. Bridesmaids dress watch out.

Autumn in London is truly beautiful and the christmas festivities are in full swing. Yesterday I went East, exploring Shoreditch, Hackney and Bricklane. Bricklane is one of my favorite areas and has the best vintage stores which I spent a total of 2 hours trawling through (don't worry mum, I was very self controlled). My favorite is a little, well actually it's rather large, place called Blitz Vintage. They have a lot of reworked stuff but it's a little on the pricier side. I fell in love with a little blue denim jacket number. But sadly my practical side prevailed and I left it there on the rack screaming 'purchase me' as deep down I know I need a proper woolen bad boy to keep me snug this winter.

Today mother nature has put on a stunner with crystal blue skies, crisp and cool, almost like central. And they say it always rains in London huh?
I started the day off by sitting in Trafalgar Square reading my book and sipping on my new found addiction, a Christmas themes toffee nut latte. I then had a look around the National Gallery which is free to the public. Yuss winning! There was also a photography exhibition on that I've been wanting to see for a while now so I decided to break the bank and splurged on a ticket to that. It was amazing. Well worth the £12 entry fee. I ended up spending like two hours in there as there was so much to see and take in.

When I finally finished at the exhibition I realized I was starving so I navigated my way to Soho to my favourite little cafe called the Breakfast Club. I had the best wrap ever. Haloumi, hummus, sundried tomato, balsamic and spinach aka pure heaven.

Something that I'm gonna have to get use to is the sun setting so early now that winter is upon us. Come 4pm I'm ready to head back to our little flat on Sawley Road and hibernate for the evening. We have a great flat of people so the evenings are always lots of fun when we all return from a day of work. A typical evening usually involves lots of food (we usually all sample each others dinner), onsies, a few cheeky drinks, the occasional movie and heeeeeaps of banter! And then the weekend... Well that's a whole other kettle of fish. Hehe.

My top ten memories of Texas

1.Fourth of July trip to austin aka the hangover 3. So much fun with amazing people and a whole lot of crazy stories I'll never forget.

2. Going to 'Billy Bobs, a western bar in Fort Worth and learning how to 2 step. Defiantly was exposed to some raw Texan culture.

3. Spending the day at Six flags over Texas with all the counsellors

4.Getting to swim, kayak, tube and canoe every day

5. Eating s'mores in the cooked, raw and frozen form. I'm addicted.

6. Learning how to cook over a camp fire and doing cook out every Wednesday with the campers

7. Camping out on another site on wednesday nights and getting to do night swims with the girls. Waking up right on the lake edge is amazing and the sunrise was always so beautiful.

8. Getting spoilt in the weekends by Texan hospitality. People in Dallas are so kind and have taken such good care of all the international counsellors. They really have made our stay that much more amazing.

9.Experiencing a baseball game. The atmosphere was awesome and the margaritas weren't bad either.

10. Just hanging out with cool people 24/7 and having lots and lots of laughs.

The end is near

I'm sitting on the bus on the way back out to camp for another week. Its just dawned on me that I only have 2 more weeks left and it's definitely a catch 22 feeling. I have been having an absolute blast and it is with out a doubt the best experience of my life. I love all the people that I have met and have formed some really great friendships, most of which are with Aussies :O haha (apparently, I'm an adopted Aussie now too, sorry NZ).

I have loved every minute of the past 7 weeks but at the same time it has been the most mentally and physically draining experience (even harder than my post graduate year at uni... Can't believe I just said that!). Being up at 6.30am every morning, going to bed if I'm lucky before 12am, spending a full day in 40degree heat and trying to entertain a bunch of children is a lot harder than I initially imagined. And that's why I'm so gutted that this experience is almost over but so relieved at the same time. It's a very strange feeling.

One thing I am not going to miss are the bugs! They are everywhere and I have bites all over me (it's disgusting). The other night a counsellor just got casually bit by a scorpion, no biggie. And sweating constantly, yea I won't miss that either. I shower and then 5 minutes later I'm dirty again. I look like an absolute mess during my 'working week' but it makes the weekend so much sweeter when I get to put a little effort into my appearance. I actually get excited about putting make up on.

Austin for 4th of July was the best! It was 4 days away from children and we defiantly took full advantage of this! There was 9 of us who went and we went a tad bit/a lot crazy. Austin is the coolest city and I'm so glad I had the chance to visit it. Having an accent is the best asset a lady can ask for. We did not have to buy a drink pretty much the entire trip as they are just handed to you as soon as you open your mouth. Our group consisted of British, Irish, Australian and kiwi ladies so a good range haha. Austin night life is insane, so much better than anything on offer in New Zealand. There are even police officers riding past on horses! It was definitely hard going back to camp after having such a fun break. We were all pretty glum last week but we made it though to the weekend which is our savior. Love the weekend. Air conditioning + no children or bugs equals heaven! And now the countdown begins...

Down time

I'm sitting down by the lake. It's 8.30pm and the sun is just setting. It's a full camp activity tonight. The whole camp is playing counsellor hide and seek. Basically, all the counsellors hide throughout the camp property with little chips that have our camp names written on them. The campers are divided into teams and have to search the camp property to find us counsellors. When they do find us, they get one of our chips. Apparently, the counsellors are all worth different points and at the end they hand in their chips which are tallied up to figure out the winning team.
It's definitely my favorite camp activity as it's pretty much the only time that I get to be by myself (besides sleeping) and just chill out and listen to music (thank god for the ipod). I picked the perfect hiding spot, right on the edge of the lakeside bank under a wee bush. Got some good snaps of the sun setting and had some time to get in a cheeky blog post.

Batter up

Last week we had the most retarded (no offense to them) kids here for camp. They were little devil children and by the end of the week all the counsellors were ready to slap them (they have definitely made me not want children for a very long time). But Friday afternoon finally came and there parents arrived to take them far far away from us and hopefully, they will never return. Then we jumped in the camp people mover and rode straight to Dallas, with a quick stop at Walmart to purchase a well needed bottle of vino each...And boy was it satisfying.

I stayed with a few other international counsellors at one of the American counsellors grandparents ranch. It was super cute and very very Texas. We headed straight for the hot tub when we arrived with vino bottles in hand.

On saturday afternoon we went to the Texas rangers baseball game. It was so ridiculously hot. I was literally sticking to my seat it was that bad.

First, we went to the most amazing mexican restaurant for lunch. We ordered Margarita's and they were potent as but delicious. Then I had the best quesadilla available to man kind!

The baseball was so much fun. We didn't have the best seats but we were all together in a big group with our camp staff and our sister horse camp's staff who we did staff training with. The stadium was giant and we ended up just walking around for a wee while and also sat in an Irish bar for a bit (it had air-conditioning and vodka...) and of course we watched the game too. After the game we went back to the ranch and got a grand tour of the property on the back of the pickup with the dog Libby. It was such a beautiful night and a good way to end a fun day out.

Tomorrow we have horses coming out to our camp for the day. I haven't rode a horse since intermediate school so this could be an interesting experience. I'm sure the kids will be able to teach me some skills this time around.

This week has been the hottest week yet with temperatures over 40degrees every day. Its great for tanning but not so good for sweating/personal hygiene haha.

And the most exciting news I have yet.... I'm going to see Celine Dion live in Vegas! Bought my ticket last night so am still super excited. I'm going with a friend from camp and a few of her friends from home. We are staying at the MGM grand hotel for 4 nights, which surprisingly works out pretty cheap for such luxury :D

Roller-coasters, reptiles and little rascals

Our week long camp training finally came to an end and before we knew it, our first group of little darlings had arrived. I guess all the laxing in the sun, eating cinnabuns (amazing) and listening/not really listening to our camp director and admin staff talk about what to expect when the kids arrive, had to come to an end at some point. But before the real work begun, we were sent off to Six Flags Over Texas theme park for a day of riding Roller-coasters, sweating profusely and a lot of staff bonding. It was awesome. My favorite ride was the superman. Kinda like the fear fall at rainbows end but way higher/better. We were there from around 10am till 9pm and I think I went on every ride apart from 1 or 2...maybe 3. It was the perfect way to end staff training.

Sunday afternoon was when our first group of kids arrived. They were an awesome group and mostly were well behaved. I'm a unit leader so I'm in charge of a number of cabins and counsellors who all have there own assigned cabins to look after, which makes up 1 unit (my unit is called frog). Basically I'm in charge of making sure our unit and all our scheduled activities runs smoothly and liaising with the admin staff and camp director. And i get my own walkie talkie... O yea haha. But I also get to do all the activities with the kids like kayaking,swimming, archery, tie dye, nature hikes and lots of crafts!

Camp food is actually amazing as well, which I did not expect at all. We get two different options (both of which are always delicious and the decision is always a hard one) and then there is always the most amazing salad bar, so at least I'm still eating my greens. In the mornings the salad bar is like a fruit bar with lots of melon and other delicious fruits which I always get amongst. It's hell luxury compared to uni hostel food haha. Probably gonna come home a huge fattie though. On Wednesday night we do a cook out with the kids where they cook a 3course meal on a camp fire. Sounds hard but it's actually not too bad. It takes ages though. We have to start around 4 and don't eat till 6.30ish. And then there's s'mores aka the best thing ever created. It's 2 wheat biscuits with toasted marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate mmmmmmm. That's probably enough chat on food for now......

This weeks theme was a lot to do with nature and the environment so we had a nature specialist come in and talk to the kids and she bought some of her pets. And by pets I mean reptiles. The turtle was my fav but there was also a few others including an iguana and a snake ekk. Got up close to them all which was freaky as, especially the snake!

The week is almost over now yay and the kids get picked up tomorrow afternoon. We are going into Dallas for the weekend to stay with host families. I'm am so looking forward to a proper bed and a decent shower (and not getting woken up by kids in the middle of the night). The camp has planned for us to go to an outdoor movie on Friday night and then hitting up a huge mall on Saturday woohoo cannot wait. All us international staff have planned a trip to Austin for the 4th of July holiday which I am so excited about. We got return bus tickets for $2.00 and accommodation at a hotel for $12.00 each a night. America is so cheap and I love it! So we are all counting down the days till we can let loose and party :D

I survived a week in Texas (y'all)

So it's been almost a week since I officially arrived in Texas. It has been a very long and intense week but it has so far been amazing!

I arrived late Saturday afternoon and the outdoor education manager picked me and another girl who arrived from australia up from the airport. We then got taken out for dinner to a place called Applebee's. Well that was an experience in itself. It was your typical american Texas restaurant. I ordered 'chicken fried chicken' and asked for an oj but was told that they only have juice boxes for kids... So instead I got a huge Pepsi. My meal came out and it pretty much could have fed all of brangelina's kids but it was pretty tasty.

For the first few days we stayed at one of the girl scouts camps that was close to the airport as there were people arriving from overseas over 3 days. So we just kinda chilled there and ate a shitload of American packaged food. My first morning there was a scorpion in the hand sink in the bathroom. The bugs are shit but everything else is wicked (some of the food is a bit shit and all the texans keep saying how healthy we are because we actually eat fruit and vegetables)

Then on Monday all the internationals had arrived so we moved to our camp which is like an hour and a half outa Dallas. Pretty much as soon as we got there we had to start lifeguard training which we literally only just finished now (it's 10.30 on Friday evening) so that has consumed our week. We didn't really have much spare time as the days have been so packed with either practical or written training. We did get to go to Walmart twice and we had Wendy's and chick-fil-a for lunch. We spent 2 full days at the local pool learning all the rescue skills, 2 full day in the classroom learning CPR and first aid and all that jazz and then yesterday we spent a day at the lake learning more stuff and practicing with the kayaks and canoes which was super fun. We also had to sit like 5 written tests and 2practical which was a tad scary but I passed all of them yay. So now I'm officially an American lifeguard.

Now we have a week of staff training and then on the 10th we get our first bunch of kids. It feels like I have been here for so much longer than a week it's crazy.

All us lifeguards seem to be getting on really well which is great and today we meet the rest of the counsellors and staff which will be interesting but hopefully good. Next weekend we get to go to 6 flags over Texas which is a theme park so I'm super excited about that.

The weather here is pretty random like we have already had 3 storms with thunder and lightning but it's only been at night. In the day time it's been fricken hot like around 29/30 degrees and it's super humid and will only get hotter. I think I've already started getting a tan so I'm pretty chuffed about that.

Not sure if I'll have wifi this week as we are shifting to our first camp and then come back to the one that I'm at at the mo at the beginning of July. But hopefully I will beable to post something again soon for y'all (hehe)

Bucket

Over the next couple of months I'm going to slowly compile a bucket list of things I want to do while in Texas and around the States after camp.  I've made a start but it will continue to grow as I think of much much more

In Texas I want to....

• Order the biggest steak on a menu and eat the entire thing
• Pash a cowboy (or multiple, I won't say no)
• Get a photo with Khloe and Lamar
• Attend a fair
• Ride a mechanical bull
• Go to a baseball game 
• Visit some historical stuff/art museums.....

Whilst travelling...

• Get twisted in vegas
• See the sunrise at the grand canyon
• Have a picnic in central park
• Visit Bergdorf Goodman
• Visit 1709 Broderick Street, San Francisco aka the Full House house 
• See Celine Dion live in Vegas
• Find New Yorks best bagel 
• Go to (and laugh at) Kardashian Khaos 
• Purchase the tackiest item at the 'shore store'

The waiting game

So I made this blog as I am heading overseas for my first grown-up adventures. After studying at uni for four years, I felt it was time to see what the big wide world has to offer. First stop.... Dallas, Texas. Why Texas you ask? Well, after much anticipation (weeks, that felt like months of checking my email inbox multiple times a day) I have been hired (thanks to Camp America NZ) by the Girl Scouts of North East Texas to work in one of their summer camps. I am so very excited to get there and start my role as camp counselor and unit leader. I will also be in charge of taking photos of activities that go on at camp on a daily basis, which will then be uploaded to the GSNETX secure website so that parents of campers can log on and see what their kids are up to. As the camp is heavily based around lakeside activities, I also have to complete a lifeguard course before camp starts. After camp finishes I have three and a half weeks to travel the states and then I fly from New York to London to start the second chapter of my new life.

But for now, I must work my toosh off and save, save, save so that I can spend, spend spend later down the track. May 26th could not come any sooner!