Camp Chief Ouray

aloha everyone!!! i finally got to use the net. its so hard and painful to be searching so hard but being unable to find it. it the end i really got desperate and here i am in my camp director's office using his computer. i think my camp director should be a nice guy bah. i haven't met him yet, but the rest of the office staff seems to be really excited that i'm here. hmm. i dun even know where to begin from where i left off...

okie first off, travelling america alone for this trip has been amazing. i think i've felt more emotions in the last 3 days than the last few years combined. the people are great and the weather's almost fine(hmm,more about that later if i remember). things are running pretty smoothly up till now and with the exception of a my stoopid m1 phone having no autoroam(even though i applied for it), and so little internet access opportunities, i think the rest of hte trip has been super duper wooper good so far...and hopefully it'll only get better.

okie now from where i left off.

let's start with chicago. i'm pretty lucky i had jing jing and carol with me on my flight because when we reached o'hare airport, ther iccp people who were supposed to pick us up were like gonna be 5 hours late. then once more we got lucky because the singaporean contingent flying korea airways arrived an hour after we did and we met up. then from there we looked so obviously like camp counsellors that other international camp counsellors camp to join us!!! quite a funny sight, but the ice-breakers were done before we even left the airport. my group in chicago had like 6 singaporeans, 4 malaysians, 6 ukrainians, 4 danes, 3 mexicans, 3 moldovans, 2 columbians, 2 taiwanese, 2 ugandans, and then one each from thailand, france, brazil, paraguay, and india. and we all knew each other before even leaving the airport. so cool.

from the airport we were taken to camp henry horner in chicago where we setteld down have lunch and bonded. everyone of the counsellors are really great and friendly. we were lucky also becasue our singaporean contingent was super friendly too like everytime i make a new friend i'd drag her to the other singaporeans and introduce her and so on and so forth. so it kinda helped with getting to know everyone. at night, we had our cultural orientation even though we were all super tired. it was fun seeing everyone in funny garb and singing folk song and all.

next day it was time to leave. i realise that most wilderness ymca camps have little or pathetic internet acces or even payphones. i think they try to limit people from using these instruments to call for help haha. okie that wasn't so funny but dunno why americans laugh loudest at such statements.

anyway i was brought to union station in chicago where we were allocated our train rides. i was to travel alone to granby, colorado for 20hrs by train. no kidding. butthe good thing was that the train ride(am-trak) was really comfy. its sad because when the train first left off i was so tired that i fell asleep, so by the time i woke up in the middle of the night, i realised i missed the sights of iowa. and then in the night going through nebraska i couldn't see shite in that darkness. still the people there are sibeh boliao but friendly. bo tai bo ji will talk to you and ask you where you're going and they do that to everyone and anyone. and they arn't shy about telling total stragners about their family problems and all that. like this one guy who was going around telling everyone he was taking the train to california to run away from his stalker wife! haha. the stories the americans tell mirror those of edward bloom from big fish. its damn dua kang but damn interesting. haha. so i just listen to everything with a pinch of salt and smile and laugh when i see fit. haha. they're not that smart though.

anyway the train ride through the colorado rocky mountains was fantastic. we were going through tunnels and tunnels and mountains towering over us and all, and all the americans were cramming into the viewing gallery(me the kiasu singaporean got a really good seat early on liao on teh advice of an old lady). to catch the sights. beautiful.

okie so i finally arrived at granby. the train station is damn cool. its like a little house in the middle of nowhere and there was no one manning the station. so the camp chief ouray staff came late and i found myself taking silly pix of the little house and me. interesting. so finally this woman cindy picks me up and drives me to camp. so i figure first day should make a good impression so i said i wasn't tired(even after the long ride: wow, chris you're good!) and helped out around camp. the camp's really in a chao ji super duper ulu place. and the staff are mainly interns and counsellors from all over the united states. the super sad thing is that i'm the only international camp counsellor amongst all the locals. so a simple introduction the whole day would go like: hi i'm chris, from singapore! and the reply would be: wow that's like sweet, dude! and then i'll say: yeah, cool! and that was it. haha. nothing to say liao. they must be thinking wah lao bloody chinese can speak good english? anyway they got warmer later on, the staff like michelle brandy corny kevin and the jamaican michelle really take care of me. i think they also know i feel lonely. like during lunch and dinner they just keep introducing me to the whole world and the conversation above keeps repeating itself. but after awhile everyone gets friendly. asks how singapore's like and all, then i also dowan to say so much cos i gotta do a presentation later so i dun wanna exhaust all my trump cards. haha.

at night i was invited to play soccer in the gym. i was glad to accept the invitation since it seemed fun and americans seemingly can't kick their best friend's balls if their lives depended on it. but turns out everyone's not too bad but naturally i was comfy and it was really easy to make friends through football. well they call it soccer here. and i also got to know alot of the snow mountain ranch staff which is just a 5min walk from my camp and they got like tons and tons of international staff. so fun. but they all do the boliao jobs like cleaning the kitchen, maintenance, giftshop salesperson and blah. sibeh boh wan lah.

*pant* okie the altitude here is very high so i walk abit also will pant. playing soccer is tough, one spurt and that's it must stop and take breath and pant like dog. jialatz. but hopefully it'll get better. michelle says by the time i leave camp i'll be fit as superman.

the weather here's super jialatz. you can get several different types of conditions in a single afternoon. just today alone, i got caught in super hot sun, rain, and even hail. thats like frozen rain. and yesterday it supposedly snowed in the night. the walk down to my camp director's office is a long, dark and chilly one but i guess it's all worthwhile to be able to use the net.

okie lah i think i ought to stop here. hoping to here gossip from home. been super out of touch with the outside world and of course singapore and hall. the life here is super laidback, no rush for anything. food's american-style, i'm okie with it and i like it too because i'm forced to eat my veggies just so i wouldn't constipate. and veggies here come in the form of salad which is diy and very nice. so i end up eating only lotsa lettuce but with lotsa different types of sauce. i think i've already picked up the american accent. it wasn't too difficult and the americans pick it up right away as compared to when i speak normally they gotta come closer to listen again. so always just speak loud and slow and they'll geddit.

here they're also super confident in everything they do. dunno how to do also gek seh know how to do, then when they do poorly they still praise each other for the right spirit and blah. takes getting used to but as long as you get things done with integrity and honesty the americans don't falult you even if what you do fucks up. they encourage alot of failing and trying and even on the train every mother's son has a story to tell about their super mega failures(and i mean really dumb stuff man - like this guy who said he bought a car and sold it a week later for a huge loss just because he decided he wanted a boat instead!) haha.

okie lah shall end here liao. everyone reading this please take good care and update me on any happening things if possible yeah. miss everyone back home and miss the singapore life.

to mark and joe, whatever you camp instructor tells you to bring or whatever advice were given in our smu orientation, its all super duper wooper relevant, so read through that a few more times.

take care everyone!