Session 4: Happy Birthday Chuen!

first of all gotta say happy 20th birthday to you bro! so fast so old liao. haha. all the best for all that you do.

okie so this week went by like the wind. i dunno how to begin but this week is perhaps the strongest rival yet to the fun i had during session 1. its incredible how wrong i was with my apprehensions about taking over pawnee cabin. i should never have worried that much afterall. i got 8 kids most of which are 13yrs-old, joel derek dee zach matt micheal cade and dylan. they are about the best kids any counsellor could have/. its incredible especially for stayovers matt and zach, who are like my handimen. haha. if only i got more time to spend with them. more about that later.

the start of the week has been rather eventful.

starting from the weekend. from where i left off after blogging my last entry, i got my laundry done and then proceeded to choose to go to andy's house since brandie was gonna be late. i took the ride with steve and andrew. along the way we bought alot of beer. its illegal to drink if you're below 21 here in america so most of us above 21 had to buy for the 'kids'as we called them. anyway we bought alot. i mean alot. beer is so dirt cheap here a bottle of corona costs less than US$1. we bought like 3-4 dozen boxes and some vodka as well(cos travis wanted to drink quality alcohol...*roll eyes*)also we got steak to bbq for dinner.

so that night we had chirs b steve andrew tyler kevin andy emily evan justin james deseray travis and nick schuh(that fucker..i love that guy to bits!) and alot of people got really high. notably tyler and travis got themselves drunk. travis(the ah-guah) as i've mentioned before, got into this ballerina dancing fit, which was hilarious! and tyler was going around hugging and telling everyone how much he loved them and blah. the rest of us were outside talking and playing drinking games. i actually taught everyone how to play cai-quan or 5-10! and they loved it(they call it 'the awesome game from singapore'!) i learnt a few other drinking games too, and we bitched about sarah bowers the camp bicycle, and jake howard the 18yr old horn dog, among other things... nonetheless we had a really fun night. but i decided not to spend the night because it seemed like getting abit out of hand, so some of us took chris b's truck and went back to camp. i think it was a good decision since we didn't have to clean up and we didn't have to babysit the drunken babies.

so the next day the kids came, it was business as usual, even though it was independence day. somehow my kids were better than what steve and evan had warned me about. really obedient and enthusiastic to have fun too..too bad i wouldn't be around for long. we had opening vespers outside the nordic center, just so we could watch the fireworks launched by the granby town council. we were abit too far but still it was better than nothing though no where near as good as the singaporean fireworks, oh how we under-appreciate all that...

monday i had to go down to denver to pick up my social security card. i had to pick a driver so i obviously chose brandie instead of teri-anne(no one really liikes her, espec maryann, and whoever maryanne doesn't like, i don't like) to send me down. we had sucha swell time bitching and gossiping(bo pianz can't help not gossiping when the opportunity arises) about alot of the staff, who's with who, who's a tramp, who's a bitch, who's a horny bastard and blah blah blah, was sucha fun ride there.

then we realised the social security office was closed. fuck.

xianz means i gotta go down again another day. anyway brandie brought me to this mexican restaurant called pasa bonita where i had chiladas, which is like a smaller burrito, while she had fajitas (fah-hee-tas, like diy prata with fillings lidat), then there was some dumb preformance going on and all that lah but nothing spectacular. then she drove me to this huge mall(like parkway parade 'cept its all in one storey) in a denver suburb which had borders, target(like carrefour), and a few other departmental stores and cinemas and blah. i wanted to split up so that i could go look at stuff i liked, ended up buying myself 2pairs of boxers and a book.

i need to mention that boxers are the underwear to wear around here, everything else is a poor substitute.

so afterthat we went back, still bitching and gossiping...

yesterday i got to be with my kids the whole day! it was campout night! and we got to go to waterfall with arapahoe cabin! yay! arapahoe campers are fuckers. all selfish pigs who care for themselves. i was pretty pissed that our cabin had to carry most of the foodstock so i was really mean to the arapahoe kids...

12yr-old arapahoe camper: i'm tired...*starts whining*
tyler *almost immediately*: shut your puke face or i'll knock you out with my flashlight!
me: yeah! then i'll karate punch you till your braces fall off! and i don't care if my knuckles bleed!

i never heard a word from that camper for the rest of the hike...

alternatively,

12yr-old arapahoe camper: where's the food?
me: you see that cute looking tree over there? *points real far in a general direction* go talk to that tree and don't come back till i ask you too!

okie so its true i sometimes have gotta mean streak, but when you need to shut a camper up, its the only way to go. haha. else i'm still currently known for being one of the nicest(and coolest) counsellors around! then again i threaten everyone with my karate chops. kids have this spectacular fear of karate, and they think no matter how small you can be or how skinny, as long as you know karate or judo, you are god. something like that lah. of course the fact that i sometimes lie that i don't want any of my campers to end up like little jimmy(imaginary camper name), whose hand i "accidentally" "broke" last week, really helps add fuel to the fire of fear in their hearts.

so sue me.

so anyway, when we got up to the mountain(they call it hill but i would like to argue that) after the 2hr hike, we were like mash potatoes with tired bodies lumbering up the bald pated top. yet once up there we were miraculously energized by the scenary around us. it was magnificent! can't describe enough in words. gotta see the pix to understand.
it was a dream campout afterthat - kids in bed by 9.30, counsellors roasting smores by the campfire, counsellors making a bonfire with all the wood available, and basically talking till late. i think this might have just been the best campout ever so far.

this morning we took 45mins to hike downhill and back to camp. then i was subsequently told that i had to go down to denver again to get my social security card. this time brandie was on off, so jeff was gonna be driving me(phew, not teri-anne). the drive there was tiring since i didn't get much sleep last night, jeff lost his way, took us 2hrs in denver just ot figure out where the office was. then had to wait another hour before i was sitting in front of the counter with an old bitch behind telling me that THEY WILL MAIL THE CARD TO ME! argh. fucking waste of my time. whatever. so its back again. i got jeff to drive me to subway for lunch(its the same price here 'cept its in US$) then we went to safeway and then finally back to camp.

was having dinner with katie at the grill just now. we get a good staff discount and we get to watch that wee little bit of tv. was watching lance armstrong take pole position in the tour de france. alot of armstrong fans here(duh, he's an american rep) and i think he's an inspiration to alot of people...

kinda miss vespers since having gone 2 days without it, its heartwarming not only to listen to inspirational tales, songs, poems, quotes of courage honesty responsibility or whatever the topic, but also to hear it from someone else's mouth as they speak with so much conviction and honesty . it makes your heart warm and kinda releases that fuzzy feeling around you and makes you recall your daily actions and evaluate yourself. at least that's the impact vespers have on me. thats why i always put my heart into singing 'guang huai fang shi' and singing the song 'you've got a friend' with the other staff. this coming closing vespers i've decided to sing my own rendition of rasa sayang. still waiting for mom's mail of other nice chinese songs to arrive. anyone has got any suggestions feel free to comment...

this blog is way too long. will blog again come saturday - mini-week next week!!!!!!!