September 22, 2018 (Day 2, Vermont Session at Tamarack Farm)
Written by camper Valentina
I woke up to light filtering through the clear roof of my cabin and the feeling of cool air on my face, which was the only part of me not in my sleeping bag. Once I got up, I discovered that it was a sunny day, the first of hopefully many for this session of camp. Even though I had woken up multiple times during the night, I felt happy and awake as I got dressed and headed up the hill towards the farmhouse. I ate a few thimbleberries on the way, although mostly the bushes were empty of the delicious red fruit.
I was up before wake up call, but I wasn’t the only one. I sat on the steps with some other people and we snuggled and played music and sang. The sun was just creeping across the field and people were making warm tea.
For breakfast we had potatoes, eggs, beans, and corn tortillas, topped with chipotle sour cream and salsa. It was positively delicious, and was my favorite meal of the day, though the others were certainly excellent. (It is camp, after all.) For this reason, it is the only one I will spend time describing in detail.
During morning meeting, we sang one of my favorite camp songs, Hey Mister Miller. Singing the trombone part is so much fun, and it made my morning better.
Later in the morning, we had our first day of projects. I spent two hours working on the basics of partner dancing, which I hope will be a skill I can transfer to other parts of life. I’m definitely looking forward to the next two project days!
In the afternoon I went to one of the first workshops of the session, which was Babette leading us through exercises to improve our flexibility, particularly our splits. I enjoyed it, though it was remarkably tiring. I have been working on my splits for years, and consider myself to be reasonably good. Still, there were exercises that I didn’t know, and some that were significantly more difficult versions of ones I already do know.
After that, part of me wanted to take a break, but the staff were doing their panel on healthy sexuality, which I make a point of never missing. It’s the fourth one I’ve been to, and it’s always interesting and useful. Yet again, I did not regret spending the time to attend that event, and definitely highly recommend it to anyone who ever gets the chance to go. It’s really wonderful.
After evening meeting it was time to set up for the evening event, Bonding Night! I was on the committee, so we spent a half hour before the event hurrying around to make everything was ready. Everything worked out, and we had a lovely Bonding Night. My favorite part is the second half, where the group splits in two and half closes their eyes while the other half gives them anonymous hugs. It’s so sweet and so comforting and I love hugging everyone.
I planned to go to bed soon after Bonding Night ended, but I ended up in a cuddle puddle on the farmhouse floor with eight or more other people. We laughed and joked and generally had a lovely time, right up until dessert came out. Then we ate cookie bars…and continued laughing and joking and having a lovely time. Shout out to the people who brought other people cookies so that we didn’t all have to break up the cuddle puddle! Particularly shout out to my brother, who brought me a cookie without me even asking.
I went to bed at around 10:45, after which I wrote this blog post until 11:30. I blame J, because he reminded me that I said I was going to start writing tonight (though to be fair he did tell me it could be done tomorrow), and now I’ve ended up writing the whole thing. And now my fingers are cold, so I truly will go to bed. I can’t wait for six more wonderful days of camp!