Wow I've Been Gone A While...

I haven't posted in a forever long time. I guess I sort of got caught in the flow of summer. But let me tell you about my past week. I'm really big on making films and movies. In the past I've made a few of them with my little sister and her friends. This summer I decided to make it into a camp. For a week we spent time casting, costuming, playing theater games and filming. In a week we filmed the whole entire Wizard of Oz and for anyone who knows anything about filming, that's no small feat. But what was even harder was being the main person in charge on 9 children for around 7 hours a day. My friend came and helped out but keeping 4th through 7th graders in check is not as simple as it sounds. It was an experience and I'm so glad I ran camp. I've learned things for next year, I gave kids an fun inexpensive way to spend the week and I even made a great movie out of it.

If you have something you want to share with kids, I think making it into a camp is a great way!! But here's some advice.

1. Get forms back early. I sent out forms for parents to sign with things like allergies on it and asking for their money. This is the only way to confirm someone will come. Even if they tell you 10 million times that they'll be there, until you get their money there's no way to know for sure.

2. Have a schedule. Every night before camp, I'd make up a time plot of exactly what I wanted to happen when. Instead of just writing "10-10:30 Games" I'd write "10-10:15 Dinner Party, 10:15-10:30 Half Life". That way I never blanked on ideas.

3. Be flexible. What you wrote in your plan will almost never go the way you wrote it. The things you though would take an hour take 15 minutes. The things you thought you could do in 10 minutes take a half hour.

4. Food is a savior. When ever people were getting tired or cooperation was low, a mere mention of food brought people back to where you needed to be. I always had snacks and lollipops and treats around.

5. Be consistent. You don't want to let people climb the trees half the time but not the other half the time. You might seem mean for always reminding people that they are not allowed to swear but in the end, they will appreciate that they know what to expect from you.

6. Never question yourself. You are the one in charge and even if you have no clue what's going on, you ALWAYS know what's going on. Instead of phasing things as "We're going to pick up now, alright?" say "Everybody clean up! The faster we do this the sooner we get games." This leaves not way for them to say it's not alright and offers an incentive.

I loved running a camp, but that doesn't mean it was easy. I spent about 30 hours prepping, 35 hours in camp and I will spend around 70 hours editing the movie. If you want an easy job running a camp might not be for you, but it is oh so rewarding.

If you were to run a camp, what would you run it on? How many kids do you think you could handle having? What ages would you work with?

(The picture is of my sister Rebecca, as a Munchkin.)

My Quebecois Twins

I know that and_then_hannah_was_all_like recently posted about how she is having an exchange student come for a whole year. My exchange girls are only here for a week but already we've had tons of fun. I live in New England and they live in Quebec but it seems like 2 different worlds. I really speak english and they really speak french. I've only lived in the country, they've only lived in the city. Despite this, we instantly clicked. A simple thing like making dinner turns into a language experience. Trying to explain what things are causes fits of laughter. (It's not that they don't know what things are, it's just trying to find the equivalent word in french.) Saying "trrram-poo-leen" took like 20 minutes. Yesterday, I read their french fashion magazines, and *gasp* discovered that even with a language difference the trashy things from here are the same as the trashy things there.

How many languages can we speak total on this blog? Have you ever tried to use the languages you learned at school in a real setting? How'd that work for you?

Bike and Walk for Life

Every year the children's hospital near me has a bike and walk for life. It's huge, thousands of people show up raising millions of dollars for cancer research. The bike routes are a 200 mile, 100, 50, 35 and 20. If you walk you can choose to walk 5K, 10 or 25. On site there's a tent stocked with free food, free massages, and music playing constantly. There are also tents getting people to sign up to be bone marrow donors and to raise awareness of different research projects.

I volunteered at what I think the best part of the event is. I gave out yellow ribbons. These ribbons are just a long piece of yellow surveyors tape but they stand for the reason many people ride the race. On this ribbon people write the names or messages to the people they want to honor or remember. Then at the end of the course, there is a memorial garden in which people tie their ribbon.

Sitting at the table where people get these ribbons was pretty amazing. Lots of people would write things like "Ride on" and "We miss you" with the person's name. Other people just didn't know what to say. Some ribbons had some many names written on them there was no space for a message, others simply had one name. Most people left the table happy that they had honored their friend or relative. Some walked past the table saying they'd cry if they made a ribbon.

The two dearest things that happen yesterday were:

1) A little boy maybe 7 or 8 walked up all by himself. I asked him if he'd like to make a ribbon. He said that he would so I gave him the ribbon and a sharpie to write with. He writes 'Mom' nothing more, and then leaves.

2) The second is that a women and her very young child came to make a ribbon. She wrote a name on it and her kid asked where that person was. The mother said, "They're in heaven, you can't see them anymore."

I don't know if how meaningful these ribbons are conveys over into writing, but I wouldn't have rather spent my day any other way. Cancer sucks, and I'm so glad to feel like we might be making a dent in it.

*If you look really closely in the back of the photo you can see the memorial garden.

Weekly Weird- Nail Polish

Honestly, what girl hasn't worn nail polish? I even know some guys who have worn it! I actually really like the idea, it can just be for fun, or it can express your mood. I painted mine red and blue for independence day! But really, when was this weird fashion started? Actually, it originated 3000 BC in China! Of course, then it was used to represent social class, and I doubt it came in a little bottle with a mini paint brush to help you apply it. Modern nail polish, actually is a variation of car paint. I like nail polish, but it is such a bizarre idea! What's really the purpose of it?

Introducing. . . Emma's "Little" Sister

Hello! I'm Emma's (randomlogic) little sis. I'm almost 13, and going into 7th grade. My name is Rebecca, and I don't really know what else I'm supposed to say! I am on New Moon's GEB. . . and I like to ride horses! I also play the fiddle, read, and write a lot! I most kinds of music. And, yep, that's pretty much me! I'll be blogging for Emma this week!

~Rebecca~

Bye Guys

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be gone for a week at dance camp. It will be super fun I hope, and I'll let you know more about it when I come back. However, because I don't want to leave you without posts for a whole week my little sister (by little I mean almost 13) Rebecca will be blogging for me from my account. I'll let her tell you more about herself when she blogs and I've given her some ideas to talk blog about.

~RandomLogic/Emma

Happy 4th of July

For those of you who live in America, this is Independence Day. (For those of you that don't, feel free to email gwebbies@gmail.com with when and what happens on your Independence Day) It's a time to celebrate, to see your family, eat greasy food and watch fireworks. Now I'm sure most of you know what the average old timey celebration is, but maybe you haven't realized how huge the 4th of July is to tiny New England towns. We still have old cars, rafts of children, the fire men's barbecue, and a talent show, but there are a few things that are slightly unique.

An old time tradition in many places is to have a group of women twirling guns. People in my town thought that this was ridiculous, and one year emerged The Lawn Chair Ladies. They dress up as crazily as they possibly can, and the brigade does a routine with lawn chairs. When guns would normally fire, the lawn chairs clack. This has been happening for so long in my town, but it seems that a few other places do it too.

Now I don't know about your towns, but we don't have a marching band. Instead this group of people dress up in kilts with kazoos. They hum patriotic songs. There's a Drum Major leading, and kids marching holding flags with them.

We have frogs jumping contests and rubber duck races. There is a village versus village tug of war for the kids and an adult only baseball game. (In my town there is the Upper Village and the Lower Village. They are normally one town, but one the 4th people get so competitive it's funny.)

What are your Independence Day traditions?

(Ps. I just remembered how at this camp I used to go to, it celebrated Interdependence Day instead and all the different branches of the camp got together. I think that we really should be celebrating Interdependence.)

Exchange Programs

On August 25th, at about 5:00, we are going to the airport to pick up my new brother. Federico, from outside Buenos Aires, Argentina, is going to be staying with my family for a year. He is leaving his friends, family, house, most of his stuff, to come and go to school here. Some of my friends say, "um...why is a random guy going to be living in your house?" Some say, "well, make sure he is hot." The rest say, "OMG THAT IS SO COOL." I think its pretty cool. A chance to live in another country, usually speaking another language for a year would be so valuable. But what do you think? Would you go?