Ian is back from camp!

It has been an exciting couple of weeks.  I will start my blog about my trip to Israel very soon (so much to write about!), but first I wanted to give a recap of Ian at sleepaway camp (Camp Ramah in New England).  It is so good to have us all back under one roof. 

 

I am letting Ian tell you about his adventures in his own words:

 

Instead of driving, I decide to fly with the other kids going to camp.  My mom walked me to the gate and I boarded the plane. When I got to the airport in Connecticut, I got off the plane and followed the group of the people going to Camp Ramah.  I got my luggage and boarded a big school bus that took us to camp.  When we got there we were welcomed to a big carnival and BBQ.  I had a lot of fun.  At the BBQ, I had a hot dog, a bag of chips, and water.  After that I met everyone in my cabin and unpacked.  The counselors helped me with making my bed and unpacking.

 

I was having a lot of fun so far and we had dinner after the carnival. It turned out today was luau day and it was a Hawaiian themed dinner.  Which included sweet and sour chicken, which was not that good.  Rice that was ok.  And some other stuff like Hawaiian punch.

 

After dinner, we went swimming in the agam (lake).  I had my swim test like everyone else.  I was a level 3 swimmer out of 5 levels.  I was able to swim in B water.  There was 4 waters.  A water was the lowest, B water was second lowest, then C water and finally D water was the highest.  The majority was in A water.  After the swimming (2 hours later) I got checked by the Marp (doctors office) to see if I had lice or had a cold. I was fine.  After that we took showers and we met up with the other Kochavim bunk and did an activity.  Finally we went to bed at about 8:45pm.

 

The next morning I woke up around 7:10am when one of the counselors put on music from the 70s to wake us up.  It took awhile to wake up one of my fellow bunk mates.  And it took everyone in the bunk to wake him up.  It took about a half hour.  After that we got ready for the prayers.  After prayers, we went to breakfast.  Breakfast was eggs, diced potatoes and onions.  The eggs were scrambled.  The food was pretty good.  And I got some blueberry yogurt from the yogurt bar.  It was a good breakfast.  At about 9:00am, we went back to the cabin and cleaned up, which was very dirty to our surprise.  My job that day was sweeping.

 

After we cleaned up we went to Hinuch (learning about the Torah).  We went to our first activity.  Mine was football.  We met the coach and he was very nice.  The first day we didn't do any real games, just a lot of drills.  After we were done, we went to singing and dancing.  First came singing which was very boring.  Then came dancing, which we only learned Zeben Zeben (an Israeli dance), which was sort of fun, but not that fun. After came lunch, a very important meal.  The dance teacher told us we were having grilled cheese for lunch and she was right.  It was ok, not the best. 

 

After lunch came rest hour, where they forced us to rest and also handed out the mail.  That day I got a care package and about 20 letters.   In the care package from Aunt Lori, I got a card game called Uno.  I played it with my new friends I made.  After rest hour with a guy named Eli (one of 5), we went to digital photography, which we both agreed was very boring.  All we did was take pictures of stuff and look at them online.  I quit digital photography and took hockey instead.  I went to get my bathing suit, because right after was had agam (lake).  Today was swim lessons and I was doing relay races in B water.  The water was warmish.  After agam (lake), I had to rush back to the cabin and I had to get back into my clothes because I had softball.  During softball we played a game called pickle and did an actual softball game.  My team won 2-1. 

 

After softball we had free time.  I played a game called Ga-ga.  It's an Israeli sport like dodgeball in an enclosed space.  Except there are no teams, its every man for himself.  I lost.  And so did mostly everyone else.  After free time, we had dinner.  I don't really remember what it was, but it was probably good.   After dinner we had an activity.  We played Mafia - like a game where someone is a doctor, a murder, etc.  I was the murderer and I won. I can cover up lies very well.  After that we took showers and got ready for bed.  Liron, one of my counselors was singing to help us go to bed. 

 

The next day we went to prayers and I led the Barchu.  The rest of the day was a normal day at camp.  The only thing that wasn't normal instead of digital photography I switched hockey, which was much more fun. I scored one goal.

 

The first 3 days of camp was fun. I was looking forward to more days like those. 

 

(STAY TUNED FOR MORE FROM IAN.  HE HAS LOTS TO SAY!)

 

From Me (Robyn):

 

Even while in Israel, I was still stalking the camp website every day looking for pictures of Ian during his time at sleepaway camp.  July 3rd was the best yet in terms of what I found. I had to share. I think you will get a good laugh.

Can I just say the kid with the green shirt looks like he is barely moving, and Ian (wearing his favorite red Nationals shirt) looks like he flying! However, when you see the follow-up photo, it is quite obvious the kid with the green shirt must be moving pretty fast.

Kudos to Ian for keeping it interesting while he is away. I loved getting to see the before and after photo on what happened with trying to stop the kid who had the football.