Week 6: Day 1
As I alluded in my last post, I knew for quite a while that Week 6 was going to be a doozy. I also knew very early on that I should blog about the week, so I was sure to take notes. It took me quite a while, though, to decide if I should write them as I went along, or if I should write them in retrospect with full knowledge of what was going to happen the next day. Turns out I didn’t have time to do the writing after each day, but I think you’ll get a better effect if you read it more or less how it happened. Here, therefore, will be a day-by-day recap, perhaps with a little foreshadowing if I feel like it.
Day 1
My biggest fear going into this week was TO. I had heard the horror stories, I had heard the warnings: I knew this kid meant trouble. I knew that this wouldn’t be a tough day for me though: because the group was going to Canobie Lake, we would be getting into smaller groups, and TO was going to be with the Director’s group. I was content to take a back seat to managing his idiosyncrasies.
What I hadn’t anticipated is how the make up of the new group would affect Folger. Take for example what happened when the two brothers that had joined us and took seats together right in front of Folger. I still don’t know all of the details, but as I understand it, the older (and I would later learn more unpleasant) brother had reclined his seat, and Folger – instead of asking him to put it up because he had no room – slouched down, put both of his feet on the back of the seat, and pushed on it with all his might, almost breaking it. It wasn’t even 9:30 and I had already raised my voice at a camper. Week 6 had officially begun.
The plan to keep the troublesome kids apart at Canobie Lake worked perfectly, and so there aren’t really any more incidents to note. My group had an unfortunate problem that was really my fault. We arrived at the meeting point a little early so I told my group they could get on the Ferris wheel. By the time they got to the front of the line though, everyone else had arrived at the meeting point, and so the counsellors decided that the 10 minute Ferris wheel ride would put us too far behind schedule. I told the group that they had to get out of line so we could go, and everyone understood except JD, who had a lot of trouble with this. He must have said the words “this is so unfair” 20 times. I thought he wasn’t going to forgive me, but by the time we made the 3 minute walk to the bus long he asked me to sit next to him, and I fielded his questions about what my girlfriend – a vegetarian – did and did not eat, and whether or not we had been on any dates (not recently, he meant ever).
At the end of the day, the Director told me that TO hadn’t been that bad, and so I left cautiously optimistic about the week ahead.
