Hi guys, I know it's been like a long time since I posted something, because it's already 2012! But the very first thing I seriously want to share with the blog is the best thing fifth graders looked forward too: OUTDOOR ED! If you don't know what "Outdoor Ed" means, it basically is camping, except with your schoolmates, since this is a school program at my school. Anyways, when I got on the bus (there were three buses, but there's four fifth-grade classes so my teacher had to drive her own car to Camp Loma Mar, and so my class was split up) I could see my parents out the window, waving. I gulped, hoping that I wouldn't be homesick, and waved back. They smiled, and we kept waving at each other for which seemed like forever. My cabin buddy Jasmine had already gotten on and had sat next to me. Since I was in her teacher's bus, the teacher started out role for her class, and then my class. When she was done calling out the last person, the teacher whispered something to the bus driver, and the bus driver nodded and pulled out of the school slowly as possible. No one screamed to get off the bus for their parents, thankfully, for I was scared that I might.
When the bus screeched to a stop next to the other buses, we got introduced to the camp and settled into our cabins. My other cabin buddy, Destiny, spotted Jasmine and me. " Hey, guys, over here!" she said, patting a spot for the introduction to Girls' Village. A woman explained the rules firmly to all the girls, and we all nodded vigorously. She finally put us into our cabin groups, and I got into a cabin called the Western Bumblebees. Our counselor introduced herself to us. " Hi, I'm Amanda," she said excitedly. " Guess what? I have decorations for the cabin." " Cool!" our cabin chorused. " I also have stuff for you guys to wear to the Barnyard Boogie." Amanda grinned. The Barnyard Boogie is this night where you can dress all crazy and... well, boogie! It happens on the next night. More Cools traveled around the cabin. A girl I know who was in my cabin yelled, " We have the best counselor in the whole village!"
After we set up our stuff, we went to meet our naturalist for an Opening Ceremony. We saw the principal, Kodiak Bear (I think that's how it's spelled), and he introduced all the naturalists, and a couple of songs. Also a "Baby Erin," who everybody suspiciously suspected was really a 40-year-old. I met my cabin's naturalist, and she gave us an "Intro Hike," which really meant just a walking tour and some walking around the trees. She didn't tell us her real name, just that her nature name was Dandelion. Who knows, her real name may be Dandelion! After that we had Rec Time (Recess Time), where a lot of games were introduced. My whole cabin went up to the Western Bumblebees Cabin, since you could also hang out in the cabin. Amanda was there, and she suggested we do our skit for Skit Night. Skit Night is an evening activity, just like the Barnyard Boogie. We didn't have time for that, though, since we were too busy unpacking and decorating. We pressed on about the Barnyard Boogie decorations, but Amanda kept her lips zipped about it. After that, we had Cabin Time, which was pretty useless since we already spent an hour in the cabin. We thought of our skit though, which was this:
Main Girl: Oh my gosh, there's a piece of trash on the floor! What should we do?
Main Devil: Why'd you wake me up?
Main Angel: Oh, hello, I was just getting my beauty sleep (British accent).
Main Devil: You mean ugly sleep?
Main Angel: No. Anyways, what do you need?
Main Girl: So what should I do with this trash?
Main Angel: You should recycle it.
Main Devil: No, you should litter!
Main Angel: Nuh-uh!
Main Devil: Yeah-huh! See? She agrees with me.
Minor Devil: (jumps in) Yeah, of course.
Minor Angel: (jumps in too) I agree with the angel!
Main Girl, Main Angel, Main Devil, Minor Angel, and Minor Devil argue at once.
Yoga Girl: (walks in) Excuse me, excuuuuse me!
Stops arguing.
Main Devil: What do you want?
Yoga Girl: Stop arguing, people, and inzen with Mother Nature.
Does yoga pose. Two backup yoga people join in with other yoga poses.
Main Angel: Oh, you mean, like ploga?
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: YEAH! We'll teach you how.
Yoga Girl: Only if the devils agree.
Minor Devil and Main Devil: No.
Main Girl: ACT. Attitude, cooperation, and take a chance. Please do it for once!
Minor Devil and Main Devil: Well, alright.
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: teach others to do ploga, which leads into a plant song we learned from Outdoor Ed.
Yoga Girl and Backup Yoga People: disappear
Minor Devil and Minor Angel: disappear
Main Angel: So, what was I saying? Oh, yeah. You should recycle.
Main Devil: Well... yeah, you should! I think I'm going to go get myself a halo.
Main Angel: Yup, the best ones are at Target.
Main Girl: I'll recycle! drops trash into recycling bin
THE END!!! I hope you liked the skit. So, anyways, that was Skit Night, so I'm not going to talk about that. The Barnyard Boogie was fun. So the last thing is the Night Hike. It was very quiet and dark and so nice! We couldn't use our flashlights, which was the best part about it. The time when we started hiking around the trees, I was kind of scared and wanted to hear some voices so badly. Unfortunately, we couldn't talk, because Dandelion had specifically told us not to since she wanted us to hear some owls. I couldn't hear anything, and I couldn't see anything. It was like I was blind, since everything was so black. We all sat down in a circle, and Dandelion told us a story of how she survived in the dark and so we would too. Then, to prove it, she told us that she would walk down the path, and then the people would follow her without any help. Amanda and our other group, a boys' group's, counselor Sheldon, started picking one person. Amanda got to choose first, and she chose ME. Isn't that scary, being the first one to follow Dandelion the naturalist? I gulped and stepped carefully onto the path, blinking. My night vision wasn't even clearing, but I made it to Dandelion safely, with the help of her instrument's music. We went back to our cabins to sleep, and I could sleep better. Well. That's all I'm going to tell you, future Outdoor Ed people! And relatives, read this now for pleasure! Outdoor Ed rocks!
