Evans Lake Camp June 6th and 7th

Woo Hoo - we arrived home just in time for the students to unload the bus and share some of their favourite moments before it was time to head home. See their 'moments' further on in this post!

What's not to like?
 Everything went as planned (as a matter of fact we were always slightly ahead of schedule because the students were so keen!), lots of sunshine, a packed camp schedule, no one was hurt, everyone had fun, food was good, not too far to travel, excellent camp staff, great camraderie and group games (details might follow later!), smiles and sunshine on our faces and some neat memories for the end of the school year. Love it.

It is so neat to get an opportunity to see students in a diffferent environment and watch those proud moments when some who thought they couldn't- did- when the quiet student takes to rock climbing like spiderman or the sometimes 'awkward' student can zip around the lake in a canoe like they're born to it. We had the opportunity to canoe, rock climb, do some archery, swim in the lake, build survival shelters (well some of us might not have fared too well!), identify the rain forest's flora and fauna and it's regeneration, play some big group games (stones, survival and capture the flag in the forest). Campfire was fun and we enjoyed a mug up of hot chocolate and yummy cookies lakeside before bed. The camp staff packed a three day schedule into two days and for that we would like to say a great big Thank-you to Dan, Dave, Noah, Alana, Tom, Pippa, the awesome kitchen staff and of course Mrs. Kurki's beautiful dogs :)
Hope I haven't missed anyone- I'm still going on adrenalin!

Photos to come but for now here are a few of the kids favourite moments...

• jumping into lake water for the first time this year
• peaceful canoeing on the lake
• the scenery
• hitting a bullseye in archery
• rockclimbing the Riddler
• food- especially those ice cream sandwiches- yum
• child labour- being a gopher :)
• the forest game of survival
• being the Skunk in the game of survival (Saleena was our skunk and I think she managed to skunk about 35 of 51 campers :) You go girl :)
• that I could do the skills that I didn't think I could
• my friends' encouragement (great job by the way especially at the rock climbinmg station)
• ramming into the other canoes!! not recommended
• getting stuck in the reeds and lake mud canoeing- also not recommended
• Camp counsellor Noah's famous sayings- "Speak to the elbow because that doesn't warrent the extension of my hand". "I don't remember asking for your opinion", "If there are no bones sticking out and no buckets of blood it is not an emergency", after a student used some colourful language, "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth". Noah has been at Evans lake for 20 years - he is ageless and he is 'hilarious'
• cabin pillow fight
• food - did somebody say food- the food was really good- I liked the food!!!!! That was so cool what they did with a bagel!
• shelter building- we had a big hole in the roof and we got wet- thanks, Noah, you have a good eye for shelter 'imperfections'
• I got better at volleyball during 'chill' time :)
• watching Chloe freak out when she thought a fish sucked on her toe- it didn't we are not sure who that was!
• Mrs. Kurki's dogs accomapnying us to our stations
• our night walk in the forest
• chasing Gurpreet (survival)
• sleeping- apparently some did have a few hours down time sleeping - I wouldn't know about that personally as I was 'on duty' until late or early in the morning!!!
• being stealthy in the forest (when we were supposed to be:o
• campfire- hot chocolate service with a smile- thank girls!
• winning capture the flag- finding the flag, stealing the flag and returning to base with the flag- priceless (for everything elsr there is Mastercard)
• screaming in the canoe when we nearly tipped! That's why we teach paddling on opposite sides people!!
• EVERYTHING!

Thank-you to parents Annette (Kris) and Tarsem (Navdeep), to my colleagues Matt and Jill and to the camp staff and finally the students themselves for a fabulous camp experience. I always learn things about myself, about my students and about organizing for future camps. Every year I say- not next year- but it is a little like childbirth -  we forget the pain of the paperwork,the organizing, fundraising, collecting and booking because we get to see how much fun our students have. I am humbled that my colleagues and I are able to provide an experience that some of our students will always remember or will never forget (whichever comes first!) Like I said before- priceless.

In the past six years we have managed to take five groups to camp at the following spots:
Evans Lake (2006, 2011), Camp Homewood on Quadra Island (2010), Horne Lake (2008), Sea to Sky Outdoor Program on Keats Island (2007). I am grateful for the all the opportunities I have enjoyed and I know that the 2006 grade seven class who graduated from high school this year  still talk about the first camp trip we made to Evans Lake and ,yes, Noah was there, then.
Hopefully, this year's trip will still be a highlight for the coming years.
Signing off and looking forward to sleeping in my OWN bed- even one night in a cabin bunk bed with eight pre-adolescent girls is 'challenging'! Not all in the same bed mind you but sharing a cabin is a better description- apparently I 'snore funny' which is good to know as I wasn't aware that I actually slept at all. I wasn't feeling like discussing it this morning! LOL
Have a nice evening and wish us luck getting back to class tomorrow!
Mrs. J.