Day 9

It's been over a week already, and so far it has been long and information overload but I'm feeling well prepped for the first camp on Saturday. 

It took a few days to settle, but after getting into the routine, the early flag raising and so have become a bit more normal. 

The people are fantastic, camp is full of big personalities of which I've never seen anything like before and of course it's full of Northern Irish which I have seen all too much of before and I have one fellow Scot!  

Aside from the serious stuff, American life has been a lot of fun. We went to see a rock musical called 'Stoned' which isn't what it sounds. It was basically Paul's life made into a musical with some brilliant songs and dance through it. The highlight had to be that Silas was played by a large black man in a nightie. 

I had my first Walmart trip which basically involved the 3 Americans who took me laughing at my awe of Walmart and all it has to offer when to them it's just a supermarket (they sell aquariums and guns, I feel I had reason to overreact). We've had pool parties, a trip to see Man of Steel (which was so bad I napped through it) and I was introduced to White Castle, after being told to avoid it I wish I had listened *boke*.  

I was trained by a professional in playing disc golf, it's a great sport which I need great amount of practice at and with it being NBA finals this week things have been crazy amongst the basketball fans. They have so much energy it's tiring watching them, tonight is the final of finals. Mon eh Heats! We also had a tornado in Clinton, pretty crazy - trees are down, a picnic bench was thrown into the church and Walmart went on fire (very sad about this).

Last night we had a consecration service to dedicate the summer to God where we sang, had communion and prayed over one another. At the end we all stood in a circle around the room and held hands and Captain Pam gave a speech about how this was our family for the summer which was a highlight of the week for me being that I'm 3500 miles from home and a week ago these people were strangers. I'm definitely beginning to feel at home.

Day 1

I have arrived in the US of A! What a place. Today has been a great day with the fellow Scots going to different camps and it already feels like we've bonded... shame we have to part ways in the morning. Oh, and the one Northern Irish person I spoke to is friends with my friends (of course) and apparently hung out with us on the beach last week. Small world.

I've already eaten my own body weight in food (bacon cheese fries and Oreo milkshakes being mostly responsible) as well as the homemade brownies given to us which were the size of bricks. 

We took a cab to the Jersey Gardens mall (yes I'm adapting my lingo) and I was giddy with excitement every time I saw something we don't have at home - you can get cupcakes filled with ice cream *gasps*. And everything is oh so cheap... no exaggeration the Hollister prices were about the same as Primark.

I've learned two important lessons already. Firstly, nothing is free. I discovered this when I excitedly kicked my shoes off to go for (what I thought was) a free aqua massage in the middle of the mall. Secondly unlike Scotland you cannot set foot in a bar until you are if legal drinking age (unintentional law breaking on day 1).

More positively, Shout to The Lord was the first song that came on the radio on the bus from the airport. (Esther if you're reading this you were right when you said He is with you wherever you go).

Tomorrow I head to camp!

Day 0

So I planned to write this first quick post the night before I left, but I've left it so late it's now only 5 hours until I leave. WAH! I can't wait. I finally feel ready to go after saying all my goodbyes and much stress in packing with 3 attempts at fitting everything into my rucksack.

I've had the best send off.  A weekend away with my Quizteama, a week in Ireland with my main men and co, a BBQ with some of the CVCC family and a final dinner with my closest family.  Emotional as I was on Sunday night after saying goodbye to everyone, I can't wait to get going.  See ya'll in 13 weeks!

Prayers would be appreciated for safe travels and for settling in.

Proverbs 16:9 - We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.