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I love it when things like that happen!!! I love the one that 2 of my fellow counselors did with the cookies and the bunny suit head!! I loved the CIT Grads flag and everything!! I hope this summer is as much fun as far as pranks go! I am way too cautious when it comes to pranks, but I love the ones that other people do (plus i never seem to come up with anything good! ha) Your week sounds amazing!!!! I love weeks like that!!

Don't worry about the rambling, I do it all the time and the realize that I didn't really say too much, so it was basically just talking for the sake of talking (I like to do that! hehe)

for some reason I spent half of last summer denying involvment in pranks cos people were pulling them and I was getting the blame! Dont know why!

weird. I would probably never ever get blamed unless they knew for sure! haha, I am such a good kid! haha

I am never really blamed for anything either, I am a "good" kid too. haha! We don't really have pranks at camp though. We once thought about starting a prank war with another camp, but we didn't. No pranks at our camp, really... It really hasn't come up though!

yeah, sometimes they just don't happen. We have a lot of pranks between the units sometimes! Some of the older kids like to go and srenade the boys of their age with fast songs early in the morning before the kids are supposed to get up. The funny thing is that the people who want to do it have to check with the UL/UC so they know about it, but usually the campers don't know about it. Sometimes though the campers are told and they are already awake and they sometimes get back at them! haha

I think a reason why we didn't have any staff pranks is because we had a very small, close-nit staff. I think by having pranks, it would have caused use to "divide" into teams, and breaking into those two teams or whatever would have been very odd for the camp.

this could be, though a lot of our pranks were more general camp pranks as opposed to pranks against the staff. I definitely can see that it could divide a staff really quickly. I would love to have a really close staff like that! There is a lot of drama among our staff and we definitely have groups and people who do not like each other.

Well, I love the close knit staff. Its amazing. However, at the end of camp (a couple of weeks afterwards), people told me that they thought they were a couple of cliques throughout the summer. I did not see any of them. However, accordingly to them, I was in one of those cliques, so I really didn't notice. I don't think that is the case. Of course, there are people who you just generally get closer to then other. But, trully, it is wonderful... hardly any drama or rivaries or anything!

oh you are so lucky! We have sooooooooo much drama among our staff. I understnad about not seeing the cliques and whatnot, but obviously they weren't too bad or you wouldn't be such a close knit staff. Obviously there are people who you build closer relationships with, that's just life. I can't wait to go to precamp and get my close camp friends so I can have someone to talk to about anything!

Are you going to a new camp this year (or something? I am really looking forward to this year. One of my best friends from last summer is going to back, and therefore it will be a great start to making additional wonderful friends, etc. The bad thing is that looking back on it. I do see how there might have been cliques. Yet, it really didn't affect anyone at all! You really can't have them, when on the weekends, there is only like 11 people.

No, I was a CIT the last 2 years. Last summer, after CIT 2 finished, we still had 4 weeks regualr camp and 2 specialties left, so I was a counselor for 4 regular weeks and the 2 specialties. However, joining into the staff half way through the summer didn't really give ma any close relationships, tohugh i did come away with a few friends, but more friends thatwe im evedryonce in a while and a friend that I get together with since we go to the same school.

Its hard to form relationships when you join the staff midway into the camp season..... I had several people who join my last camp because of some people being let go for various reason

Yes, I imagine it is for people. I know someone that joined our staff like half way through the summer, and it was not really bad for her, because she was a returning staff member. But, for first times, it would be awful I think. Most of the people already have formed close knit friendships and have past experiences. Trying to fit into that equation is very difficult!

It was kind of difficult anyway. I mean, sure I have my friends and people I could hang out with a little, but I didn't really hang around in the same unit as my friends. It was really difficult in some ways because some of my friends left after 3 of my 5 weeks on staff because they only need so many staff for the specialty camps. It was especially hard becuase I was either in day camp or the 1st-4th grade boys unit. Well, the younger boys and girls share a UL/UC so they never take TO at the same time because then the UC would have like 30 campers when she could take 15 or fewer at a time. One of my best friends was in the girls younger unit so we never had the same TO. DC always has their TO from 7-9 because we have no campers. However, no res camp counselors have that TO because all camp and closing ceremony are during that time so they would have to have TO at a different time those days and it would just get confusing.

Some of my best friends from CIT either didn't come back to be on staff or only came for lik 2 weeks.SO that is my sad ranting story

I know that some camps would not let friends take TO at the same time

i'm not sure our camp's policy on that...but TO is planned as a unit, not according to personal agendas.

yeah, that is how it works out with us. It is planned based on the unit and when the UC/UL can take each group of kids. It just so happens that with mine it didn't work out.

That is sad how some camps won't let you take TO with your friends!! what is up with that?

I remember my full week live-in with a counselor. All 9 of us had a group and a co-counselor. We each took the same TO as the counselor had. Well, it just so happened that 7 counselors had the same TO. My friend and I were the 2 who had different TOs and we didn't even have them at the same time. So 7 of the CITs got ot chill in our cabin together and talk about their weeks and whatever. My friend had the TO after that and then I had mine after her. So neither of us had a friend on our TO while the other 7 were all together. And they ate my candy!! They knew where it was and knew I wouldn't mind so they ate a lot, which was fine with me. I get to my bunk one day for TO and there was a note written in sharpie on a notecard that said on one side "We owe you a lot of candy!" and on the back it said "(heart) Mystique, Abrah and Kadabrah" (Abrah and Kadabrah are twins!) I just about died laughing!!!!!! It was a good way to break up the monotony of being alone! haha This was mid-July and yet I still have not gotten my candy! I have a feeling though that I will either never get it (which is fine with me) or they will give it to me during my 10-year!! We have awards for people who are at camp for their 10th summer (camper and staffer years) and the person picks a few people to present their 10-year at the closing ceremony one week. These people think of stories and gifts to give the person that are reminders of camp and the fun/funny times. They sometiems share some funny stories that go along with them! haha

I know that TO at my last camp only one person was allowed to have TO at a time in a cabim

In my camp it depended upon the number of staff assigned to a program how many people could take time off at the same time - if we had 4 or more counsellors then 2 could but any less than that then only one person could take TO at a time cos we had to have at least 2 staff with the kids at all times! Or if as session you are only staff assigned to a HUGE group of 4 (and then 3 cos 1 of them left) campers - you were supposed to be in places were there were other staff. When my kids went for showers I had to take a walkie talkie with me incase there was an accident and I needed to go into the shower so that I could radio for someone to come up so that I wasn't going in alone!

in each unit, TO is assigned for different time slots, with no overlap. since the UL has to cover, two counselors can't have the same TO.
in rare cases, some of the AD staff can cover...but those are raaaaare.

I am not sure how my camp does TO (haha- I know that it is bad). They try to take them during dinner and swimming, etc. Sometimes support covers them.

I just remember that I have tons (tons) of funny camp stories about staff. I won't post them here. But, if you are interested in a chuckle, let me know.

I am totally interested in chuckling!! After all, I am Giggles!! I have fun when campers ask me why my name is Giggles. I tell them "because Laughs just sounds weird!" haha

That is kind of weird that you have to have 2 staffers with the kids at all times. I mean I kind of see why they do it, but it almost seems like overkill to me. I understand the walkie-talkie thing with bathroom situations though. I get nervous everytime a camper needs help with her swimsuit (luckily guys swimsuits are very easy to put on or I would have to call in some male staff back up!). That is one of my pet peeves, when parents send their kids to camp with swimsuits that they need help putting on. At least the older kids can help each other, but the younger ones, not so much.

The staff stories are mostly concerned on the fact that I am the clumsiest person in the world, and lack most common sense. Argh... oo my life, hehe! And also, that we had tons of internationals (who were okay in english) working together. So much fun...so many good times!

We have 2 staffers with kids at all times. Or you have to have at least one staff and two kids. It is overkill in my mind. The camp I went to as a camper allowed 1 staffer to be with the kids and nothing happened at all. It worked out wonderfully!

our ratio is at least 2:1 at all times. either 2 staff and one kid, or 2 kids and one staff. of course you can be one staff and a patrol, but you can never be one-on-one with a camper.