Arriving at Camp & First Impressions

               I arrived at camp at about 9pm (2am UK time) on Sunday evening after leaving for the airport at 8am UK time, and the journey actually went surprisingly quickly, despite the lady sat next to me on the plane continuously hitting me in the face with her jumper sleeve and hogging the arm rest. Whatever happened to plane etiquette, huh? I then spent the very silent 4 hour car ride from Washington airport to camp editing a YouTube video about what to pack for camp, which I don’t have good enough WiFi at camp to upload, typical! We stopped off on the ride for an Arby’s and the lady there told me nothing on their menu was vegetarian, that’s America for you! The first views of the mountains in Washington, Virginia and then eventually West Virginia were gorgeous, but don’t compare to the views at camp.

                When we arrived at camp, we met our Camp Director, who had already memorised everyone’s names, and then crossed the river on the hand-poled barge at twighlight, so you could still see the outlines of the mountains. The Head Counsellors were waiting for us and greeted us the Alleghany way, with song. We were told to put all our technology in our lockers in the CL (Counsellors Lodge), were shown the bathrooms and then to our tents. We had our luggage delivered by the Green Team, a group of men who are in charge of everything behind the scenes at camp, (maintenance, delivering luggage, security etc) and cleaned our teeth. I felt very discombobulated once I got into bed, while my only tent buddy was cleaning her teeth. I couldn’t comprehend that I was now in West Virginia and that I was going to be here for 8 weeks. I didn’t even get the chance to text my mum and let her know I had got to camp ok, (sorry Mum!)

                In my first three days at camp, I have learnt so much about the traditions of Camp Alleghany, and boy, there are a lot of them. I haven't learnt them all yet and can’t remember all of the ones I have so I’ll probably do an entire blog solely about them because they're so cool and there isn’t anything in England that remotely compares. So far I have learnt that I am part of the NCCC's (en see double cees) the Non-Camper Counsellor Club, so I am a Counsellor who was never a camper here and we're mostly international staff which makes us pretty damn cool.

                We are woken up every morning by Reveille, a loud bugle, at 7:30am, and 10 minutes later have a ‘snooze alarm’ which is a song played over the loudspeaker to start the day. By 7:45am you have to stand by the flagpole and watch the flag being raised while the American’s say the Pledge of Allegiance. We then have time to make our beds for inspection, get dressed (long sleeves for breakfast) and trek up the steep ‘goat path’ or up 50 steps to get to breakfast for 8am. The food here is so good, they have a vegan alternative at every meal that is such good quality. I had vegan pancakes for breakfast, a vegan chocolate cake at snack time and even vegan milk & cookies at before bed.

                They eased us into staff training by letting us get settled into tents, giving us a tour of camp, taking us to Walmart to buy supplies, including a set of plastic drawers for our tents, shampoo and essentials like a watch and sun cream, and then giving us a quick tour of the nearest towns, Lewisburg, where we got ice cream and learnt about Jaywalking, and Ronceverte, where we saw the new railway station, (the old track ran parallel to the road to our camp and used to be how campers arrived in previous years.) We got back to camp and the rest of the Counsellors who weren’t international had arrived and were moving in. Again, they sang us back across the river on the barge and we met our buddy’s for the first time, who were all Counsellors in previous years so can guide us through it this year.

The view from the showers.

                I took a very cold shower, but in the new shower blocks, and could see the mountains over the door surrounding camp. It seems that this year that Camp Alleghany has reinvested a lot of money back into the camp. They have a brand new toilet and shower block which has replaced long drop toilets, they have new lights and new fans in the Playhall which used to be a very sweaty area for assembly apparently, they have brand new sets of swings and a colourful slide in Junior Camp and new bed frames in all the tents. The thing I love most about this Camp, is that the girls that go here come back year after year, and there are so many initiations and traditions for different amounts of times they come back. The secret 4 year initiation night is top secret, you get a stunning blanket for completing 8 summers at Alleghany and Junior Counsellors have their Purple stolen and then given back, with access to the top secret Purple Palace, which its insides is the biggest kept secret in the whole of Camp Alleghany. The owner of Camp Alleghany said that the best thing about it that girls come as campers each summer, then as Counsellors and then as Mini Camp Counsellors, and then send their own daughters in the years that follow so it really is a huge family.

                So far, I have lost my swimming costume, broke my head torch by dancing too hard with my twin (Musical Theatre, vegan and the same team of Blue vs Gray) at Milk & Cookies on the first night and I walked into the wooden shelf hanging in my tent 5 times within the first 24 hours. It was hung just above my eye line so I couldn’t see it and now I have a nice array of bruises across my forehead. It has since been raised higher, out of the danger zone. Alleghany Acne is apparently a real problem, so I'm not excited for all the hormones of hundreds of girls in close proximity, but every other aspect of camp makes it worth it.

This is the view from my bed.

                All in all, I am very much enjoying my time here, even though it’s been literally 48 hours. I’ve never been away for 8 weeks before so I can’t fathom how much time it really is going to be, but all the girls here are so lovely and I have made so many friends already. The hardest thing is the limited access to my phone, as camp is mostly tech-free, but it’s as good a time as any to break my phone addiction. I feel like a cocaine addict, waiting for a break to get to the CL to check my phone. And it’s hard when you’re so used to whipping your phone out to contact someone every time you see or do something you’d like to share with them. I’m not homesick, but I do miss some people at home and limited contact isn’t exactly helping this situation. I feel like time at home stopped when I left and I forget that everyone is still living their lives while I'm not there. The only thing I can do is make the most of the time I’ve got here because I will possibly never have the opportunity to do anything like this ever again, and Camp Alleghany’s legacy is 100% something I am already so proud to be a part of.