The rains came down and lightning struck the ground, the instant repercussion of thunder physically shook the building and rattled the windows. I saw it and heard it with my own eyes. The closest I've been to a lightning strike. About 150yards between the destructive force of mother nature and I. Much different to the storm I saw in my first week while at Danbee. This storm only lasted an hour and the rain itself was so heavy, the gutters were overflowing and the ground turned in to a lake in a matter of minutes.
The storm put a halt to this week's...scratch that... the entire summer's, biggest, on campus event; The MKN Olympics. The Games were genuine sporting events that ran over 3 days... tennis tournaments, basketball and flag American football games, a swim meet and a lake swim, etc. Then there were slightly less athletic, and more "for fun" and/or artistic events, such a water marathon on the lake (including use of the slide and trampoline), canoe races, and song writing/banner painting.
Every camper was randomly picked and placed in a team, there were 8 teams, each representing a different country. The campers had a field day when they found out on was on Team Australia...don't ask me why but no matter how much proof I provide, they will still swear on their mother's lives that I'm an Aussie, so it was much to their amusement.
My primary role on the team was a coaching role; I took the basketball teams, the flag football teams and we left with a near perfect record in each, losing only one flag football game. The secondary role was lifeguarding the waterfront games.
The entire olympics we placed 5th or 6th, which baffled me with all our wins. The shock came at the closing ceremonies. When they announced 6th, we expected Australia. When they announced 5th we expected Australia. We were adamant we'd be called out next for 4th place, so imagine the uproar when they announced us finishing 3rd.
A few days of great fun and pride seeing the kids achieve some remarkable achievements. One kid, Trevor 13, swam across the lake in 20 mins & 1 second, though he is a junior olympian. Another kid, Saunders, won the tennis tournament, beating the long reigning MKN #1.
All this fun was followed by another relaxing day off. This time we stayed away from lakes and beaches and headed to two very picturesque towns. The first being Northampton, Massachusetts. A town full of beautiful architecture and every store had its own little market stall outside the front door, which gave a unique feel to the town, I would recommend Northampton, MA to anyone. The second town was a little smaller, not really much in it, however it put me a step closer to ticking off the "visit every town, city and village that shares my home city's name" box on my to do list...Southampton, Massachusetts...*tick*. Coincidentally Southampton, MA does have something in common with my Southampton, England; they both have a big Harley Davidson main dealership. We stopped by, dribbled over some stunning bikes and figured I'd buy a T-shirt to prove it =)
The week has now slowed down, we're back to normal program, but tonight we sat down as an Algonquin tribe and we were all told about Wednesday......
=D
No comments:
Post a Comment